The Long White Cloud Tour

astraGTE · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:34 pm Post subject: can't wait

can't wait should be good!!

cheekytrolly · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:57 am Post subject: Leg #1

NZKK- NZWR- NZGB- NZUN- NZTG

After a much delayed start, I finally was able to start the first leg of The Long White Cloud tour today, flying from the 2nd most northern airport in the country, Kerikeri, down to the port city of Tauranga.

I started the sim up at about 4pm as soon as I arrived home from college, setting the time to early morning in my virtual world. After checking everything was working correctly in my custom painted Carenado C206 (screenshot 1), I started up the engine, rolled along runway 15 and was soon airborne out of Kerikeri (NZKK).

My original route led me at 125 degrees south towards Whangarei, but I was flying VFR and just couldn’t resist the temptation to explore the beautiful Bay of Islands area close by. I climbed up to 2600 feet above the little town of Paihia, a coastal resort from where many tourist cruises (both air and sea) depart from daily. I had visited in real life a few years ago, but found the default NZ scenery for the area disappointing. This time though, I found it intriguing as I followed the land up towards Cape Brett (screenshot 2), then banked right and followed the coast heading south.

Only 18 minutes had passed by the time I reached the outskirts of Whangarei although it seemed like much longer as I had been gazing at the stunning Northland scenery in spot view- that had never looked so good before. I tuned into the unmanned tower and picked runway 6 for my touch and go, then lowered my nose and flaps and pulled off a nice smooth landing.

Once again I climbed up to 2600 feet and followed the harbor coastline towards the Hauraki Gulf. I leveled off and pulled the throttle in to cruise at a speed to 125kias towards my next stop, Great Barrier Island, which was another 61 miles away.

The redbaron waterclass textures (screenshot 3) really looked very effective here but where only on show for a short while as I soon spotted Little Barrier Island out my right hand window and had to investigate further (screenshot 4). I turned to the right and spun around the perimeter of the very iconic island, then continued east bound towards “The Barrier”, which gets its name from being known as the land mass that shelters the gulf and city of Auckland from the strong pacific weather Wink

There are a few different airstrips on the 40km long island, but I decided to perform my next T&G at Claris (NZGB) and was soon on approach for runway 10 grass. Thanks to the steep surrounding hillsides, I came in a little steep and bounced along the runway rather fast, ending the 33 minute long hop from the mainland.

With no other aircraft in sight, I ascended to 2600 feet and turned to a heading of 139 degrees for my next stop, Pauanui Beach (NZUN). I was soon at the correct altitude and made my way across the Colville Channel towards the Coromandel Peninsula. My heading led me directly above the town of Whitianga, another great holiday location I have previously visited in real life.

It was only once I was overhead the township and tuning into Pauanui UNICOM that I realized that my Godzone photoreal was not visible! My error of having the mesh and photoreal installed at the wrong priorities in my fs2004 Scenery Library was a big bummer as I had been hoping to get some spectacular screenshots into NZUN, which was a runway built right across a beach town with a deep blue river next to it. Nevermind, I thought to myself, at least this way I will get to experience the new landclass and topo on my approach as I have never seen it before (screenshot 5). I have to say that the redbaron addon certainly did the original justice (see photoreal here), and with a satisfied grin on my face, I was soon touching down on runway 23.

After rolling though the centre of town (this airport is in an usual location, search NZUN on airliners.net), I was up and away towards my last destination in this leg, Tauranga (NZTG). The city was 42 miles away down the coast, and used to be New Zealand’s largest shipping port before Auckland.

As I cruised along the seaside, the redbaron “topo” updated coastlines became really noticeable (screenshot 6). The level of detail that was now being displayed on my sim looked incredibly accurate, and I continued to marvel at it for the next 20 minutes before Mount Maunganui popped up on the horizon.

