UK builders : Part Deux

[mpl330]

Evening All!

We had a small get together to check out a couple of sims a while back so anyone up for a guided trip round Concorde? For this we would not be limited by numbers so the more the merrier!

If anyone is interested we could sort out a meet at http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/ConcordeTours

Post if you are interested...

Cheers
Mike

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

yes please, i'd love to do that as long as you and everson leave your tools at home.
by the way, what have you got planned for part soixant-neuf?
regards from oswestry .... ian

[phil744]

soixant-neuf?
hehehe.

Sounds good to me, i dont live too far away.
Got a Dzeu removal tool, might have to give it a whirl;)

Phil

[Daveanne]

Sounds good to me folks, when?

Daveanne

Promise to leave my tools at home Ian.......

[mpl330]

Gents,
I will contact them and see what we can arrange - glass of fizzy wine or a mug of tea and a bit of jet blast is the next preference question!!!
Looks like there would be a charge involved so what cost is acceptable? - looks like they do a 4 aircraft tour for £39 or a concorde special for £20...
I will enquire to see what 'specials' they will offer us (Trevor/Matt we may need some official back up as to our status ;) )
Looks like we may need 12-15 people to have it to ourselves so anyone just watching make yourselves known now 8-) otherwise we can get on the std tours.

Anyone building Concorde, DC10, RJ100 or Trident?

Cheers
Mike

[phil744]

40 quid dont sound bad to me.

I was there the other day and a rather strange object was lurking behind the concorde visitors office under blue wrapping,

Got collered before i could get close, think it may be a 737 nose section, but cant say for sure.

**note to self, bring range rover and flat bed trailer**

(joking;))

[steveeverson]

Im well up for that mike- sounds like a really good day out... and ian, it's that Davis fella you have to look out for- he was mentioning your seats again today...
cheers
Steve:roll:

[magicaldr]

I would be interested, depending on dates (new baby on the way in next few months). Bit of a trek up there, but sounds like a good day out :)

[Daveanne]

Don't mind the full monty, actually £39.00 sounds OK to me.

There is a vauge possibility that I might, I say again, might be able to get an ATC tour organised at the same time, no promisses though, i do have a contact.....

The thought of a Concorde Pit is daunting....... can you get enough USB's to cope with 4 of everything? all old style instruments too.....

Daveanne

[John Davis]

Im definitely up for it if that everson fella will give me a lift again :)
Ian, Steves lying, i didntion mention the seats again, honest LOL

Phil, just been looking at the panels you have been making, I was just about to start work on my ovehead but dont think I could do half as well, fancy making 2 sets ? contact me for a chat about it.

Cheers John

[Daveanne]

Well folks, part 8 or whatever it is of the RTW trip, this one with some interesting problems too......

Me as P1, (1st Officer Ian) as 1st Officer and John in the jump seat, he was supposed to do the trolley dolly bit but I ended up doing it instead, well it is my house.

So we are starting from Delhi (VIDP) to, originally Dhaka, slight problem though, couldn't find any scenery for Dhaka airport, found some for FS98, loaded it too but all the elevations were wrong, the runway was in the air on its own and the buildings and airfield boundary's all had strange looking grey walls around them?

So if anyone out there knows of a programme that converts FS98 scenery to FS9, point me in the right direction please.

So I decided to go to Chitagong (VGEG) instead, still in Pakistan on the southern coast, on looking at the approach plates there's a warning "Passing ships in the approach area rwy 23 with mast heights up to 150' Birds in vicinity of airport"......the plot thickens.

Moved the 'sim time' to 05:55 hrs to get a nice sunrise after taking off in the dark and heading towards the East.

Weather: 330/8kts Few at 4000ft runway in use 28 Q1009 temp 26 degrees C.

FMC programmed: ALIGA1 (SID), SKA, ALI, LLK, PPT, MONDA, TEBID, RAJ, JSR, DAKID DIR VGEG.

Weather at VGEG: 180/04kts 6000ft scattered, few 12,000ft, temp 28 dew 26....!! damp or what Q1007.

Pushback at 06:08 cleared to hold short at 28 for departure, 1st officer gives us duff info so we end up going around a grassed island twice before we get on the right taxiway......God help us.

Taxi parallel with 28 and we are 2nd in line after another 737, 1st officer directs us into some trees, well nearly, good job I was looking out the window, we do a HMS Troutbridge (left hand down a bit Mr Phillips) and park at the thresh hold for departure.

Clearance given: Approved departure route climb and maintain 6000ft, take off OK with V1: 127 Vr: 137 V2: 147, gear up after positive climb, engage LNav & MCP, speed increasing to 210, flaps up, V NAV up to 250kts on the SID.

Cleared to 15,000, 20,000, 23000 (Own Nav) 29,000, then ATC tells us we are going the wrong way?? actually we aren't, just Rc4 doing its own thing (I have noticed this problem with a few flights it swears blind you are off track and makes you turn tail on your self, then turns you back again), managed to get around that by asking for a direct to: ALI, which it was quite happy to give us.

Further climbs to 34,000 then 35,000 and cruise @0.78M with a tail wind of 72 kts we are travelling over the ground at 499Kts.

We ask ATC if we can go to 37,000ft, because the FMC says that height would be more efficient, ATC OK with that and we climb to 37,000ft.

Everything appeared all right then so we relaxed a bit, I went down to the kitchen to do the trolley dolly bit, Beer for me and 1st Officer, Tea for John, he doesn't drink.

Then, all **** breaks loose..... 1st thing is the ATC over the headphones goes off, I have a look at the headphone unit to see its gone off line, so goes around the front and re-inserts the USB connection, back on but all the sound is through the headsets, not good.

Further fiddling with things manage to get the main sound back onto the speakers, but ATC is also on them as well, we are so far into the flight I didn't want to re-boot everything, OK so we settle down again only to find that the overhead and the ATC answering buttons have also gone dead too.

That system is also on a USB, but I think to my self if I go unplugging and re-inserting things this lot is going to CRASH (PC wise), so we leave it as it is.

Still going along quite nicely and POP, out goes the primary displays......???? Charming?

So now we are down to standby instruments, MCP is still working, we are still in contact with ATC, so should be OK.

We are now in full daylight after a eventful sunrise just off to our left, however ATC starts us down to: 35,000, 24,000, 15,000, 8000, 4000, 2,500 gives us "Radar Service Terminated" and hands us over to Chitagong Tower for final.

Luckily we have already programmed the approach and we allow the FMC to fly us around the transition pattern to join the ILS to 23, full cloud cover this low down and we eventually capture the Centre line and then Glideslope, we start seeing the ground at about 2,000ft and pick up the HIALS and PAPI at about 3 miles out.

ILS approach until 500ft disconnect MCP and Autothrottle for a manual landing, didn't quite get the touch down right, 1st officer remarked "lets fly parallel to the surface shall we", OK smart arse....

