Exploring the real world in the Google Earth Flight Simulator

[Leif Ohlsson]

Goodbye Dominica: This was a good stop-over with a lot of flying practice. Time to move on southwards.




Martinique farms & fields: Coming in over Martinique at 4,000 ft, you can see that this is quite a different kind of island altogether - look at the number of farms, fields and villages, and how extensively the island is used for agriculture.




Le Lamentin (TFFF) - Ft De France, Martinique: That is about the largest airfield encountered yet in the Caribbean. A quick touch-and-go sufficed for me. We came from the north and the mountains up in the right corner, and will continue south.




George F. Charles (TLPC), Castries, Martinique: Just a touch-and-go, again.




Hewanorra Intl (TLPL), Vieuxfort, Martinique: Same story, at the other end of the island. These frequent touch-and-gos are invaluable exercise in slowing down from cruise speed while keeping altitude, finding the airfield, establishing a glidepath, and flaring so as to set down without bouncing. Then everything neutral, full throttle, slight up elevator, establish a correct degree of climb, and we're on our way again.




E T Joshua (TVSV), Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines: Interesting approach back there, comind down the valley from the left of the photo, flaring out in a right turn. Since I hadn't seen the airfield before, the touchdown was late, and I'm glad I could just shove the throttle forward and continue.




J.F. Mitchell (TVSB), Bequia, approach: This one has a very interesting approach. For rwy 30, you can come in over a beautiful bay, and the small town. Then you have to cross the ridge (in front), make almost a 180° turn, for a final along the other side of the ridge. You can see the runway down there, at the left in the photo. Let's see if we can get down there…




J.F. Mitchell (TVSB), Bequia, final: Yes, it is quite possible. Although I made the approach unnecessarily close to the ridge. Make a wider turn out over the sea would be my advice. But we're in this for the fun of it right?




Mustique Is (TVSM), Mustique, first attempt: This is the tricky part of this already short runway - there's a hill at both ends, as far as I can see. I touched down on it prematurely. So we do it again, right? (And again, and again, as it turned out…) Note that rwy 09 is inscribed with a warning - "STOL".




Mustique Is (TVSM), Mustique, about to touch down: OK, so we got in there…




Mustique Is (TVSM), Mustique, climbing out: … and out again, over the hill at the other end. This was a touch and go, but I may well take some time off here, to get the approach really right, down to stopping within the bounds of the runway.




Mustique Is, Mustique, touchdown no 2: OK, so I didn't manage to touchdown until almost half the runway was used up. But it was controlled, hill well cleared, full flaps, and slow all the way down. Very interesting.




Mustique Is, Mustique, stopped within rwy: And with brakes on, engines off, we did manage to stop right before running out of runway, right? Did you notice the nice parking spot back there. I might well park here for the night, and make another round for practice. This little island is a nice place, too! (Runway 09 is 2,546 ft, about 750 m. Watch out for the hills at both ends. Hdg ca 71° on the compass.)




Mustique Isl. GEFS landing DC3 (video): This is a two-minute sequence showing a simulated landing of a DC3 on the Mustique Island STOL field in the Caribbeans. The simulater used is GEFS (Google Earth Flight Sim, not affilitated with Google, but using Google Earth imagery; hence what you see is the best available satellite & aerial photography of the Earth). The sim is online, so you don't have to download or install anything.

The approach is made in a gradual and slow right turn. (Please disregard spurios clickmarks you will see at times, they are of no importance.) You will be able to spot the airfield up towards the left, behind a small village. What you don't see is the hill immediately before touchdown.

We are already in a wheels down, one notch of flaps applied, position, flying at slightly less than 90 kts. This is a good approach speed, but as we close in and lose altitude airspeed is reduced further by applying gradually more up trim, while decreasing throttle. At the very end, when sure to clear the hill in front of the runway, full flaps is applied, and throttle brought full back. Still, touchdown was not achieved until almost half the runway was used up, which is a bit iffy. Brakes and engines off bring us to a stop before we run out of runway.

The GEFS sim does note provide impressive framerate (depending, I suppose, on the speed of your internet connection, mine isn't impressive at all). Yet, what you get is true views of all parts of the world. Just type in your desired location and you will find yourself flying there.

Since you will not be enjoying any fancy tricks particularly much in this sim, you can devote your time flying over realistic landscapes and distances to trim, altitude, flight speed, and other basic skills. I find it constantly challenging and educational. You see a lot of farms and fields down there, and you have time to think about how people make their living indifferent parts of the world.

I'm also a bit proud of being able to get down the cumbersome old Dakota on a difficult field like this.

Leif