Nice report…it does seem that you are getting a handle on staying ahead of the plane…! Really nice job and some fantastic screens. The PMDG 747 is one I haven’t picked up…for no other reason than I would like to savor it someday and don’t feel like I have the commitment to do that at the moment.
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Leg 5: Tokyo Haneda International Airport (RJTT) - Hong Kong Airport, Chek Lap Kok (VHHH)
It’s roughly 1600 nm. Weather at Tokyo is grey and gloomy, but METAR predictions show that Hong Kong is a little cloudy but has good flying weather.
I came in Tokyo by night, therefore I didn’t have much time to visit. Ironically, I will not see much of it either since there is a rainy cloud cover masking the whole countryside.
This time, I decide to try out a new ride: Rotate’s MD80!
I have never flown that one before, but I watched a good tutorial from Froogle explaining the basics of the mighty Mad Dog. The cockpit layout is a bit alien, but not something I can’t figure out as I fly to China.I load up 35000 lbs of fuel and fill the rest with cargo until I reach MTOW. Let’s go for something a little challenging. All right! Time to line up on runway 16L.
Up we go!
That plane sure hauls ass in a climb. As I follow the SID out of Tokyo, I engage the autopilot and engage the wing anti-ice and engine anti-ice systems as I climb through the clouds.
As I reach 30000 ft, I can distinguish the last few southern islands of Japan in the Nagasaki prefecture. It feels weird to think that a nuclear bomb once ravaged in these parts…
I eventually spot the silhouette of the chinese mainland. I will spend of my cruise flying parallel to it.
Froogle wasn’t lying: this aircraft is really, really fun to fly. It accelerates well and can bleed speed much more easily than the Boeings and Airbuses I’m used to. No matter the angle, I can’t help but find the Mad Dog uncomfortably attractive.
From the rear…
From the inside…
From the front too!
I eventually run into some trouble with the autopilot; for some reason, it was tracking the very last waypoint of the flight instead of what I thought to be the “active” waypoint. I spend a good half hour trying to modify my flight plan fruitlessly. This makes me explore the FMS… it seems quite similar to something you’d see on Boeings. Eventually, the lightbulb lights up. Ah ha! I rapidly figured out how to set the correct active waypoint via the FMC, the autopilot finally seemed to work like it was supposed to.
After an uneventful flight, I finally reach the shoreline of the Guangdong province.
I’m still pretty high, but the STAR of the flight plan will make me do a whole 360 degree descent around the island to bleed all this altitude.
As I overfly The Chek Lap Kok airport, I start my descent.
The Mad Dog is really great at decellerating and accelerating. The descent is very manageable all the way down to 5000 ft.
Right turn on final approach. Time to capture that localizer and glide slope for an ILS approach!
The mountains are gorgeous. X-Plane has really great lighting effects.
As I line up for final, a strong crosswind throws me off balance. I can’t use the Autoland feature since it’s apparently not been implemented by Rotate. Oh well, time to fly this bird manually.
Time to turn off that autopilot and autothrottle.
The runway approaches but the wind gets stronger. I have to crab abnormally hard.
Almost… almost there!
I uncrab at the last second, hoping for a smooth touchdown.
And it is! I watch with glee the heavy lifters parked afar.
Thrust reversers on, slowing down.
Unloading cargo and passengers. Phew, not too bad for a first flight in the Mad Dog! Overall, I’m pretty sure subsequent flights will be much easier.
I feel small next to these other planes. They’re just so much bigger!
I think I may have found a real gem in the Mad Dog. Rotate’s version is great. I’m quite curious to see if Leonardo can do even better with his “Fly the Maddog X” for FSX and Prepar3d.
So, that’s it! Really cool trip, that one. It’s one of these planes I’ll probably want to write something about eventually.
7 Likes
Finishing my track from Romania to Turkey.
This time the low failures were kind to me, no engine failures, only some stacked insect in the pitot tube. Next stop I need to find in my baggage the ‘Remove Before Flight’ sock.
But the G1000 did the job
What is actually very interesting on the default cockpits is, that all the knobs, switches and buttons you see on the pictures are clickable and works. And even the fuses do what they should!
I have to say that this is quite high bar from the developers. But I appreciate this approach. All the payment addon aircrafts will be compared to the default fleet and hopefully will provide same or better detail
Here I crossed the Bosporus and saw the bridge… but it was not that bridge I planed to see… maybe on my way back…
Cruisin…
This Northern part of Turkey is not so sandy as I expected. Still enough green all around
And the sand when emerged… looked more like snow… in the end its a Christmas flight so enjoy and keep going 
Setting Diamond in the setting sun
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hey @Fsjoe, if I count correctly we have three of us starting from old continent, namely:
@NEVO from SVK in TR atm
@keets from UK in FR atm
@Fsjoe from FR in AUT atm
@Freak from NL in between 
and
@entreplume from FR …still in FR
did I forget somebody? Rise your hand pls!
