Feb 24, 2021
Schefferville — Sept-Iles, QC
We are a long way from were we started: Cardiff, UK…
We have been hoping for some good weather for some time to enable us to depart of Schefferville o fly further south through Quebec towards the NE corner of the US. Today we launched MSFS2020 with real wetaher on and within seconds the canaopies on both aircraft iced over completely in -15 degree C temperatures. With only a minimalist de-icing system and a ‘not certified for flight into known icing conditions’ restriction, clearly this was not a day for the DA62s to go flying. In the past we have deliberately flown the DA62s into known icing conditions under our virtual flying caveat that is ‘we would never dream of doing this for real.’ However, on this occasion attempting to take off would have been too foolhardy, even for our virtual flying antics. So reluctantly and in the interest of making progress we decided to turn off the real weather option and we added some heavy showers in wamer air. We then turned the real weather back on once airbourne.
Our flight down to Sept-Iles involved constant weather avoidance; both vertically and laterally. At one point Bling1 flew at FL196 whilst Bling2 scurried along the tree tops at A3000ft, both in vain attempts to avoid icing…ice galore! At least Bling2 got to look at some scenery whilst Bling1 got blissful blue skies and sunshine above the cloud tops.
For our arrival into Sept-Iles we decided to fly the VOR DME RWY13 procedure followed by an unpublished circling procedure to RWY27 as the wind was forecast to be 280/12kts. There was no need to do this as we could have flown any number of approaches to Sept-Iles with varying degrees of crosswind and tailwind components; all within limits. We decided however, that we needed some practice.
For those that are interested the approach plate is shown below coutesy of www.fltplan.com.
We flew this procedure from the NE at A3900ft. Bling1 had the lead with Bling2 following, both in IMC at times and both full of ice. We first flew overhead the YZV beacon, entered the hold and then flew outbound on R106 YZV before turning right and flying back inbound to YZV again. After this procedure we both flew outbound YZV on R286 until around 5–6D YZV before commencing the 241/061 procedural turn. From here on we flew inbound R106 follwoing the descent profile for the instrument approach until a safe break procedure was able to be performed. We both then positioned RH downwind for RWY27.
Both Blings made it down safely and shut down in front of the main terminal. Next we are off on our last flight in Canada until we return eventually up the west coast after a long trip down the east coast of the US etc…If you have any suggestions for places to visit or any quaetions about our flying please drop us a message @FlyGVF on Twitter or Reddit FlyGVF…
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