864th fly-in: Bangui, Central African Republic (FEFF)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

Quote

For next Sunday, August 1st we have more stops on the tour as usual along with a little bonus, as a helpful list of suggestions sent in by @surfintucson included an interesting (if perhaps depressing) extra diversion. First of course is the refueling stop already announced last week, MD-Douala International Airport, Cameroon (FKKD). And our main destination following that is Bangui M'Poko International Airport (FEFF), our first visit to the Central African Republic. Sadly we will be flying from one war-torn region to another - Bangui's airport in particular hosted a large refugee camp not too long ago, owing to the Central African Republic Civil War which is still ongoing.

As a bonus destination from Surf's list we have nearby Gbadolite Airport (FZFD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The long 10499 ft. runway and some ruined palaces are what remains of the era of dictator Mobutu, who ordered the runway extended so he could visit his extravagant palaces in a chartered Concorde. Finally, the refueling stop for the following week will be Juba Airport, South Sudan (HJJJ), the main airport of the world's most recently independent country. Unlike the previous destinations, no custom scenery is available for HJJJ, just the basic X-Plane scenery.  Update - thanks for the info @ostkamp - there is an update for the Juba default scenery available at the scenery gateway. Also note that the old ICAO code of HSSJ may still be used in X-Plane.

Here I'd normally include some greetings in local languages, but information online is scarce on the various languages spoken in all of this week's destination countries. (in fact, in Cameroon the language issue even happens to be a source of ongoing violent conflict) So in lieu of this, and replacing the occasional reminder to help out with server support costs, I encourage directing any donations you may have to spare this time to a suitable charity operating in the region, for example the International Red Cross or the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

 

Current tour itinerary:

Jul 11th: Tripoli, Libya (HLLT/HLLM)
Refueling stop: Tamanrasset, Algeria (DAAT)
Jul 18th: Monrovia, Liberia (GLRB)
Refueling stop: Cotonou, Benin (DBBB)
Jul 25th: São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe (FPST)
This week's refueling stop: Douala, Cameroon (FKKD)
Aug 1st: Bangui M'Poko, Central African Republic (FEFF)
Optional bonus stop: Gbadolite, Democratic Republic of the Congo (FZFD)
Next week's refueling stop: Juba, South Sudan (HSSJ - should be HJJJ but X-Plane may still be using the old ICAO code)
????

 

 

New pilots are always welcome, read the guide below by @bootsie to get started:
How to connect to X-Flightserver

Or to connect using the new Swift client, see this tutorial by @ostkamp:
Swift client quick reference guide (pdf)

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

 

[surfintucson]

Honored to have my suggested airfields show up for our fly-in.

Looks like FZFD is not much of a deviation (well, speaking of flight plan deviations only--it is, certainly, a perhaps depressing diversion).

As KUMI noted, the anglophone/francophone division in Cameroun is reflected in current separatism, violence, and destruction there. In many respects a long hangover from colonialism, the colonizers' religions, the Biafra War, and the flawed United Nations 1961 British Cameroons referendum.

Ah, Bamenda.  <sigh>

I'll be departing from Yaounde so maybe that will buy me some time on the first wave? Hope to see you Sunday, pilots.

 

[Vega66]

Greetings everybody,

 

Nice to rejoin this magnificent tour. And since I couldn't make last week joint flight, had to catch up performing the legs through São Tomé and Douala during the week.

Departing from Monrovia

 

A brief stop at São Tomé, a well known destination.

Next stop, Douala, our starting point for this week's legs. 

Today the weather was a bit stormier for the departure, but nothing serious enough to worry about.

Before start I decided to try the XP11 version of the AN225, but I believe that it messed up badly with swift server, definitely these unorthodox Giants have some kind of incompatibility with online flights which make the server constantly fall, My apologies for the inconvenience, I will definitely keep these models out of the online flights schedule.

 

So... back to the Falcon and Douala, with many pilots already on their way, as I got cleared to fire up engines and get on route.

Shortly after reach TOC, saw @rajo fly over on his concorde.

Very busy approach at Bangui

.

Managed to get between @ostkamp and @Kumiankka and go for a visual approach, although the landing was far from perfect.

