874th fly-in: Andes challenge, Huaraz-Chagual-Pias, Peru (SPHZ/SPGL/SPIS)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

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All right, next Sunday, October 10th it's time for a tricky special event inspired by a couple of suggestions that @ghun1 sent me a while back. We'll be embarking on an Andes Challenge covering three very difficult mountain airports in Peru. The first of these, Comandante FAP Gérman Arias Graziani Airport, Huaraz (SPHZ) will be our starting point and home base since it has the longest runway of the three, not to mention it's the only one with any significant ramp space where we can park our planes. Your challenge, then, is to visit the two other airports of Chagual (SPGL) and Pias (SPIS) (in either order) and return to Huaraz safely. Following a straight-line course and not accounting for turnaround time, the route should take about an hour and a half in a slower aircraft such as a Twin Otter, although chances are that terrain and/or weather will lengthen this somewhat. You may use any aircraft you wish (although the aforementioned Twin Otter is a good choice), can change aircraft between stops if you so choose, and as always, even using real weather is optional. In fact, we may all need to consider tweaking those weather settings this time, since thunderstorms have been forecast for the area this weekend!

Custom scenery is linked below - note that the packages have a specific loading order they need to be in, otherwise you might end up with missing textures and/or airports. Check your installation beforehand and consult the readme files. Special thanks to Jorge Chin (@jorgechin) for all of these scenery packages.

Have a nice trip - buen viaje - allin purina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

[Vega66]

Hi, great pilots

For those using swift, be aware that a few hours ago the Swift Team released a new version, it is most likely that you will receive the notification for the update. You can find all the information in the following link:  

https://github.com/swift-project/pilotclient/releases/tag/v0.9.7.149

Although the installation process is pretty straightforward, it is most likely that it will demand some time to perform all the necessary configurations, including the necessary xswiftbus plugin upgrade. I just installed it and had to rebuild all the information, including server accesses and model DB. It took me almost an hour, although I believe it is possible to perform it faster, since in the process I lost some time from mistaking the Beta and Alpha versions.

So, if you are on a tight schedule for the Fly In, my advice is that you consider only to upgrade after today's operations  

 

[ghun1]

Thanks Vega, good to know.

[Vega66]

Another amazing destination, filled with beautiful scenerires and indeed very challenging approaches.

Started from Lima on a Dash Q400 by Star Peru, together with @Quintao who was also preparing to depart on a Kodi, heading towards the first stop at Comandante German Arias Grazzi Airport or better still, to get rid of a serious tong twister, Anta-Huaraz Airport.

After passing Salinas VOR, Quintao headed straight into the mountains, while I was cleared for a slighter longer and western route. We got very lucky with the weather, allowing us to enjoy magnificent views over thewAndes. Many shots, however I must refrain, since in only a year of fly-ins I already used half of the allowed quota

 

The good weather provided the chance to perform a steady visual approach and landing, after a steep descend  following the mountain walls. Plenty of runway for a well fitted aircraft for this terrain.

The next part, Pias and Changual, anticipated more serious challenges, so my choice finally fell for the realiable DO228, having STOL capabilities and well suited for steep climbs.

 By the time the plane got ready, there were plenty of pilots on the apron. @CHASMAN2014, @ostkamp, Quintao and @ghun1, also getting ready to depart. 

Lined up and took off after Gary and Chas.

After following Chas for a while, surrounded by superb sceneries, turned straight for a stop at Pias.  

A challenging approach, having to perform a tight right turn just before touch down, getting nothing better than a hard landing.

Some folks were serving hot drinks, so took the chance and grabbed one just before face the next challenge, at Chagual

At Chagual the challenge was also great, but I guess the hot coffee improved the focus, and this time the landing was better. And as some wisely said, as long as the plane remains flyable, any landing is a good one, 

Parked next to Gary and welcomed Chas, @rajo and Quintao, before taking the usual lunch brake.

Return after a while, still in time to catch a big group of pilots returning to Huaraz. Ostkamp was starting to roll as I lined up for take-off.

 

Flying near @Kumiankka not far from the mountain tops.

And a close line up and land behind @ManofMac and Chaser, finishing on a crowded apron.

Finally, returning to the Q400, heading to Isla San Felix.  

Shortly after taking off, suffered a crash over the mountains, briefly followed by a sim crash, with which I had to restart everything, calling it a day.

Superb Fly In, thanks to all. Wish you a wonderful week.  

