vbazillio Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Page, Horseshoe bend and Marble Canyon. What a great agenda within few minutes flight. Page (KPGA), I know quite good. I flew there several time. It's a base camp when flying to Monument Valley because of cheap avgas 100LL availability. The town is awful. Hotels as well. But the runway 15/33 worth to get up there. Departing above Lake Powell is eye blowing. The Horseshoe bend is fantastic from the ground. And this spectacular attraction is on the way to a field I never went in real : Marble Canyon (L41). I overfly it several time to or from Page field. But I never land and descend into the Marble Canyon. It's on my wishlist for my next Cessna's trip Farwest'19. So let's dream a little. But most of all, let's use Prepar3D to train. For this small hop, here are the technical details : - Prepar3D v4.4 - Photorealistic scenary of Page and Marble Canyon by BlueSkyScenery : http://www.blueskyscenery.com/CNY_South3West3.html - Page (KPGA) and Marble Canyon (L41) come from d'Orbx Freeware Global Airport : https://orbxdirect.com/product/ftx-global-airport-pack - A2A C172 Trainer - EnvTex for cloud textures - Active Sky as the weather generator - Flight1 GTN 650 GPS gauge Very short flight ! Marble Canyon (L41) is less than 6 minutes south of Page (KPGA). Nav. log is... Straight ahead ! N4975F parked on the huge ramp. Full of planes.... As in real finally. The ramp is use by two FBO's who drive you with golfcart FBO's golfcarts catch you as soon as you exist the runway. Come in my FBO ! The pilot has to choose on radio or by signaling to the golfcart driver One of the criteria to choose one FBO or another is the fuel price. Here, on Foreflight (mobile app), it shows very differences. And the price is not all : infrastructure, services, shuttle to hotel or courtesy car are among other criteria. Foreflight displays fuel price updated by FBO or customers. With Foreflight, you can also check for customer's review. As it's the major tool for small GA in US, there's often a lot of recent comments And finally, you'd better know where is your FBO when arriving on a field. At Page (KPGA), there is golfcart but on most field it may complicated to prepare/brief you on advance. Airnav.com is a choice and here, still on Foreflight, you have the position on the ground chart. The real N4975F parked at Page, AZ. With A2A tool, I welcome my copilot (always useful) and load luggages. As real as it gets, as in real Farwest As in real, oups... The real ramp on a great july A small rain arrives... It may be not a good idea to fly today At least, this will lower temperature (better performance). Anyway, I simulate an early departure (Foreflight) Holding Point 33 at Page. Runup completed (Foreflight) The digital voice announce "Entered runway 33, 5 900 feet remaining". Far more than needed (at that very moment) for my C172 Initial climb, look at the left over the field. The Blueskyscenery removed all 3D autogen objects over the town. Anyway the building weren't much realistic. Let's look somewhere else On the other way, the great Lake Powell. This remind me a little bit the red and blue I have in mind. Weather generated by Active Sky is far from perfect. I turn to the right to departure via the right downwind departure. I climb above the circuit. Glenn Canyon Dam The same in 2010 as seen from my Cessna during a Farwest with my family Still in 2010, arriving at Page. You can see the dam and the Lake Powell, then the Marble Canyon And just after the dam, the Horseshoe Bend Just after leaving the circuit, the Horseshoe Bend Let's have a look from the right front seat to take pictures ... High wings are great... But the strut ;( On top view Over another "horseshoe bend" south of Marble Canyon. Photo taken from the N4975F with two other friends. A formation flying at 10'000 feet And I let the Horseshoe bend behind me to prepare for the arrival at Marble Canyon The real Horseshoe bend as seen from the ground. I'm fear of height and can get closer to the rift (Foreflight) After the 360 over Horseshoe Bend, then direct Marble Canyon I'm not that high isn't it ? 5'500 feet... anyway I'll have to descend The chart for Marble Canyon. Nothing specific regarding pattern altitude. I take 1'000 feet above the circuit (3'600 feet + 1'000 feet). Marble Canyon airfield is inside the SFRA of Grand Canyon where you're are not allowed to go wherever you want. Hopefully a special regulation permit to descent : "Landing/Take-off operations below 3000' above airport elevation within 3 NM of the airport are authorized by 14 CFR section 93" With Foreflight, you can have some feedback from Marble Canyon users. No official information but useful as well. We can have some info on the ramp conditions. No one on the circuit. No one on the radio. No ASOS/AWOS. I go overhead to check the filed and look at the windsock. What is the runway in use ? Start of left downwind runway 3. We are in a canyon. Unbelievable environment. Can't wait to be there. End of downwind. 10 degrees of flaps. Lights on. Turning final runway 3 Final runway 3. Narrow runway and no threshold indicator painted. It's the free Orbx scenery The Blueskyscenery kills the autogen... too bad ? Or no big deal because it's much about desert ? ... In real life there's a lot of detail on the ground as seen from the real N4975F last year Taxi to the parking. I missed a lot of 3D object. I'll let you know when I'll be there soon. Let's open the door. Still raining. Strange idea to keep the real weather As seen from the Marble Canyon in 2008. At that very moment, I wasn't courage enough to land there and only friends of mine in another plane did it The whole track (in green) as seen from Foreflight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifejogger Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 That was quite a flight!!!!!!!!! I like how you mixed shots from the flightsim with real world shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musterpilot Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Very nice indeed John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 What a fantastic flight, thanks for sharing it with us..Terry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sawyer Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 That is awesome, wonderful mix of real, sim, and preparation. You are a very fortunate fellow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Abernathy Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 Wonderful depiction of a real flight merged into flt sim. Can you tell us what is that app you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbazillio Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 Thank you to all for your comment. Glade this kind of post reaches audience. Quote Can you tell us what is that app you are using? Is it Foreflight you're asking for ? It's the most (real) use mobile app used in US for General Aviation planning and flying : https://foreflight.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigeaglefire Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 @vbazillio really liked your story & flight & pictures... you inspired me to take a quick spin around the area... there are tools that can enhance the experience in flight sim '19... greetings from Australia to Paris... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 Just thinking about DL the new photoreal, but does it blend well with the Orbx scenery in the area? or do we see massive differences at the edge of the PR??? Terry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbazillio Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 1 minute ago, teecee said: Just thinking about DL the new photoreal Which NEW photoreal ? And with which Orbx scenery you are refering to ? I only know the freeware Orbx stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 You mentioned Blue Sky scenery, so I assumed that this was used in the sim shots..was I wrong? Terry. PS: perhaps "New Scenery" is not quite correct..It would be new to me though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wain71 Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 fantastic post, great detail, very informative, really like the mix of real and sim.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbazillio Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 21 minutes ago, teecee said: You mentioned Blue Sky scenery, so I assumed that this was used in the sim shots..was I wrong? Terry. PS: perhaps "New Scenery" is not quite correct..It would be new to me though. Yep, I think there were nothing quite new in all this thing The Orbx Freeware and the BlueSkyscenery. I frankly didn't check the border of the photorealistic BlueSkyscenery. It was just a test for Marble Canyon as I really hate not having any autogen objects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 Thanks for clearing that up. Terry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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