IVAO Virtual Sky October 2008
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October 2008 Editorial Vybhava Srinivasan IVAO Public Relations Director [email protected] Publisher: International Virtual IVAO Virtual Sky Aviation Organisation October 2008 Chief Editor: Vybhava Srinivasan Dear Friends, Layout and Design: Marco Meerkerk Yigit Yildirim Thank you very much for downloading the October 2008 edition of IVAO Virtual Sky. Website: www.ivao.aero/publrelat/ At the outset, I apologise to all our readers for not being able to release the third edition in July 2008 as promised. We had a major setback with our As- General Mail: [email protected] sistant Editor not being available due to real life commitments. Therefore we had to redesign the entire magazine from scratch in terms of layout etc. But Cover Screenshot: Ricardo Andres Saras- thanks to Marco Meerkerk, Public Relations Advisor who took up the chal- lenge to re-create the magazine and make this edition a reality. ty Vasquez (Winner October screenshot contest) And now the success story of IVAO Virtual Sky.... Our previous edition did very well with over 19,800 downloads. We received encouraging feedback Logo Design: Robert Gottwald from our readers. Honestly, this is what inspires the Public Relations team to continue work on the magazine. This edition includes a heart to heart inter- view with none other than the Managing Director of Aerosoft, snippets from Disclaimer: Any information, Mike Singer (www.fsinsider.com) on Oshkosh Airshow and other useful and suggestions or illustrations published in appealing articles. We are sure this edition will incite interest amongst the this magazine are exclusively for use new flight simulation fans and kindle the curiosity of the old-timers. with computer flight simulation. In our constant endeavour to improve the quality of this magazine, we will All views expressed in this magazine are be publishing articles on the review of Latest Releases of Flight Simulation the views of the respective authors. Add-ons, the original story of IVAO and many more... We have pleasure in The publisher does not accept any announcing that the next issue of this very REAL magazine will be on it first responsibility for those views. birthday. So look forward to the next edition of IVAO Virtual Sky. As always we look forward to articles that our readers would like to contribute Copyright to future issues of this magazine. None of the informat ion in this magazine may be reproduced in any We hope your journey through this issue will be as fun-filled as ever. form without prior permission from the Regards, publisher. Vybhava Srinivasan Chief Editor October 2008 After transforming a spot of concrete in a hangar into our glitzy Flight Simulator X trade show booth, Hal Bryan, Mike Lambert, Steve Wilson, and I drove out to Fisk (the town the “Fisk VFR Arrival Procedure” is named for) and spent an hour or so watching the air traffic controllers there at work. (You can read more about this, and listen to an audio clip, on my blog at http:// informationmike.spaces.live.com.) There were a few other people watching the operations at Fisk, and we all started talking. When one guy heard how interested I was in the arrival procedure, he did what any pilot looking for an excuse to go flying would do: he offered to take me for a ride! Todd had flown the procedure once to get his plane Flying the VFR Arrival to AirVenture 2008 on the ground at KOSH after a flight from the Chicago Back in late July, a bunch of us from the Flight Simulator area, so I figured he was at least mildly familiar with the team headed to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the Experimen- arrival. I was very familiar with it on paper and in the tal Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture event. Billed sim. With his 800 hours in a variety of aircraft (including as “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration,” AirVen- his fairly-recently purchased 1979 Piper Warrior), I deci- ture is really a whole bunch of events in one, sort of like ded I’d be in good hands. courses in a meal. This year, AirVenture was quite a feast for me. I flew to the show via commercial airline, but the About an hour later we were in the Warrior at Oshkosh, day after I got there I was offered an unexpected thrill: ready to go flying. Todd sat in the left seat, me in the the opportunity to fly the famed “Fisk VFR Arrival.” right, and Steve Wilson in the back. Todd started the engine, and soon a flight line volunteer arrived to direct For one week each year, Wittman Regional