Flying Far-Eastern Russia

[Houghton11 12]

Well, I've always been interested in the East of Russia, particularly Sakhalin island and the region around it, so I thought I'd give some Russian aviation a try!

 

My interest was spurred through work primarily, as my employer has provided aircraft to SAT Airlines, and I was always curious of their operations. The region itself is spurred on by some pretty heavy oil/gas development, and has become pretty cosmopolitan in the main centres due to foreign investment and personnel. SAT Airlines' itself has seen some very vigorous growth in the last 5-6 years or so, being the first CIS operator of the Dash-8, and adopting almost exclusively Western equipment. I was torn between simulating a Dash-8 flight, or one of SAT's 737 flights. A recent acquisition of a 737-500 made me settle on a NGX -600 flight.

 

My plan was to simulate a scheduled SAT Airlines flight between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport (UHSS), and Vladivostok (UHWW). Realizing it would be a travesty to give this region a go without the correct scenery's and meshs, I spent a good time getting a smoke-load of files from http://simsturman.narod.ru/, UHSS airport scenery from http://www.avsimrus....wnload&id=42915, and Vladivostok scenery from http://ivao.e-labs.r...y/uhww-515.html. The UHWW scenery is especially important, as that airport has gone through a major overhaul in the last couple years, with FSX's default interpretation woefully inaccurate for our time.

 

A search for a SAT livery for PMDG's NGX revealed nothing, so I figured I'd give avsim.ru a go for any Russian NGX liveries. I settled on a UTAir -800 livery. UTAir is a massive aviation services group that operates all around the world, and I figured I could simulate a sort of Oil/Gas charter from the island to the main-land. I figured the hour and bit flight would be a good introduction to Russian civil aviation. I read up on the Russian Federation AIP online aviadocs.net/aip/html/eng.htm, and brushed up on some of the intricacies of flying in Russia.

 

You can see the Vataware track here: http://www.vataware.com/flight.cfm?id=10256505

 

Anyways, to some photos!

 

I began at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with an early morning departure. GSX's catering services provided some basic breakfast for the upcoming passengers ;)

 

I kind of neglected getting any pictures of the departure, but here you can see the Island in the distance

 

Sunrise!

 

Now over the mainland. It was about this point that I was reading Russia's AIP a bit deeper, and found out that Russia has adopted RVSM airspace as of last year. My planned metric flight level isn't valid! Good thing it's only a 100 ft to FL380. From what I understood, anything above 6000m now is flown with imperial flight levels. With this exception, is appears ATS services are still provided with metric units.

 

Here I'm reviewing the DAGES 8C arrival for the CATII ILS runway 25L. The METAR reported calm winds, thick fog with vertical visibility only 200ft. Minimums would be 30m (100ft), so I should be good.

 

I really wish we could post more then 10 photos per topic. Anyways, we'll warp ahead to my approach into UHWW. The area is beginning to look pretty socked in:

 

Entering the fog:

 

 

New Terminal A through the fog.

 

Passengers deboarded and on thier way to thier respective homes!

 

The next step is to give this route a try with some ATC online next time. It would be a good opportunity to verify my interpretation of Russia's unique aviation procedures. Hope you enjoyed! If you have any comments you are more then welcome!

[John F 2,396]

Interesting...I appreciate your in-depth approach to the topic.

 

John

[Darth Mop 6]

clean your displays for gods sake!

[Kaly 22]

clean your displays for gods sake!

 

Now that is funny!!

 

Great shots!

[HUSSAR 253]

Nice shots, I found an incredible freeware airport scenery for FS9/FSX of UKBB Boryspil International, Kiev, not in the far east but a wonderful rendition of a Soviet era airport:

 

http://www.interskystudio.info/

 

The download time is slow but it is well worth the wait.

[Gavin 99]

Excellent post, thanks :-)

[Houghton11 12]

Thanks for the link Rob!

 

Actually, I've been quite surprised by the great freeware scenery offerings available for the region. You gotta dig a little deep but there is some real gems out there!

[Ben Cap 89]

Very nice shots! Love the NGX! :Big Grin:

[ERJ123 0]

Great series of pics. Thanks!