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.Floundering Around Pt 6:High Altitude Sickness |
Background: Background: Back in 2003 I started a Virtual Flying Club - it always seemed to me that the title "President and Founder" was too pretentious for my skill level. I made a dyslexic play on the words and became known as the "Cub Flounder." In this column I host a feature flight for you all to try on your own time. You never know where we'll end up and this time we are ending up above the cruise altitude of some planes you've probably flown in yourself. If you can find add-ons they may add to your experience. |
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History:
The first, main idea for
this feature came years ago in an article on
www.airliners.net entitled "The Meat Haulers of La
Paz" about the pilots and crew who fly some old
Douglas and Convair aircraft in and out of La Paz,
Bolivia, hauling fresh meat back up the Andes from the
fertile valleys below. That's not quite what we are doing
here but I want you all to struggle with the elevations
of these challenging airports.
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Routing:
Fire up the sim and pick an old Douglas or
Convair aircraft, maybe even a B-17? Go to
Arequipa, Peru. Known as "The White
City," Arequipa rests in the foothills of
the Andes, a mere 3,000 feet HIGHER than Denver,
CO! Just like in the real world, you'll depart to
the west regardless of wind direction. Once you
are safely climbing, turn left back over the city
(picture, left), heading 057° for the VOR at
Juliaca (115.50). Watch out for the towering
slopes of the Misti Volcano just east of town! At the Juliaca VOR turn to 120° and strike out over Lake Titicaca (picture below, left) heading for La Paz, Bolivia (picture below, right). The VOR at SLLP is 115.70 and the airport is shown at about 13,300 feet. There are some scenic vistas from up here but depending on what you are flying you may be struggling just to keep the engines running. Maybe I was cheating because this time out I was flying an old Russian Tu-18 and the performance seemed really good. I've struggled in the past with some weaker radial engine planes. |
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The Flight: With my DME about 50 miles I noticed a small dirt runway (picture below, left) I've not seen before. A quick check of the map showed that I was over SLCC "Copacabana" and I decided then that I'd come back to check that out. But first, our crosswind landing in LaPaz! (you can see the sock and the slip angle in the bottom photo, right.) |
It's hard enough
to land a plane at over 13,000 feet, hard too to get her
stopped before plowing into the city, today the task was
complicated further by the winds out of 013° gusting to
near 30 mph! Having flown various aircraft into here many
times since FS98 I was able to land safely between the
centerline and the right edge of pavement (picture below,
left). I actually landed safely (and smoothly) about
three times because my final approach speed (considering
wind and altitude) was about 130 knots! Anyway...I taxied
right over to the conveniently placed "House of
Chicken" and off-loaded my cargo (pictures below,
center and right).
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Extra Credit: Next up, just for fun, I
took a Dash-7 back to Copacabana (picture below, left;
it's listed at 12,592 feet ASL by the way) and threw her
down (picture below, center) on the mile-long dirt
runway. I discovered that with the thin air up here full
flaps will slow the Dash-7 to its stall speed so a little
less flap and a little more "hang" on the prop
might work for you.
Now, let's see how you do
into these challenging, high-altitude airports!
Ron Blehm
pretendpilot@yahoo.com