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Continuing the cross-country journey from Gulfport, MS (KGPT) to Lakeland, FL (KLAL) in the Diamond DA-50RG in X-Plane 12!

In this 15-minute segment, we fly from the PLEBE navigation fix to LOXLY, cruising at 3,500 feet. Watch as we navigate the route, manage the aircraft, and take in the scenery along the way. This is Part 2 of a longer flight, so be sure to check out the full series for the complete trip.

Flight Details:

Aircraft: Diamond DA-50RG

Simulator: X-Plane 12

Route: KGPT (Gulfport, MS) → KLAL (Lakeland, FL)

Segment: PLEBE → LOXLY

Cruise Altitude: 3,500 ft

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#XPlane12 #DA50RG #FlightSimulator #GeneralAviation #FlightSim #XPlane #DiamondAircraft #CrossCountry #GAflying #Simming #Aviation #KGPT #KLAL #PilotLife
Transcript
00:13All right, so we're at Plebe intersection.
00:36So Plebe, I have some fun facts on that.
00:42So we're leaving the Mississippi line and crossing over to Plebe.
00:53That marks the transition over to the Gulf of Mexico because we had a wild ride getting
01:03here.
01:05And this stretch of water has been a critical training route for the generations for military
01:11pilot.
01:12You know, you have the base we just left, you know, there's the Army, the Air, and the Air
01:18Force, World War II.
01:20They have aircraft parked there.
01:24And where we are now, you know, we're nearing Pensacola.
01:28And they have the F-18s, the fighter aircraft there.
01:34Blue Angels, one of the homes of the Blue Angels.
01:42Yeah, it's one of the homes of the Blue Angels.
01:47So to stay below the clouds, we've dropped down to 3,500 feet.
01:51That's what I wanted to do.
01:53That's what I had in mind when I checked this power setting.
02:01Yeah, we're good.
02:03It's a little bit more power now.
02:06We're burning a little bit more fuel, but I want to get to where we're going.
02:12This is where we are.
02:31Let's say you have a win.
02:36Let me show you around.
02:55You have some reduced visibility because of the storms and rain, but this is spectacular.
03:06And here's your right view.
03:09We're actually parallel to one of the airports.
03:14The airport to the right of us.
03:16That's going to be St. Elmo Airport.
03:20It's a small non-town airport.
03:24But you can get service, so it should be able to at least get view.
03:27And maybe aircraft maintenance.
03:32Let me show you on the chart.
03:36Here we go.
03:38So that's that airport that you're seeing.
03:40Okay.
03:40Slow blues, slow blues, slow blues, slow blues, slow blues, slow blues, slow blues,
04:43So it's time to get us back on the, uh, good places of the autopilot.
04:50So what I'm going to attempt here is to, uh, get it to pick up at Locksley.
05:35So I told her to go direct Locksley.
05:38And let's see what it's doing.
05:40It should stay on this course.
05:41It put us on course and keep us there.
05:46And at this altitude, 35 bucks a street.
06:19So we're coming up on, uh,
06:21Mobile International, uh, airport, moving us out of your way.
06:29Well, let's see where we are here.
06:31Yeah, Mobile.
06:36And Mobile Bay.
06:39So we're hearing.
06:40Let me give you a good view.
06:44Let me give you a good view.
06:46Just like a guitar, please come.
06:52Water sounds, distant engine home.
06:58Slow blues to pave the way.
07:03So, y'all, you see, we're right over Mobile Bay.
07:07And it's the left side.
07:09There you see, we're right below those clouds.
07:11We, uh, we're starting to cruise at, uh, we're starting to cruise at 5,500.
07:18And, um, I didn't want to be in and out of these, uh, tremendous clouds.
07:22Cause I know they're, um, they're supposed to be, it's a convective segment.
07:27So there's some things in those clouds that you, that a pilot might not be able to see.
07:32And, uh, I see ahead.
07:36See if I can get it on the way you can see it at a time.
07:41Up ahead there, there's some, uh, cities.
07:44Over here in Alabama?
07:45Don't know.
07:46Haven't been there.
08:07So what I'm hoping here, I hit, uh, direct to go to, um, Locksley.