Parked next to Dino5 aka @Big-IN , @CHASMAN2014 and Ostkamp and went for a brake, after which speed up for the next stop, with the skies once again pretty much filled.

 

Despite the lack of Navigational references, the fligh was very nice, spotting the runway 7 nm out, below the cloud ceiling at FL030. Landing at Gbadolite was better than the previous one, but still on the Hard side due to a very low approach angle.

Parked next to Kumi @surfintucson and Rajo, for some groupies

 

 

 

Ostkamp was waiting my landing to backtrak towards the apron and joined shortly after.

And the final leg towards Juba:

 

As Surf well noticed, the default scenery is crowded with static, making an aditional challenge to find a parking place.

 

And that's all for today. Looking forward to join you next week. Wish you all a wonderful week.

 

P.S. - And a final shot for the week, with Surf, Ostkamp and Dino5

Edited August 1, 2021 by Vega66

[surfintucson]

Greeting Pilots!
When we last talked I had taken my Air Afrique 777 "Yaounde" over to Yaounde. During the week I decided to take my C130 "Bamenda" over to Bamenda, Cameroon.
Left Nsimalen Airport Yaounde pulling some contrails in the moist overcast conditions:

Upstation Bamenda and most of the town as socked in with low clouds. Managed to find the field; but as it is only 2D in my X-Plane, just a backpanel shot on landing:

Spent some time with my associates in Bamenda getting the story on current events (not great). Then en route back to Yaounde I thought I'd show you Jakiri--a wonderfully beautiful place on the Ring Road:

Even with orthos it doesn't quite do justice. Cut across the Ring to Lake Nyos, which you may recall from a disastrous CO2 bubble eruption in the 1980s. It certainly looks ominous in X-Plane:

Rested up a day or so and then it was Fly-In Sunday. This week, with the benefit of a slight headstart, I wasn't too far behind to crowd when I logged on:

Still cloudy after takeoff en route to Bangui; but cloud layer starting to break into scattered nearer FEFF:

Nice approach along the river and a smooth touchdown:

Taxied in to the ramp and it was crowded! Nice to be flying *with* many of you today instead of miles behind.

Short turn at Bangui. Here's GAO001 taking off, then me as well--each pilot holding short for a departure due to backtaxi requirement:

En route to Juba many of us elected to check out FZFD Gbadolite, Mobutu's old place in the jungle. No navaids but everyone did okay; even with the calm winds having us choosing opposing runway directions and some tight interleaving. Here's VEGA66 bringing in the Falcon, and a few of us parked up on the ramp:

Long time since I've visited Gbadolite; last time the flag was different:

Last leg to HSSJ/HJJJ Juba was a bit of a stretch--and my first time to South Sudan. Sunset en route put some nice color in the sky:

Dark by the time I got there. No navaids really here either; I forgot how much "real" flying is required in much of Africa without ILS CAT-III at every field! Well configured and followed KUMI in for a smooth landing; even made the turnoff:

Waited around for GAO001 and DINO-5 to arrive. Walked over to the Road House Lounge and Grill (https://www.facebook.com/roadhousejuba/) for some dinner in the meantime:

A long run across almost the width of sub-Saharan Africa today.

We'll see where the next leg of the Africa Tour takes us. Until then,
Surf, out.

---

 

[Kumiankka]

Great recommendations from Surf for this weekend's fly-in, made for an interesting part of the tour for sure. I even managed to fit in the extra stop at Gbadolite, although we did run out of daylight on the way to Juba.

 

There was a queue of aircraft taking off into the foggy skies of Douala as I logged on. Chas headed on his way first, followed here by @Vega66, myself in the .org 727, and @rajo in a Concorde that the Swift client was showing as an A380 for whatever reason.

 

The thick cloud cover started to break up as I passed Yaoundé on the way east.

 

Others had reported ILS issues arriving at Bangui M'Poko, but for some reason the ILS was working perfectly for me. Different nav data / sim versions maybe?

 

Group shot at the ramp in Bangui

 

We then continued for the next stop at Gbadolite, taking our turns holding short of the only runway available, on the only taxiway leading to the passenger terminal.

