iwebber

Or ignored some of the advice given (while swearing blind he'd done it) and then subsequently finding it solved the problem.

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm about to return to Madrid on the IBE6856, the A346 does do this route but not this flight (it did when I actually did the flight but that was ages ago) these days they use an A350 and the A340 does the later one. We leave at 1:25 in the afternoon and arrive 6:20am the next day. Parked up with the usual suspects here in EZE As we push back, out of the window you can see the international carriers, same usual suspects though. Some orangy blue KLM hybrid monstrosity landing as we taxi out. Some wing shots after take off Climbing away from the weather with the suburbs of Buenos Aires below Passing Rio After a decent amount of black nothing we arrive on the Iberian peninsula and make our way towards Madrid. Wing shot on the approach On final approach, the Wilco adopting it's trademark kamakazi attitude on the approach. From here I just had 2 A346 operators to do (excluding Mahan Air as I couldn't find a repaint), Virgin and South African. It just so happens that Iberia run it's A346's to Heathrow, the home of the Virgin A346's, serendipitous indeed, so here I am as the IBE3166, leaving Barajas in the mid afternoon arriving in LHR a little later that afternoon. With the formation of IAG Iberia and BA rationalised many routes and the LHR-MAD was certainly one of them. Iberia also have the delights of LHR T5 as well. Parked up in a busier daytime Madrid T4S. Taxiing out to 36L. Pax view just after take off Busier European skies, that's a TAP A321 in the background. Channel Islands Isle of Wight An obligatory hold over Ockham (well, it is Heathrow) Wing view on the approach, I managed not to OOM here but, my word, it was a slideshow. Hmmm, who owns this terminal I wonder... Parked next to another IAG interloper. So the plan from here is to take a Virgin A346 to JFK and from there, SAA run their A346's direct to Jo'burg.

Is there an old Spingbok livery available? I can't find any but I don't have the product yet so can't check the Operations Centre... Is there one for the (deep breath) iFly? Running away now... Cheers,

To be fair, someone nicked a Dash 8 at Seattle...

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm about to do the IBE6841, these days operated by a new A350-9 but this route seems to use a mixture of A346 and A350 aircraft. We leave at 5 to midnight and arrive in Buenos Aires around 7:40am. Still dark and still have the steps... Taking off towards the north initially. Looking back at the airport with city in the background as we arc round to head off south. City receeding away behind us... Not much to see overnight but there were a number of AI aircraft who stayed with us for much of the journey. Air Europa A330 TAM 767 Alitalia 777, wonder where he's going... Local boys, we must be close now... Found South America Cruising over a fairly large city (Brasilia?) Answers on a postcard. Twilight just starting. Descending towards Buenos Aires. Ah Ha! That's where they were going, Alitalia on approach a bit in front of us. Wing view of our approach Nice view of the TropicalSim SAEZ Final approach Taxiing in Parked up Just as I was about to switch everything off, the sun peaked up over the horizon. Next flight will be the return leg...

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm in Munich and about to fly another one of Lufty's 16 A340-600's. This time we're off to Mexico, a few reasons, the T2G rendition is good, it's a hot and high airfield that's surrounded by mountains and often has thunderstorms and it also connects nicely to Iberia's network... DLH520 leaves at 10:20pm and arrives just after 3am. It's already dark as we load up at the gate, SODE working it's magic and connecting a jetway nicely to 2L. Taxiing onto the departure runway. Climbing out over Munich. Leaving Germany behind. After many hours of darkness we start our descent into Mexico City (still in darkness, gotta love winter), CBs visible in the near distance. Wing view of the suburbs of Mexico City, quite a bit of flap out already considering how far out we are, because of the high density altitude (both hot AND high) it helps to be one flap stage ahead of where you are usually. TAS is so much higher than IAS up here, energy levels (kinetic mainly) can catch you out at this point so it pays to be conservative and bring it in gently. The Wilco widebody airbuses seem to adopt this quite alarming nose down attitude on final approach, I think it's due to the final stage of flap causing an uncontrolled balloon off the glideslope and the AP stuffing the nose down to try and regain it. In reality it would never do this. Taxiing in having used most of the runway. Parked up amongst the local traffic. Iberia still have 17 A340-600's that they use for a variety of routes, MMMX being one of them. This aircraft is EC-LEV, named Isaac Albeniz is a 642X which means it's the HGW (High Gross Weight) version. This route back from MEX to MAD is the earlier of the 2 daily flights they do. IBE6400 leaves just before midday and arrives 6:30am. Parked at the gate with the city in the background. Taxiing out for departure looking across at Terminal 2 on the south side. Wing views shortly after departure, T2G did a good job on the airport vicinity. Turning on the SID with the city and mountains(hills?) in the background. Showing off the cloud shadows... Flying across the Atlantic at night, nothing really happened until the sun came up. Approaching the Iberian Peninsula there's quite a few build ups. Approaching LEMD. Taxiing in. Parked up at Terminal 4S, this is an older LEMD (from Aerosoft) so fixed jetways, GSX just pulled up steps... Next flight will be one of Iberia's South American routes, specifically down to EZE (SAEZ Buenos Aires)