Eventually...... we touch down and taxi off at the Pan, no other taxi ways here, its only 9646ft long and one place to park, any way cleared to the ramp (our choice) and we parked up at..... well we were not sure really, just left a bit from the tower, anyway here and safe.

Honestly many, many thanks to 1st Officer, he talked me through the decent and transition phase onto the ILS, I don't think I might have managed it without him, its really difficult when you are only on standby instruments alone......!!!

Well I was out at work till late last night so I haven't had a chance to find out what went wrong with the display's, Overhead, USB's etc. etc, need to go and have a look at them now, probably just one of Mr Gates little quirks, (just to keep us on our toes you know).

A very dear friend of ours, sadly deceased now (Dave Trotter) always used to swear by Apple Mac and always said if FS was on there it wouldn't cough and splutter like it does on MSoft, may be he's got a point. God Bless you Dave.

That's it for now, next week: Chittagong (VGEG) to Bankok (VTBD).... The Far East.

Daveanne

Any more progress on the Concorde trip? How did the world flight weekend go John?

[John Davis]

Hi Dave, was going to reply and say leg 8 ? ... Get on with it Man LOL

The Worldflight USA weekend went well and we flew nearly 14,000 miles over 15 legs I think, on of my pilots managed to shear off one of the throttles which meant we had to miss two legs. Thanmks to Steve Everson and his expert soldering and repair work we wer able to repair it.
The weekend also brought up several niggling problems with the sim which I have been working on to rectify.

At the moment the sim is apart for repairs and upgrades as its a bit quiet on the customer front at the moment.

Sounds like you guys have a great time during your legs, I will be looking for crew for this years worldflight in November if you are interested, that goes for any UK Simbuilders we start 2nd November at 11pm of course you 737 guys will have to fly a real aircraft :)

Best wishes John

[mpl330]

Hi Guys,

Had a really hectic week and weekend so not had chance to check on the Concorde trip but should be fine for checking it this week. I'll post the details once I know them.

Fun flight Dave!

Cheers
Mike

[John Davis]

.... sigh .... you just can't get the staff :roll:

[RalphW]

Count me in.

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

sorry mike i can't remember if i told you i was up for it as well.
can i hold all the money :o)
cheers ... ian

[mpl330]

Hi All,

So far havent been able to get hold of anyone at Manchester by phone so have emailed them - will let you know the response...

Cheers
Mike

[Daveanne]

Well folks part 9 of the continuing saga, otherwise known as "2 amateurs and a trolley dolly" (by the way the trolley dolly didn't turn up, something about having to fly to Greece (for real) the next day early in the morning, alright for some)?

On the ramp at VGEG Chitagong (no ramp numbers) at 05:36 (FS time) weather: 150 @ 3 knots 3,500 mtrs vis, Few @ 1600 Sct @ 12,000 28 degrees C dew point 25, (bit close and damp) Q1008.

We are travelling to Bangkok today (VTBD), weather there: 320 @ 5kts 9999 vis Few 12000 Bkn 30000 temp 25 with a dew point of 22 Q1010.

FMC programmed at 05:50hrs Journey: No SID at Chitagong, Dir to AVLED, NIVOG, BGO, PUMEK, BENTO, ANNIE, BD257, BD256, BD254, BD112, BD111, the approach through STAR ANNI4A, however after "stepping" through the FMC journey log it has drawn magenta lines all over the place, some originating back to where we came from in the first place......!!

Bugger that thought we, by the way, me as P2, john (Glider Pilot) as P1.

So we delete a load of stuff from the FMC route section until the magenta lines look reasonable, we should be firmly under ATC's control long before we get there anyway.

Nearly fully set up on the FMC, just putting the final details in and "POP" out goes the projector?

It had shown some warnings earlier on that day about the filter needing cleaning or the like, but decided to switch itself off because I hadn't done as it wanted me too........ Bolshie' little bugger, must remember to do what the little bleeder want's next time.

So after changing the filter and increasing the fan to maximum it all comes back onto line, not easy this flying stuff is it?

Finally we get Clearance, as published (difficult without a SID), climb to 6000ft SQ4256, permission to taxi given to 'holding point' on 23, bit difficult if you have to back track on the active, but we do so, given line up and wait.

Brakes off at 07:10 (you can now see how long it took to get the projector back on line), straight forward take off, climb to 6000ft turn left for AVLED, given clearance to 15,000, 23000, 34,000 37,000, then study FMC which tells us that the most economic height is 38,000, so we ask for 38,000 and are granted so we go up another 1000 and settle down in the cruise at 0.78M with a 238/13kts wind at -35 degrees C, bit parky outside...

Fairly uneventful journey flying parallel with the Burma SW coast, over Rangoon and into Thailand, as soon as we cross over to Bangkok ATC they start us down to: 35,000, 27,000, 24,000, 17,000, 11,000, 8,000 then 3000ft, turn us left to make a right hand circuit on to 21L at Bangkok.

Further reduction in height to 2000ft, turn right on 120 degrees and given clearance to intercept the ILS for final.

Progressed down the approach, slowed down, in steps, to 150kts with 30 degrees of flap ready for touchdown, we see the HIALS & PAPI very easily and I enter the height and speed changes into the MCP if we have to do a go-around (already in the FMC).

P1 asks for Auto pilot and Autothrotle off at 500ft for a manual landing, so far, so good...... then the runway starts to drift under the nose and to the left, he corrects (too much) reduces power and stuffs the nose into the threshold of the runway.... "ding ding", "all stop", "tilt", "crash" and or any other similar word's you would like to use, screen goes blank FS9 re-starts, guess where?, that's right back at Chitagong, not good.

Thinks! must remember to turn crash off in settings.

So we go for the magic button and place ourselves at the threshold of 21L at Bangkok and are determined to "Taxi" to a stand if it kills us, apparently if this was real, it would have!

So we taxi to stand 24 at the International Terminal.

Flying time; 1hr 52 mins, time sat in the attic 3hrs 30 min!!!! hey ho, there's always another day, and there will be next week in episode 10 Bangkok (VTBD) to Hong Kong (VHHH).

Have a nice day.

P.S. standard of pilots today, you just can't get the staff !!!

Hope the Thai people can fix the runway in time, and the bloody plane for that matter (suppose we will have re-start the PC to get a new one.............Bye

Dave & whoever's left alive?

[mpl330]

Good news - had a response from Manchester :D - asking me to ring them...:roll:
They are suggesting the 4 plane tour which was looking as though it would be approx £40

I'll try ring them again tomorrow (Tues) and update when I get through.

Cheers
Mike

[magicaldr]

Cheers Mike :) Let us know if they suggest any dates as I will need to clear any away time with she who must be obeyed. With baby number 3 expected in 7 weeks I am on a short leash at moment.

[mpl330]

Cheers Mike :) Let us know if they suggest any dates as I will need to clear any away time with she who must be obeyed. With baby number 3 expected in 7 weeks I am on a short leash at moment.


Will do - does anyone else have any dates they definately can't do?

