773rd fly-in: Pohnpei, Micronesia (PTPN)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

Quote

With both the European tour and the 15th anniversary celebrations now behind us, it's time to return to our regular schedule for a while this Sunday, November 3rd. We have another brand new destination lined up in a country we've never visited before, in the original tradition of the fly-ins, to fly to all kinds of places you might have never thought of, or even heard of. Pohnpei International Airport (PTPN) in the Federated States of Micronesia is our destination this week, serving the towns of Palikir and Kolonia on the nation's main island of Pohnpei. In X-Plane 11 we now have detailed enough scenery to provide a good representation of the airport as well as the dramatic terrain surrounding it, and this should be included by default in the latest X-Plane installs. If you don't see any buildings at the airport, you can also download the package manually from the X-Plane Scenery Gateway.

Kaselehlie!

 

New pilots are always welcome, read the guide below by @bootsie to get started:

How to connect to X-FlightServer

Be considerate towards your fellow pilots, and above all, have fun!

 

For voice comms, join our Discord server at 

https://discord.gg/tJEdxce

 NOTAM: the X-Ivap text comms are currently not working, so use Discord text and/or voice instead! Also, don't be confused if you see an outdated fly-in banner with a different destination on the forum main page, as the web hosting login seems to be broken as well so I am currently unable to update the banner.

 

[surfintucson]

PTPN looks to be a long way from anywhere!

[ostkamp]

Scenery hint

Special scenery by Cami De Bellis for Pohnpei International Airport (PTPN) and TT02 Ulithi Micronesia (about 1109 nm away) can be found here at Flightsim.com (see the 2 top entries for X-plane on the result page):

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=airlines&sim=All&fsec=-1&for=western pacific

A free account to this website is required.

X-Plane default has taxiways and some building not visible on Google Maps Satellite imagery and anyway in my mind the custom scenery looks better and there are much more objects.

Extra scenery for nearby airport PTSA can be obtained from here:

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by ostkamp

[ghun1]

PTKK, Chuuk international (previously Truk lagoon - scene of a famous WWII battle and now known for scuba diving - mainly on sunken Japanese warships) is the closest airport I think. Air Niugini fly 737-800 from both this and the destination this Sunday PTPN. I am not sure they fly between them but it should be OK 😃 A mere 380 miles.

There is also an Air Niugini livery for the 737-800 (and Zibo version) but not for the CSL as far as I can tell. About time I learned to fly the Zibo mod...

[ostkamp]

27 minutes ago, ghun1 said:

PTKK, Chuuk international (previously Truk lagoon - scene of a famous WWII battle and now known for scuba diving - mainly on sunken Japanese warships) is the closest airport I think. Air Niugini fly 737-800 from both this and the destination this Sunday PTPN. I am not sure they fly between them but it should be OK 😃 A mere 380 miles.

The closest ones are Kosrae (PTSA, 300 nm), Enewetak (PKMA, 358 nm) and Chukk (PTKK, 380 nm).

The Mariana islands are some 880 nm away (Guam, Anderson AFB) as well as Wake Island (in different direction).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohnpei_International_Airport for real destinations.

Edited November 1, 2019 by ostkamp

[rajo]

2 hours ago, ostkamp said:

Scenery hint

Special scenery by Cami De Bellis for Pohnpei International Airport (PTPN) and TT02 Ulithi Micronesia (about 1109 nm away) can be found here at Flightsim.com (see the 2 top entries for X-plane on the result page):

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=73843434

A free account to this website is required.

X-Plane default has taxiways and some building not visible on Google Maps Satellite imagery and anyway in my mind the custom scenery looks better and there are much more objects.

 

I cannot find PTPN under this link, only under this: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=73845848

I have this scenery since 2014 in my Custom Scenery folder. Very nice indeed.

