🇨🇰 906th fly-in: Rarotonga, Cook Islands (NCRG)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

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This time, Sunday, May 22nd, let's dig once again into the good old grab bag of suggestions, where we have one sent in by @Quintao last year. We'll be revisiting Rarotonga International Airport (NCRG) in the Cook Islands, now represented by some excellent custom scenery created by @Cami De Bellis. Rarotonga is the main air travel hub of the Cook Islands, with a single  7600-ft. runway suited for heavy aircraft. But there are plenty of other, smaller airfields around to visit on the other islands of the archipelago: I have also linked the main recommendations with good custom scenery below, the atolls of Aitutaki and Manuae located a little over a hundred nautical miles north of Rarotonga.

Good luck - kia manuia!

 

 

 

 

New pilots are always welcome, just read the guide on how to get started!

Remember to listen in on Teamspeak, new channel assignments listed here:
121.00 - fly-in main channel
123.00 - fly-in pre-flight
124.00 - small talk (in German)
125.00 - general comms (non-fly-in)

 

 

 

 

 

[Quintao]

Thanks @Kumiankka for dusting off this recommendation from last year!

Another nice scenery location close by to be  visited by hydroplanes is also Manuae (NCMN) available as freeware by Aerobask: https://aerobask.com/ncmn.php

Note: Sorry, only after posting I noticed that the aerobask content is also posted on the forum as suggested by Kumi.

Looking forward to it!

Edited May 18, 2022 by Quintao

[Skylark2992]

What a beautiful location, I am missing another great fly-in.

The freeware Tahiti (NTAA) and Society Islands sceneries from XPFR still work and look great (in my opinion) with X-Planes 10 and 11. Plenty of interesting island-hopping to do; Cami De Bellis has become a prolific author of sceneries across the otherwise vast, empty expanse that is the Pacific Ocean. (Compared to MSFS, which obviously has had less development time for authors since its release 2 years ago, X-Plane offers significantly more 3rd party sceneries in this beautiful part of the world.) Oh, and maps2xplane has produced a fantastic payware version of the Society Islands for anybody in the neighborhood. 

Remember to send a postcard! I'm looking forward to reading everybody's PIREPs.

[Quintao]

This was a weekend full of simulator time as the weather was not cooperating in real life, too many storms in Florida. As such, my weekend started from Australia, headed to Tonga on Friday, followed by an Aitutaki flight on Saturday, and Manuae, Rarotonga, and Papeete on Sunday.

Departed Brisbane on Friday morning aboard the BAE 146-100.

The bridge next to the RWY 19L looked interesting!

It was an 1,800nm flight to Tonga, but the tail wind was very helpful, landed there in less than 5 hours later.

Next morning departed Tonga NFTT airport towards Aitutaki.

Less than 3 hours later was circling the island and landing.

The next morning, hopped on a C172 with floats to head to the Manuae islands, giving a ride to some locals.

Arriving at Manuae is beautiful.

Lined up with the flags on the water for the landing.

Dropped the locals and took off again towards Rarotonga NCRG.

 

About an hour later, paced the C172 to land on RWY 08 after @Vega66.

The sceneries by @Cami De Bellis are outstanding! (Manuae by Aerobask as well!) Below you can see @CHASMAN2014 arriving at the apron after landing on RWY 08.

Group picture with Chas and Vega.

A few minutes late Chaser was landing.

Took a 2hr break and switched back to the BAE 146-100 and departed to Papeete, Tahiti to visit the scenery recommended by @Skylark2992.

Backtracked and departed on BCRG RWY 08.

2 hours later was landing at Papeete RWY 04.

It's always a pleasure going island-hopping.

 

[ostkamp]

Hi fellow pilots,

here comes today's report. Could not fly in FS-Economy this time because there were simply no suitable aircraft available or insufficient number of passengers to allow flying a larger one.

@Quintao Great job and excellent images! 👍

I started off at Pago Pago Airport (NSTU) with the Toliss A319, for which I had done most of the planning the day before. Since there was no Air Rarotonga livery available I used a Air New Zealand, which seems to operate as well at these airports.

