🇦🇺 975th fly-in: Darwin, Australia (YPDN)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

Quote

I don't think we've been to the land down under this year yet, so next Sunday, September 17th why don't we rectify that with a revisit of Darwin International Airport (YPDN), the busiest airport of the Northern Territory of Australia. While many of you probably remember our visit to Brisbane last year, our last stop here in Darwin was as long ago as 2005, in fact it was only our 46th fly-in altogether, using the old blocky V7 scenery since the X-Plane 8 global scenery hadn't been released yet. Even if we did have some very low res custom photo scenery for the Darwin area even then, I think I can safely say the scenery situation has improved quite a bit! @WorldWideXP's V5 YPDN Darwin Int'l package is the recommended scenery this time, bringing the airport up to date with a terminal expansion that took place a few years back. Co-located with the facilities is RAAF Base Darwin, hosting the AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force. On the civilian side, the airport is served mainly by domestic traffic with a few international connections such as Bali, East Timor, Hong Kong and Singapore. Two runways are available, although watch out - 18/36 is much shorter than the main runway 11/29 and is not well suited to jet traffic.

Have fun!

 

 

 

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)

 

 

[alebee]

Has anyone been able to get the Swift client and swift plug-in for XP12 to compile on M1 Mac / ARM? With the architecture difference and since I run XP12 native M1 Mac, it doesn't work and therefore I can't join the multiplayer fly-ins...

[troopie]

Thanks to @mjrhealth, we now have an awesome stock scenery airport for YPDN in XP12. Check it out before trying 3rd party.

[cyl8]

Run xp in x86 mode... not ideal I know, but allows lot more flexibilities and options.

[Binky]

Good day chaps.

You may have seen me online briefly today, but I was buzzing around our old haunt of San Francisco, whilst I was testing
out my simulator with a total rebuild of Swift and Swiftbus.

Good news, I don't get any further warnings about the two being different versions and 'more updated versions' being available
(despite already running the swift pilot client version 0.12.111) ?
Bad news is that I am STILL unable to get my slave computer to log on to Swift as an 'Observer'.
It worked well for so many weeks but has constantly failed me the last 3 or 4 fly-in's.
I opted not to join you in the antipodies until I get this nonsense sorted.

@ostkamp I was following your instructions from the web (very useful) and although I had success on the Master m/c
the Slave is still totally failing.  I wonder if I could P.M you with a couple of screenshots and maybe you can tell me where
I am going wrong ???
I'd appreciate it.

Binky

[ostkamp]

3 hours ago, Binky said:

@ostkamp I was following your instructions from the web (very useful) and although I had success on the Master m/c
the Slave is still totally failing.  I wonder if I could P.M you with a couple of screenshots and maybe you can tell me where
I am going wrong ???
I'd appreciate it.

@Binky Since I have got only one PC I have no real experience with observer mode if you mean that one.

You may want to look at this page https://docs.swift-project.org/doku.php?id=swift_shared_cockpit_co_pilot_observer_obs_mode
The callsign you need to use as observer relates to your normal callsign, but is not the same.

And if I remember correctly, one of us -  I could be wrong, but I believe it was @Quintao - has been using that observer stuff. You might want to contact him.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by ostkamp

[Kumiankka]

Looks like I'm first with the PIREP this week…

 

Early start from Brisbane in the Magknight 787-9 this time. I must still have been a bit groggy in the early afternoon, since I ran into some funny issues on takeoff. The Dreamliner felt more sluggish getting into the air than usual… and only during an equally sluggish climb did I notice that I had mapped the speedbrake lever the wrong way around on the throttle quadrant, so I had taken off with the spoilers fully extended!

 

Once that was sorted out, the 787 started climbing well enough, and I could get on my way for the long cruise to Darwin.

 

Passed almost directly above Cloncurry on the way: another previous fly-in destination and a historic location for Australian aviation, as the original home base of Qantas.

 

The cruise took closer to four hours than the 3+ suggested by Skyvector, but luckily I had taken plenty of fuel aboard and was in no hurry to land, slotting in #3 for the RNAV approach to runway 11.

 

An exaggerated flare after a mediocre approach led to a near tailstrike here.

 

There was a great welcome party of Australian airliners waiting at the ramp.

 

More mishaps delayed my departure for Bathurst Island in the Carenado PC-12. I had mistakenly installed scenery for the wrong Bathurst, the one in New South Wales rather than the island in the Northern Territory, and had to restart the sim to correct my mistake. The timing turned out rather lucky though, as I got to watch @ostkamp's landing while taxiing to the runway.