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Vega66

[ostkamp]

Hi pilots,

this was quite a challenge and I have to say without cheating I would not have made it at all. No navaids, no co-pilot to read the map etc. and mountains closeby in all directions 😬

When I started up a number of aircraft were already visible at the apron. It took some time until Din05 was showing up, he had also decided to fly something new in his hanger (Let 410, if I remember correctly) and could not get the engines running at first.

Last I had also problems since when I wanted to help to find a missing scenery file I suddenly experienced an I/O error with that harddisk and had to reboot the whole box and start all over. Meanwhile the others had already left.

The following image was taken before that happened:

I think that was most likely @Kumiankka on the apron.

Here we have @Quintao landing and Chas getting ready as well.

Finally took off in a Thranda Quest Kodiak with FedEx livery.

The scenery was quite impressive (I had shutdown the fog via fog_is_gone as usual).

Even at 20000 ft I was really at the limit of these mountain tops on the first leg North of SPHZ.

The co-pilot spotted @Quintao at 4 o´clock position after a while.

After a hard time cheating around with Little Navmap etc. I found this mountain lake near Pias (SPIS) but when I came in I was as usual too high and too fast. I pulled back immediately to slow down and then fired full flaps to go down again.

Still it was very risky.

The turn was very steep (sorry for the lines in the image, I took this from replay and it does not seem possible to remove that stuff due to aircraft scripting being unavailable in replay mode).

When I touched down I had used up already a lot of the runway and then fired up beta mode. Somehow the bird got very shaky and went away from runway to the right crashing through some fence. 😒 So I guess in other simulators that would surely have resulted in a crash, X-Plane is more forgiving.

Since Din05 suffered a lot of problems - he found the Let 410 had no Oxygen and pressurized cabin and also had some crash issues, and it turned out the Dash 8 Q400 was unsuitable for that airport.

After a while @rajo arrived.

Followed by @ghun1

and later @Kumiankka

I then set off for the next destination Chagual (SPGL). Had an overfly over the airport since when it got visible I was too high.

Came back after 180 degree turn in a safe distance. Arrived through the valley from the North, had to fly a steep left turn then. I managed to get down better this time, but still went off the runway a little bit.

Got parked with @Kumiankka if I am not mistaken.

@Kumiankka taking off again.

@Big-IN aka Din05 on approach (Aircraft wrongly shows as a Dash8, but was a PA46, the plugin did not detect the change).

On the way back I had to get up to 22000 ft. But later I discovered following Din05 that I could fly around the mountain and descent into a valley.

On approach to SPHZ again after performing some right turn in front of a hill. Landing was done the VFR way.

Got parked.

Called it a day here.

Have a nice week and see you soon 🙂

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by ostkamp

[Quintao]

Started this fly-in on Wednesday in order to fly from the previous location GCLA all the way to Peru. Flew on the BAE 146, about 1,400 nm each day.

On Wednesday flew GCLA - GUCY

• Departed GCLA:

 

• Arrived at GUCY:

    

    On Thursday: GUCY - SBFN

• Arrived at SBFN

    

    On Friday:  SBFN - SBEG

• Departed SBFN

    

• Arrived SBEG

    

    On Saturday: SBEG - SPJC

• Departed SBEG

    

• Arrived at Lima, Peru - SPJC, where would serve as home base for this fly-in.

    

This morning, the locations chosen seemed appropriate to fly the Daher Kodiak. Departed from SPJC RWY 15 together with @Vega66
    
    

Just a little over 1h later, was landing at Huaraz SPHZ, while on the downwind for left base, could see that there were already some planes on the ground.

    

Landed at RWY 16 and parked by the others, @CHASMAN2014  was also on a Kodiak, but here rendered as a PC-12.

    
    

Had a quick break, and came back for the challenges, taxied to hold-short RWY 16 when @ostkamp was taking-off

    

Took-off SPHZ RWY 16, and flew through the canyons on my way to SPGL

    
    

The road below belonged on a car commercial:

    

About 30 minutes later arrived on the field and could see it was getting crowded, @rajo was o short final and it appeared there were planes on both ends of the RWY

    

It took me a couple of going arounds to land properly. Had some issues with the scenery that forced me to restart my master machine. When I started decided to take-off immediately from RWY 32 to SPIS.

    

@Kumiankka was inbound for the opposite end of the RWY, so we flew past each other, I was climbing past 5,500ft, he was descending going past 5,000 ft.

    

About 15 minutes in flight, had visual on the lake and the field.

    

Landed off-track, but got back into it for the pretty picture.