I agree, particularly for the longer flights. However, iFly have had downloading winds direct from AS for many years now (on the 737NG, don't know about the 74) so they're not the first but it's a welcome addition.

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm in KSFO and about to fly another one of Lufty's 16 A340-600's. They have some based in Frankfurt (that we flew to Seoul) and others based in Munich, which is what we're going to fly here. DLH459 leaves at 10:50pm and is now operated by an A380 but last season, it was this fine beast. Pax view out of the economy seat, pretty much a full moon tonight. Pushing back Tow truck disconnecting. Moon reflecting on the water. Looking back at the main terminals at SFO... ...and out into the bay. Some views of the city as we climb out. Low level stratus hanging over the Golden Gate Bridge. Sun coming up somewhere over the Atlantic. Now descending over southern Germany. Shortly after landing. Taxiing in. Next flight will be to MMMX, a hot and high airfield surrounded by mountains, always an interesting day out.

Following on from my previous post (here), we're out in Korea and about to head towards the States. There aren't many A340 operators in the US anymore but United run a 789 from Seoul to SFO and from there we can find an A340 to fly. UAL892 parked up at RKSI, I've remembered to activate the scenery (works fine in P3Dv4) and AS is communicating just fine... what could possibly go wrong? A bit of a murky afternoon, we're pushing at 5:05pm local and the light is just starting to fade. Taxiing out looking over at the cargo apron... ...and Korean Air's main terminal. Pax eye view shortly after take off, admiring the local terrain close to the airport. Into the murk... Above the clouds now with the moon clearly in view. Local 747-8 descending towards the airport. Clouds breaking up as we make our way east. Sun setting as we head out over the Pacific, it's a long way over water. After an accelerated night I notice this Air China triple coming back the other way. Some local traffic hacking back and forward to Hawaii. In sight of the mainland now. Heading down the coast towards the bay Some minor (but unsightly) texture anomolies during the approach that ruining most of my pics. I fixed them with a refresh of the files from FTX Central but, obviously, only after the flight. Short final to 28R Final pax view of our deceleration, this is the old (non HD) KSFO from Flightbeam and the jetways were a bit wonky so no parked pics. At this point, aerosoft released the A320/321 and iFly released the HD update to the P3Dv4 737NG. I couldn't help myself do a few flights with these 2 (here) before finding another Lufty A340 (600 this time) to Munich (here).

