Today we fly around in the center of England.

We depart from Birmingham (EGBB), the UK's second-largest city, and head northwest. We land at Cosford AB (EGWC). This RAF base is home to several schools and the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands. After departure, we inspect the Iron Bridge and continue north to land at RAF Shawbury (EGQS). At RAF Shawbury the RAF trains helicopter pilots for the British Armed Forces and houses, among other units, the School of Air Operations Control.

We turn east and land at Tatenhill (EGBM) before proceeding on to East Midlands (EGNX). The airport serves the majority of the East Midlands region consisting of the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Southern Lincolnshire, Rutland, and Derbyshire. The airfield was originally built as a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Castle Donington in 1943, before being redeveloped as a civilian airport in 1965. East Midlands Airport has established itself as a hub for low-fare airlines such as Jet2.com and Ryanair and tour operators like TUI Airways, which serve a range of domestic and European short-haul destinations. In 2022, the airport was the 14th-busiest in the UK by passenger traffic. A central air cargo hub, it was the second-busiest UK airport for freight traffic in 2016, after London Heathrow.

We overfly the city of Nottingham and land at Newton AB (EGXN). In March 2000 it was announced that RAF Newton would be disposed of. The MOD considered that Newton was under-utilized and relatively costly to operate, concluding that disposal would offer substantial cost savings. Today the site is a private industrial estate and the buildings are being converted into offices and storage space. The old control tower still stands and is being converted into offices; the grass airfield has reverted to agriculture. Nottinghamshire Police use parts of the site for public order, method of entry, and big police dog training. Heading north we arrive at Gramston (EGNE), a former RAF base. We continue to the northeast and land at Sturgate (EGCS), another former RAF base. Further northeast we reach Humberside (EGNJ). The airport faces competition for flights from East Midlands Airport (70 mi (110 km)), and Leeds Bradford Airport (74 mi (119 km)); all of which have a much wider range of scheduled passenger flights. Passengers at the airport peaked in the early to mid-2000s when the facility was used by around 500,000 per year. This fell to around 200,000 passengers in 2016. In the 1990s, the Concorde landed and took off at the airport on several occasions. Now we turn west and land at Doncaster (EGCN). We overfly the Peak District National Park and Chatsworth House.

We reach the city of Manchester with some POIs and land at Manchester Airport (EGCC). The city -the third-largest in the UK - is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs, and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station is the world's oldest surviving inter-city passenger railway station. At the University of Manchester, Ernest Rutherford first split the atom in 1917; Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill developed the world's first stored-program computer in 1948; and Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first isolated graphene in 2004. Manchester has a history of attacks attributed to Irish Republicans. On Saturday 15 June 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out the 1996 Manchester bombing, the detonation of a large bomb next to a department store in the city center. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb injured over 200 people, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows 1⁄2 mile (800 m) away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at £50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards. The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade. Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bombing and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, the city center has undergone extensive regeneration. New and renovated complexes such as The Printworks and Corn Exchange have become popular shopping, eating, and entertainment areas. Manchester Arndale is the UK's largest city-centre shopping centre.

We follow the River Mersey west and land at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport (EGGP). The city entered a period of decline in the mid-20th century but has experienced regeneration since the European Union selected it as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, which was reported to have generated over £800 million for the local economy within a year. The economy of Liverpool is diversified and encompasses tourism, culture, maritime, hospitality, healthcare, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, creative, and digital sectors. The city is home to the UK's second-highest number of art galleries, national museums, listed buildings, parks, and open spaces, with only London having more. It is often used as a filming location due to its architecture and was the fifth most visited UK city by foreign tourists in 2022. It has produced numerous musicians, most notably the Beatles, and artists from the city have had more UK No. 1 hit singles than anywhere else. It has also produced academics, actors, artists, comedians, filmmakers, poets, scientists, sportspeople, and writers. It is the home of Premier League football teams Everton and Liverpool. The world's oldest still-operating mainline train station, Liverpool Lime Street, is in the city center; it is also served by the underground Merseyrail network. The city's port was the fourth largest in the UK in 2023, with numerous shipping and freight lines having headquarters and offices there.

We head north and finish the flight at Warton (EGNO). The airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. On 14 August 1944 Glenn Miller, recently promoted to the rank of major, played a concert to 10,000 servicemen on a platform erected in front of No. 4 Hangar. On 23 August 1944, the accidental crash of a USAAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber caused the Freckleton Air Disaster, resulting in 61 fatalities, including 38 children and two teenagers. With the merger of English Electric Aviation and the other aircraft divisions of the major British manufacturers in 1960, it became a British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) site. BAC was then nationalized and merged with Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation to form British Aerospace (BAe) in 1977. British Aerospace was privatized in 1981 and was renamed BAE Systems in 1999. As such the airfield has been the flight test center for various frontline military aircraft including the English Electric Canberra, the English Electric Lightning, the BAC TSR-2, the Sepecat Jaguar, the Panavia Tornado, the BAE Hawk (formerly the Hawker Siddeley Hawk) and most recently the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The flight has a length of about 300 miles and 11 landings. We want to cruise at about 150 knots. I will be in the COWS DA 42 in 2024.

The flight plans are here.

 

Recommended scenery:

Birmingham

Cosford AB

RAF Shabury

Tatenhill

East Midlands

Gamston

Doncaster/RAF Finningley

Manchester

Liverpool John Lennon Airport

Warton

Sturgate

Humberside

The complete package is available here.

Manchester, Liverpool, and Humberside are also available as payware from or via ORBX. All sceneries can be used in both sims without problems.

 

Time and Weather:

We try real weather and want to depart at 10:00 am local time.

 

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, February 8, 2025. 1900 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

Not for everyone. Here is Gunter’s flightplan with a few “extra” Points of Interest. These mark the English Premier League Football grounds that are along Gunter’s route. No need to change the actual flight path more than a mile or two. (Included are Aston Villa-Villa Park, Wolverhampton-Mollineaux, Nottingham Forest-City Ground, Manchester City-The Ethiad, Manchester United-Old Trafford, Liverpool-Anfield, Everton-Goodison Park – all in this year’s table.) For some people, certainly not all, these are cultural icons for the Midlands.  (Oops. MSFS whiffed on the Ethiad and surely City deserves some respect. If you like, try this rendition.)
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Mmmm... G36 or A36?  Decisions, decisions.. 🫢