[steveeverson]

Had a look at the manchester website and 40quid seems very reasonable.. got various work over may but will try and make it !- give me a buzz when you have some dates..
cheers
steve:D

[phil744]

Anytime is good for me so long as i have a bit of notice.

Bring some bits 'n' pieces with me:p

[mpl330]

Been in touch with Manchester and they can do a tour for us:

Need 8 - 10 people and they can do a 3 hour tour of 4 planes:

DC10 - incl cockpit
Trident - incl cockpit - 1st auto land pass jet
Concorde - (approx 1 hour including cockpit)
Avro RJX - this is the only one that has glass to prevent us getting in the seats...

£39 per person including a brew and a biccy and they would do this for us on 25/5 (BH Sunday) or 7/6 - probably 11:00 or 14:00
My initial thoughts would be 7/6...

Let me know who's up for it and any preference...
Cheers
Mike

[steveeverson]

Hi Mike- put me down for 7th June..
cheers
Steve

[warvet]

Hey John,
You still a media superstar over there or did they throw you over for Paris Hilton and Brittany :)

Always a pleasure too see ya mate
Tim
A340
Canada

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

Can't come out to play Bank Holiday Sunday, so June 7th is good with me and no preference on the time at all.
ooow, i'm all excited
chers lads.... best ... ian

[John Davis]

im available both days at present, as im coming with steve i guess 7th is better for me too, but definitely count me in.

Do you know if they allow photography Mike ?


Yo Rev tim !!!!!!!!!!! good to see you hanging around here, sorry I kept missing you during WFUSA .... when you gonna start building a real sim ?? ;)
No wonder you hide it round the back of terminals LOL

My mega fame is waning a bit but im not too worried, gon down from 2 million google hits to approx half a million now ... paris and Brittney have stopped calling me too :roll:

best wishes John (PC)

[RalphW]

June 7 is good for me too. Thanks Mike

[magicaldr]

Will have to check with wife, will get back to you asap.

[phil744]

Yep, sounds good to me, put us down :)

[mpl330]

Do you know if they allow photography Mike ?


They sure do - and like technical questions too!

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

Like can you show John and Steve how to remove the IRS and then i take pictures for my website (he he he)....you know i'm only kidding (i want the IRS).

[Daveanne]

7th of June look good to me too.

I will see if my contact in ATC is still OK too.

Daveanne

[phil744]

I wonder if I could produce a few Concorde panels and accidently swap them for real ones????? hmm....;)

[Daveanne]

The further adventures of "2 Amateurs and a trolley dolly" part 10?

Well folks had to do it all on my own last night, my own fault, devil of a cold and only fair that I didn't pass it onto the other guys too.

Well, started off at stand 24 of the Terminal at Bangkok International (VTBD).

Route tonight: Bangkok (VTBD) to Hong Kong (VHHH)

I was really looking forward to this trip, but was very disappointed at the other end, you will see why during the narrative.

FMC programming started at 04:00 (sim) time in the dark; route: GRANT 2 (Sid), KRT, RAMEI, SAV, DONGI, ASSAD, SIKOU, SIKOU 1A (Star). for initially 07L at Hong Kong.

Weather: (VTBD), 190 @4 kts Vis 9999, Few @ 020, BKN 300, Temp 29/24 Q1008 NOSIG.
(VHHH), VRB @1 kt, Vis 8000, Few@ 030, Temp 24/21 Q1009 NOSIG

FMC finished at 04:15, Clearance gained, climb 5000ft using published departure SQ5377.

04:18 pushback and start at own discression.

Taxi clearance to hold short runway 21L. 04:33 cleared takeoff, off we go, take off uneventful and given clearance to 13,000, 15,000, 19,000, 23,000, 29,000, 34,000 and 37000ft.

Once again RC4 tells me I'm off course (must write a letter to the RC people and tell them it talks a load of crap), but I get around that by going direct to the next checkpoint (KRT).

Nice Sun rise directly in front, with nice red's and clouds clearly visible.

Now at the cruise of 0.783M, @ 37K wind 341 at 8 knts -46 degrees C. Ground speed 456 kts.

Handed over to Vientiane then Hanoi, and finally Guangzhou for decent to Honk Kong.

View not very spectacular on the journey, crossed over Thailand, Laos and Viet Nam, then over the South China Sea and the Island of Hainan towards Hong Kong, really looking forward to the decent into HK as the scenery is supposed to be great.

145 miles out form Hong Kong started descending; 35,000, 24,000, 15,000, 12,000, 9,000, turn right on 040 degrees then 075 degrees, descend to 4,000, 3500, turn left on to 350 degrees and down to 2,500 for ILS interception.

Why disappointing? because the lower section of this was in 8/8 cloud and rain showers, Boo Hoo couldn't see a bloody thing until 3 miles out on the ILS (we are now coming in on 25L after a wind change on route), HIALS & PAPI.

Well I did see a few hills pass by on route, but just vague green bits now and again...

Touch down much better this trip, didn't have to dig anything out of the Tarmac at all, a little bit of reverse thrust to slow her down (12,467ft) of runway, so loads of time before we fall of the end into the sea (not like KiaTak).

Turned off at Juliet 4 and received clearance to the stand (our choice), finished up at S47 of the passenger terminal and closed down everything, nice one, really are in the Orient now.

Flying time 2:15 distance 919 miles.

Next week Honk Kong (VHHH) to Shanghai (ZSSS).

See you there?

Dave (still sniffing and coffin) & Anne

[mpl330]

OK - 7 definates...
Any ideas Magic?
Anybody else fancy coming along? Could do with 8 - 10 really...

[John Davis]

Not sure we want a report on you playing with yourself Dave :D

Best wishes John

[mpl330]

Happy Bank Holiday Everyone,

Will book the visit this week and so far have 7 places required:
Me
Steve Everson
Ian Sissons
John Davis
Ralph W
Phil744
Daveanne

If anyone else is still interested can you let me know before Wednesday...
Cheers
Mike

[magicaldr]

Sadly too close to expected date, wife worried about me being so far away. Hope you peeps all have a great day, take lots of pics.

I will try to make our next UK meet, unless any of you will be at aero expo this year.

[Daveanne]

My sim co-pilot (John) want's to join us at Manchester too, so that makes it 8?

Daveanne

[Daveanne]

Folk's !

Yet another thrilling, yes thrilling instalment of: "2 amateurs and a trolley dolly" Part 11.

Unfortunately the dolly didn't turn up again, but good news the cold's gone.....yippee.

Journey tonight (Wednesday), Hong Kong (VHHH) to Pudong (ZSPD), had to change it because I couldn't get any decent scenery for the other Shanghai airport.

John, fellow glider pilot at the controls, me playing 1st officer etc.

20:00 hrs local, started off from Hong Kong stand S47 and programmed FMC for journey, weather:

VHHH, 110 @ 12 kts 8000m vis few @ 010 Sct 018 temp 26/23 Q1008 NOSIG
ZSPD, 150 @ 5 (meters per second), obviously don't know what a knot is yet? CAVOK Temp 18/16 Q1006 NOSIG.

