Iqaluit to Schefferville

Looking around from Iqaluit, I honestly couldn't see a single airport with a non-gravel runway within range, and I wondered why anyone would make this their first landfall in North America. Then I zoomed in, and panned around, on the flight planning map, and started to see some airports within range of the SF50. Whew. There's got to be a better way to do that! So, anyway, my next flight is from Iqaluit to Schefferville airport, near Schefferville, Quebec. When I saved my situation after the last flight, I intentionally shutdown everything that would've made sense in the real world, so I'm testing myself this time, on how to get the airplane powered up and ready to fly.

Starting out at Iqaluit with high winds and blowing snow. The simulator shows ripples of blowing snow, moving slowly across the ramp. The display of the snow ripples is a little granular and repetitive, but it feels pretty realistic, all the same.

Powering up and starting the engine was no problem. I don't have the real airplane's manual, but my made-up checklist seemed to do the trick. Taxiing out towards the runway 34.

Taking runway 34 for takeoff, with a 20 knot wind at 350 degrees, almost straight down the runway.

Cruising at flight level 260 (26,000 feet), enjoying a beautiful blue-sky sunny day up here, with a thick layer of clouds below.

Just approaching the top of descent (TOD) marker on my flight path. The magenta vertical navigation (VNV) pointers have appeared on the primary flight display, next to the altimeter, and the white VPTH shows that the vertical path is armed and ready to capture.

On the ground at Schefferville airport. I flew the GPS circling approach to runway 35, in the waning evening light, and spotted the airport with no problem, but the circling approach isn't aligned with the runway, and I somehow let both my heading and altitude get away from me, and I was way off to the side, when I got near the airport. The weather was good enough (2,000 overcast), that I was easily able to climb to pattern altitude, and circle back in the pattern for a normal landing. Just another reminder, that letting my attention slip for a few seconds, is enough to ruin a perfectly good approach!