🇱🇹 992nd fly-in: Panevėžys, Lithuania (EYPI)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

 

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We may be close to hitting the one thousand fly-in mark soon, but there are still plenty of new places to discover and in unexpected ways too. The inspiration for our fly-in next Sunday, January 14th comes by way of Euro Truck Simulator, where I was driving across the Baltic countries when I spotted this interesting-looking airfield off the highway, littered with all kinds of Soviet era museum pieces. It took a little digging to find out what this little-known airport was, but it turns out not only is it a real place but we have some great X-Plane scenery for it too! Panevėžys/Įstra Aerodrome, Lithuania (EYPI) is where we'll be going next, and the linked custom scenery package by @ErvinasG comes complete with the little aircraft museum that is this place's main attraction. Make sure to take the limited runway length into account when picking your aircraft: the asphalt runway is only 600 meters long and the grass one 800 meters, so larger aircraft may need to divert elsewhere: options include nearby Siauliai (EYSA) or Kaunas (EYKA) or even the abandoned military airbase of Pajuostis (EYPP), where the trees growing on top of the taxiways might actually be realistic this time!

Have a nice trip - laimingos kelionės!

 

 

New pilots are always welcome, just read the guide on how to get started and remember to listen in on Teamspeak!

[Quintao]

Another challenging icy fly-in this weekend. I started from Helsinki EFHK aboard the Diamond DA62 with a very good de-ice system.

Taxied to RWY 04L for immediate take off.

The snow conditions started to get worse as I progressed through the flight.

Once over Rapla in Estonia, I had to divert into EERA, and as a coincidence @Kumiankka had also diverted there for the same reason: too much ice.

 

I switched to the Laminar Baron 58 and continued en route to EYPI.

Conditions were continuing to prove challenging, so I disabled the weather and turned the clock into daylight to enjoy the remaining of this fly-in.

 

Landed on the paved RWY 30R.

Backtracked to the ramp.

Picture of the route from Helsinki, Rapla, and finally into Panevezys after over 3 hours.

Very nice scenery as mentioned by @CHASMAN2014.

Kumi reported to be in Riga EVRA, so I hopped in a Bell 429 to go say hello! I following the road in the opposite direction.

 

Crossed the border from Lithuania into Latvia.

Once I had visual on the Daugava reservoir, I knew Kumi was close!

 

Flew low in the runway until I spotted Kumi.

Parked on the opposite side of the runway from him.

How was my flying?

Route from EYPI to the outskirts of Riga.

Wishing a great week to all! 

[ostkamp]

Hello all,

@Quintao was absolutely right, I should have changed the weather setting as well.

My plan was to have some initial (time-warp) flight in FSE from Erzurum (LTCE in Turkey) to Vilnius (EYVI) and that was in fact the only thing that worked today. From there I wanted to goto a city in Poland named Dajtki (EPOD) where a Cessna Caravan 208 was parked for a direct flight into Pajuostis (EYPP) and then make the short hop to our destination EYPI.

However I found prior to the flight that the C208 at EPOD could not be used because it had exceeded the 100 hours limit and would have needed repair first (which I was not allowed to initiate). There was another one parked at Olsztyn-Mazury (EPSY) so I tried to get there but it was not possible to find the runway given the weather conditions.

I then flew to Pajuostis (EYPP) directly only to find the same conditions. No way to find the airport, even with 2 others on the ground at that time. Finally I diverted to Siauliai (EYSA) which had at least a locator and landed there manually with great difficulties and called it a day.

Sorry that I don´t have much images today. Most time it looked this from outside and more or less the same from inside. Those who flew XP11 or MSFS 2020 had a better chance seeing something today.

The landing at Vilnius coming in from Turkey.

I also found @Vega66 starting up here.

For the next flight attempt to Poland I had to restart from here.

Severe icing already visible on the ground.

I must have broken a lot of safety rules flying that low, but even then there was no sign of any runway or airport. As you can see 2 people were on the ground here.

On diversion to Siauliai (EYSA) I was finally able to spot the runway after 1 approach had already failed.

On the ground I was barely able to stop the aircraft, the brakes had only very little effect. I thought this had already been working better in XP12 than in XP11, but not today.

After this I gave up on it. 😞

Hope to have better luck with the next destination.

See you there next week. 🙂

 

 

Edited January 16 by ostkamp

[CHASMAN2014]

Greetings to all!