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm about to find another A340 to fly to Munich but I've been distracted by new shiny things... Aerosoft just released the A320/321 and iFly the HD update to their P3Dv4 737NG. I did a quick KSFO PHNL PANC KSEA KSFO circuit, all with Alaska Airlines and their new (then) aquisition of Virgin America. First up, Virgin America (still running 'their' flights at this point) A320 evening flight to PHNL. Old KSFO jetways not working, using buses and steps to board the aircraft. Shortly after take off flying past some bridge. Climbing out over the Pacific as the sun sets. A lot of darkness and water later... short final to 4R. Slightly erratic lighting but parked at the gate. Next up, Alaska 737-800 to PANC, ASA871, another night flight over the Pacific. Albino Atlas Air 747 departing as we board. Shortly after take off looking at Waikiki Saw an old shed plying it's trade, couldn't resist a quick snap, it's as photogenic as the day it was conceived (i.e. not at all). Aeroplane over water at night with lights on. A few hours later (I was hoping there would be some light) we're approaching Anchorage. Parked up and we're all still tired... I was hoping to get all 4 flights in one post but I couldn't choose so it's spilt into 2. Here's the next, an Alaska B737-900 flight down to KSEA. It's ASA82, the early morning (red eye? or are they in the evening/night?) flight, today in the Disney themed paint. Local traffic (Grant Aviation) avoiding the hills and clouds endemic in Alaska. Big cargo base, PANC, plenty of evidence for that. Even the super big LCF jumbo is here. And the normal one. Looking back after take off and there's another LCF Definitely Alaska Clearing up as we make our way south. As we approach Seattle though, clouds and mountains return. See here for the rest of this flight and a SanFran Giants A321 down to, well, SanFran.

Following on from my previous post (here), I'm continuing down the coast towards KSEA in our classy and subtle Disney 739. Descending into KSEA and there's a layer of bleurgh to get through. Popping out with the city below us. Gear down just befoew Boeing Field. Parked up. Glad to be shot of such a garish and vomit inducing livery we turn to a slightly less obnoxious logo jet, an old Virgin America A321, now unashamedly in Alaska colours but also with the SF Giants logos emblazened all over it. Standing out but not requiring a bucket. Pushing back in the mid morning light. Taxiing past all the company traffic, Alaska Airlines is quite an airline now, it's not just fishing and bears. After takeoff looking back over the Sound. Climbing pretty much straight out. With maybe a little turn to get onto the airway. Looking out at the (faintly ridiculous) winglet, sorry, sharklet (really Airbus, really!?). Cruising down the west coast. Little mist in the hills. Some cloud over the bay as we start our approach. Established 28R Taxiing in. Parked up Enough of this no A340 madness, back to the good stuff... There's a Lufty A340 in there somewhere.

Following on from my previous post (here), we're now on one of Lufthansa's 16 A340-600s. We are DLH712, departing late afternoon and arriving around midday in Seoul. Parked next to a retro 747-8 Lining up on 25C Following the SID which will take us out to the east. Just as we approach the German FIR boundary I notice this military P3 Sun now setting for our accelerated night. Some Russian AI traffic Technically this one's Chinese And this is a Canadian registered Global Express a long way from home. Thought this was a pretty good rendition for FSX More Russian AI traffic parked up Sun rising fast North Korea off the left wing UPS plying their trade ...and this is where things started to go wrong. You'll notice in the previous two pics the weather is gin clear... it shouldn't be. As I descended towards the airport I noticed the weather depicted was nothing like what AS16 said it was. I have this issue fairly often, Simconnect seems to just stop talking to AS but without throwing an error, the weather simply freezes so I was descending through about FL100 when I noticed the wind was still 130kts, not impossible for that level but pretty unlikely. I spent quite a while trying to get the link back up, realism killer no. 1. Oo, look, clouds... Realism killer no. 2 (or is it 1b?). With the clouds back in sight I assumed all was well with the weather until turning onto the ILS at about 10 miles. The wind was still about 270 at 130kts, quite a crosswind for runway 33L. I went back into trying to reset the weather as we came down the ILS, I configured early and then, finally, at about 5 miles, success! Wing view as we turn onto the ILS. Realism killer no. 3 The weather reset and I lost my 270@130 wind and it dropped instantly to the (as advertised) 010@7, thus losing some 110kts, a lot of which was headwind. The aircraft promptly plunged out of the sky, dropping off the glideslope and going straight into Alpha Floor. I knocked out the autopilot and recovered by hand, in reality I should have gone around but I was tight on time (boy 1 needed picking up from school) so just winged it, stable approach criteria are for wusses anyway. Realism killer no. 4 As I recovered and started concentrating on the airport I noticed it looking a bit sparse and bland, strange as I have the Overland scenery which looks quite good. Doh! I forgot to activate it! I paused the flight and went into the scenery library and activated it, took a while but seemed to come up OK. Turning off the runway Realism killer no. 5 (or is it 4b) As the default RKSI AFCAD was loaded when I activated the scenery, it meant it doesn't get properly ignored for the rest of the session so I had aircraft double parked and in buildings and over taxiways. The taxi in was just silly, I had to carefully frame the last few photos so it doesn't just look like some 10 year old, off the shelf, flight simulator game... oh, wait, hang on.... Looking across at the cargo apron Still bustling with traffic, just not always in the right place. Couldn't get any pics of us parked as there were aircraft all over the place. Such a shame as the whole flight was going really well... Anyway, next flight is over the Pacific to the States.