Route: VHHH, BEKOL 1C (SID), SMT, ROACH, TD, BEKOL, KOW, 28E19, AND, ZSPD.

Clearance given at 20:27 climb to 6000, departure by published route, SQ4446 call ground on 124.50, when ready.

Pushback at 20:32 start at our digression, given taxi instruction to runway holding point 07L.

Uneventful taxi to Runway and given clearance to take off at 20:52.

Good acceleration down the runway lift off and positive climb rate, wheels up, select VNAV and LNAV to follow the SID out of Hong Kong.

Great news, after my arrival last week, in thick cloud, we climb out and turn left with a fantastic view of Kowloon Bay and Ki Tak (old) and the new territories clearly visible........nice.

Given clearances to: 15,000, 23,000, given new SQ of 3467 then 34,000, 37,000 and finally 38,000, settle down in the cruise at 0.78M wind 359@ 10kts -48 degrees C with a ground speed of 434 kts.

Not sure on the spelling but stayed with Guangzhou control until KOW then handed over to Shanghai from then on.

160 miles out from Pudong descended to: 35,000, 24,000, 16,000, 7,000, 4,000, 2000 ft for an uncontrolled approach into Pudong, runway 17, with discontinued Radar Service.

We decide that we are too close in for a correct approach, (RC4 has a habit of not lowering you down in sufficient time to make a reasonable approach every time.....?)

So we declare a Missed Approach, this means climbing back up to 990 ft, actually we are still at 4000 ft anyway so we then turn left towards HSH and pick up the inbound 347 radial to it, as directed in the approach plate.

Once we have reduced our height, ATC gives us instructions to descend to 2000ft again, but allows us to make an approach on our own from there on in, so we make a left turn on 251 degrees slow down to about 175 kts and flaps to 10 degrees, five miles out from the runway centre line we turn left on to 200 degrees and wait for the ILS centre line bug to start moving on the lower display.

This starts moving and we select VOR lock to keep us on the centre line, when the glide slope bug starts to move down the display so we then select APP and reduce the speed to 170, with 15 degrees flap and wheels down, 3 Green's.

HIALS and PAPI visible at 5 miles out and declare 'Field in site', given clearance for VFR approach from then on.

Reduce speed further eventually to 145 kts with full (40 degrees) flap ready for touch down.

Disengage Auto Pilot and throttle at 300 ft for manual landing, good round-out and touch down with reverse thrust and light braking to bring us to a halt just short of half way down the runway (big one this 13,123 ft long!!), turn off onto the taxi way and report in, get a bollocking because we report in to early, but given clearance to the ramp (our choice).

We taxi to stand 16 in front of the main terminal and shut down everything.

Nice one John, all in one piece too.....

Arrived (local) 23:00 hrs with a flying time BO to BO of 2:24 mins total, distance of 809 miles.

Next week: Pudong (ZSPD) to Hiroshima (RJOA), hope they have swept all that nasty radiation stuff up by now?

See you all next week folks for more adventures of: "2 amateurs and a trolley dolly".

Daveanne

[mpl330]

Hi Dave,

No problem on 8 - booking today (Friday) and have been in touch with them this week to check we are still on for the dedicated tour at 11:00.

Will post again with details...

Safe flight this time!

Cheers
Mike

[mpl330]

Hi All,

Tour is now booked and paid for 8 :) - we can add extra if anyone else still wants to come...
Can you let me have your full name or whatever you want to appear on your certificate so they can be prepared for when we get there.

Cost was £39 so you can either pay me in advance or on the day (don't tell the wife but I raided her handbag :p)

Tour is on 7/6/08 and will start at 11:00 and cover 4 aircraft, entry to the aviation viewing park is included in the fee so dont let them charge you again although they are sending me some stuff in the post so it may include tickets. I'll arrange a meeting place once I see what has come in the post...

Have a great weekend - no overdoing it with bbq's and beer!
Cheers
Mike

[Daveanne]

My real name is: David Holt.
My simming friend is: John Farley

Look forward to meeting you all again and a nice day out too.

Daveanne

[steveeverson]

Thanks Mike,
and my real name is.....
you guessed it!

And i think Johns middle name is 'simgod' if i remember rightly..

Hope you are all well out there in ukbuilders land

cheers
steve:p

[John Davis]

Mines ... John SimGod 2 Davis LOL (Joking)

Mike I dont mind paying you beforehand .... do you have a paypal account ?

[mpl330]

Gents,

Tickets now received and the itinerary includes:

Extended tour of Concorde G-BOAC with more time in the cabin and flightdeck.
Tour of Avro RJX146, last civilian airliner built in the Uk.
Tour of restored HS Trident G-AWZK, pioneer of the automatic landing system.
Visit to the flightdeck of Monarch DC-10 exhibit.
And not forgetting a coffee break in the Concorde Departure Lounge!

Meet up 10:30 - 10:45 at the Romper Pub car park:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=romper+pub&near=Manchester,+Lancashire&fb=1&cd=1&ei=HYgsSMXRN4W02gLewICoDg&cid=53359357,-2290174,13339361079586813883&li=lmd&t=h&ll=53.359209,-2.289695&spn=0.00404,0.00972&z=17&iwloc=A

See you all in June!
Cheers
Mike

[steveeverson]

Thanks for sorting it all out Mike..

and as the youth of today would say ..

'I is well excited init'

cheers mate:)

[mpl330]

Sorry Steve - you're barred - this is Concorde we are going on and there is a strict dress code of slacks and a blazer - no hoodies!

[steveeverson]

terribly sorry old chap, don't know what earth came over me there....
anyone for pimms?

righty-o must fly
toodle pip!:roll:

[Matt Olieman]

terribly sorry old chap, don't know what earth came over me there....
anyone for pimms?

righty-o must fly
toodle pip!:roll:

LMRAO :D:D:D Nice Steve :)

Matt O.

[John Davis]

Think I will come up on the train ..... not sure I could stand 2 hrs of listening to steve talking like that ! .... its taken me a year to learn "Hoodie" ;)

[Daveanne]

Hi guys, just like to say many, many thanks to everyone for the get together on Saturday, it was really nice to see everyone again and meet new guys too.

Enjoyed the tour imensly and look forward to the next day out.......?

Sorry I haven't reported to you all for the past few journey's, been busy building the Fire Control Panel and the FMC, both working nicely and making the Sim much more realistic

Well back to Simmin......

Wednesday the 11th.

Playing on my own again, just can't get the staff, Trolley dolly was realy flying, swine! and poor John still had the snuffles as he did Saturday.

Tokyo (RJAA) to Wakkanai (RJCW)......... still in Japan, just.

OK started at stand 24 Tokyo airport (Narita) raining cats & dogs or is it Yin and Yang?