I started from Grodno Hrodna Airport, (UMMG), Belarus in the EV-55.

Departed runway 17 for the trip north:

Turing north towards Panevėžys/Įstra Aerodrome, Lithuania (EYPI):

Turning final for Panevėžys/Įstra Aerodrome, Lithuania (EYPI)  Rwy 30R.   Since the EV-55 was not able to handle the weather I turned off real weather:

Sort final for Panevėžys/Įstra Aerodrome, Lithuania (EYPI):

While on the ground I turned on real weather so I could enjoy the snow: 

Parked next to @F5Chaser and @Vega66:

Watched @ghun1 make a nice landing:

Shot of @MerlinEng parked next to the terminal:

Had a great time I need a lot more practice flying with real weather.  Have a nice week everyone.

Chas

 

 

Edited January 14 by CHASMAN2014

[Vega66]

 

Greetings everyone.

Planned a start from Vilnius, picking up a Cessna Caravan for the task. The weather was really nasty, with low temperatures and heavy snowfall. Despite of that, tried to stick to real weather conditions. While I was performing the pre-flight procedures, spotted @ostkamp taxing nearby.

Got taxi and take off clearance, but the snow was accumulating very fast, and failed to get enough thrust, so had to abort the attempt.

Taxied back and performed additional de-icing procedures.

That seemed to work and managed to take off with no additional problems. Visibility was almost zero and snow kept falling heavy, and after no more than 20 miles after departure, despite all heat and de-icing applied, the aircraft started to lose power again and eded up crashing on a forest.

 

So, decided to cheat the weather in order to get a chance to reach Panevėžys. Kept overcast conditions with a slight progressive improvement, but cleared the heavy snowfall, which finally allowed a safe flight.

That way, it was no great challenge to reach out and land at Panevėžys. @CHASMAN2014 was already on the apron, which facilitated the approach even more.

Parked on an available spot, but all the previous delays kept me from enjoy more this awesome scenery. Had to run for the usual break.

Another vie of the field, with Chas and @F5Chaser.

The weather was not so harsh as it was at Vilnius, so decided to change back to real weather, keeping the Caravan to fly to the nearby Pajuostis. This time the de icers were enough to keep the plane flying. However, the visibility at Pajoustis was close to zero. Despite spotting @Big-IN Dino5 callsign parked below, the runway was not visible even below 100ft, forcing me to divert to Kaunas, having IFR and ILS procedures available. Also, the visibility at Kaunas turned out to be better, which led to a good approach and landing.

At Kaunas, changed to an F15 to perform one final leg,

One final  fly by at Panevėžys, passing by @Quintao

The aircraft performed very well. After some additional free flight, finally reached Siauliai Air base, achieving the best landing of the day.

 

Great challenge and great fun. Looking forward to join the next one. 

[Kumiankka]

"Challenge" is putting it mildly this time! I actually believe that in all of 992 fly-ins this might be the dumbest thing I've done. And that's including the times we went to Mars 😃

 

My initial plan had been to fly the VSKYLABS Aeroprakt A-22 from Tallinn to Panevezys. It's been updated for XP12 and even came with a handy paintkit which I used to slap a Lithuanian registration onto the white paint. @ghun1 happened to log on at the exact same time and place, and took off while I was still prepping for flight.
 

After taking off, my idea of climbing through the soup and continuing above the clouds by GPS didn't pan out. I started encountering way too much icing, and with engine power rapidly decreasing had no option but to drop back out of the clouds and continue on an ill-advised scud run.
 

Enroute south, it quickly became apparent I was not going to make it all the way to Lithuania. Not only was I rapidly running out of daylight as is realistic in these northern latitudes, but it was taking more and more engine power to maintain cruise speed.

 

With the throttle now maxed out, I diverted to Rapla, a small town in central Estonia with a two-runway grass field.
 

Flaps-up landing with a very high landing speed. Didn't want to go any slower and risk falling out of the sky like the brick of ice I was!

 

I thought the Antonov An-2 might have been a good backup winter plane, maybe capable of making the journey albeit with a more limited set of navigation instruments.
 

But it turned out the "Baltic Bear" was in hibernation, the XP11 model was no longer putting out enough power in XP12 to even get off the ground.

 

Out of luck with the Antonov, I abandoned the attempt and started looking at other options just as @Quintao (barely visible through the soup during a low flyby) arrived at Rapla.
 