The flight itself was uneventful despite some scenery quirks which displayed brown squares below instead of ocean sometimes. During my flight @DrTuro and @Big-IN showed up as well later, but flew in from other departure airports.

When I came in on final to Roratonga airport, I found that the aircraft did not descent, probably the ILS is not real here and just a LOC without Glideslope. Anywhere I was much too high when I arrived at the airport and had to go around. @DrTuro who was next landed successfully.

The second approach was then flown manually and went ok except that I was off to the left on the runway.

There was already a massive amount of aircraft parked at this small airport.

@rajo arrived in what looks like a Challenger, most likely the 650 which he just had purchased. Looking forward to his report about the difficulties with the new model and whether it is really worth such an extremely high price tag (approx. US$115).

After cake break, @Big-IN and I went for a sightseeing trip around the island. As suggested by him we used some Ultralight aircraft part of XP 11.

Of course this had to be flown fully manually.

Just turned around after reaching the end of the island.

We came back in time to monitor first the landing of @ManofMac MrMac.

and then a bit later @Kumiankka arrived in his Saab 340 after a lenghty flight.

Finally we landed our Ultralights again

parking next to @Kumiankka.

Called it a day there.

See you next time! 🙂

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by ostkamp

[CHASMAN2014]

Greetings fellow sim pilots, thank you all for a great time!

Flight Plan: RWY 4 VFR Faaa to Rarotonga Intl RWY 8
Aircraft: A320
Cruising Altitude: 30000 ft
Cruising Speed: 340 kts
Distance: 679.2 nm
Estimated time en route: 01:41 h
Estimated fuel burn: 9571.7 Lbs

Departed Faaa (NTAA) stand P3 via SID ARITE 04 flying Air New Zealand flight906.

Leaving Tahiti for the trip to the Cook Islands

Landing Rarotonga International RNAW 08, difficult spotting the airport.

Parked at NGRG with @Quintao and @Vega66 both in the background.

Screen shot of @F5Chaser landing in the E110, nice landing and livery!

Aerial view of Rarotonga International:

Thank you all, especially @Kumiankkaand @Quintao for a great fly-in.

All the best,

Chas

[Vega66]

Greetings, all great pilots.

Started on a Air New Zealand 789, which In the real world usually performs an Auckland-Rarotonga regular route, but due to some scheduling limitations I had to plan slightly different and  departed from Gold Coast, Australia.

Rotated exactly at 0740Z with perfect weather.

The favourable winds at FL390 shortened in about 30 minutes the flight and saved almost 5 tons of fuel.

Parked in the only available spot for an aircrafft this sized, and briefly enjoyed the amazing scenery, while waiting for @Quintao that was arreiving on a Skyhawk

  

Then changed for a much smaller aircraft, the Caravan, and parked in a corner to give way to other incoming pilots. Here @CHASMAN2014 parking his A320, and Quintao on the left.

After the lunch brake, finished preping the Caravan for a tour around the nearby atols. Got cleared between @rajo and @ManofMac

 

The long distance flights to reach these Pacific Islands destinations are by far rewarded with the amazing sceneries.available.

 

 

A momentary stop at Manaue

And headed to Aitutaki

@Kumiankka also arrived shortly after.

For the final flight back decided to change to the F35B allowing a slightly wider tour, while keeping up the schedule.

Again over Manaue

While Kumi was heading to Manaue on a Cessna 337, Quintao announced he had spotted early a pack of dolphins west of the island, so decided also to investigate and after a couple of slow turns spotted them close to a couple of tourist boats.

  

Then finally waved at Kumi before heading back to Rarotonga to close the day,

Thank you all, and especially Kumi and Quintao for one more awesome destination.

Wish you all a great week.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Vega66

[Kumiankka]

Great chance to revisit another old location, thanks to @Quintao for the idea, @Cami De Bellis (and @harranssor) for the improved scenery, and @avgaskoolaid, @martinlest, @RamsesII_ and @RealSimPilot for the custom liveries.