Weather: wind 105 @ 2kts Rain, cloud base 400ft, scattered at 2000ft temp 19C dew point 17C Q1005 runway in use 16L (that's strange there's only one runway at Narita).

Route: NRE8 (SID), SNE, IZUMI, NZE, MIKRA, YTE, HANKA, MWE, IBURI, NAVER, CHE, KURIS, BEEBA, SUIKA, RUMOI, TESIO and direct to RJCW.

On route winds @ 255/82kts temp @ 37K -51C

FMC programmed with V1 @123, Vr @ 133 and V2 @ 144 kts departure on Narita 117.90

Given clearance, published departures, climb to 5000ft SQ4172.

Pushback and start, clearance to 16R hold short of the runway (appears we have grown another runway all of a sudden)?

Line up and wait, RWY 16R

Cleared takeoff @ 21:52hrs (local), still light in Japan.

Good acceleration and normal takeoff down 16R lift-off, positive climb rate, wheels up and AP/LNAV select, speed set at 220kts.

Reduced flap as speed increases until climb established 220kts @2500ft PM flaps up.

Given clearance to 11,000 and turning right, still on SID, given clearance to 19,000ft changed to standard setting of 1013 at 14,000 (transition altitude).

Broke cloud cover at 11,000ft and had a clear view of snow capped mountains to my left (now heading north).

Further clearances to: 23,000, 29,000, 34,000 and finally 37,000ft, now on VNAV & LNAV, out of the SID and own navigation.

Settled down at 37K speed .776M wind 244/108kts temp -50C

Good clear view of both East & West coast lines as progressing up the Japanese central plains and mountains, stayed with Tokyo Control (various frequencies).

22:46hrs (local) and about 110 miles out given descents to:

35,000, 27,000, 24,000, 16,000 (back to QNH at 14,000), 12,000 reduce speed to 270 kts, 12,000, reduce speed to 240kts, descend to 7,000 turn right to 010 degrees.

Then turn left onto 260 degrees for a right hand circuit onto runway 08 at RJCW, further descents to: 4000ft reduce speed to 220kts descend to 3000ft turn right 355 degrees (at right angle to approach direction), entered mist/light cloud at 4,700ft.

Cleared cloud at about 3,500ft.

Local weather: 360@ 2kts vis 9999 Q1006

Turn right onto 050 degrees no lower than 2,500ft until established on the localiser for approach to RWY 08 on 111.90 with a direction 079 degrees.

Captured centre line and engaged VOR loc to keep us on it, reduce speed to 190kts flaps 5.

Glide slope capture and engage APP to descend down the glideslope and centre line, speed 180kts flaps 10.

Handed over to RJCW approach and given permission to land 080, wind 360 02kts.

Landing lights on, wheels down (3 greens), flaps 15 170kts.

145kts flaps 40, ATC terminated radar contact gives permission for visual approach and landing RWY 08.

Disengage AP @ 300 ft and manual final approach, slight ballooning just before touchdown, but didn't bounce it once on the ground, reverse thrust, brake fairly hard, not a very long runway 7,000ft, turn around at the far end and backtrack on the active to the one and only turn off to the terminal building.

Given clearance to the ramp (only two to choose from 1 or 2), so not a lot of thinking to do, and its directly in front of the taxiway.

Brakes on at stand 2 and engage the APU.

Shutdown and disembark, well go for a piss anyway (me that is).

Well hope you enjoyed the flight as much as I did?

Next week: RJCW to UHPP (Russia.....!!!!)

Daveanne

[John Davis]

Hi Dave, Narita has had 2 Runways for ages, not sure if Mickeysoft put it in but its definitely in other sceneries such as Overland Japan series.
It is difficult to find, they built it miles away from the terminal bit like Amsterdam Polderban Runway.

Little Story for you guys, When I was seeing my Dutch Girlfriend I flew from Coventry to Amsterdam in a Thompson 737 it was a November Night and we had a strong tailwind, actual flying time 35 minutes but we landed on Polderban ... 25 minutes to taxi in !!!!!

Hard braking cos of a 7,000 ft Runway ??? Good god man , your in a 737 !!!
I regularly put my 747 into Birmingham, and at Innsbruck ! LOL

Enjoy your next trip to Petropovolovsk (I wont shy away and put UHPP)
it is a regular destination during Wordlflight (only so many ways you can go round) There is some good freeware scenery for UHPP on the disc I sent you, make sure you install it before you go.
Where after that ? Ancohorage ? if so theres good freeware for there too on the disks.

Oh and look out for the 18,000 foot Volcano's near Pertropa .... Petetro ... Petru .... UHPP just in case that "Huge" 737 of yours can't turn fast enough ;-)

Cheers John

[Daveanne]

John, many thanks for the comments, yes I am using the sftware you gave me, and have the majority of it loaded already.

The point about the second runway at Narita, after printing off the approach cards from SIMCharts, it only shows one runway, thats where the confusion is, never mind got away OK anyway.

With regard to the "hard braking", you really do need to read the narrative.

"slight ballooning just before touchdown, but didn't bounce it once on the ground", so I was not on the Piano keys when I made contact with the runway, as you know judging distance with a 2D picture in front of you is not ideal as towards 'how much bleedin runway have I got left to play with'.

Its easier to replace the brake discs than the aircraft!

Best wishes to you all anyway.

Daveanne

[John Davis]

ooops, sorry missed the bit about the ballooning.

I see the confusion now, Jeppesen Simcharts were first released many years ago 5 - 6 ?? I dont theink they have been updated since so there will be a few airports that have runways missing.

Cheers John

[Daveanne]

Further adventures of:..........."Two Amateurs and an absent Trolley Dolly" ta ra.....!!

Wakkania (Japan) RJCW to UHPP wait for it (Russia) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.... everything ends in ski?

Must be something to do with the Yogurt?

John (Mycockpit), said it would be interesting, boy was he right.

OK here we go: Me at the controls, John (Glider pilot) P2, trolley dolly of on a mission of mercy somewhere?

RJCW, Weather: 200 @ 22 kts 8000 mtrs vis Few @ 3,000 Bkn @ 6,000ft 14 degrees temp with a dew point of 12 degrees Q1009.

UHPP 090 @ 1 mps (don't understand knots then), 9999 vis NOSIG Sc @ 7,000 tempo fog 400 ft Q1012, misty man....

20:34hrs local start FMC programming: No SID, direct to LATAK, BUMEN, SENOR, UB and UHPP, no VOR's at all........? except the one at UHPP, but that's only a localiser.... the plot thickens.

So we go for weather and runway in use (using RC4), then the phone rings, not mine, phone in the sim, it dials out and we get ATIS message with the weather, John (Glider pilot) and I look at each other........puzzled!!!

Finish programming FMC and request clearance, once again the phone dials out (realistic sounds), and we get clearance to depart, but contact Tokyo ATC at 1,500ft ?

Hey this is just like flying at SLEAP in my motor-glider mid-week, no one in the tower, but make blind calls so everyone in earshot knows what the **** I'm doing...!