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Me from NL, altbough I haven’t really started yet. Am halfway though my first leg
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Leg 6: Departing from Chek Lap Kok Airport (VHHH, Hong Kong) and arriving to Tan Son Nhat International Airport (VVTS, Ho Chi Minh Ville)
This time, I wanted to try out the Bombardier CRJ900 for a shorter leg (about 800 nm). I load up 16000 lbs of fuel for good measure. While I set the ground power and waited for IRS alignment, I studied a bit the aircraft. I see CRJs and Q400s land at my local airport all the time, so I thought it would be interesting to try out a regional jet for a change.
I taxi towards runway 25L. I feel like I’m much closer to the ground, this time. The aircraft has a very short landing gear. I look around the cockpit and I love what I see. The overhead panel is really simple and everything looks like it’s in a logical place. However, I can’t say the same of the Baro and PF mode & range selector on the side, partly hidden by the yoke. These switches are important, but it doesn’t look like they’ve been placed in an easy place to access.
A peculiarity of the CRJ is that there is no VNAV autopilot. You control your airspeed and climb rate with the throttle. The rest of the autopilot modes are merely there to help you hold a level altitude by varying airspeed and pitch, or maintain a constant rate of climb/descent, or maintain a certain airspeed by changing the aircraft’s attitude. This makes climbing straightforward if you manage it correctly, but makes descent much harder to manage if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Lined up on the runway, full throttle!
I’m a bit heavy but I finally leave the ground.
Bye bye, Hong Kong!
The weather is very nice and I begin a steep climb. So far so good, the aircraft behaves as expected.
It’s literally my first flight with it, so I’m very uneasy that something could go wrong at any moment. It feels kind of weird to fly without a vertical component of the autopilot. I always feel like I want to trim, but I sort of can’t because it will disengage the NAV (some sort of LNAV in our case) autopilot if I do so. Once the AP is engaged, the only thing I can do is play with the throttle and use various indirect ways to control my altitude with my speed. It’s quite annoying to be stuck where you feel you’re flying with “half an autopilot”. I’d rather fly the whole thing manually at that point.
As I reach a cruising altitude of 30000 ft, I have to constantly adjust my throttle to maintain an airspeed of roughly Mach 0.74-0.78.
The dense jungles of Vietnam are covered in mist as I cross the vietnamese shoreline. FSX textures for this part are veeery bad, but I’m way too busy trying to manage my airspeed. I’ve been busy doing that since I first took off and still haven’t stopped! The workload on these jets is a bit higher than anticipated, that’s for sure.
As I fly over Ho Chi Minh Ville, I timidly start my descent.
I come to a point where I don’t really know how to control my approach glide slope anymore. The fact that the aircraft doesn’t have a vertical autopilot to track the glide slope makes it really difficult to maintain a proper GS while maintaining airspeed with one of the autopilot modes.
The runway. I’m way too low at that point and need to gun the throttle to control my speed and altitude.
I have a terrible, terrible time trying to line up correctly. I see the localizer reference but not the glide slope. The runway is approaching dangerously fast!
As the runway gets bigger and bigger, I hopelessly mash the APPR button without success. How the hell does that thing even work? Too bad, I gotta land like… right now! I give up the whole autopilot thing. Screw it. I’ll have to learn it properly some other time.
I land on runway 25R at Ho Chi Minh Ville. It’s really NOT a landing I’m proud of.
I look around… the scenery is quite “meh”. FSX hasn’t been kind to the Asian continent.
Overall, I finished my flight super frustrated. I feel like I haven’t taken enough time to learn this plane. And when I was put in situations where I had to do some decision-making, I didn’t know exactly what to do… I just had a general idea of what I could try. It sure looks challenging, but if you fail to manage your speed properly you can have a really, really bad time. CRJs are harder to master than I initially thought. I guess I’ll have to dig up more tutorials on the CRJ900.
2 Likes
You need to be aware that the depicted events were actually story told by a soldier, who lived through the battle, at a bonfire to the his people. And as he was very good story teller it was mix of his experiences and his imagination.
I really like this movie for what it is, one of my favourite.
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I liked (and owned) the graphic novel before it was cool…
All right, folks, for my Leg 7, I decided to make a little detour by Bangkok to explore a bit while I was in the area.