 

Departing Bangui, ahead of Rajo's Concorde (but not for long)

 

View of the Ubangi River during climbout

 

By the time I reached Gbadolite, Rajo had already overtaken me in his Concorde, and was just vacating the runway as I approached from the opposite direction.

 

Continuing on, the climbout route took me past the ruins of Mobutu's palace.

 

The final leg to Juba, South Sudan was the longest of the day, and there wasn't quite enough time left to arrive before sunset.

 

The combination of nighttime, turbulence and no ILS made the landing in Juba a bit more challenging than usual.

 

The final nighttime group shot didn't turn out so impressive. My 727 is parked somewhere in the unlit area, Rajo's Concorde is way back on the other, smaller ramp (maybe due to its proximity to that grill Surf mentioned?), Vega's aircraft can barely be seen approaching in the distance, and Surf's 777 is the only one of our planes clearly visible in the foreground.

[ostkamp]

Hi all,

like many I did the full tour including Gbadolite. Started off with @Big-IN from Douala (FKKD) to Bangui (FEFF). I had found Cote d´Ivoire livery for Zibo´s B737-800X so took that one for the flight. Dizzy weather with some rain showers at Douala.

At first destination I was so close to @Big-IN because the FMC did not really follow the planned path but took some abbreviation. I landed when he had not yet left the runway and since reversers did not come alive, I had a full touch & go instead.

Of course that required an extra pattern.

The second attempt was bad as well, but I could stop in time then waiting for @Vega66 to arrive at the turntable since he was already on approach.

Later taxiied to the small apron and got parked. In the background @Kumiankka had just turned from runway to taxiway.

@surfintucson  on final here

and there was still some room for him left. After he got parked, @Big-IN and I prepared for the next leg.

This time in an Embraer Legacy 650. This tour was nightmare since the autopilot refused to do anything. It was on, but whatever I did, HDG, NAV, ALT HOLD, FLC etc. it just failed to act accordingly. Maybe the earlier loaded B737 tweaked some unexpected setting in the depth of X-Plane secrets. I had to fly the whole leg manually 😬 and I could not get the aircraft balanced with engine throttle settings and alike.

I somehow managed to land ok, unfortunately had forgotten to install the custom scenery. Thus @Big-IN is showing up on a single taxiway of a default airport and the rest of the gang on the grass. Sorry for that.

After reloading and repositioning things looked much better.

With the rest of the party already enroute we took off and settled for Juba (HJJJ).

As mentioned by @Kumiankka we were running out of daylight soon.  The FMC fooled me once again when I tried to reprogram it to a more distant point to enter the ILS path. After some extra ride I got on course again and had an acceptable landing, was even streaming it on Discord.

@rajo, @Big-IN . @surfintucson and @Vega66 were still around for a few minutes.

Stopped here after really long flights.

See you soon, hopefully. 🙂

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by ostkamp

[Vega66]

Hi pilots,

I Leave here a finding I made along with @gordoxproenca that might be useful to those who are experiencing offset problems with the other aircrafts when using swift.

Maybe this is already documented somewhere, but since I am a considerable amount on the wind minded I sometimes miss the precious tips provided by the pros, so leave here our findings in case someone will find it useful. It worked for me to mitigate similar problems I was experiencing.

On the setup window of the Interpolation pane of the swift GUI there are several options that help to correct the vertical offset of the other aircrafts. Try to check/uncheck these options:

 "fix scenery offset (exp.)", "send gnd.to simulator" and "force full interpolation"

Additionally, the field "pitch on gnd" does what it precisely says, allows to force an angle for the aircrafts to be displayed (blank values are for the sim default, I guess). It helps to correct wrong results especially with "sloped" aircrafts like the DC3. After some testing, I got the best results with the configurations stated below. It is still not 100% in every situations, some planes still get a bit wrong offset when rolling, correcting only when the plane stops (I called it the lift effect), but it has greatly improved the overall results.

[rajo]

Ok thanks, I had already set it that way. 

started from fueling stop, all went ok

but when landed, suddenly the framerate went under 2, not playable. After 30 min debugging (without custom scenery, without global scenery asf) I gave up and did without this Custom scenery

now it looks like that:

next airport was great

@Kumiankkaat apron, @surflanding

then to the last dest for today

thanks and cu soon