Next month’s (March 2022) edition of the AOPA Pilot magazine has an article extolling the virtues of flying into Pease airfield in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which has me sending virtual hellos to my cousin there 👋, and planning my DC-3 (well, actually, it's a C-47) flight today in the X-Plane flight simulator. 🙂
Enjoyed the Sea Breezes ✔️
Loved the Ice Cream ✔️
Toured the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ✔️
Cruised the Piscataqua River ✔️
Toured the USS Albacore Submarine ✔️
Shopped in Downtown Portsmouth ✔️
Dined in Downtown Portsmouth ✔️
Landed at Portsmouth/Pease Airport (in XP) ✔️
Checked Out KC-10 Tankers (in XP) ✔️
My flight planned route, brought to you by
SkyVector.com, takes me from
Glens Falls, NY airport (my last destination) to Concord VOR, then to IDEED intersection, which is the
Initial Approach Fix for the
ILS approach to runway 34 at
Pease airfield.
Ready for takeoff! This is a 1930s vintage airplane, so the controls are big switches and levers, and the instruments are big round dials, instead of the flashy computerized “glass” displays that pilots of new aircraft enjoy. But it’s got two big engines, so it can carry more and cruise faster than most of the general aviation airplanes I’ve flown.
Airspeed's alive... tail's up! The instruments in this plane were laid out before the
"six-pack" standard layout of
flight instruments was established, so the airspeed and altitude aren't even visible when focusing outside, and only seeing the top few inches of the instrument panel. What I *can* see, is the runway, the attitude and heading gyro indicators, clock and compass. Good enough I guess, for the first few seconds during the takeoff roll and initial climb.
Climbing on course. It looks like I'll be getting into those clouds overhead. That'll be good instrument practice...
Leveled off at cruise altitude, and on instruments for a little while. In this custom cockpit view, you can see a lot of the overhead panel, and the first two rows of flight instruments, along with some engine instruments. Not a bad view, overall, but it emphasizes what's going on inside the plane, with a minimal view outside. With nothing but clouds to see, that's a fair compromise.
Now cruising above the clouds, with the occasional break that shows the ground below...
Perusing the
instrument chart for the ILS runway 24 approach to Portsmouth International at Pease. It's important to scour the approach chart for pertinent information, well before the approach phase begins, and things get busy. There's lots of information to take in here…starting with the ILS frequency 110.1 mHz, approach course 345 degrees, and airport elevation 100 feet. And that's just in the little box in the upper left. It says either a
DME receiver or RADAR (ATC control) are required for this approach. Since I'm not talking to ATC in the simulator, I'm glad this airplane has a DME receiver. I'm particularly interested in the 130 degree course of the transition segment from Concord VOR to the Initial Approach Fix at IDEED intersection, with its associated holding pattern that I will be using, to get turned around and established on the final approach course, while holding an altitude between 3,000 and 4,600 feet. It looks like IDEED can be located several ways - by watching for a 43.3 DME mile distance from Concord VOR, or watching for the localizer needle to center while flying outbound from Concord VOR, or triangulating with the Concord VOR 130 degree radial and the Kennebunk VOR 203 degree radial. I'll plan to use the localizer method for this, which will help me ensure that I already have it tuned in and ready to watch. I'll put the first notch of flaps down in the holding pattern, and then be lowering the landing gear before I get to the Final Approach Fix at YOKNZ intersection, which is 6.3 DME miles from Pease. And finally, the Decision Altitude is 284 feet, so if I don't see the airport by then, I'll be flying the Missed Approach procedure as published in the upper right box, which starts with a climb to 1,500 feet, then a climbing left turn to 3,000 feet while heading 290 degrees.
Turning right, onto the Concord VOR 130° radial outbound toward IDEED intersection, the Initial Approach Fix (IAF). It looks like I'll be below the clouds for most of the approach, so the only real challenge, aside from adhering to the complexities of the published approach, will be dealing with the strong crosswind reported at the airport.
Level at 3,000 feet on the Concord 130° radial, with a plan to make a teardrop entry to the holding pattern at IDEED to reverse course, and get this Gooney Bird configured for landing. Still just barely below the layer of clouds.
Looking out the left window, back toward Pease airfield, which is just ahead of the left wing, encircled by water on three sides.
Here I've entered the holding pattern, made the course reversal and am now heading inbound, having lowered the first notch of flaps and the landing gear, and noticing that a significant left crab angle is necessary to track the inbound course. That's consistent with the strong winds in the weather report, coming from 50 degrees left of the runway heading.
Tracking the ILS toward Pease with half flaps, and realizing that with the strong left crosswind, Pease isn't visible straight ahead, it's actually quite a bit to the right of the nose, with the white and red dots left of the windshield center post being the
glideslope (PAPI) lights.
On short final to runway 34 at Pease, with full flaps, and still flying with a 15° left crab angle, which I plan to kick out with rudder at touchdown.
Landed! That was some challenge, as the strong crosswind wanted to blow this Gooney Bird off the runway.
Taxiing to parking, as viewed from the control tower, so you can barely see me in the center of this image, heading away from the runway on taxiway Bravo.
Here's my view of the control tower, from the same spot on taxiway Bravo. Hmm... where to park today?
Not technically appropriate, of course, but I found myself a fun parking spot, in the middle of some Air Force KC-10 tankers. They didn't look like they minded ;-).
My view out the left cockpit window, after setting the parking brake. That tanker over there almost seems like it's smiling over at me.
Engines shut down and battery master shut off. Hooray! Fun adventure complete!