    

Took off from SPIS RWY 32 after Chaser to head back to SPHZ

    

Landed at SPHZ and parked by Chas, now rendered as a C208, which looks a little closer to a Kodiak.

    

Took off again from SPHZ, and headed back to Lima

    

In real life I must have visited this airport about 50+ times, all the sceneries in Peru made available by @jorgechin are outstanding. The ships waiting to dock are just like in real life as on final for RWY 15.

    

Landed back at SPJC and called it a day

    

Here is the route taken for today's fly-in.

    

Have a great weekend!
    
    

[Kumiankka]

Another memorable fly-in adventure, as expected not exactly a cakewalk, but I was quite surprised that flying with real weather on turned out to be a viable option. Those thunderstorms that were forecast never showed up, and the cloud formations left us if not plenty of, then at least enough room to maneuver.

 

Started out from Lima, Peru in the FJS Dash 8 in the livery of LC Perú, the last airline to operate regular flights to Huaraz before its recent bankruptcy. Weather in Lima was low overcast, not boding well for the rest of the day.
 

 

By the time I got to Huaraz the morning sky had cleared up well enough. Some clouds were still hanging around north of the airport, which made me change my plans and fly the more difficult southern approach.

 

Parked at Huaraz alongside some earlier arrivals. I'm impressed Quintao's version of this shot actually displayed the LC Peru livery correctly, although this may have been a coincidence as the same livery also showed up for Vega even though I was logged in as a different aircraft by then.

 

My aircraft of choice for the challenge itself was RWDesign's Twin Otter, in the Peruvian registration OB2024.

The attempt almost ended not even five minutes after departure, after I turned into a canyon thinking I could easily climb out using the Twin Otter's ample engine power. But a combination of reduced engine performance due to altitude, as well as higher-than-usual aircraft weight due to all the fuel and oxygen tanks aboard (no refueling facilities at these remote airstrips) left the DHC-6's performance insufficient to climb out of the rising terrain. I was barely (as you can see!) able to pull off a 180 degree turn out of there. Resuming my course north to Pias, I was able to climb past some of the higher ridges by exploiting ridge lift as well as by having a little more patience.
 

Due to these misadventures the flight to Pias took longer than expected, but the Twin Otter handled the difficult lakeside visual approach quite smoothly. I was worried about catching another up- or downdraft near the mountainsides, but managed a solid (if not smooth) landing nonetheless.

 

Parked at Pias, watching Chas fly his approach (with ostkamp, ghun and rajo parked adjacent)

 

I then took off again to visit nearby Chagual, where Quintao was just climbing out - we passed each other at 5000 feet along the river valley.

 

A steep approach followed by a bumpy landing at Chagual

 

Parked at Chagual before the return flight, with Vega in the background

 

Vega and I both departed in short succession, turning around in the more spacious Valle de Vijus slightly further north before heading back south towards Huaraz.

 

The Twin Otter was one of the slower aircraft on the route (and the extra weight from the fuel reserves and oxygen canisters didn't help either), so I arrived to an almost empty airport to conclude the challenge.

 

Not quite ready to log off yet, I switched aircraft for a return flight to Lima in the BFDG AT-27 Tucano.

 

This time I was a little more careful climbing out of the mountain valleys, and the flight back to Lima went without incident.

 

Hand-flying the ILS back down to Lima's Jorge Chavez Int'l, I then parked at the military ramp and logged off for the night.

 

Have a great week everyone, and see you again!

[rajo]

early in the morning, cold and dark

kumi also at starting up

chaser and quintao in an KODI, too, dino5 I cant recognize, gao001 just landing

airborne

in between high mountains

deep valleys

with cludy sky you cannot fly here

oh no, clouds appear while approaching

but no sebere problem occured

from the next airport I couldnt take off, after a CTD, when I tried to load a flightplan from here, there was 70 knots wind with heavy turbulances in the valley. I restarted xplane several times with different action to fix, and after maybe half an hour it was as it should

 

I took off south direction, an so I went in severe difficulties

it was very hard to survive

but when i had just about conquered the highest point, i caught sight of this magnificent panorama

the approach through the long valley was relaxed, dino5 at a safe distance behind me

with happy landing back, where we started, just before dino5 and ostkamp gao001. unfortunately i have to skip next sunday. see you soon

 

[Skylark2992]

Thanks everybody for your PIREPs, you're all much more adventurous than me!

Also, I really like your dedication to the BAE 146 @Quintao. SBFN looked particularly beautiful, what an approach and departure that must have been.