Fly!: mountain flying Articles

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Starting from a strong Fly! characteristic which offers the possibility to land on the slopes, Richard Pouget, of Rhône Alpes Simulation proposes a complete description of his evolutions in this particular domain which are the high mountains. This together with the download of the files elevations of the Alps.

Here's what Richard says:

"I've initially tested this possibility at the US zone of Los Angeles in the neighbourhood of Big Bear Lake. Like You can see on this screenshot.

On a snowlayer, south of BIG BEAR LAKE (California US Los Angeles Scenery)

I have found it a pity, not to test this possibility at our region, in our beautiful mountains.
From then on, I've created an international DEM file (Digital Elevation Model), a more precise database compared to the generic Fly! database for Europe.

The base covers this zone (processed DEM data, refer to specific page)

The elevations are more real in such a way that visual flight becomes possible, unfortunately the generic textures are always there and we have to live with it till I find satellite photos of the region.

OISAN near by ECRINS (screenshot)

Download of elevation files

To allow use of this database, we have to decompress Alpes.zip (709 Kb) into the Fly! DATA folder. The files D00xxxx of each tile will be decompressed automatically at their place.
(Example: "C:\FLY\DATA\D004153\go64").
Later on I will make an EPD file with realistic textures.
That's all for the download.

Usage

It's sufficient to launch Fly! and to start at an airport like Annecy Meytet, or Chambéry Challes les Eaux in order to encounter an alpine environment. Don't be surprised to miss the view on the lakes "Lac du Bourget" and "Lac d'Annecy", both were omitted by the american Fly! development team, this is also the case for the textures, rivers and roads. The important cities are only represented by large texture squares which are improperly positioned and run into the mountains.

In the near future I hope to be able to insert more realistic textures to place all the regional airports like "Le Versoud" (like I did for FS98) and also the altiports and alti-surfaces.

Mountain flight

It's made for the vision, thats it's charm. Depart from Annemasse. After completing several circuits in the valley to obtain minimum 8500 feet altitude, take the direction of the mountain "Mont Blanc". Attention, continue climbing towards minimum 18500 feet to clear it. Respect the mountain flight conditions, don't engage into a valley before having reached the altitude plus minimum 600 feet clearance. Choose the righthand ridge of the valley to allow a lefthand return if needed. Don't wait till the valley becomes too narrow before deciding to return if you cannot pass (in fact, from your mountain vision you have to evaluate your climbing rate as well as your used- and remaining engine power, to know if you can pass or not). If you validate in the weather heavy windstrokes and averse wind and also clouds, be aware of even more hail and icing.

Runway landing on a slope

First make a pass over the LZ (landing zone) if possible a righthand pass to allow terrain examination through the left window. We study the slope, the accesability and the obstacles. If it's OK, we turn into the approach. Attention, it's for a full stop landing, because there isn't a possibility for a go-around.

Touchdown point verification (screenshot)

The method with the Cessna 172 in Fly! is in brief explanation the following :
We aim slightly under the touchdown point. In final we pitch up and we keep 70% of engine power because the touchdown will be executed under a rather important positive angle and with a positive vario: we touchdown on a slope between 5 and 10% (or even more).

There will be no possibility for go-around (screenshot)

Immediately after touchdown we apply the needed engine power till reaching a more flat area to stop. If not so, we place the aircraft cross to the slope to avoid a rearward sliding and are ready to depart again if it doesn't hold. We pull the parking brake and shutdown the engine.

We make a little bivac ? (screenshot)

Certainly, when positioned on snow, you'll need to imagine having skids and a classic gear. To try it out, the Cessna 172R included in Fly! is suitable (before improvement arrives).

To depart, we need to align in front of the downward slope and apply full throttle, we quickly get airborne because it's the surface which moves away. Don't forget that the engine efficiency decreases with altitude. Don't be surprised to loose altitude before gaining speed. It's a realistic simulation... You'll notice during mixture adjustment ... I'll leave you the surprise to discover.

 

Flying into the Alps

You find included some technical files regarding the alpine alti-surfaces. For real flight I recommend you the good looking website of Etienne Roger <http://volmontagne.decollage.org/francais/index.html>. You will find those LZ by geographic coordinates included in the above files.

Just an example, to be clear, I've located me at the exact coordinates of the Altiport of Alpe d'Huez, and look here what I saw during the early morning in Fly!.

(Unfortunately, we miss the satellite photos to rework the textures)

Compare with the reality (photo taken from the website "volmontagne.decollage.org/francais")

The only remaining thing for you is to try.

Smooth touchdown

With Fly!, it's possible to manipulate with the mouse nearly all switches from the panel. There is one which many among you doesn't know. On the Cessna 172, at the right of the copilot you find an ELT switch (Emergency Locator Transmitter).

The ELT (model JOLIET, power 0,5 W autonomy 12h ) is mandatory for all powered aircraft. In case of a vast shock, it starts sending a 2 tone BF modulated signal at 121.50 MHz. It's intended to find the aircraft, or the rests of it, in case it has dissapeared... (most of the real pilots don't like it). The 12 sattelite SATSAR network covers the whole airspace and takes over each 2 hours, it provides an alert in case it receives an ELT signal by sending the coordinates (within a reduced circle of 30 km around the centre of emission) towards the SATSAR center at Toulouse. The regional rescue services RCC will send immediately their searching units which have radio goneometric instruments to locate the dissapeared aircraft.

The challenge : Sometimes in real life more or less soft touchdowns occur... in some cases it triggers even the ELT beacon. That's why it is preferable to tune COM2 on 121.50, with the intercom connected towards your headset and COM1+COM2 selected on the audio panel, to be able to hear your ELT beacon, or the other aircraft beacons... (the auditive monitoring is not mandatory in Europe).

Kiss landing ? very smooth ! otherwise, pay attention to starting the beacon.

Like in reality, proceed to the beacon test before take-off (prohibited in real flight), first in manual, then in auto by lowering the switch. In manual, you will hear that characteristic signal which you will never forget. Once upon a time hearing it in real life means that somebody, somewhere within the beacom limits (150 km or more) has huge problems.

The challenge consists of landing on the mountain without triggering the emergency beacon.

To make it even more challenging, try more severe weather settings. You finally will become good, because it's only simulation...

Richard. POUGET (RAS) 1999

Remark: In reality, to obtain mountain qualification you need to log 15 till 20 h on wheels and an additional 30 h on skids to obtain snow qualification".