[rajo]

I think I will start from KOSRAE, also nice scenery

   id|   dist/nm|name                            |city                     |  alt|wind/kt    |             nav-ref|  widest| longest
-----|----------|--------------------------------|-------------------------|-----|-----------|--------------------|--------|--------
 PTPN|      0.00|POHNPEI INTL                    |Pohnpei                  |29.71|310 @  6   |                    |  149.93| 6793.77
 PTSA|    299.91|Kosrae                          |Kosrae                   |29.70|210 @  7   |                    |  150.92| 5756.42

 

[ostkamp]

26 minutes ago, rajo said:

I cannot find PTPN under this link, only under this: ...

@rajo Thanks for the hint. The problem is that flightsim.com turns all search requests into a link with a searchid that expires very soon. Your same style link also doesn´t work any longer. I have now replaced my original link in my older message with a permanent working one after descrambling the link returned by Google search. The new one is https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=airlines&sim=All&fsec=-1&for=western pacific

Edited November 1, 2019 by ostkamp

[surfintucson]

7 hours ago, ostkamp said:

Special scenery by Cami De Bellis

Thanks! Quite nice. Everything by Cami is great.
Charts available here: https://www.airnav.com/airport/PTPN

6600-foot runway and not much room for parking; could get interesting.

[ghun1]

very nice scenery, thanks for the links and suggestions. I see from the charts PTPN should have NDB/DME but I can't get the DME readout in the 737 ZIBO. I get the NDB needle etc but no DME. Does anyone get a DME at PTPN? I will try some different aircraft next. 

edit: found it using little navmap; there is a VOR on freq 111.00

I will be flying United after all. They fly the "famous island hopper" where Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae are the first three stops after Guam on the way to Hawaii.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Hopper

Would be fun in business class if you had the time and the money.

 

[surfintucson]

Greetings, Pilots! It's been a long time since I've joined a Sunday fly-in. Was good to get back in the cockpit and to hear some familiar voices on the comms.

PTPN is in the middle of nowhere. I looked it up and started looking around for nearby fields to start from and then decided if it's going to be a couple hours, it might as well be a lot of hours. So I decided to start from my homebase, KTUS, Tucson, Arizona, USA. This required some flight planning so I would arrive in the vicinity of PTPN at about the same time as everyone else. And with some daylight at the destination. It calculated out to about 11 hours or so in the old 777. Micronesia about 6 hours behind (actually 18 hours ahead due to International Date Line) of Tucson, so departure at the equivalent of 02:00 local.

Not much happening in Tucson at that time of day, so it was a pretty simple matter to get the plane ready, get my clearances, and get out on time. Nice moon as I was preparing to pushback:

And hanging over Tumamoc Hill west of town as I taxied out to 11L:

Takeoff and establishing at FL380 was straight-forward. Settled in for the long cruise. Relief crew took over so I could get some sleep, then it was back in the left seat for the approach and landing. Settled in with some coffee, established comms, verified position

and looked around outside. Not much to see. A lot of nowhere:

Looked like a good turnout today; I counted 10+ pilots on at one point. Looked like most of us were flying big iron.

I was monitoring comms and heard GHUN1 talking about weather over the field. Indeed, as I got closer, I started picking up clouds:

Set up for the RNAV into RW27 at PTPN. Descended to the pattern hold altitude of 3,000 feet and was in some soup:

No ILS at PTPN, and being away from the fly-ins for a bit had me a little worried about my landing technique. It's also a fairly short runway for the 777. I was starting to sweat the weather when I descended out of the cloud cover and the field in sight:

Turned out to be one of my best landings in a long time. Even the landing analysis plug-in thought so:

I arrived a bit before the pack. With parking space at a premium I tucked the nose of the 777 in between a tree and a light stand to make as much room as possible:

Others had similar ideas:

Nice overview of the field; quite nice scenery. Hard to beat a tropical island and a scenery by Cami de Bellis:

After the long flight I need to stretch a little so I headed into the airport and for a quick walk around:

Interesting juxtaposed billboards: advert for snack food and an ad about tooth decay!

