Hello friends, I have returned to mimic some more of my vacation flights in India.   This time, it's August 12th, 2013 and time to leave Bangalore to visit some family in Mumbai for 3 days.  I will be boarding Jet Airways flight 412 for a short 1 hour 24 minute trip to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (VABB).  This is also my first flight using the new PFPX-Professional Flight Planner X, and it was a thrill to have professional looking dispatch paperwork to assist me in my flight preparation.   

 

Weather was basically the same in both locations, with low visibility and clouds.  Route is OLREB1 OPAMO BBI MINIT AGELA MOLGO1A.  A slight tailwind is expected at cruise at FL380.  Cabin was full, as this city pair is a very popular route in India, but because the flight is short and the takeoff runway is very long, I was able to use a fixed derate of TO1 and assumed temperature of 32 degrees C to save on engine wear and tear.  

 

Equipment used is a 737-700, minus the winglets.  As mentioned in my previous flight, I was unable to find a non winglet repaint of the Jet Airways -700, so I improvised and manually added the repaint from the -700W model to the -700 model.  That did the trick, and I was able to match the eyebrowed model I flew on in real life perfectly!

 

Anyways, time to get on with the show!

 

It's about 8:20AM, a half hour before the 8:50AM departure from VOBL Gate 13.  Note the Fedex MD-11 parked at the cargo apron.  Little joke for you:  What would happen if Fedex and UPS merged?  You would get Fedups!

 

Pushback tug at work.

 

Ground crew busy disconnecting the tug, while I start adding flaps 5.  One thing I had noticed on this flight was that the pilot extended the flaps the minute engine 2 was finished starting up.  He didn't wait until both engines were started and the ground crew gave their handoff after disconnecting the tug.  Must be SOP, or possibly to speed up the departure!   The Dash8-400 parked to my right is one of the new turboprops added to the previously all NG fleet of Spicejet, a prominent low cost India carrier.

 

After a short 4 minute taxi, we entered the runway at the B taxiway intersection for a fast getaway!  My two flights out of VOBL on the Jet Airways NGs were both intersection takeoffs, as the 15,126ft runway is plenty long.

 

Gear retracts and you can see the expansive tarmac of VOBL.   This airport is a major change from the previous airport serving Bangalore, VOBG, which only had 2 jetways and could only handle about 4-5 flights at a time.   This is a very big airport that is appropriately sized to serve the ever growing city, but is a long 1 hour drive from the city center.

 

Acceleration height/thrust reduction is 800ft AGL, so I nose over to accelerate to clean flaps speed.

 

I turn sharply to the north to intercept the next SID waypoint.

 

At cruise level FL380.

After a short 20 minute cruise, it's time to descend to follow the MOLG1A STAR into VABB ILS 27.

 

Cloudy skies ahead as I slow down to 250kts as I pass over the first STAR speed restriction, 250kts at FL120A.   Similar to my previous flight into VOBL, VABB has strict arrival speed limits at set distances from the runway, so I used the FMC fix page to add range rings at 25,20,12 NM to remind me to slow down to 220,180, and 160kts respectively.

 

Just east of Mumbai, and the area is full of hilly terrain.   On the real flight we were skimming in the low hanging clouds, but we all know about the poor overcast skies issue in FSX....

 

Beautiful landscape on the intercept leg to the ILS localizer.

 

Now these are the clouds I was hoping to see!   Just 12 nm from the runway threshold, and leveling off at 2900 feet to capture the glideslope.

 

One of the prominent hills located just a few miles northeast of the airport.  Go to my Flickr page in my signature, you will see the real life shot of this hill!

 

Short finals to the ILS runway.  Not sure if the ILS localizer is supposed to be slightly offset, but in the past I have flown the VOR approach to runway 27 and it was also slightly off course.  VABB charts show the VOR approach is 10 degrees to the right at 261 degrees, it looks like the navdata for the ILS approach is incorrect as this should be a straight in approach at 271 degrees.

 

Seconds away from touchdown.

 

Thundering down the runway with full reverse thrust, VABB is action city with a nice line of aircraft taxing for departure.  Time is 10:13AM.

 

Some Air India Airbuses parked at the remote stands at the domestic terminal. 

 

I make the high speed runway turnoff and prepare for the quick taxi to the waiting gate.  Jet Konnect 737-800W was free to takeoff after I cleared the active runway.

 

Safely parked at the gate, it's time to disembark.   A Singapore Airlines 777 has just landed.  In the real flight, I witnessed a Jet Airways 777-200 arrival behind us, and a Saudi 777-200 takeoff.  I was curious to see if UT2 would provide the AI traffic to match those two 777s I saw IRL, but to no avail.

 

Real flight duration was 1 hour 24 minutes, I made it in 1 hour 17 minutes.   Weather was typical Mumbai during the summer, as it rained off and on all day everyday I was there during my three day stay.  It was nice to see the hills and packed urban landscape depicted pretty accurately in the sim, with the crummy weather matched nicely by Active Sky Evolution.   After the real flight, I managed to ask the copilot about the approach, asking him if it was CAT I.  He replied, CAT II.   Unfortunately, I was unable to find a CAT II chart for the airport, so I just flew a normal CAT I. 

 

Well, it's off to visit my uncle and aunt, and then it will be time to return to my base in Bangalore for a few more days until my return to the U.S.   I said it before, I was hoping the PMDG 777 would be delayed because I want to say my goodbyes to the NGX without any distraction, and what better way than to fly my last NGX flight as my last Jet Airways flight during my 3 week city hopping excursion in India! 

 

See you soon! 

Great trip A.J.  The weather exudes summertime humidity and rain showers.  I'd love to go to India some day.

i have flown many times into VABB and the IFly737 is dead center to the 27 ILS approach into VABB

Strange.   I have the latest Navigraph airac database and the Magnetic Variation update posted in the sticky at the PMDG general forum.   I hardly use the airport so it's not the end of the world, but it's peculiar nonetheless.

here is a real photo of the approach into 27

 

 

Nice shots!

 

Quick question, where did you get the 9W paint for the -700 from? I only have liveries for the -800/800W/900.

 

Thanks.

 

Dinshaw.

Hi Dinshaw, I found the -700 livery via google search. 

 

http://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=32&p=1243979

 

Please note, it's a -700W paint, but it will work on the -700 if you copy paste the texture folder and aircraft.cfg info into the -700 model (just be sure to change the sim from sim=B737-700W to sim=B737-700.

Hi Dinshaw, I found the -700 livery via google search. 

 

http://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=32&p=1243979

 

Please note, it's a -700W paint, but it will work on the -700 if you copy paste the texture folder and aircraft.cfg info into the -700 model (just be sure to change the sim from sim=B737-700W to sim=B737-700.

Hi AJ,

 

Thanks so much for the link, appreciate it !

 

Cheers and happy landings,

 

Dinshaw.

Great shots and story!

Thanks.  I just submitted a story on the outbound flight back to VOBL, but strangely there are no views.  Maybe everyone is too busy flying the 777! 

Anyhow, look for it if you get a chance: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/419637-jet-airways-737-700-vabb-to-vobl-warning-big-pictures/