Following on from my previous post (here) we find ourselves in Cape Town (old NMG, not nice new shiny FSDG) and about to operate DLH577, a Lufthansa A340-300 to Frankfurt. The flight leaves in the early evening and arrives very early in the morning the next day. Lufty only have 12 A343's now but CPT is a regular haunt for them. Parked at the main terminal with all the usual suspects... Pushing back, Table Mountain covered with clouds this evening... Turning onto the runway, Table Mountain still in the background. Looking back at the airport after departure Climbing out with, well, Table Mountain in the background... again. Finally! A shot that doesn't have Table Mountain in the background... but it's still in the comment, sorry. Approaching Namibia as the sun sets. Local traffic returning to FACT from Windhoek, an Airlink Embraer As we go further north, the local traffic get's more Angolan. TAP288, another A343 (they're like busses, aren't they?) from Luanda to Lisbon. Trans Air Congo parked up... somewhere in the Congo (I believe they drink Um Bongo there). Only included because I remember looking for and installing that aircraft and wondering if I'd ever actually see it in the sim and if it was worth my time and effort. I'll go with "yes". Noticed an Iberia A319 parked up somewhere mid Africa, seemed out of place (and a long way for a 319), not sure if it was correct or a typo in the flightplans. Descending over Germany On the STAR Wham! OOM Doh! Have since pulled my LOD radius back to the max (was increased manually in the fsx.cfg previously) and I haven't had any OOMs for a long time now... Here we are after landing (thanks for the autosave FSUIPC but the aircraft never really recovered and I ended up essentially flying a visual approach) and taxiing to the stand. Parked up after a long night. Well, if an OOM isn't a realism killer I don't know what is, well actually I do, because it happened on my next flight. Everything was going really well until about the last 20 minutes, no OOM but so many quirks it really killed the whole ambiance of the flight. More details here

Legally required fuel is just reserves, it’s perfectly legal to throw away your alternate and use the fuel for something else. The only thing I could think of is if there were delays published, expected or notified at BHX. They would probably have to take them into account in the fuel planning which may have made BHX too much fuel. MAN, even if it was further, with no (or at least less) delays, could have been less fuel. Without talking to the crew, though, we’ll never really know...

Wilco/feelThere

Following on from my previous post (here) there were more A340 flights to do, Air Mauritius use their A340-300's for the service to FACT, MAU843, leaving late afternoon and arriving late evening. This was flown before FSDG released their marvellous rendition of FACT so I'm using the NMG one. Looking at our aircraft from the terminal, lovely green rolling hills in the background. Pretty little Air Sechelles A320 parked up but nearly ready to go. Company regional service bringing more pax to the airport. Pushing back. As we taxi away the earlier Airbus takes off int he background. Looking out of my window at the coastline. And again, Crusty Old Pilot : "Stop looking out of the window and fly the plane you 'orrible little child of the magenta line!" Me : "But the line is green" Crusty Old Pilot : "Shut up and carry my flight bag!" Admiring the A340's legendary climb performance... eh?, let's try that again. Admiring Wilco's A340 legendary climb performance, the real thing is more... gentlemanly, old gentlemen, old gentlemen with arthritis. Turning on the SID after passing Blue Bay. Emirates A380 inbound (and quite why it was using the reciprocal runway I'll never know) I believe this one is over Reunion, if I'm wrong it's over Madagascar. Singapore A350 making it's way down to Cape Town. Sun starting to set as we cruise into South African airspace. Some local traffic, a Comair 737-800, Comair is a BA franchise (hence the livery) operating regional and domestic flights around South Africa. Kulula is their low cost brand. An SAA 737 also goingto Cape Town but from Jo'burg. Don't see many of these these days, an RJ85, this one operated by Airlink. Heading downwind for runway 01 overhead the eastern areas of Cape Town. Unfortunately there was a little murk so you can barely make out Table Mountain in the background. Final Approach. Had trouble with parking on arrival so ended up not taking any on the ground. Next flights though, another A340, this time the ever efficient Lufthansa, they still have a handful (12) of the old 300 series and they often use it on the FRA CPT FRA route.