Made it back in time to catch some arrivals. Here's GAO001 in a good choice of craft: small jet:

And just two minutes later (nice separation!) BOOTSIE waxing the landing in a 737:

DINO5 was high and fast in the slippery Falcon and chose a go-around:

KUMI doing the long Pacific Island Hopper run in a United 737:

And DINO5 making it good on second approach:

Got even more crowded at little PTPN:

After a bit I decided to do a little tour to see what was on the other side of the island. Fired up a Cessna Skyhawk and taxied out while XPCYL8 was maneuvering in a helo:

Took off and overflew the field:

GHUN1 was out in an ultralight of some sort and landed on a road. I circled about and then continued on:

Was hoping to see KUMI in the Superfortress but he wasn't showing up. I saw him on the server map but no CSL and no callsign in X-Plane. I noticed a little atoll just southwest of the island so I flew over to take a look. Nice little beach down there, that would make a nice spot for a snack:

And that, pilots, is the last photo. Because what followed was a series of misfortunes.

I bled off airspeed and altitude, set up for a long shallow final with flaps 2, speed about 60 knots, maybe less. Looked very nice coming over the dune. Touched down and started kicking up sand. Tapped the brakes... and saw the "anchor deployed" message on the screen. Uh. No. I'm on the beach. And then the Cessna flipped over and sank--SANK--in the sand. Guessing X-Plane thought it was water. MRMAC had it right by taking his Skyhawk with floats.

Ah well. Back to PTPN and the 777. Thought I'd do the long return flight to Tucson. MTOW and taxied out to 27. Had to do a little three-point turn in the big jet to get lined up and that went fine. Set flaps, figured 6600 feet might be cutting it close with a full load of fuel, advanced throttles wide open and started rolling. Ground speed picked up nicely, tracking centerline with little rudder input required, end of the runway still nicely downrange as I passed Vr. Eased back on the stick with a smile on my face thinking "I got this" and... nothing. Pulled back on the stick a little more while a little faster and... nothing. End of the runway almost on me, pulled back as far as the stick would go and nothing. Well, not exactly nothing this time; crashed through the fence at the end of the runway doing maybe 190 knots, sheared the gear, skipped off the water a few times, then caught a nacelle or a wingtip and cart-wheeled it. Hmmmm. What happened? I respawned at the end of 27 and took a look at the systems. I had rudder control with my pedals, but no elevator control with my joystick. That's what I get for not doing a proper pre-flight, I suppose.

Checked and the joystick was seen and would calibrate in X-Plane, but no response in the 777. Tried a re-start of X-Plane. Same problem. Odd, haven't seen this problem before. Since I couldn't get the 777 flyable I called it a day. Later, tried a reboot and relaunched X-Plane and same problem. But it would work with some airplanes (stock and third-party) but not others (stock and third-party). Did some googling. Was about to wipe preferences when I tried it again and it worked. I'd say the old joystick is about toast but it's fine in the calibration screen. Anyone else seen this behavior? Any ideas?

Hope to get it fixed before the next fly-in. In the meantime, pilots, don't forget those pre-flight checks!

---

 

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by surfintucson

[cyl8]

uh.. my scenery ( default ) looked nothing like surf's . Me too, having missed many fly ins I am finally back in virtual sky. It seems that I was not able to see some crafts as I hear chatters about landing but saw no crafts. I eventually disconnect/re-connected client and that worked much better. 

I noticed everyone were on the other side of runway so I moved myself from apron to join the rest on the green field, and watched Rafish's arrival in the blackbird!!

There were other crafts but I only saw these ( CHAS Dino5 Rafish Gao001, surf happened to taxi out before I could snap a pic. 

GAO spoke about a trip to PKMA some 360 nm away. Thinking a faster jet would probably be a good choice I brought the marine rafale c for the job. Here holding short for the last few checks before take off for PKMA.

cloudy day, but it was hazy/foggy with medium low visibility toward pkma... but can you tell what's with the snake behind Rafale?  

I dropped to 1000ft and 250kts with flap and it was about 9 nm when I finally got visual of the runway. All I had was a patch of green...  and not an island... With short distance, I turned off AP and expected to fly VFR to land. In the middle of maneuver, I noticed that I had no thrust. Rolled power to max but still nothing. Eventually it stalled and dropped off the air. I recall something like this happened before... 