The planned flight was a short 400 nm from Tan Son Nhat International Airport (VVTS, Chi Minh Ville) to Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok, VTBS).
Now, why did I decide to go from Vietnam to Thailand? The reason was quite simple: to settle a score.
As some of you may remember from my last flight, I had an unfinished business with the Aerosoft/Digital Aviation Bombardier CRJ900. Last flight was downright terrible, my landing was terrible, and my overall experience in this aircraft was terrible due to the different way its autopilot worked, which is with no VNAV and no autothrottle. This time, I wanted to do a flight by-the-book and nail that landing.
I read, read and read some more until I finally figured out the autopilot. During a climb, I can simply set my target cruising altitude and set my vertical speed. The aircraft will change its pitch to meet the V/S-Altitude target. The only thing I need to gauge is the throttle to provide enough power, the autopilot takes care of the rest in terms of pitch and roll.
During a cruise, the altitude-hold mode will automatically engage when I’m in range of my target altitude. Once again, the aircraft will change the pitch and roll to maintain my NAV course (FMC flight plan) and the pitch to maintain the altitude if I have enough thrust. I need to constantly adjust my throttle to control the speed and make sure the autopilot has what it needs to keep me in the parameters I want him to be.
As I cross over Thailand, I see the jungle underneath.
For the descent, I use a similar logic that I used for the climb. Set my target altitude (end of descent, usually), then engage the V/S autopilot to keep me in a steady descent. I will control my airspeed with my throttle. The descent isn’t made at idle; I need to constantly manage my thrust to have a manageable trajectory and attitude.
I follow the STAR to runway 19L of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Strangely enough, I don’t get anything on the ATIS. I double-check real quick; nope, it’s the right frequency, with the right ILS freq and everything. I look around, but I fail to spot the airport from afar. Maybe it’s really small, who knows? Something feels off…
As I line up on the localizer, I realize that I’m heading straight towards… nothing?
What? I do a double-take… what? Where is that darn field? There’s just, nothing!
I ram the throttle in rage, not understanding what the hell just happened. I check my instruments… no, it should be there. Hell, I even see the VTBS icon on my Navigation Display. I put the aircraft in a holding pattern at 4000 ft while I dig up my cell phone to try and figure out why I can’t find that darn runway.
Aaaand there it is. The revelation. The answer to the big mystery of Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Airport. VTBS isn’t in FSX because that airport didn’t exist when the sim first came out. Suvarnabhumi was officially operational in 2006! I finally go around, wondering where I can land.
I look in my FMC for alternate airports… yes, there’s one! VTBD is available. Phew! I quickly google some Jeppesen charts of Don Mueang International Airport and promptly enter the ILS freq and the ATIS radio frequency. The lovely voice of the ATC rings through my ears. Gotcha! I enter my QNH and program my alternate STAR and approach. I follow the updated flight plan line and eventually line up with the runway.
Localizer is good. I’m a bit high, but the tower clears me for landing.
So far so good!
As I nose down to catch the glide slope, I see a silhouette below. That’s a plane landing right under me! Holy shmollies!
I can already hear the fictional ATC tell me to go around ASAP. I throttle up and climb back up to 3000 ft.
I think I made the right decision; safety first! I enter a holding pattern for 4-5 minutes, and once the runway is vacated I circle around and re-attempt my approach.
The second approach attempt is much better than the first one. I finally feel like I’ve mastered that CRJ! As I capture the localizer and get an ok glide slope, I disconnect the autopilot.
Using the PAPI lights for guidance, I set the aircraft in a better attitude by throttling up and nosing down.
Flaps 20, gear down, thrust reversers armed.
A little windy, but nothing I can’t manage.
I touchdown smoothly, but a bit too much AoA than I’m comfortable with. Yee-haw!
Thrust reversers on!
Slowing down nicely.
Vacating the runway.
And we’re finally home, after tracking an airport that didn’t exist and almost colliding with a landing aircraft. Quite eventful, but I’m glad I was finally able to tame the beast.
I think the moral of this story is that sometimes, when a plane is frustrating to learn, it’s a good idea to take a step back and try another flight but after having done more reading to understand how the aircraft works and how it is operated. Once my brain finally made the connection regarding throttle management during the flight, this seemingly high workload became quite easy to manage once I knew what to do. Once the CRJ started to behave the way I expected it to, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction. I thought… you know what? Maybe the CRJ isn’t so bad after all.
7 Likes
That’s quite an adventure.
Do you have any kind of assistance in predicting your trajectory during descent?
Nope, I use a rule of thumb to know what distance I need to lose my current altitude and I just eyeball it.