Airport us toward the runway. Flight operations at AirVenture (KOSH) has the highest concentration of aircraft in the are largely without radio communication from the world. About 10,000 aircraft make an aerial pilgrimage pilots, so I held a paper “VFR” sign in the window to let to Oshkosh. Most of them do so flying under Visual Flight everyone know we wanted to depart visually. Rules (VFR). Getting all these small aircraft safely on the ground is a challenge that boggles the mind, and the To make a REALLY long story short, let’s just say that task is made simpler by requiring all VFR aircraft to fol- taxing from the camping area on the southwest side of low the same arrival procedure, as published in a special runway 9/27 to the departure area on the northeast side AirVenture Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). of runway 27 is a looooong journey. It involves being passed off from one Civil Air Patrol volunteer to ano- ther through a twisting course across the bumpy grass and through an obstacle course of cones. In retrospect, it seems like we spent as much time taxiing as we did fly- ing. All of it is, of course, part of the Oshkosh experience, and there are plenty of airplanes to look at along the way, so no complaints. Eventually we got to the departure end of runway 27, monitored the tower on 121.75 as per the NOTAM, and Todd performed an engine run-up. After a few planes landed, a controller standing on the Mobile Operations/ Communication Workstation (MOOCOW) near the end of the runway cleared us to taxi into position and hold. When the planes ahead cleared the runway, she cleared us for takeoff. The VFR departure procedure from runway 27 requires you to fly a heading between 270 and 360 degrees at or below 1,300 feet MSL (above sea level) until clear of the tower’s Class D airspace (5 miles out). Page 4 October 2008 The VFR arrival starts at Ripon, so we needed to be level at 1,800 feet and slowed to 90 knots by the time we got there. We had hoped to follow someone in, but with nobody in sight, over Ripon we found the railroad tracks and followed them northeast toward Fisk on our own. Then, just as I relaxed a bit with the sense that now we were “safe,” I glanced up and saw an airplane directly overhead. He was flying the higher, faster arrival (2,300 feet and 135 knots), but it was still a little disconcerting to miss him completely until he was right above us. It reminded me of learning to scuba dive, and losing sight of my dive buddy only to realize she was directly above me. The air, like the water, is three dimensional. Approaching Fisk it became clear that even though Todd climbed out, and I watched for traffic and we couldn’t see them, there were airplanes ahead of kept an eye on our altitude and our distance from us. When the, “Low-wing half a mile south of Fisk” was the airport. Once clear of the Class D, Todd handed asked to “rock your wings,” we wondered, “Is that us? I think that’s us....” the controls over to me. An hour earlier I had seen and heard the whole opera- Flying from the right seat is always a little strange tion from the ground, and I wondered at the time why if you’re not used to it. Not only does it feel back- the pilots all seemed so confused. Once I experienced the wards in your hands (left hand on the throttle, right arrival from the air all became clear: it’s confusing! The hand on the yoke), the “sight picture” is all wrong most difficult part is knowing if the controller is talking too. So I awkwardly turned us toward the north to you or to another airplane that looks similar. If you end of Rush Lake, climbed a bit, then leveled out. can’t see the other plane it’s hard to know. It’s an easier Straight and level ... that felt pretty easy. task I suspect if you know exactly where you are (a GPS helps), if you listen carefully to everything the controller Our plan was to fly around the north end of Rush says, and if you paint a mental image of all the aircraft on the approach in front and behind you. Pilots need lake to the town of Ripon where the VFR arrival to do this when flying in any busy traffic pattern, but begins. It was a hazy afternoon, so all three of us with 100 or more airplanes passing over Fisk every hour, had our heads on swivels, scanning for airplanes. the VFR arrival to Oshkosh is no ordinary pattern entry There weren’t many out there, but when you’re experience. headed for a point in the sky (over Ripon at 1,800 feet) that you know everyone flying VFR to Osh- Finally identified and over Fisk, Todd mentioned that kosh is heading for, you need to be vigilant.