 

Taking off from runway 11, while @Vega66 lines up to tag along for the trip

 

Climbing to 6500 feet for the channel crossing didn't take long in the powerful turboprop.

 

Neither did the cross-channel hop itself, the island and airport appearing ahead after mere minutes.

 

Went a bit wide making the final turn, but had enough room to correct my mistake.

 

I landed long intentionally to increase separation to Vega coming up behind, and was already parked at the ramp by the time Vega actually made it to the taxiway.

 

Starting a quick return trip in the Khamsin T-6, painted to look like an Australian CAC Wirraway which was another T-6 variant.

 

Airborne…

 

…and heading back for the mainland

 

Short final to rwy 11

 

A view of the city center during the approach (a far cry from those skyscrapers in Brisbane)

 

Touching down again, a relatively smooth landing too

 

And going up again in the old Colimata Super Hornet, in an RAAF 100th anniversary livery that might be a few years out of date already, but so much nicer looking than the generic air force gray!

 

Decided to go intercept @Quintao, who was now inbound in an ultralight

 

Getting into visual range of the smaller prop took some doing

 

As soon as I had managed that, the weather updated all of a sudden, and I had to break off to avoid a mid-air collision due to the suddenly very limited visibility.

 

Returning to YPDN, my approach in the low visibility conditions wasn't great either, and led to the Hornet bouncing back in the air rather like a kangaroo.
 

As soon as I reached the ramp where Quintao was parked, the fog magically disappeared again.

 

Taking off for one final spin in the AOA F-35A

 

@Vega66 was headed for a small airfield near the town of Jabiru, so I set course there on full afterburner.

 

The airport was too small for the F-35 to land, but I could at least manage a couple of flybys.

 

Some subsequent high-alpha maneuvers nearly ended in disaster when I pointed the nose the wrong way, eventually recovering with just a couple of hundred feet to spare.

 

With the directional confusion sorted out, I then launched the F-35 on a stratospheric zoom climb on the way back to Darwin, reaching about 73000 feet.

 

Finally flew a straight-in approach to land on runway 29 and call it a day. Seems like this direction was luckier than the other one, because it turned out to be my smoothest landing for the day too. Not that it had much competition!

[ostkamp]

Here is my pirep:

All flights for pilot ostkamp 
Date                From To   Aircraft Type                Duration Distance Earnings
2023/09/17 14:51:26 YCKI YPDN VH-WZT   Beechcraft Baron 58 00:47    121      $3,683.65
2023/09/17 14:19:20 YPDN YCKI VH-WZT   Beechcraft Baron 58 01:13    120      $3,399.18
2023/09/17 12:47:00 YGTE YPDN VH-SNP   Lear 45             01:30    340      $2,321.12

I found a suitable flight from YGTE (Groote Eyland Airport) to our current destination Darwin. At the airport a LearJet 45 was parked which I rented (to be replaced by a Phenom 300 in XP12). YGTE had just Gateway default scenery.

Charging the batteries and boarding passengers and luggage.

Some exclusion zone must have been missing here, otherwise there should not have been a building at start of runway 10.

As can be seen below, @CHASMAN2014 had selected the same airport for departure. I took off first. He was flying a B737, if I remember correctly.

No issues in flight.

Landing at Darwin after I headed for the sea at first and came back after some 180 degree turn for runway 11.

Managed to get an excellent landing this time according to the plugin.

Here I reloaded aircraft and changed to a Beech Baron 58 for short flight with about 5 passengers to YCKI (Croker Island Airport).

During cake break others arrived like GP4TOM ...

... @CHASMAN2014 ...

... and I held short near runway for @F5Chaser in some Dash8 as it seems.

The landing at Croker Island was anything than perfect. For an unknown reason I left the runway after touchdown, had a propeller strike against the runway, and skid over the grass until finally getting to a halt.

After repair I backtracked and went for flight with new passengers back to Darwin.

Taking off.

On base leg turning to final near Darwin bound for runway 11.

This time I managed to get an acceptable landing. Meanwhile @Kumiankka was waiting on taxiway and @Vega66 started taxiing to runway 11.

Got parked.

After departure of @Kumiankka then also @Vega66 had a good take off.

Called it a day here after some 4 hours of fly.

Have a nice week and see you next time. 🙂

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by ostkamp

[ManofMac]

@ostkamp What is that plugin you are using for the landing critique?

