I am (finally) getting to (occasionally) fly long-haul and getting a novel sense of (revived) fun and accomplishment...🙂...after nearly a decade and more of no such activity in the SIM, but an activity that was quite routine to me in my FSX days...especially the earlier "zealot" simmer days of FSX...🙂...Been a consummate long-hauler in RW travels for an extended period of my life, I wish to pick up this segment of aviation in my virtual world, hopefully with acquisition of a couple of my favorite long-haul airplanes in MSFS2024. For now, this is my just 2nd long-haul using the A340-300. I'd earlier done a 4,000+ miles (east-west) flight, and here, I am doing a 5,000+ miles (north-south) flight. Earth's diameter is ~8,000 miles, so, this flight from Brussels to Cape Town, of ~5,400 (SimBrief) miles, traverses nearly 70% of the diametric dimension of the Earth's globe from top to bottom (see my World Map shot #2 below). 

When we think of Airlines of Belgium, we invariably think of Brussels Airlines, with those (unforgettable) Polka Dot airplane liveries, that have stayed with me since the early days of this hobby. However, today, this other airline of Belgium, with its nice and colorful livery, caught my attention. Brussels Airlines is 17 years old, and Air Belgium is half that old, of only 8 years. These days, it's tough business especially for new entrants to survive in the airline sector, and it's more so, in the case of Air Belgium, pitted against the flag carrier of Belgium. One of the objectives where it had hoped to overtake Brussels Airlines, is with long-haul direct flights to destinations in Africa. To that end, Cape Town and Johannesburg are listed as cities on its route map. Brussels Airlines operates out of the primary hub of the country, Brussels Airport, which btw is also a major (EU) hub that many airlines find suitable when flying between east/far-east Asia and North America. I'd the chance to transit through Brussels Airport once with one such an airline. Air Belgium, however, wished to stay out of the limelight of Brussels Airport (and Brussels Airlines), using the less-known but no less historic, Brussels-Charleroi Airport (EBCI). This is my first ever flight lifting off this airport.

I found Air Belgium to be a fascinating airline, with distinctive merits, in the sectors of passenger, cargo, and charter services. Its long-haul (passenger) fleet has consisted of A340s and A330s. So, here we go, as I fly south from (EBCI) Brussels-Charleroi Airport across the Globe, over some of the most fascinating geography on the Earth...that of the African continent...overflying initially the lands of Europe, then the Seas of Mediterranean, and the seemingly endless (pink) deserts of Sahara that struck me most (see images below). 

One curious observation of such a (long-haul) "north-south" flight (unlike the east-west flights that I'm quite familiar with from both real world and virtual world), is that once, night fell, there was no more daybreak to be seen i.e., it stayed dark till the end of my flight, since, here, you're neither chasing the Sun nor speeding towards each other...🙂... I've included images (external and internal) of this phase of my flight. Also, though one is flying across the world, for nearly 13 hours, across 5,000+ miles, there is (amazingly) no time difference at all, between Brussels and Cape Town...! In fact, as I'm writing this, I noted Brussels is at 2:16pm, and Cape Town is also exactly at 2:16pm...! So, after such a marathon north-south flight (yet to be experienced by me), there would be apparently no "jet lag", contrasted with an (east<->west) flight of the same distance and duration, for which there would be so much of jet lag, that our circadian rhythm gets thoroughly confused and takes several days to recover from it...🙂...speaking from experience...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images of Air Belgium A340...!

Thanks for viewing...!

Great shots and cracking livery!  Cheers,

Calum

Glad you persevered. Wouldn't want to have missed these.

Good looking A340 again P_7878! And it's a long way home.....

Another fine pictureset showcasing the A340 !

cheers 😉

Very nice set of shots! 😉 

Calum, John, Andreas, pmplayer, Will: 

Thanks for your comments and patience with this post...🙂...

The magic of Direct Link finally worked for me...🙂... So, new way forward...