08:14And, um, when it gets there, I hope it continues on.
08:18I believe I know, here's what happened on the departure.
08:21Normally, I would, um, I would activate the flight plan while on the ground.
08:28But this time, I did not do it.
08:31And, uh, so we was already past the airport.
08:35I mean, we was already on our climb out.
08:37And so when I, on the climb out, got manually established, then hit the other pilot, and
08:44it took us back to the starting point.
08:47And so here, oh, let's do this.
08:50There's some really nice, really nice stuff coming up here.
08:55So on the left, so on the right, we're actually, that is Mobile Bay now.
09:03Before it was not.
09:05This is, now we got the city of Mobile.
09:11Let me see how far away from that airport we are.
09:17Can't really see it here.
09:22We saw the airport, earlier on the chart.
09:36So this is where we are.
09:40We're just passing our Mobile, we just, yeah, passed Mobile International off to our right.
09:47So the other pilot is, um, is doing his thing now.
09:55But, yeah, that was the pilot error.
09:57What I did, a good teaching moment for me, a reminder moment.
10:02It's, um, you know, if you're doing everything, you do everything the same way, and then you
10:08try something, and it's working, and then you try something different, you know, the best
10:13that you can hope for is that it still works.
10:16I had a procedure that was proven, just, uh, fly, you know, uh, using autopilot.
10:26It's kind of, it started on, it's shortly after you take off, or at your takeoff, and it's
10:33going to go to its course.
10:34And you could always turn it off and then engage it when you're on.
10:39Yeah, activate the flight plan while rolling out on the runway.
10:44Then, once the flight plan is activated, all you got to do is, when you're airborne, clear
10:49of obstacles, go ahead and turn that bad boy on.
10:52Because what it did was, um, was just what we saw it doing.
10:56And that is, um, it was going up and, um, trying to go back to the airport.
11:03I'm going to turn this fuel pump.
11:04So, another thing there, checklist.
11:08I got preoccupied with the situation.
11:16Okay, we're coming up on Locksley, so I want to make sure it, uh, turns, it, uh, keeps
11:24us, keeps us on course.
11:35Okay, gear up, we are piled the brakes, let's just see, flaps up, climb power, got that set.
11:48But, we got cruise power set now.
11:59Climb the cruise, did that already, we're here.
12:01Make sure, make sure we covered everything.
12:05So, gear up, flaps, okay, power set, collar flaps set.
12:12Um, temperature is good.
12:18I'm going to close the collar flaps and keep an eye on the temperature.
12:26That's going to give us a little bit more speed.
12:30Keep, uh, closing the collar flaps.
12:32As you can see, the airspeed is increasing, well, I thought it was.
12:36Yeah, slightly, you get a couple more knots.
12:39But then, you also got to keep an eye on the, um, keep an eye on your temperature.
12:46Oil temp.
12:52Merge the fuel pump.
12:55Off, yep.
12:58See, I was supposed to do all this on, um, climb out.
13:02But I was ground shooting the airplane.
13:09So, so, we're passing 10,000 feet.
13:12Check this, we're not passing 10,000 feet.
13:14We actually went up to 5,500.
13:16And then we, we scooted down, um, below that.
13:21Now, we're at, we're at the minimum altitude for the airway.
13:27They get something like 2,100 feet because we're back east.
13:31We're east now where the land is flat.
13:35And so, you only get 1,000 feet.
13:38The FAA only requires you to have 1,000 feet separation from the, uh, the highest terrain.
13:45Flat lands like this.
13:49So, we don't need no ice protection.
13:52So, we're done with that.
13:54And I was just, I was trying to stay on top of this checklist here on out.
14:11So, we're going to stay on top of this checklist.
Comments
PilotSavvy
Creator
Continuing the cross-country journey from Gulfport, MS (KGPT) to Lakeland, FL (KLAL) in the Diamond DA-50RG in X-Plane 12!

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