Also, do you have any Ortho's installed?  If yes, could you PM me a copy of your .ini file please.

I have some Ortho's installed on an external drive and they do not seem to be appearing for me.  I have a Symlink to them.

If you don't have any installed, same request to anyone who is using Ortho's on an external drive.

thanks

 

[ostkamp]

14 minutes ago, ManofMac said:

@ostkamp What is that plugin you are using for the landing critique?

Also, do you have any Ortho's installed?  If yes, could you PM me a copy of your .ini file please.

I have some Ortho's installed on an external drive and they do not seem to be appearing for me.  I have a Symlink to them.

@ManofMac
I am running XP12 newest release 12.06r3.
The plugin is the XGS landing speed plugin, see

I have no orthos but X-World Australia Oceania installed, see https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-world-australia-oceania/

A zipped copy of my scenery_packs.ini is attached as requested.

I also use other (internal) drives for scenery and use so called Windows Junctions to connect scenery directories on other harddrive to my main XP Custom Scenery folder where they shows up with the same name (one by one for each scenery pack). This works ok. Since you are on a Mac I would expect that symlinks work the same way for you.

scenery_packs.zip

Edited September 17, 2023 by ostkamp

[ManofMac]

Thank you

[Quintao]

I had a late start to the fly-in today and once I connected only @Kumiankka and @Vega66 were still online. Given that I had not had a chance to install any of the sceneries or orthos, I decided to fly the MSFS with an Australia World Update that looks pretty good.

Started not too far from Darwin, from the Cape Don YCPD, a dirt airfield inside the Garik Gunak Barlu National Park on the very tip of the Northern territory of Australia, from there it would be a short flight, less than 100nm to Darwin, for that I chose the Swidish Blackwing Ultralight with retractable gear. Took off RWY 34.

 

While gaining altitude, flew over the Cape Don traditional and historical lighthouse, which provides safety to those traveling through the Dundas Straight.

Flew along the coastline of Melville Island en route to Darwin.

The Blackwing ultralight is a superb aircraft and can reach airspeeds of over 150 knots.

 

Descended from cruising at 5,500ft once I was over land, next to Darwin. Kumi said he was close to me, but I could not get a visual on him given the VFR conditions and his military livery.

 

Downwind for RWY 11.

 

Final for RWY 11 with downtown Darwin on my 3 o'clock.

 

Almost crashed the ultralight while on a visual approach and taking a picture from the undercarriage perspective.

 

Landed on RWY 11 and exited on B2 towards the terminal. Kumi can be seen on the TCAS joining Final for RWY 11.

 

A couple of pictures with Kumi on his fighter jet before disconnecting. Only had 45 minutes to dedicate to the fly-in.

Hopefully, I will have more time next week to prepare the sceneries before the flight and join the fly-in close the the regular 1200z time.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Quintao
Additional links

[Vega66]

Hi, everyone

For this one, I planned a start from Wake Island, on a Jetstar A321.

Long taxi to the departure runway, just on the opposite side of the ramp, with enough time to spot a group of Catalinas tanking off from the water in a tight formation.

Got up in the air and climbed to FL360, for a long 6 hour cruise.


The clouds on the latest XP12 release indeed improved very much.


Approaching TOD, the skies were already very busy.


Descending to Darwin, adjusting the course to allow enough space for @gp4tom and @CHASMAN2014, arriving ahead.

After a short hold, managed to get enough spacing and resumed approach.

Taxiing to the terminal, passing by @ostkamp and Gp4Tom.

Chas also arriving at the Gates.

After a break, changed to a King Air to fly around some nearby places, just by the time when @Fatherofsam was parking.

@Kumiankka was heading to Bathurst Island on a PC12, so I decided to joing him.

A snapshot at Bathurst Island. Kumi was switching to another aircraft and I kept the King Air to the next leg, towards Emkaytee (YMKT), a small airfield SouthEast of Darwin.

At Emkaytee, a final change to a local Skymaster, for the last leg towards Jabiru (YJAB)

Kumi had full control of the skies on his F35. Managed to take a photo just before his return to Darwin.

As for me, after 10 minutes arrived at Jabiru, where I called it a day.

Wish you all a great week.

[CHASMAN2014]

 

Greeting to all!

I started from YGTE Groote Eylandt Airport airport serving Groote Eylandt, an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Territory, Australia. The airport is operated by the Groote Eylandt Mining Co.