 

Started out from another old fly-in location in Faleolo, Samoa in the Carenado Saab 340. After the cold and dark startup procedure, I ran into a glitch where the engines weren't producing nearly enough power to lift off, leading to as many as six rejected takeoffs.

 

Eventually I figured out there was nothing I could do in the virtual cockpit to solve the issue, which was instead fixed by a sim restart, allowing me to get underway about half an hour behind schedule.

 

The cruise to Rarotonga was a longish three-hour one, with plenty of time for a coffee break. Broke out of the cloud cover at about 2700 feet on the ILS approach.

 

Parking at the ramp, with Vega, MrMac and rajo already present and Dino and ostkamp on final (in aircraft too small to be visible here)

 

Switched to the default Cessna for a quick spin around the island, while Vega departed in that Caravan of his (still shown here as an Air New Zealand jet)

 

The small Cessna was able to take off without needing much runway, just the short length of 08 left after the taxiway was quite enough.

 

After circling the island once, I flew under the bridge next to the airport - actually just a glitch caused by the custom terrain mesh, in the real world there's just a road there running through the town of Avarua.

 

MrMac was just returning to land as I completed the bridge stunt, and I followed him in to land, having explored all the scenery there was to see on this particular island.

 

After another change of aircraft, to the Embraer 110 Bandeirante, I was ready to head north for the island of Aitutaki. Quintao's Formula 1 themed Avroliner was parked in the background.

 

As I climbed out, I suddenly remembered why I hadn't flown the 110 in a while… the autopilot was entirely incompatible with my Saitek external panels, so I got to hand-fly the entire trip north, resulting in a rather drunken-looking, meandering flight path on the server map.

 

Luckily the skies were quite clear above Aitutaki (and I had a GPS unit to help out too), so I was able to spot the island from a distance. A quick course correction later, I was all set up for a visual approach followed by a bumpy landing.

 

Offloading passengers next to a similar-looking static aircraft, as well as Vega's plane (still showing up as Air New Zealand)

 

For one last flight, I took off for nearby Manuae Atoll in the Carenado Cessna 337.

 

Just as I was arriving in Manuae, Vega made a low flyby in a fighter jet.
 

Took me a few rounds of circling around to find the fishing boats and whales

 

Finally landed at the dirt airfield to call it a day

[rajo]

All flights for pilot rajo

Date	From	To	Aircraft	Type	Duration	Distance	Earnings	Action
2022/05/23 02:11:48	NCRG	NTAA	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	01:52	618	$1,195.31	View
2022/05/22 13:44:50	NCAI	NCRG	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	01:41	142	$3,824.85	View
2022/05/20 01:05:46	NCRG	NCAI	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	01:30	143	$3,283.61	View
2022/05/19 00:38:50	NFTF	NCRG	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	03:42	859	-$3,234.35	View
2022/05/18 00:48:42	NFTL	NFTF	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	01:24	99	$18,486.38	View
2022/05/16 01:35:05	NSTU	NFTL	D-RAJ30	Bombardier Challenger 300	01:15	387	$3,003.41	View

Last week I had bought in FSE the world's cheapest Bombardier Challenger 300 for a measly $700000 in Pago Pago (NSTU), only to be surprised to find that it (CL30 from ddenn) crashes my xplane. By then the CL-650 from Hotstart had caught my eye, currently the most expensive aircraft in xplane and, as I can now confirm, with a simulation depth second to none. Short-circuit bought and completed the above CL30 as CL60.

stopover at Fua'amotu Intl, Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Saturday night finally arrival in Aitutaki

from there the next day to the destination, Rarotonga

landing imminent

Starting up and shutting down the CL-650 still takes a very long time and without guarantee that everything will work.

On approach to NCAT ...

I plunged into the ocean

many hours later I managed to reach Tahiti NTAA heathy.

in the meantime I found out how to get my CL-300 to work: either I delete all airports with groundtraffic or I do without SAM. Nastrowje!