Now this is where the pig-headedness really gets going. Determined to make it to Panevezys at any cost (famous last words, these) I switched to the XP12 Baron hoping it might have the right mix of anti-ice and short field capability to make the trip. @Quintao was now on the ground too and a bit more visible too. I was still sticking with the real weather but decided to turn the clock forward to next morning at this point.
 

Back into the soup (at least we got off the ground this time)

 

As it turned out, the Baron wasn't capable of powering out of the icy clouds either.
 

I made it as far as Pärnu, Estonia before crash-landing in a field frustratingly close to the airport there.
 

After getting towed to Pärnu and repaired, I started wondering if the scud-run strategy might work out better in the Baron.

 

Departing Pärnu against the rising sun. So far, so good!

 

Entering Latvian airspace, I didn't want to venture too far above the Baltic and tried to stick close to the coastline instead.

 

Decided to make a stop in Riga to defrost on the ground. Never received the ILS signal (maybe the antenna had frozen) but the GPS waypoints did a good enough job instead. Again note the ridiculous airspeed due to the ice I was carrying.

 

Made it down at Riga, one of very few successful and intended landings all day.

 

Starting the final leg (or so I thought) after scraping the ice off

 

Not so fast! Closer to the Lithuanian border I hit the worst possible icing conditions imaginable, and the Baron went down in just minutes in practically zero visibility.

 

I crash-landed at a farm outside the town of Bauska, barely managing to avoid the farmhouses and taking out some bushes in the process.

 

Still feeling lucky, I tried to see if I could insta-repair and press on from here with just 60 nautical miles to go.

Nope! This time I didn't even have enough time to extend the landing gear, and belly-flopped somewhere near the Lithuanian border.
 

That might have been the end of the Baron, but I still had one more plan, incredibly even sillier than the last one. The trusty little Aerolite 103 ultralight might not have anti-ice systems, but what it did have was the capability to land on practically any roadside, meaning I could just stop to scrape the ice off, take off again, rinse and repeat! I placed myself back at Riga Airport in Latvia for this stunt, since they didn't have any aircraft available at the little village where I crashed.
 

The first order of business was to locate the A5 ring road around Riga. The "I follow roads" school of navigation.

 

Had to make my first de-icing stop after only ten minutes airborne. Somehow the Aerolite had picked up 200 lbs of ice in that time, that's 20 lbs per minute! I wonder if the X-Plane physics model just assumes every droplet of water will instantly freeze and stick to the plane like it was superglued.
 

@Quintao showed up again in a helo while I was parked for a quick roadside break
 

Continuing on, just before Quintao had to finally log off

 

One of those gas stations might have made for more comfortable rest stops. Something to keep in mind for the rest of the trip...

 

Some of the more forested areas required a little planning. There weren't always wide enough landing spots between the trees, even for the tiny Aerolite.

 

I was barely going faster than the cars on the roads either, although this made things easier in some ways. If I had no choice but to land on the road, I'd basically be merging into the traffic, just from a slightly unusual direction!

 

Another deicing break. One of quite many, I think there might have been as many as 13 of them but I'm pretty sure I lost count at some point.

 

I think this was the town of Iecava on the E67/A7.
 

Incredibly the weather was still capable of getting worse! Power lines were a real hazard at this low altitude, often the safest way to get across was to land and then drive underneath!
 

The trees lining the roadsides were a bit close at times too... at least you can appreciate those cool new XP12 3D trees real close up here!
 

Having reached Bauska where I previously crashed my Baron, I stopped by at a service station to pick up some more fuel.
 

Pasvalys, Lithuania. Just a few more miles to go! And in the nick of time too, with daylight already running out even though I gave myself an entire second day!
 

With the ice accumulating by the second, I drove along some of the more boring straight stretches of road rather than bothering to de-ice when I'd be making another landing just a few minutes later anyway.

 

Finally, Istra Aerodrome appeared out of the mist, almost six hours after I departed Tallinn and over two hours of following the roads from Riga. According to Google Maps I could've made the trip in exactly the same time by driving!
 

Finally arriving at runway 30R... after yet another landing and de-icing in between, if you can believe it!

 

Still enough evening light left to see the awesome little aircraft museum too!
 

The parking spot at the ramp looked quite familiar from Euro Truck Sim!
 

At this point I could cheat and give myself some better weather to try out the Aero L-39.
 

