I’ve undergone some frustrations with the Kodiak here in New Zealand. There seems to be a certain sector of airspace that causes X-Plane 11 (now 11.10rc3) to invariably crash. I can fly from the north to Raglan and Hamilton and from there, south to New Plymouth, but trying to fly east always causes a software crash.
To get around this problem, I flew the Cessna Skyhawk from Raglan to Hamilton (…because there was one there to rent with GPS), from Hamilton to New Plymouth, and finally from New Plymouth to Gisborne. As you can see from my log below, I also flew the Cessna Caravan from Hamilton to Matamata, from Matamata to Tauranga and from Tauranga to Great Barrier Island.
I was also able to fly from New Plymouth to Ohakea Military Airport on the coast south of New Plymouth. I am currently enroute to Nelson, on the South Island. From there, I will try to work my way back north on the east side of the north island.
Yesterday I flew from Gunnedah Airport in Australia to Norfolk Island. This was a distance of 927 miles, my furthest flight so far in the Kodiak. I took off from Norfolk Island about 15 minutes ago headed for the northern tip of the north island of New Zealand to Kaitaia airport, a distance of 452 miles. Although the calculated fuel burn is only about 120 gallons, I topped out the tanks with 320 gallons. You never know when you might get lost! I’m also flying at FL200, 20,000 feet! My MFD indicates that I have two hours to my destination–in other words, my ETE. I’m leveled off at FL200 now. The prop is pulled back from 2200 to 2000 RPM. The power is set for 1172 Ft-Lb torque, giving a fuel burn of about 247 pounds per hour (PPH). The temperature is -25° C, the IAS is 148kt and the TAS is 201kt. I currently have about an 8kt tail wind and my GS is 205kt.
14:28 zulu: I just arrived at Kaitaia. Here are some statistics for my flight from Norfolk Island, YSNF, to Kaitaia, NZKT:
Distance – 453 nm
Fuel consumption – 118 gallons
Fuel consumption PPH (Pounds per hour) – 41
Time enroute – 2:53 (includes startup, preparation (flight plan) and taxi
Now I plan to make a short hop to NZKK, Kerikeri/Bay of Islands Airport. My current assignments for the flight from Norfolk Island are to drop 3 passengers in Hamilton, NZHN (Cliff Tate’s home airport) and 4 passengers in Tauranga, NZHT. I would like to land at several small airports on the flight down to Tauranga although, being the middle of the night, it doesn’t make much sense! Perhaps I can take on another couple of passengers along the way. I still have 200 gallons of fuel on board so I shouldn’t have to refuel. Keri Keri is only 33 nm.
Sure enough, I found 2 more passengers going to Hamilton from Kaitaia so I am now completely loaded. I had to put the cargo pod back on in order to put the CG in a reasonable location, about 74 inches aft of datum.
Here is what the aircraft loading looks like without the cargo pod:
Aircraft loading profile without the cargo pod – no cargo and 9 passengers
Here is what it looks like with the cargo pod:
CG with cargo pod and 9 passengers
But here is a better solution. I’ve removed the cargo pod again but removed the 115 lb from the baggage compartment and changed the passenger weights. It has moved the CG back a bit but still reasonable. The aircraft performance will be much better without the cargo pod!
Here is a short video clip of my flight from Kaitaia to Kerikeri:
I bought my first plane in FSEconomy, a Quest Kodiak 100 on November 24th, 2017. It had 86 hours on engine and airframe and I paid $413,144.00, which seemed like a good price. It was located at Limnos Airport (LGLM) on the Aegean island of Limnos, Greece.
After I bought the plane, I decided I would fly it back to the USA in an Easterly direction to benefit from favorable winds aloft. I also decided that I should take the opportunity to visit Papua New Guinea, a country where this plane is used by Christian missionaries to get in and out of small landing strips in the jungle highlands.
I just left there this morning because there was a good assignment to the northern peninsula of Australia which is quite close to PNG (Papua New Guinea). At first I was going to fly back to PNG but developed itchy feet and anxious to get back to New Zealand.
Here is my current itinerary:
I am flying this leg of 548nm at 22,000 feet for best economy. The next leg will be from Gunnedah Airport to Norfolk Island International Airport (YSNF) on Norfolk island, a distance of 927nm. This will be my furthest flight so far in the Kodiak and I will have to maximize fuel because I’m not sure exactly what my range is yet. It will be very exciting!
I have a tail wind of a little under 10 knots for this leg. Hopefully it will continue to be a tail wind for the flight to Norfolk Island although it is 90 degrees to my current course so I suppose it is unlikely! Infact, looking at the charts, it looks like I will have 90 degree cross wind!
Here is a screen shot of the cockpit showing FL200 on the altimeter:
When you have rented an aircraft it is exclusively available to you. No other pilot can use it, not even its owner. To prevent aircraft from getting rented indefinitely, a time limit is applied by the owner. This time limit varies per aircraft, but is usually between 1-10 hours. If the flight has not been completed when the timeout expires, the flight is automatically cancelled and the aircraft is made available again. The FS Economy agent program shows the rental time you have left in the lower right corner. Pausing your flight does not pause this countdown.
If you are airborne and will not make your destination within the rental time remaining, you can land at the nearest airport, “end” your flight, re-rent the airplane and continue on!
The rental timer is a “real world countdown”. Pausing your simulator, or flying at 4x time compression, has nothing to do with the rental timer and will not alter the countdown. This timer starts counting down as soon as you hit “start flight” in your client. Any time you spend after that performing checklists, taxiing, etc. are counted against Rental Timeout. If you have a 3-hour Timer, and you completed a 2 hour flight, it’s possible that you might have exceeded your Rental Timer if you spent more than 1 commutative hour paused, or otherwise “not flying”. If you exceed the rental time limit, the flight will be canceled on the server. You will not get any indication in the sim that the flight has been canceled. When you land, you will not be able to log the flight. Depending on the particular client you are using, you may not get any warning messages as to why the flight will not log.
If you are airborne and will not make your destination within the rental time remaining, you can land at the nearest airport, “end” your flight, re-rent the airplane and continue on!
Tortui 