Following on from my previous post (here) and after my jolly down to Milford Sound (here) it was time to move on. Air New Zealand run their B789's to China, specifically, Shanghai. ANZ289 leaves Auckland just before midnight, arriving in ZSPD around 7am. Taxiing away from the terminal Shortly after takeoff looking at the city. After some 11 hours over the water at night, here we are descending into Shanghai. Really liked the reflections and shadows in this pic. Final Approach Looking at the countryside Fantastic detail in the flaps/speedbrakes Taxiing towards Terminal 2. Unloading... You'll be very excited to know that I found some A340 flights from here. Air Mauritius operate an A340-300 back to their home base (FIMP) as MAU689. It leaves late evening and arrives very early in the morning. Taxiing away from the gate... There may be trouble ahead... Wishing this old jalopy had a working weather radar. Sun just starting to rise On the initial approach into Mauritius, looking back at Grand Baie and Triolet (I think) Overhead Port Louis, flying round and inbetween the mountains and descending on to the approach to runway 14. Looking back at the aforementioned mountains... well, hills. Setup for the approach. Not long now, don't know why I've got 4 whites in this pic, I was on the GS... Taxiing to the terminal, not very busy this morning. Parked at the gate. From here we head off to the delights of Cape Town, more A340's to follow...

When us civilians start paying them the kind of money the military does, I'm sure they'll be happy to listen and make changes for us. In the meantime we'll have to be content with what they do. Let's not be a thorn in their side by costing them more in support, fielding our whinging and whining forum posts, than we generate, their response will simply be not to sell it to us...

Following on from my previous post (here), we're in Bogota and about to take an Avianca A319 down to Santiago. From there we'll make our way across the South Pacific to Auckland... then I was a bit impulsive. Parked in Bogota, high ground visible in the background and quite a bit of unstable air around... and no jetways (I've no idea?) A whole bunch of older, more interesting AI in South America, here, an Aerosucre 727, don't see many of them. A Canadian Kelowna Flightcraft (now KF Aerospace) DC10 avoiding the CB's The Military ramp in Bogota Going into cloud quite quickly after departure, keeping an eye on the terrain as there's quite a bit around... Nice scenery in the cruise but there's only so many pictures of mountains and clouds I can post. While we're over Peru I catch this LCPeru Dash8-100 descending into Lima and... ...this Sioux City KC-135 on the ground. Starting the descent into SCEL, lots of altitude restrictions on the way down, the terrain display being invaluable again. As we descend below the mountain tops we enter a layer of cloud. Out of the bottom of the cloud and starting the approach. Taxiing in, a bunch of LAN 788's, I wonder we're they're going. Last shot of a pretty JetSmart A320 and LAN 767 taking off in the background. Next flight is a LAN 788 to Auckland, it's a pretty murky evening in Santiago and our taxi out and take off is conducted particularly slowely and carefully. We soon climb out of the murk and make our way across the Pacific, it was dark and there wasn't much to see (not even much AI down there). As we approach Auckland though, it's a clear night and here we are descending over the city Here's a Qantas 737 departing very early from Auckland. Here's a Barrier Air Islander parked up at North Shore Aerodrome. Not much scenery for Auckland at the moment so here we are parked up at the standard Orbx one. At this point I had an epiphany, I'd been sitting on the Carenado Do228 for a while and not flown it much and had just picked some Orbx NZ in a recent sale and figured, why not combine the two. I rationalised it as a charter from Auckland to Queenstown, then on to Milford Sound and finally back to Auckland. I couldn't find a New Zealand paint for it so suspended my reality for a while a flew a Golf registered aircraft. I wasn't sure I was going to post any pictures so I didn't get many of the departure but on seeing these decided I needed to take some more. For more of this excursion see here. Otherwise, next flight is over to China, then down to South Africa... I even manage to find an A340...

