Leg 2: LFPG (Paris CDG) to LSZB (Bern)
Late afternoon departure from Paris
After the issues with the previous leg, I loaded my flight plan from Simbrief in MSFS2020. The departure SID was selected and could see this in the routing in game. Climbing out from Paris, the AP followed the correct path, an improvement over last time.
Climbing through the cloud over Paris. River Seine in view.
I did notice that the AP was following the path slightly to one side. I’m not sure if this is a recent bug, as previously the flight path was bang on.
Hitting another cloud layer. Just stunning.
ATC had me climb up to FL370, which took a fair bit of time, even on the CLIMB auto-throttle setting. I’m sure I used to get nagged, “please expedite your climb” but this seems to have gone in one of the recent patches, maybe?
On the way up to FL370
I was hoping to see Lake Geneva, no such luck.
As we descended into the murk on approach to Bern, the cloud took on a really orange hue from the setting sun, giving a very Martian feel.
On approach to Huygens Crater
Sunset over Bern
I noticed something wrong with the flight plan as there was no STAR selected. Quickly running through the MCDU menu’s, I couldn’t figure out how to enter this, or select the correct approach. Coupled with my TrackIR profile geared for combat flight, I couldn’t keep my head still enough to key things in.
ATC told me to turn to a specific heading and wait for vectors. Sadly these never arrived and I was starting to worry about the mountains that I know are around Bern.
Bern at night
Having seen the runway, I made a gentle turn and came nicely round onto a heading on runway 14. Something to note here, when the ATP is following in HDG mode, its about 5 degrees out. So if you want 140 degrees, need to set the HDG bug for 145.
Obviously its highly likely this could be my ignorance. 
Touching down, I landed quite hard, but any landing… turning off the runway, I headed for the gates.
Weekend at Bern(ies)
I still need to sort out the loading of the SIMbrief flight plan. I checked this again and it doesn’t have the arrival runway and leaves it as “Direct” when loading into MSFS2020. If I change it, it removes the flight plan. More reading…
Next up, I’m not sure if it fly down Italy, or the dalmatian coast. Given that the weather has been awful, there hasn’t been much opportunity for sightseeing. I may do Rome, then on to Malta, before heading in to Africa.