So we backtrack on the active and line up on 26 for departure, blind call again to say we are taking off (20:55), and off we go... fairly uneventful take off three greens, reduce flaps, contact Tokyo and climb to initial clearance of 5,000ft at 220knts.

Given further clearances to: 16,000 turn right, then turn right again on to a Northerly heading, 23,000 (own navigation given), 29,000, 34,000 and then 37,000ft and cruise altitude, we settle down to 0.775M @ 37K wind 320 degrees @ 74kts temp -48C ground speed 450kts indicated 453kts, well I say ground speed we are over the sea now, and lots of it too......

Rather boring now for some 700 miles over 'nowt but sea', however we start to see some small islands on the way.

We are 150 miles out from UHPP and start to get decent's: 35,000, 27,000 24,000 crossing over the coast of Russia, 19,000 (speed 270), 15,000 (speed 249).

13 miles out from UHPP turn right onto 165 for a left hand circuit to 34R at UHPP, we can see the BIG mountains where we are going from sea level up to 11,000ft high, interesting no?

This is where the fun really begins......we can also see fog patches in the undulating Tundra and surrounding hills, also snow on the area we are heading or is that hill fog....? we shall see.

Descend to 12,000 turn left onto 075 degrees still 40 miles out from UHPP, descend to 11,000ft, still 40 miles out turn left onto 015 degrees stay at 11,000ft until established on the glideslope.....?????

Errrrrrrr, we have actually lost the localiser about 20 miles ago, but like dutiful pilots we obey ATC like we should, so we are going forward on the centre line heading and all of a sudden the localiser lights up, but as you can imagine at 11,000 ft the glide slope is way way below us, we throw all the planks out and drop down as fast as we can, but are obviously not going to get in so we declare a missed approach.

Climb to 12,000 (just in case we drift into one of those nice Granite clouds turn left onto 253 degrees and then again onto 163 degrees so we are down wind for a left hand circuit again, 16 miles out turn left onto 120 then left onto 090 degrees told to go to the centre line and stay at 11,000 again, not likely mate!!!

So we do our own height adjustment to try and capture the glideslope, despite getting down nice and low the glide slope indicator still shows it way below us, we are now entering the Hill fog/cloud and know that there is a great massive Granite cloud out there at 11,000ft, getting sweaty now.... still losing height to try and gain the glideslope when we see a bit of land and a faint image of the end of the runway, all of a sudden ATC pops up and tells us to go around, we obey........

Then he tells us someone on the ground had noticed we were approaching with the wheels still up, Christ knows how they saw us we couldn't see them at all, but hey Ho, better safe than.......etc.

Right, now a Russian tart comes on the blower Turn right climb to 12,000ft, bleedin right missus, so onto 010 then 070 then 180, so we are doing a right hand circuit this time.... she say's stay at 11,000 etc.............. bollocks missus!!!

We now note we only have 3 thousand pounds of fuel left, whooops!!

I know, we fly over the airfield and turn away on the runway heading, now heading away from where we want to be going, find the approach centre line and VOR lock, we wait for the glide slope indicator to move up the scale, and low and behold it does, fuel's getting lower ooops.

So just after the glideslope indicator gets to our level we do a quick 360 and get back onto the centre line, reduce speed to 190 5 degrees flap, 180 10 degrees, 170 15 degrees wheels down, three greens.. just in case?

Already intercepted the centre line and glide slope, so just wait for the buggers to tells us to go around again, don't care if they do I'm landing........

Frequency change to approach and given weather details, reduce to 150, flaps 25 then 145kts @ 40 degrees flap for landing, finally see the runway at 7.8 miles and given permission to land at 3.4 miles out still misty but got the runway clear now.

Disengage Auto pilot and auto throttle at 300ft for a manual touchdown, reverse thrust and very light brake application, with the length of this place (11,155 ft, that's as tall as the mountain along side!), we just coast to a slow turn at the end of the runway.

Turn off left and call in, given permission to go to the ramp, turn left again and now parallel with the runway, lots of Hard shelters to our right (if you don't know what they are, us and the Russians used to store fast jets or dare I say it.... Instant sunshine in boxes in them), but no sign of the terminal yet, then John spots it through the trees, it has LARGE, yes VERY LARGE red letters on its top with the name of the place, but that doesn't look anything like PETROPAVLOVSK all foreign to me?

Hey Ho, must be the right place, either that or we are just about to be arrested for trespass?

So we pull up at the terminal, the ground parking don't look anything like the map, but here we are anyway.

Switch over to APU and shut down, thanks for flying "by the seat of your pants airways"......?

Errr that's interesting we only have 1,500 lb's of fuel left, how much does the APU burn per hour....?

Can't manage a flight next week folks, will be taking a real one back to the homestead in Fuerteventura for a couple of weeks, Ah the sunshine, not sure if I can manage all that beer and sun in two week, but I will try very hard for you all. Ta Ta for now

Daveanne

[John Davis]

LOL Dave, sounds like you had fun with this one, where is the next destination ?

UHPP has some interesting departures through the mountains / Volcanos too :)

Cheers John

[Daveanne]

Thanks John, it was, my 1st officer buddy tels me that the wing tanks should never be below 750kg's of fuel, otherwise the pumps burn out (they are cooled by the fuel), now he tels me.........!!!

next one: UHPP, if I manage to circumnavigate the Granite clouds to PADK (ADAK Alaska), one of the Andraeonof islands.

Well actually my next trip is in seat 24D on a 757 out of Manchester to Feurteventura...

See you in a few weeks?

Daveanne

[Daveanne]

The further adventures of two amatures and a Trolley Dolly, (still absent).

Guys, sorry for the break in the flying reports, but the wife made me spend 2 weeks on holiday, and then £2,500 on the front room, however I am now the proud owner of: new wall paper, an increased sized front room (knocked out the old fire surround, very sixties), new gas fire, new 50" wall mounted HDTV, HD Cable decoder & recorder, Blue ray Video player, 5.1 surround sound home cinema system, new carpets, cushions to match, new side tables, occasional lamps etc. you know the score...

Jesus....!!, what I could of bought for the sim with that lot...........?

Anyway, a shortened version of where we are now.

I think I last left you at Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, cold and wet too.

To keep things simple we are going to fly to PADK, ADAK Island in Alaska, rather remote I know but it was better to do it in two flights than sit at the controls for 4 - 5hrs at a time.

Took off on the 16L in fog and climbed to 15,000 ft before we cleared the cloud, then given clearance to 20,000, 25,000, 29,000 then 34k and finally 35K.

Settled down at .765M with a wind of 356 degrees @ 26kts.

When handed over to Anchorage control, they brought us down to: 24k, 17k, 7k, 6k, 5k, then 4,000 and finally 2,000ft for a non IFR approach and cancelled Radar service on us, charming......!!

There seems to be a problem with RC4, because when this happens, they don't give you a frequency to go to talk to the tower at your destination, so we had to formulate our own approach pattern, just using the charts.

