JGFly - Flight Simulation: World Tour 2 - Leg 30

Things are not good. As I mentioned at the end of the previous report, I was going to perform a detailed check of the plane before deciding what to do. And not only the left fuel and right RPM indicators failed. Also the navigation ligths and right landing light are broken. I suspect some kind of electrical global failure is happening, maybe voltage peaks. I'm not that surprised. I have been stressing the plane a lot these last days, with pressurization, extreme temperatures, long legs... I definitely need a proper workshop to fix everything.

I have been checking the nearby airports for workshops an the situation is at follows. ZUAL in China is the closest airport and easiest to reach, but has no workshop. Then there are 3-4 airports in India relatively close to my location, but on the West, which means flying backwards. It doesn't matter much, the priority is to fix the plane rather than continue to the East, but after calling them, all their workshops are closed. So I decided to fly to the only airport I find with a suitable open workhop, at Dehradun, at about 180 nm south of my location. It's a risky leg, considering I have to cross the Himalaya with indicators failing, no Nav lights, electrical peaks, etc. In addition to this, the weather is pretty bad at the South of the Himalaya, so I could find clouds and even rain. This situation will become worst on the following days, so it's now or... who knows. So I decided to get the IFR approach charts, just in case, and takeoff again.

And more problems. I try to start the engines and I constantly fail on that. I try the hot start procedures and they also fail. I'm starting to think I won't manage to takeoff in several days, if I can get support here. But, after insisting, I manage to start the left engine. So I insist on the right one and after two more tries, I manage to keep it running. At that time I realize that its fuel flow gauge is broken. So either I have issues with fuel flow, maybe caused by or the reason why I could not start the engines easily, or another indicator fails. After waiting for a while and adjusting the right engine using the left one and the EDM as references, I conclude that the indicator is off, but the fuel flow nominal. Temperatures and pressures after few minutes are also fine. I also track the engine sync indicator to adjust the rotation of both engines accordingly.

So, more or less relieved, I decided to continue with the checklist. Since I just landed like 15 minutes ago and everything else was working, I was thinking about skipping the check of surfaces and flaps. But considering everything was failing, why not double-check the surfaces? Skipping a checklist is never a good idea, specially because after extending the flaps to landing position... they didn't retract! Really? Now the flaps fail too? Very upset I leave the cockpit and kick them, to see if they were simply stuck and at least they could return to the retracted position. And surprisingly, it worked! A bit of good luck I guess, after so many failures. I test them a couple of times and they seem to work. So I test the pressurization system and AP and I decided to depart.

With all this mess, somehow I forgot that I was taking off from about 13,000 ft, so the initial climb was slower than expected. Luckily there was plenty of empty space to maneuver and climb slowly but confident to FL195.

On my left, China. I have been close to its border so many times on the last days... and it's amazing to see those flat fields at 14-15,000 ft. It's a weird feeling to fly "low" at these altitudes. So, by checking constantly the instruments and not taking unnecessary risks, I arrive to Tso Moriri, a stunning lake surrounded by tall mountais.

From here, I have to head South, cross the Himalaya and wait to detect the VOR and NDB of Dehradun. Unfortunately, it's a low range VOR, so I won't have guidance at all until after the mountains. And dense clouds show up in the horizon. My plan is to fly at FL195 heading 180, avoinding tall peaks and clouds. If I reach the clouds before the VOR, I'll climb over them, to have visibility, till detecting the VOR. In the absence of ATC, I cannot do anything better than that. Though the leg is risky, the views somehow compensate it.

I'm reaching the South front of the Himalaya. Peaks are lower and valleys more open. I change a bit my altitude and heading to avoid denser clouds and I track the rain on the radar. It looks like our destination might be rainy, but by now I can surround the clouds and maybe approach the VOR from a different angle.

Finally, I hear the Morse code for the VOR. I'm actually pretty well aligned to it, the wind did not take me too far from the radial 180. The minimums for this sector (FL110) allow me to descend relatively safe. And now I cannot avoid the clouds. Luckily the runway has an ILS. So I proceed to the VOR, then a descent towards the IAF and a drop entrance to the holding pattern. From here, I catch the localizer and follow the ILS on Appr mode, across a storm, till... well, till the ground. At least CAT II landing, since at 200 ft AGL I still didn't see the runway. I was ready to abort but suddenly I saw the numbers on the runway. No lights at all, and the lack of my right landing light didn't help.

I'm very glad that I made it to this airport, where I can get proper assistance. Definitely, the trip along the Karakoram and Western Himalaya has been full of adrenaline and challenging legs, that I don't regret at all. Now, let's fix the Baron and let's wait for the weather to improve.