On final for runway 11 Darwin International Airport today's destination:

Held short of runway 11 and watched @Vega66 make a nice landing.

@Vega66 parked at the gate Jetstream flight 171-A321:

@ostkamp taking for departure shown below:

Below @F5Chaser in the Qantas Dash 8, and @MerlinEng in the C17.

Overhead view of Darwin International Airport which is the busiest airport serving the Northern Territory and the tenth busiest airport in Australia. It is the only airport serving Darwin.

Chas B738 Qantas flight disembarking, enjoying a cup of coffee:

@ghun1 B738 parked at the gate.

Below @Kumiankka flight QFA975KA , vega66, and @rajo A320.

 

Have a nice week everyone.

Chas

Edited September 18, 2023 by CHASMAN2014

[rajo]

All flights for pilot rajo

Date	From	To	Aircraft	Type	Duration	Distance	Earnings	Action
2023/09/18 04:08:58	YPDN	PGUM	VT-YZY	Airbus A320 (MSFS)	04:51	1764	$14,968.80	View
2023/09/17 13:43:46	YSHK	YPDN	JA-5790	Airbus A320	03:10	1271	$10,872.00	View
2023/09/17 03:31:13	WIII	YPDN	N-573FW	Airbus A320	03:46	1485	$12,655.80	View
2023/09/16 03:57:50	YPDN	WIII	N-573FW	Airbus A320	04:13	1484	$12,633.30	View

Originally I wanted to do this FlyIn with the FPS E195 (former SSG). But during 2 test flights I had many difficulties, e.g. the autopilot gave full throttle during the approach when I switched it off, which I could only stop by terminating X-Plane. Now there are updates for the FF A320 as well as for the ToLiss A320neo, which I had not yet tested extensively. Today I can say, in contrast to the FPS/SSG they are not buggy at all, which is especially true for the ToLiss. I am more and more convinced of ToLiss (Torsten Lieske)!

You can tell from the engine whether it is the FlightFactor or the ToLiss

today I started here, Shark Bay, Western Australia

shortly after T/D

starting approach

I fly not only with FSE, with ZON at the same time, too

turning final, for rwy 36, this is a challenge, because rw36 is only 5000 ft long

taxiing, 

park pos reached, together with CHAS and JST171

because of the emergency braking the brakes became very hot

All's well that ends well

the last flight, again with the FF A320, to PGUM

reaching FL360, T/C, many hours of cruising lie ahead of me

happy landings!

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by rajo

[ghun1]

great pireps folks. I once again had problems. This time I was trying out the new IXEG 733 which had problems with the licensing file (now fixed for all users).  I set off from Broome but it failed to follow an FMS course.

so I abandoned ship and did a major restart of everything, then loaded up the latest zibo mod 737-800 at Kununurra. This time all went well and I made it to Darwin (using the default gateway scenery).

A plus for me (not you as there is no CSL 😉 ) was a nice retro livery for the zibo mod.

 

Above (if you look carefully toward the runway ) and below, is Kumi coming in though my CSL failed to display the correct plane.

see you next time

Gary

 

[F5Chaser]

Nice pictures everyone!

On 9/17/2023 at 8:51 PM, Kumiankka said:

Early start from Brisbane in the Magknight 787-9 this time. I must still have been a bit groggy in the early afternoon, since I ran into some funny issues on takeoff. The Dreamliner felt more sluggish getting into the air than usual… and only during an equally sluggish climb did I notice that I had mapped the speedbrake lever the wrong way around on the throttle quadrant, so I had taken off with the spoilers fully extended!

Amazing it can take off like that. I guess it is a good thing the Dreamliner has so much power, haha!

I decided to follow a real world flight from Kununurra to Darwin in a Dash 8. Only the real flight is flown by Nexus Airlines and I used a Qantas livery for my aircraft.

Cruise was smooth as I worked at keeping up with this aircraft. Not much in the way of scenery since I did not have any time to install packages this week.

The descent into Darwin went well. The landing sadly was hard. I got behind the aircraft and did not get power in early enough. But we still taxied away so it was not lost. @MerlinEng arrived shortly after me followed by @ostkamp's departure.

Taxiing back here is an interesting path. It sounds like most of us landed long enough that we had to taxi on the south side of the airport and then cross the runway to the north. It's a nice way to tour the airport! Merlin and I joined @Vega66 and @CHASMAN2014 at the gate to end the flight.

See you this weekend in Kuopio!