I tuned into TG tower who directed me to land on runway 7L, but I requested a change to the sealed runway 7 as I had had enough grass runway landings for one day. I was soon above the REAL NZ Tauranga photoreal textures (screenshot 7), and entered the pattern for landing.

Next, I made a fairly average landing, but overshot the taxiway towards the apron. I turned around on the grass and headed over to the fuel pumps to top up my 70% full tanks, then parked up for the weekend to end my first leg of the Long White Cloud Tour.

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you again next weekend!

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99jolegg · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 10:26 am Post subject:

A very nice start! Well written with very nice shots Thumbs Up!

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pilotwannabe · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:29 am Post subject:

Nice report Cheeky Exclamation

...looking forward to the next installment Wink

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cheekytrolly · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:59 am Post subject: Leg #2

NZTG- NZRO- NZAP- NZRU- NZPM- NZMS- NZWN

After a weeks worth of improving my simulator’s performance, by means of editing .cfg’s, recording scenery and installing a new graphics card, I was ready to continue my tour of New Zealand that I had been looking forward to flying all week long.

As I started up the 206 at Tauranga (NZTG), the weather looked more ‘Thick Grey Cloud-ish’ than ‘Long White Cloud-ish’, but that wasn’t going to put me off! I taxied to the grass runway 7L, and was soon up and away, banking over the city harbor as I turned to a heading of 147 degrees for my next destination, Rotorua (NZRO) which was only 27 miles away.

I had previously purchased the REAL NZ Rotorua addon which includes the city airport, the lakefront seaplane base, plus photoreal scenery for the surrounding area, which I was currently flying above. I tuned into the tour for the Bay of Plenty district’s largest town’s airport, and was cleared for a touch and go on runway 18.

I followed the coastline of the large Lake Rotorua, and was soon bouncing down onto the sealed runway next to the realistic updated airport, only 11 minutes after I had taken off. (screenshot 1).

I pulled up as the tarmac came to an end, and climbed up to 4000 feet for my next hop to Taupo (NZAP), another lakeside town, 40 miles away at a heading of 175 degrees. Instead of following my GPS route, I took advantage of my VFR flight plan and decided to take a cruise overhead the city centre (screenshot 2), which I had stayed at a few years ago on the way to the town’s famous thermal geyser park. All I can remember was that the whole town smelt like rotten eggs, even from inside the hotel but fortunately I couldn’t smell a thing from inside my plane on flightsim Wink

After reaching the photoreal boundary, I began to follow a river to the south, and soon tuned into the unmanned UNICOM frequency at Taupo airport. Recently there has been a big debate between a few pilots on TV, who think NZAP is too dangerous to fly into, with many sightseeing aircraft, parachutists aircraft, dozens of helicopters and Air New Zealand link B1900d’s all servicing the airport with no ATC to control them. However, as I made my decent, I seemed to be the only aircraft around- yet if I had landed here a week later, this would be a different story, with the GNZLAP (Great New Zealand Light AI Project) being released as freeware on August 8th.

It was great to see an actual township (not included in the default scenery) thanks to the new redbaron landclass that I am using along with their mesh and topo scenery. (screenshot 3). As I descended low over the rooftops, I couldn’t keep the aircraft straight, and after checking my fuel selector, I realized that I had to it switched to draw from the left tank rather than both at the same time, and due to that, one wing was lighter than the other causing a banking effect. I quickly radioed the UNICOM, and changed my t&g on runway 18 to a full stop landing, where I filled up my tanks to 100% again and switched the fuel selector to the centre.

After just a few minutes on the ground, I taxied back to the active runway, and took off for my next destination, Waiouru (NZRU), an airstrip that sits on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, the most recent volcano to erupt in New Zealand back in 1996.
I climbed up to 4000 feet, and pointed my nose at towards the Central Plateau mountains on the horizon, which where a good 40 miles away. As I reached the bottom of Lake Taupo, the country’s largest lake (formed from a caved in volcanic crater), I crossed over the default/photoreal scenery boundary for the Turangi area which just happens to be re-released as freeware very soon at windowlight.co.nz (screenshot 4).