Of course the L-39 couldn't take off from the tiny airfield fully loaded, but with no ordnance and a minimal fuel load you could barely make it!

 

One final victory lap and flyby

 

Heading for nearby Šiauliai
 

Visual final to the main runway (refreshingly relaxing with the snowstorm gone)

 

Landing at Šiauliai to finally call it a day

Some final bonus shots: the original inspiration for this fly-in from Euro Truck Sim

 

I guess this was one of our many wrecks this weekend!
 

And the same parking spot I mentioned earlier... it actually does look quite close. Also, the dangerously low-flying plane reminds me of our usual shenanigans 🙂
 

 

…aaand back in the real world, having spent all day fighting a virtual snowstorm, I still had the chore of getting my daily exercise in the -17°C weather outside while there was still time. I'm glad I didn't skip it though, since the cold weather provided this cool little light show in the sky! Not quite the northern lights, but a different light pillar effect caused by ice crystals reflecting lights from the industrial area on the other side of the houses. We get those here every now and then on cold winter days, but I haven't seen one this bright and colorful before.

If X-Plane's physics model was like real life, I would've come back from outside carrying over 2000 lbs of ice! I guess that's one way of getting your workout!


Congratulations to everyone who took up the challenge - even with all the craziness we've fit into the past 20 years I think this might actually be up there among the most difficult ones. I'd promise something easier for next week but you never know! 😜

[Quintao]

Nice pictures @Kumiankka, I’m going for anywhere in the balmy southern hemisphere summer next weekend! Somewhere where de-ice is not needed!

[ghun1]

Like Vega, I chose to fly a C208, this one from Thranda so I assumed it would be good for the cold conditions. Being brave stupid I read the manual that says "The Caravan is well-equipped for encounters with icing and certified for flight into known icing conditions" and totally ignored the huge placard on the panel that states "continued flight in icing conditions is prohibited". Well, how bad could it be?

As Kumi said, I left Tallin just as he arrived to begin his journey and immediately felt the effects of the cold as engine power was only just adequate to maintain a slow climb.

I intended to climb through the clouds and out the top into bright sunshine and all would be well with the universe. As I finally reached 14,000' and turned on the oxygen, I actually saw glimpses of sunlight and clearer skies

Alas, it was not to be. No power left to climb any more. Most of my time was taken up flicking the toggle switches to make sure the de-icing boots were operating. As it was very dark and XP12 cockpits are even darker, I was using the flash light to find the right switches.

Even so it was inadequate but I did manage to stay at 14,000 until the time came to descend. I opened the XP map and all went red. Extraordinarily red and seemed to be a glitch in the graphics.

I tried to reload the plane but nothing was set up the way it had been, descending I was icing up quickly and ended up in the red forrest, wherever that is

Without restartingn x-plane I respawned at EYPP and set the weather to something more manageable but kept the time true to life.

seeing the orange call signs was a good visual aid to finding the place and lining up with the runway. Landing was normal, the Caravan has excellent reverse thrust.

set the time back a little to look around in a helicopter. The museum aircraft are great and I found secret messages in then ground.

see you next time

Gary

 

[F5Chaser]

Hello everyone,

I started from Riga, but quickly decided to turn off real weather due to ice and that Panevėžys does not have any instrument approaches. Weather stations were reporting less than a mile visibility at Riga with a 3000-foot ceiling descending to a 500-foot ceiling near Siauliai. With better weather came a wider selection of aircraft. I eventually settled on the Piper Arrow since I have not brought that to a Fly-In in a while.

Departing runway 18 at Riga right behind @MerlinEng.

I left some scattered clouds in which created a beautiful sunset with this orange fog. Not quite as dangerous as @ghun1's red screen of death though!

EYPI was not in the G530 for some reason so I had to plan on EYPP and start searching for EYPI at around 6 nm left on the route. Fortunately the ramp area stood out amongst the surrounding fields.

I set up for an approach to runway 30R right behind @Vega66 who is clearing the runway in this shot.

Parked on the ramp with Vega and @CHASMAN2014.

I was able to stay around since this flight was shorter to watch and listen to the others flying in. This was a deadly one this week. I'm glad we are only doing this in a simulator, haha! The scenery here looks great and add a lot of character to this small airfield. And judging by your comparison photos @Kumiankka, it does look very close to the real thing! I've been getting into American Truck Simulator recently, but I'll definitely have to Drive-In here if I get to Euro Truck Simulator.

See you all next week!