Ssay, if I’m at 30000 ft, I need 3 x (30000 - target altitude of 5000 ft) / 1000, which is 75 nm. To that, I add another 10 nm for deceleration. This would be your Top of Descent from the last waypoint of your STAR. During descent I try to maintain 250 kts by moving my throttle accordingly.
LOL…I can’t tell you how much grief navigation databases have given me over the years. Trying to default FSX waypoints with approaches, SIDs, and STARs, that have been updated maybe even a dozen times since is a frustrating problem. Good save - glad it wasn’t hard IFR…LOL…
E6B?
Nothing to apologize for @Sine_Nomine , I did fully understand that from your initial replay.
It was definitely not a documentary. But anyway, if you can recomend any good documentary read/video about the Spartans I will be interested. There are many rumors and ‘popular culture/opinion’ to say about them.
hey @Chuck_Owl, realy good reports there. All your experiences remind me about last anual flight where I did familiarize my self with DC-10
You are doing great progress, you will have enough time to make it back home before Xmas
1 Like
Alrighty, time for penultimate Leg 8!
I’ll depart from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand (VTBD) and land in Changdi Airport in Singapore (WSSS). The flight is about 800 nm.
This time, I’m exploring an aircraft I’ve been wanting to fly for some time: the Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 by Majestic! I see them land and takeoff from CYUL all the time, therefore I just couldn’t not try it out. I read Q400 documentation in diagonal, and after a good hour or two of scribbling notes I feel I’m ready. I spawn on the tarmac, plug in ground power, start my IRS alignment and begin to plug data into the FMC.
I also open the door (SHIFT+E for those who don’t remember) since I need to talk to the ground crew and tell him to remove the landing gear locking pins. That’s done through the “DATA → Services” menu of the FMC. I hear the passengers board the plane and the flight assistant greet everyone. I load up a good 12000 lbs of fuel, with about 70 passengers.
The FMC is quite different from anything I’ve seen from Boeing or Airbus, which makes me look for stuff for a good 15 minutes. As I turn on the tower frequency on COM1 and turn on the TCAS system, I am pleasantly surprised to hear classical music and a greeting message from the Majestic team through the radio. Nice easter egg! I fire up the APU and start my engines. The sound of the PW150A turboprop is truly jaw-dropping.
Taxiing is uneventful. As I reach the runway threshold, I make sure everything is set. Flaps at takeoff? Check. Takeoff trim? Check… Safety lever unlocked from the throttles? Check. Condition levers to Max? Oooh, almost forgot that one. Check.
As I throttle up, the Q400 accelerates nicely and climbs superbly.
See ya, Bangkok!
I won’t miss you and your invisible airport!
I climb up to 25000 ft and enter cruise without much trouble. It seems like what I’ve learned with the CRJ finally paid off!
As I cross the Gulf of Thailand, I marvel at the beauty of this cockpit. Majestic really did a great job with it.
The shores of Malaysia, at last! I’ve been flying for almost two hours already.
The sound design of this aircraft is remarkable. The engines sound exactly like what I hear every morning when I watch them takeoff. The Packs are also really noisy.
Still tracking my flight plan. So far so good.
There is Kelantan, home to some of the most ancient archaeological discoveries in Malaysia, including several prehistoric aboriginal settlements.
Crossing through stormy clouds. Thankfully, my icing protection systems are on and functioning well.
Now, time to take the STAR to Changdi Airport, Singapore.
Diving into the cloud layer. There’s minor turbulence.
I use my VNAV PATH planning, which generates a smooth descent. My speed is managed with gentle throttle inputs.
According to the STAR chart for the ILS of Runway 02L, I need to start my final approach from 3500 ft.
One last turn…
On final approach.
Localizer is captured, glide slope is good.
Making a few last ajustments.
Wow, Singapore is actually a much bigger city than I thought.
At roughly 1000 ft, I disconnect the autopilot and land manually.
The landing is qutie smooth.
As i set my thrust reversers to MAX REV, I’m surprised to see the Q400 come to an almost full stop! This aircraft can really land on a dime.
I didn’t even take half the runway. Great, now I have to slooowly taxi half the runway in front of everyone.
And there it is, Changdi Airport!
I hear my pilot talk through the intercom “Good afternoon everyone, welcome to destination.” It’s a really nice touch by Majestic. I genuinely felt like I had carried actual passengers safely to their vacation spot. Cool!
