FSX:SE 90 tons of aid to Beirut from East Midlands airport

[HighBypass 2,339]

In view of the recent "modification" to the port of Beirut a Western Global freighter was chartered to fly aid to Beirut. Departing from EGNX, bound for OLBA.

Preparing for loading & fuelling. Ratcliffe on Soar power station in the background.

 

Punching through the haze which had moved in.  FSX NOTAM nope, no help for the lack of undercarriage door animations to date

 

Approaching the French coast - no small boats in sight.. 

 

For the majority of the flight we'll be cruising at FL350, but climb up to FL400 when we're a bit lighter.

 

Passing over the Swiss Alps.

 

Venice is off to the left of the picture, the flight plan roughly follows the east coast of Italy.

 

The heel of Italy..

 

About to overfly Cyprus.

 

Beginning the descent to Lebanon.

 

Being vectored to visual for RWY34.

 

We were expecting some haze, but they could have turned the lights up a bit!! 

 

BUSTED! One of my better landings, but it was just in the displaced threshold... (sigh...)

 

Oh well in for a penny - celebrated by wheelying quite a distance down 34  A bit of reverse idle in conjunction with the brakes one the nose was down and use the last turn off.

 

Taxiing in down on side of the airport buildings...

...and up the other side to the cargo area!

 

Time to let the ground services get busy.

Enjoy🍻

FSX NOTAM - lovely freeware airport available in the library from Lebor Simulations. There is also some free photoreal Lebanon scenery but I hadn't downloaded it at the time of the flight 

[edetroit 933]

That's more like it! Always good to see you in the MD-11. 😁

I have a Western Global flight waiting to go...quite a long flight. WGN9412 KLAX/EBLG

Hopefully I'll find the time soon. Meantime keep 'em comin' 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Thanks, Ed! Looking forward to it. 

[P_7878 6,555]

Agree, "humanitarian" MD-11F Cargo assignment, this is certainly more "believable" than a Warehouse "Supply Flight"....🙂...

Nice pictures,....bit of runway threshold overrun, yes, but, at least, dead on the center-line....!!

[BTW, good capture of the Solar Power Stations, in your first shot, I recall, I'd seen them in Orbx scenery too...]

[HighBypass 2,339]

In the unfortunate case of Beirut the warehouse itself and several other structures in the vicinity would need to be supplied first before undertaking such a supply flight.. 

Solar Power station? actually no, Radcliffe is dino-fuel powered (coal fired), but it's good for over 2000 megawatts of generation..  near the River Soar which may be the reason for the confusion re:Solar.

I was quite proud of the centreline accuracy on that landing hence the slight disappointment over the displaced threshold. Speaking of which, Rafic Hariri Beirut  does have an almost 12500 foot long runway - 03/21. However it too has displaced thresholds at either end, one of which is a whopping 3264 feet! That's a big chunk of unusable real estate when coming in for a landing! The other end has a D/T of 1821 feet...

[bernd1151 5,836]

Great flight, thanks for taking us along.

[P_7878 6,555]

2 hours ago, HighBypass said:

....

Solar Power station? actually no, Radcliffe is dino-fuel powered (coal fired), but it's good for over 2000 megawatts of generation..  near the River Soar which may be the reason for the confusion re:Solar.

Thanks for the correction, Mark...🙂....!! Yes, I was wondering to myself too....(vision dimming a bit...🙂...)...

[HighBypass 2,339]

2 hours ago, bernd1151 said:

Great flight, thanks for taking us along.

Anytime, Bernd!