I beam'ed my self to PKMA and borrowed an H125 from airbus helicopters.Toured a bit of this patch of land in the middle of no where. CHAS came but had to go around. GAO touched down instead

RAJO supposed to touched down but I didn't see him at time. We all restarted x-ivap client which resolved invisible issue. We lined up next to runway for Chas.

And Chas' fly over

Chas joined us parking on the grass

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by cyl8

[Kumiankka]

I started out from Guam, flying the "Island Hopper" route like many others. The coincidence is not that big this time, as it's one of just a couple of routes serving Pohnpei!

 

I didn't fly with real time today, but took off from Guam in the dark anyway.

 

It was still dark when I arrived at my first stop at Chuuk.

 

There was just enough light on the horizon to see a faint outline of the islands as I departed Chuuk for Pohnpei.

 

And the sun came up while I was climbing to cruise altitude.

 

There were plenty of us shooting approaches to PTPN one after another, I'd managed to pick just about the busiest time to arrive.

 

I quickly turned around and vacated the runway after landing, just in time for the next arrival. Finding parking space for all of our planes required some very careful taxiing.

 

Rather than pressing on with the rest of the 16-hour Island Hopper route, I then switched to a B-29 Superfortress and waited for my turn behind @surfintucson's Cessna.

 

I then followed Surf up and circled the island, admiring the views.

 

@ghun1 had parked a helo on a hilltop just as I was passing above, and I couldn't resist the temptation to try dropping some bombs on him. But my aim wasn't so good, so I only blew up some palm trees.

 

Overflying the airport at high altitude...

 

...and coming back for a somewhat lower pass before returning to land

 

Evidently I wasn't careful enough with the airspeed on final, and ended up stalling into the runway and bouncing hard, not enough to completely destroy the airframe or collapse the landing gear, but still enough to wreck all four engines and inflict significant damage. Interestingly, the actual "Dina Might" B-29 was also destroyed during WWII in a similar fashion, in a crash landing that left its crew alive but damaged the aircraft beyond repair. So maybe I was tempting fate here!

[ostkamp]

Hi all,

seems I´m late with my report already ...

I started off Kosrae (PTSA) which is probably the closest airport to our destination Pohnpei. Nice custom scenery was available for that place. Basically it seems to be an island with an airport and some little harbour around.

Just when I applied thrust for takeoff in the Aerobask Eclipse 550 NG - my aircraft of the day - @bootsie logged on at the airport, see right part of windshield.

Takeoff from Kosrae.

Since there were no Navaids nearby, I went on full GPS navigation with direct course.

Everything went ok with the approach. A bunch of pilots had already landed.

Came in on runway 27.

The apron had some location on left end, so I went there and parked leaving the right ones for bigger aircraft yet to come.

@Big-IN aka Din05 had to have a go-around because of being too high I guess.

@Kumiankka landing.

After cake break I went off to Enewetak auxiliary airfield (PKMA) on some island to the North east. Originally I thought I would have to do this alone, but at the end I had 3 other pilots following, namely @rajo, @cyl8 and Chas.

@cyl8 was sometimes so close in his Rafale jet that he caused a red TCAS warning and I got instructions for immediate evasive maneuvers.

Finally airfield got in sight, @rajo had already landed and @cyl8 already materialized on it after ditching his fighter into the sea. Chas had a lot of issues ...

About to land

Waiting there for Chas approach.

Unfortunately Chas did not make it for landing. It appears he turned in much too close at about 4-5 nm distance from airport instead of 10-15 nm and then did not have sufficient time for the turn to final. Overshooting the turn it than was too late to get aligned. Here he was coming in really close after such maneuver. Anyway, it is not easy to spot the right point to aim at with no navaid. Next time we shall support with some radar vectoring from the ground.

See you next time (hopefully).

Cheers!

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by ostkamp

[rajo]