At this beautiful location, I was pretty much dead in the center of the North Island, and surrounded by lots of high terrain and volcanoes. I flew off coarse again, exploring the dramatic Tongariro National Park, and climbed up to 7000 feet to get a nice view down upon Mt Tongariro and Ngauruhoe (screenshot 5).

I was now within 30nm of NZRU, but didn’t have a visual on it yet thanks to the unsettled weather, and the mighty snow capped Mount Ruapehu sitting dormant right in front of me. The volcano truly did look spectacular in all its 20m mesh detail as I passed along it’s eastern side, marveling at the very iconic landmass. I was going to try and reach the summit, but with the airstrip getting closer and closer, I ran out of time and had to make an extremely steep descent down from 8000 feet for my next touch and go landing.

With no manned ATC here either, I picked runway 13 for the t&g, which I performed via ‘spot’ view thanks to the beautiful backdrop behind me (screenshot 6), 33 minutes after leaving Taupo.

After a short roll, I pulled back on the yoke hard to avoid colliding with the low power lines, then climbed up to 5000 feet for the 55 mile hop to Palmerston North (NZPM), which after his recent visit , John Cleese said "If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick” referring to how boring he found it… and because of this, I had never seen the need to fly here virtually ever before, even though it is one of the largest settlements in the country.

Heading at 161 degrees, now clear of the Turangi photoreal area, there wasn’t any exciting scenery to enjoy, just plain green rolling hills for as far as the eye could see (screenshot 7). After 22 minutes of flight, I tuned into Palmerston tower, who directed me in for a touch and go on runway 8, leading me right above the town of Feilding (screenshot 8) and past Ohakea RNZAF base, before I turned for finals (screenshot 9) and I felt my wheels make contact with the earth once again.

A few seconds went by, and then once again I headed skywards following a departing ANZ ATR as I became airborne towards my next stop, Masterton (NZMS), only 40 miles away.

I flew the c206 by hand for 18 minutes, keeping the nose pointing at a heading of 157 degrees towards the NZMS, crossing the foothills of the Tararua Range, causing the wings to rock with turbulence.

The landing at Masterton was uneventful, and just as quickly as I had descended, I ascended again for my final hop for today’s leg, to the nations capital city, Wellington (NZWN) which was only 45 miles south from my current position.
Again, I didn’t follow my GPS route, but decided to explore a close by region just to the west, for which I had a photoreal addon installed. The redbaron landclass worked particularly well here, blending almost seamlessly in with the Godzone textures (screenshot 10) which also looked great combined with the 20m mesh (screenshot 11).

After my detour over the mountains (very small mountains might I add, nothing compared to what we will see later in the South Island), I banked right for the trip to towards the capital, and cruised along over the Hutt Valley (screenshot 12).

It is a shame that I started the tour this early, as in a few weeks time, REAL NZ are also releasing a payware photoreal scenery expansion for the whole Wellington area, which would have really been neat to include in this tour. Instead, I had the old freeware Godzone photoreal scenery installed for the area, which is made from a colorized black and white image (screenshot 13) and available on avsim.

Once over the harbor, I tuned my radio in to the final frequency for the day, and was cleared to land on runway 11. I descended smoothly, and made what I think must be the best landing I have ever done in the c206, then parked up in the empty GA apron to complete leg 2 of the Long White Cloud Tour.

I hope you have enjoyed following me down the North Island, and that you will join me once again next weekend as I venture across Cook Straight for a whole new experience!

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RadarMan · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:22 am Post subject:

CT,
I click on the screenshots and photobucket doesn't have it full size.
They may have it for you if your signed in.

Radar

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cheekytrolly · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:35 am Post subject:

Thanks for pointing that out RM, thats really odd!

Do the normal hyperlinks work for you, or is it just the thumbnails that won't work?
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