Bearing in mind that there was a mountain directly in the approach path at 3,125 ft, this could be interesting, so we elected to join the glide path at D9.7 and reduce height at 700ft per minute, by the way this is in cloud, with no visual at all of the airfield.

We finally break cloud at about 700ft, only to find that the runway is just dissapearing under the nose, with a runway of only 7,790ft, no option but to do a go-around.

John, is flying so I give him vectors to do a go around and make another approach, this time we break cloud at a reasonable height for a landing and touch down quite nicely (John's getting the hang of it now).

We turn off at the runway intersection, heading for the tower (very low scenery, no enhanced stuff at all), and the engines conk out !!!

Appears that I had inadvertently forgotten to switch the centre tank pumps on at start-up, so it ran out of fuel, good job we didn't do another go-around......!

So now at PADK and going to go to PANC (Anchorage) on the next leg.

Took off from there, some ungodly hour in the morning, but it doesn't matter its light there all day at this time of the year...from 23 and climbed up to 5,000ft, then cleared to 15K, 23K, 34K, and finally 35K.

Settled down at .756M wind at 076 degrees @ 5 kts (rather sedate for this altitude), but -44 degrees C.

Anchorage start us down: 24K, 18K, 11K, 9K, 6K, 5K, 4,800ft and vector us to do an approach onto 14, loads of room at 11,584ft long

Uneventful landing this time and we park up at Stand 11A.

Both the above journey's were to say the least rather boring, with long expanses over water with the occasional Island passing by, Microsoft, wants to improve its scenery up that part of the world too, even the basic terrain left us for dead, with vast expanses of candy-striped ground and no hills etc.

Next step PANC (Anchorage) to PAKT (Ketchikan), still in Alaska, Christ its big.........

Take off from PANC on 6L and climb out to 7,000ft, then given vectors to join our own nav and cleared to: 10K, 15K, 23K, 34K, and 35K settle down at 0.77M wind 276 degrees @ 28kts and -49 degrees C.

We re now following the West coast of Alaska, and are once again hit by the candy-striped terrain, with no detail at all, pity, however as we near our destination, the scenery starts to get better.

I have been able to download some airport scenery for Ketchikan, which has improved things nicely, even got Sea planes in the harbour too, in fact there is an approach plate for those too......

Once aging RC4 relinquishes control and terminates radar contact for our approach to PAKT, which as we are to find out is going to be a major problem......soon.

We settle in on the approach, because it has an ILS, great! but as we are rounding out and touching down a generic FS 737 suddenly appears on the runway in front of us back-tracking down the runway.....Charming, we smash into it at about 140kts, expecting FS to do its normal and re-set, however it doesn't and brings us to a shuddering halt half way through the other 737, what the F*** is going on here?

Everything is stood still for a moment, but I notice that we are moving forward very, very slowly, if I give the throttles more power we start edging forward more quickly, until eventually we exit the rear end of the other 737 and are able to carry on down the runway and park up at Stand 1 (they only have 1).

Not ideal, but hey we are here, John's disappointed because he didn't get to try to stop the aircraft before we fall of the other end of the runway, its only 7497 ft long, its surprising how a little bounce or two the runway gets eaten up very quickly.

So the next day whilst working away on my office computer I set up the flight again and stop it just before making a decent into PAKT, save it and then copy the saved flight onto my memory stick.

So the next week, which was two weeks ago I sit John in the left hand seat and re-load the last part of the flight, for John to have a go at again, we make a good approach, but John slightly fluffs the landing and we go for a go around again, I vector john, because we have no contact with ATC, and finally we make a nice approach and touchdown on the end of the runway (the right end too), but as we are taxiing up the remainder, there in the only runway turn off/on is a generic 737 waiting to get into the runway, with no where for us to go, Hey Ho, open the throttles and we go across the grass then in to the taxi way and back to the ramp 1.

Now we start everything again and go for the next leg: PAKT to CYVR (Vancouver).

Straight forward takeoff,and climb to 15,000 straight away, then 20K, 23K, 29K, 34K, finally 35K 0.77M wind 180 @ 49 kts -49 degrees C.

Scenery is now getting better (have the Canada scenery disk loaded in), thanks John.

very spectacular as we near Vancouver with nice views of the Rockies to our left, and the various islands to our right and underneath.

Descents given to: 24K, 15K, 12K, 8K, 6K then turn 080 descend to 5,000ft and turn right 170 for an approach on 26R, lined up nicely and press VOR lock for the centre line, but it doesn't lock on and wanders past the centre line, plus the glide slope will not lock on too, never mind I make a fairly steep approach by hand and round out to touch down on the Piano keys on 26R, wind up the planks and breaks taxiing off the runway at M4.

Given clearance to the ramp and settle down at Apron 6 stand 35 and shutdown.

So that's where we are at present, unfortunately I have been very busy at work, again and haven't been able to move from there yet, won't tomorrow night either, in Glasgow, then London the day after (for real), Hey Ho, you see the world in this job.

Next leg, which will be a double one is Vancouver to Seattle, then re-launch and fly onto Salt Lake City for some desert fun???

See you next time folks.

Daveanne.

[Daveanne]

Sorry, yet again for the delay in letting you all know how the journeys going, sort of got lost in me updates…..

Well we left you all at Vancouver on stand 35.
Next leg is a short hop over to Seattle (KSEA), should be quick and easy…famous last words.

So we get ready and have a look at the weather: 280 @ 8kts 20miles vis Few @ 1,500 SCT @2,500 BKN @ 3,500 15 degrees C with a dew point of 11 degrees c. Runway in use: 26R

Route: YYJ, IDNEY, CONDI, CHATM, DISCO, CDGPN, JAWBN, DIGGN, LOFAL, ARPEE, CARRO and on to KSEA.
Programme FMC and ask for clearance, given 26L for take off and taxi out to the hold @ D5.

Given clearance: Given fly runway heading to 1000 ft……........? SQ 3437 departure on 132.30.
Take off uneventful and climb to 1000ft, given vectors on to 260, then 175, 170,165, and 170, we think that we have misheard ATC and climb up to 10,000ft (thought we had logged this into the flight plan and FMC), however get a bollocking and sent back down to 1000ft.

It is here we realise that we did indeed put 1000ft in the flight plan instead of 10,000, wow the ground doesn’t half pass by quickly at 250kts and 1000ft…..!!
So we request 10,000ft, but are only given 6,000ft, hey ho better than 1000ft just missing the hill tops.

So we are getting near to Seattle, but just a word, we notice that the scenery on the way down is, for the want of a better word CRAP, until we get into USA, then it improves no end can’t think why….?

We get lowered down to 3,000ft and vectored to 125, 160, 070 and finally 010 degrees on a left hand circuit to 34L at Seattle, nice long runway @ 9,425 ft, set up for approach and reduce speed to intercept the ILS to 34L, landing OK and taxi off to Gate C10. Nice one, except for the low altitude?