Edited May 24, 2022 by rajo

[F5Chaser]

Aitutaki was a popular departure for this one! @rajo and @DrTuro were starting up as I departed in an Air Rarotonga Bandit. Unfortunately I could not find an Air Rarotonga livery for the newer version 3 so I used the plain white as a substitute. In a moment of negligence, I forgot to cage the artificial horizon before takeoff! This first part of this flight was flown only with airspeed and vertical speed to guide me, until I reached altitude and could "level" the gyro based on the other instruments.

It's not often both my departure and destination have scenery from the same designer, but this was one of those occasions. Here, turning back for a look before proceeding on course.

The skies clouded up as I drew closer to Rarotonga. Luckily, even at 9,000 the temperature was high enough that icing was not an issue. Though I still had my eye on the angle-of-attack, just in case!

During descent Rarotonga emerged from the fog.

I entered a left downwind for runway 8. Distance was good but I could have flown a straighter downwind.

My base-to-final turn came a few seconds late and required some correction before landing. I think this was the best landing I've ever had in the EMB-110. You could not feel it or even hear the wheels touch the runway!

After taxiing up to the turnoff, I found the parking spot where the real world Bandits park. This scenery is so good I could recognize where I was going from the pictures I saw online! @gp4tom, @ostkamp, Rajo, DrTuro, and @MerlinEng, arrived shortly after me, each somehow finding space to park on the crowded ramp.

Thanks, @Quintao, @Kumiankka and @Cami De Bellis for a great flight!

See you next week!

Edited May 24, 2022 by F5Chaser

[Skylark2992]

Great PIREPs everybody, thanks for sharing! Long-haul flights across the Pacific are basically a given, but I agree that always the destinations justify the long flights.

It is a shame that such a beautiful part of the world has understandably such a shortage of great orthos; however, some of the sceneries, even those made for X-P10, still look great in my opinion.

@rajo What do you think of the Hotstart CL-650's ultra-immersive approach to flight simming? Does it work? Do you enjoy it? I have read and watched some great reviews; I agree that it really has introduced a new, what you might call 'ultra', level of immersion - and that is before you even board the aircraft!

[rajo]

13 hours ago, Skylark2992 said:

@rajo What do you think of the Hotstart CL-650's ultra-immersive approach to flight simming? Does it work? Do you enjoy it? I have read and watched some great reviews; I agree that it really has introduced a new, what you might call 'ultra', level of immersion - and that is before you even board the aircraft!

Yes it works. And I enjoy! The framerate is better than the hotstart Soccata TBM-9. There is no manual, only detailed checklists and some very good youtube how-tos. For basic understanding you can read the original Bombardier books. And in the Menu "study" there are extensive popups with techn. expanations. I.E. APU 

[Skylark2992]

Thanks @rajo, good to know and glad to read that you're enjoying it. Apart from my lack of time to fly these days, my 4-core, 8-thread CPU is my biggest technological concern in terms of performance. But I've really enjoyed watching tutorials and live streams of the CL-650, another vicarious thrill for me! I hope that it's a lucrative aircraft for you with FSE.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Skylark2992

[rajo]

7 hours ago, Skylark2992 said:

Thanks @rajo, good to know and glad to read that you're enjoying it. Apart from my lack of time to fly these days, my 4-core, 8-thread CPU is my biggest technological concern in terms of performance. But I've really enjoyed watching tutorials and live streams of the CL-650, another vicarious thrill for me! I hope that it's a lucrative aircraft for you with FSE.

I had bought the DDENN CL-300 for CL30 in FSE, but for a long time xplane crashes (both because of SAM and groundtraffic). That was the reason for my most expensive purchase so far, but it is worth it. It can substitute the CL30. If someone in FSE buys the CL30 from me, I can buy a CL60 for about twice as much, which then carries 11 instead of 8 passengers, but is also much more expensive to maintain and the FBO fees.

[Skylark2992]

Sounds overall like a good deal @rajo. Also, cool signature! It kinda reminds me of 'Deadstick', the role-play-style flight sim that never was (alas).