All right, now there’s just one last leg to do: Singapore-Christmas Island. I feel so far from home already…
6 Likes
Hey…that was a great flight in the Q400 - I think that was your smoothest thus far…maybe you’ve found your niche with the Q400! I don’t know how you are managing flipping to new airplane so frequently…a lot of them have some pretty significant differences in both systems and performance. You must be a quick study!
I’m definitely a prop guy… and a helicopter guy.
Yeah, that one went smoothly but mostly because I didn’t rely too much on the autopilot on final. I find landing props to be more instinctive for some obscure reason.
Okie dokie, time for leg 9 to Christmas Island! The final one!
Departure: Changdi Airport, Singapore (WSSS)
Arrival: Christmas Island Airport (YPXM)
This time, I take one of my favourite rides: the A320 equipped with the CFM engines. I do a bit of research beforehand on Christmas Island. Since I first learned to fly it, I’ve become quite fond of the capabilities of this plane. I intend to fly the last 700 or so nautical miles with it.
The island seems fairly small and there is no ILS system to assist me in landing. I’ll have to eyeball it.
Boy, that runway looks short. The topography makes it look like the runway is on top of a plateau, which means I’ll have to come a bit high if I don’t want to risk smashing my gear on the rocky hill. I have a feeling the approach is gonna have to be very precise.
The sun rises in Singapore.
There isn’t much activity at Changdi Airport. As the passengers and the cargo is loaded up, I start my refueling procedure. A quick planning estimates it to 15000 lbs of fuel with an additional 5000 lbs of reserve in case something goes wrong.
I do the whole poutine again. External power on, program the FMGC, start the APU, start the engines, and taxi to runway 20L.
I contact the tower and the controller tells me to make a detour and take runway 20C instead. Will do!
As I do my last checks and press the “TO CONFIG” button to verify everything is in order, I take a deep breath. Let’s do this thing. I spool up the engines to 40 % N1, wait for them to stabilize, then I push them forward to TOGA.
The engines scream past the airport as I start climbing the SID towards waypoint ANITO.
I engage the autopilot and set up my climb to 35000 ft.
I overfly a couple of islands like Pulau Lingga. The weather is clear, wind is almost nil. It’s a nice change of pace in comparison to my legs in Canada and Alaska.
As I cruise over the Pacific Ocean, I can’t help but notice how peaceful and calm this whole area looks. Maybe, one day, I’ll get to visit for real.
Bangka Belitung Islands. I’m just about to turn south towards South Sumatra.
Time to turn South towards Sumatra, and then to Jakarta.
As I’m about to track Jakarta, I marvel at that beautiful Air Canada skin. I really like what Flight Sim Labs have been able to achieve.
Finally, I start tracking the LADIR waypoint, leading straight south towards Christmas Island.
Land ahoy!
I start my descent 85 nm from the XMX VOR, just to make sure I can reach the recommended 2300 ft in due time. Apparently, the airport elevation is about 916 ft. Better make sure my QNH is set properly, eh?
40 miles from Christmas Island, gear down, flaps 1, speed brake armed.
Rate of descent seems acceptable
20 miles from the island, full flaps.
The descent goes smoothly, visibility is great for a visual landing.
At last, I see the PAPI lights.
Oh boy… that airport really IS 900-ish feet above mean sea level!
I do disengage the autopilot and perform a wide right hand turn in order to line up properly.
As I’m about to hit the runway threshold, a draft of wind sucks me up and rattles my stall warning. I push the nose down and throttle up to gain back speed and kick my rudder to keep my nose lined up with the runway.
The landing is super smooth. Apart from that last minute surprise, I barely felt a thing. I come up on the runway a bit fast, but I slam the brakes and activate my thrust reversers.
Ugh, that runway certainly “feels” shorter than I expected!
I go a bit long but I can eventually stop before the end of the runway. Phew!
The runway is wide enough for me to use my nosewheel steering to do a 180 and taxi back to the airport building.
I finally made it to Christmas Island, everyone, after more than 10000 nm!
I stop in front of a gas station.
Time to hop off and chug some beer.
Finally! What an adventure! Flying and learning the FS Labs A320, IXEG 737-300, PMDG 747, Rotate MD80, Aerosoft CRJ 900 and Majestic Q400 was quite an experience. It’s an amazing feeling.
7 Likes
Congrats on being the first person to make it to Christmas Island this year! Your flight adventures were fantastic to read…thanks for documenting them so well. I guess I have to get off my butt and start heading that way too. If I wait too long, all the beer will be gone on the island…!
1 Like
Let me understand the premise of this, as I wasn’t here for the inaugural flight . We start out from our home base and fly to Christmas Island? Switching aircraft is acceptable? Must you have cargo space, or can you be a fast mover (for expedited packages)?