<O:p</O:p
Refuel and get ready for the next step: Seattle to Salt Lake City (KSLC)
Weather: 270 @ 6kts 10NM vis, Few @ 1,500, Temp 16 c Dew point 11 c Runway in use 34R.

Route: RADDY, YKM, BRUKK, PDT, BEAMO, DNJ, DBS, LAVAH, LHO, CARTR to KSLC.
Programme FMC and ask for clearance: Given to 7,000ft expect FL350 SQ2326.
Pushback start-up and taxi out to South Apron 34R and hold, given clearance to line up & wait.

Clearance given to take off fly runway heading climb to 7000ft, off we go no problems and given vectors to 105 degrees and clearance to 15,000ft , then 110 degrees and 20,000ft, then given own NAV @ 16,000ft over to LNAV and VNAV, then to 23,000 and finally 35,000ft.

On route: wind 327/31kts @ -52degrees c and a speed of 0.77M, ground speed of 453kts with a true airspeed of 444kts.

We see lots of lightening and flashes and bangs as we near the desert and start down via ATC to 27,000, 24,000, 19,000, 15,000, 13,000, 12,000, 11,000 and then to 10,800ft, given vectors onto 040, 100, 190, 205 then 165 degrees.

Told expect vectors to 35, joined the ILS and began reducing speed and increase flap settings, nearly at the runway and John, lands it a bit too heavy on the threshold, resulting in a crash situation….hey ho, however once we have sorted it out we park up at stand C4. Must remember to turn crash off…


<O:p</O:p
Next leg: Salt Lake to Denver (KDEN)
Weather: 130 @8 kts 10 NM Vis, Few ‘ 8,500, SCT @ 2,500, Temp 27 degrees (Phew)with a dew point of 02 degrees dry or what? Runway in use: 17

Route: TCH, CHE, FROGS, RIDJE, ALLAN, TOMSN, HYGEN, SHAFT and on to KDEN.

FMC programmed and clearance given to depart on runway 17, SQ4414, so we pushback, start-up and taxi out to the hold short runway 17.
Given clearance to 14,000 ft, and off we go, no runway heading this time and allowed to go by published departure route, given clearance to 15,000, 23,000, 29000, 34,000, and finally 35,000ft.

Scenery is very uneventful, seen one American desert you’ve seen them all………, my colleague John has flown over this bit and remarks that its just like it for real, miles of nothing.

So we begin our decent to 24,000, then 18,000 15,000 then given a Transponder frequency change to 3337, down to 13,000 and given vectors onto 170 degrees, then down to 9,000 8,000 7,900 vector onto 100 degrees and given clearance to approach on 16.

Intercept the ILS, reduce speed and touchdown nicely on the ‘Keys’ so we taxi to stand A36, Wow what a big airport, good job we had lots of fuel when we got there….?


<O:p</O:p
Next leg: Denver to Kansas (KMCI)……..Somewhere over the rainbow, stop it!!!!

Weather: 000 degrees@ 0kts, still eh? 10NM vis Few @ 7,000, SCT @ 11,000 Temp 13 degrees dew point 08 degrees. Runway in use 26….Jesus that’s a long way from the terminal.

Route: EMMYS, MCK, PWE, RBA, PEGGI, HAIRS and on to KMCI.
Clearance given to hold short Runway 26 SQ2143 climb to 15,000, follow departure procedures as filled.

So we taxi to 26, what a big airport its miles to the runway, but we get there with lots less wait than we started off with….!!

So we takeoff and climb to 15,000 straight onto LNAV and VNAV, cleared up to 20,000, 23,000 34,000 and finally 35,000ft.

Once again not a lot to look at just plain old homestead country, but we get lowered to 27,000 then 24,000 by Minneapolis ATC, then down to 18,000, 12,000, and then to 7,000ft advised we will be given vectors to 27, lowered to 4,000, then 3,000ft and a direction of 180 degrees and finally 240 degrees for ILS interception and approach.

Lowered down to 2,800ft and intercepted the glide slope and centre line, on with the ILS and touch down on the runway, no problems with this one and park up at Terminal B gate 36.


<O:p</O:p
Next leg, and bringing us up to date: Denver to Chicago (KORD).

Weather: 300 @ 03kts 10 NM Vis Few @ 18,000, temp 16 degrees dew point 03 degrees, runway in use 27.

Route: CAKO, JTHRO, IRK, BDF, BENKY, NEWRK and on to KORD.
FMC programmed and ask for clearance, given clearance to 7,000ft, expect FL350 on runway heading SQ3154.

Pushback and start-up taxi out to runway 27 taxiway C1 and hold short.

Take off OK and climb to 6,000ft, given vectors onto 040 and 12,000ft then 045 and 15,000, then 19,000, own Nav VNAV and LNAV, climb to 23,000, then 29,000, 34,000 and finally 35,000ft.

Weather on route: Wind 301 @ 54kts GS 470 kts temp of -52 degrees c.

Start to drop down given by Chicago ATC to 24,000, 19,000, 12,000, reduce to 240kts and down to 9,000ft 220kts and vectored on to 045 degrees and then onto 090 degrees, then down to 4,000ft at 210kts, then onto 360 degrees for a nice flypast the coast of Lake Superior, with Chicago City under our left side, a nice clear view of Meigs (The home of Flight Sim, I suppose every flight simmer has taken off from that airport at one time in their life?).

So we now turn left onto 300 degrees for an ILS approach onto 27L, fly down the ILS, John at the helm, and touch down nicely (little bounce) all on his own, well done John.

Taxi off the runway and park up at C18.


<O:p</O:p
Well that’s where we are now, the next step is from Chicago to New York, so good they named it twice…………..stop it!!!!!!!

That will take place on Wednesday evening the 26<SUP>th</SUP> of November 2008, maybe I should follow John’s example and fly under the New York bridges on the way in?????

No not our John, the other one, by the way well done for the world flight, it looked great, how much did you manage to raise for charity?

See you again folks
Dave & Anne

[John Davis]

Hi Dave ... yes you should fly und all the bridges and dont forget the barrell rolls ;)

Not all the money is in yet as a lot of our donation pages are open until january, initial reports suggest we raised approx £3,000 for the Air Ambulance.

Best wishes John (the other one)

[Daveanne]

Well done on raising the dosh for charity, and yes I forgot about the barrel- rolls, nice touch too.

Daveanne.

Don't suppose you know anything about setting up phidgets 8 servo interface and motorising a TQ?

[John Davis]

Fraid not .... I was waiting till you mastered it then I will copy what you have done :wink:

Cheers John

[jonnydaz53]

hi guys do you know any builders from the essex or southeast area??

regards john d

[John Davis]

Hi John, Gary Oliver has his 777 Simulator down in Farnborough I think.
He was one of the offical World flight teams.

Here is a link to his Simfest Site
http://www.gary-oliver.co.uk/simfest/

Cheers John