Great Circle Route etc. - St. John's to London Gatwick

[P_7878]

[An unrelated Note: Yesterday, I was amazed to spot the "PMDG 777-300ER" in my Xbox/Marketplace. Not sure when exactly PMDG added it to the Xbox, but it is now showing up rather prominently in the Xbox "Featured List" along with that sparkling "NEW" yellow tag on it...🙂...Whatever we may say, credit is due to PMDG for testing and adapting this complex add-on for Xbox users. And considering how seamlessly their 737 flies for me in Xbox (without ever having encountered a single issue that I can recall), I've full faith that this will be a keeper for serious Xbox simmers and some of the Xbox kids...🙂...but I would wait to get this one or maybe one of the other (future) 777 variants. The 777 was indeed a remarkable plane of its time, and it's quite incredible to me that a PMDG-grade 777 is now available on Xbox. Though this post is not about the 777, over a period of nearly two decades, my regular transatlantic trips were equally shared between UA 777s (mostly the -200), and LH 330s/340s. The longest duration suspended in the sky...🙂...of my life, 19+ hours, had occurred in a 777. After inclement weather at the original destination had forced the airplane to divert to an alternate airport in the last minute, when it finally touched down on the ground, I had breathed a sigh of relief, and still recall the pax clapping forcefully on smooth execution of the touchdown by the Pilots...🙂...]

In my recent St. John's post, I'd remarked that flights to Europe out of North America's east coast (including originations from a little deeper inside like Chicago) invariably pass over Newfoundland and Labrador, and often over the city of St. John's. The route map shows an upward arc on the Earth's globe, passing near Greenland. While flying over mid-Atlantic at 35,000+ ft, especially on a dark night, it's a funny feeling that the nearest landmass is comfortingly not too far off my port side window...🙂...I would often strain my eyes to get a glimpse of it, and sometimes in daylight it might be even visible. This arc-like flight route is because of the Great Circle navigation (always a curiosity of mine as a non-professional aviator). Aircraft don't fly in a straight line, but take the shortest route, which is an arc on the Earth's sphere, between ORIG and DEST airports. It must be emphasized, though, that besides the shortest route consideration, there are many other factors such as Jetstream winds, cost efficiency, faster flight time, and desirability to stay close to land etc. combine to yield the actual (RW) flightpath.

A classic example of the Great Circle Route (and deviations from it) is the World's longest scheduled non-stop flight between New York and Singapore, operated by SIA's A350-900s. The route has a Great Circle distance of 9,500 miles, but in practice, the eastward leg to New York, over the Pacific Ocean, is typically flown with a distance of 10,500 miles; while the leg back to Singapore, is sometimes flown also eastward (instead of the normal westward polar route) across the Atlantic Ocean, with a distance of 10,300 miles. Primarily, prevailing Jetstream considerations that provide both faster time and better fuel consumption, dictate such choices despite the actual distances being nearly a thousand miles more than the shortest great circle route.

The great circle route of today's aviation was practiced by seafaring voyagers as early as mid-16th century. However, systematic tabulated data (in English) of great circle routes was first published in 1805. So, starting 19th century, great circle-based navigation became common practice for ocean-going vessels, a century before the Wright Flyer flew for the first time in 1903. It's easy to calculate the Great Circle distance with a modern calculator from the Trigonometric formula, using the latitudes and longitudes of the 2 points. Here is an expression for it:

d = 2 π r (α/360)
with
α = cos inv [sin (Lat1) x sin (Lat2) + cos (Lat1) x cos (Lat2) x cos (Lon1-Lon2)]
r = radius of Earth

There are, of course, a plethora of Great Circle Calculator Tools on-line, where all one needs to do is provide the Lat/Long of the first point and the 2nd point (or even just the ORIG airport and the DEST airport) to come up with the distance. My great circle route for today's flight is between St. Jonn's (CYYT) and London Gatwick (EGKK). This flight between these two city pairs is the shortest transatlantic flight (actually St. John's to London Heathrow is ~20 miles shorter, because, along the great circle arc, one needs to fly a bit more for Gatwick which is 25 miles directly south from Heathrow). This (CYYT-EGKK) service is also exactly the transatlantic flight that WestJet (see my earlier WestJet post) has commenced for this summer season, using a B737 MAX 8. The service is flown almost every other day of the week (there were at least 3-4 WJA flights I spotted on FlightAware last week itself).  

Using the Latitude and Longitudes of CYYT and EGKK, here are the sample (appx.) distances, I calculated (or found):

1. Great Circle on-line Calculator(s) = 2338 miles
2. SimBrief Flight plan Route = 2393 miles
3. FlightAware (RW) WJA Route = 2420 miles (probably includes departure/arrival procedures)

Regarding the a/c, for this post, I've exercised my virtual aviator's discretion...🙂...to fly the iniBuilds A320 V2, in one of my favorite colors of Qantas' Flying Art series, which livery, I believe, is actually (in RW) worn by a Dreamliner 787-9. I'd picked up a pack of 100+ A320V2 liveries at $1.99, this past week, from the Marketplace, and this one stood out for me today...🙂...so, I opted to fly it for my great circle route experiment here. So, please come along as I fly across this desolate ocean along the shortest (great circle) Transatlantic route...

Hope you enjoy this collection pictures. Thanks for viewing...!

Edited August 13 by P_7878

[John F]

Nice shots. Can't argue about penny-a-piece liveries when they look this good! 🙂

[P_7878]

2 hours ago, John F said:

Nice shots. Can't argue about penny-a-piece liveries when they look this good! 🙂

Appreciated you catching my post early, John...🙂...

Yes, you're correct. In fact, I just checked this A320 V2 livery pack is stated to have nearly 200 repaints... (I didn't count 🙂...) ...! Plus, me being a big believer of user-reviews in the Marketplace, this pack also garnered a 5.0/5.0 rating, a rarity as far as what I've seen there. They have done some distinctive touches to these airline liveries...look good indeed...

Cheers...!

[Alaska738]

Great set of shots! 😉 

[pmplayer]

Fine picture set, like this livery on that A320 !

cheers 😉

[P_7878]

Will, pmplayer: Thanks for the additional remarks...!

The iniBuilds A320V2 Airbus will do for me for now in Xbox...until someone dares to put a better one (preferably of another type) in Xbox ...🙂...I'm encouraged after seeing the PMDG 777...we'll see...

[andiflyit]

Nice set again P_7878, and the weather simulator is working! 🙂

[darrenvox]

cracking set of shots!!

[P_7878]

Thanks a lot, Andreas and Darren...🙂...!!