New Zealand Having just arrived in Auckland (see here) I've taken on this impulsive trip to the South Island, taking in Queenstown and Milford Sound. The scenery was spectacular... Approaching Queenstown... Parked up Off to Milford Sound Unloading at Milford Sound About to head back to Auckland Away from the mountains and starting the approach into Auckland I vectored myself in quite tight for a visual (just an excuse for my sloppy flying) Taxiing in, mixing with the big boys Parked up on a random made up charter ramp (evidently somewhere near the cargo centre) This is a small selection of shots taken, see here for the full album (I'd only recommend it if you like shots of mountains and clouds) try here

They're difficult to compare, the ILS gets more sensitive as you approach the runway whereas an RNAV has the same accuracy the whole way down. I would suggest they're much of a muchness > 5 miles out. Yes but none of the airliners I've flown has any type of Augmentation System on and they were all able to do RNAV approaches to a better than Non Precision minima. RNAV isn't just GPS, it covers a whole gamut of navigational equipment. They can encode a 'glideslope' into the box and it's shown in the flight deck in a similar fashion to an ILS glideslope. The autopilot can follow it too. Yes and yes but they're unrelated. The Capt's baro is used for the alt restrictions (at least on the aircraft I've flown) so you need to make sure it's right. Autoland is not supported because the accuracy of the system isn't sufficient to put the aircraft on the end of the runway, especially in the vertical profile, as you said, it's dependant on the Capts baro (setting and working). This is true of most approaches, only some peculiar CAT1 approaches, Cat II and Cat III use Decision Height (DH) and thus are independent of baro. Everything else uses Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA). In about 15 years flying commercially I've used a DH about 10 times. Choose the one you're most comfortable with using your knowledge and experience. Generally I'd choose an ILS as the act of flying one is easier, on the jumbos I fly, RNAV approachs have been shoehorned into the box and are a bit clumsey to execute, although very effective. The main advantage of an RNAV approach is that it doesn't need to be a straight line or a continuous angle descent. You can design and fly an RNAV that guides you around hills and deposits you in the right place, facing the right direction at the right height and speed to take over and land. This can be very advantagous in mountainous areas or areas with a lot of airspace restrictions. In the past these approaches were made up of convoluted radio aids and bearing/distances that were a pain to fly, took up an awful lot of capacity and if you got them wrong, tended to kill everyone. I've crossed with Bert but what he said too..... Hope this helps, Ian Webber

I thought an orbit (in this case) means to fly a circle, usually where you are but sometimes they might say "next time over Ockham perform one right hand orbit and then leave heading 340 degrees". Either way, when you get to the requested point in space, fly in a circle. In my understanding, to fly a circuit around the airfield is just that, a circuit, an orbit is like the orbit of a satellite, round (ish). I've never flown the 737 so I can't comment about that specifically but there are a few ways to do this in general. Off the top of my head... 1 - Drop the autopilot and honk on some (type/weather specific) bank and hold it on until you're facing the same way again. Sounds like a great idea (and in the sim it really wouldn't hurt for practise) and to cries of "pilots are over reliant on the AP and can't fly for toffee!" it's great ("I'll whip out the stick and finish her off by hand!" as we used to say on the Airbus) but with fare paying, real life people behind you and assuming you've been flying for 12 hours through the night beforehand (longhaul) or you're on sector 3 of 4 after a 3am wake up call (shorthaul) at night in IMC with CB's around in busy airspace while descending and changing speed, it does expose the flight to quite a bit more unnecessary risk, especially if it's done unannounced and unbriefed to your colleague. There's an awful lot that could go very wrong very quickly and frankly, pilots are there to operate the flight safely and not to prove how great they are (or otherwise) at flying! 2 - Hit Heading Select and wind it round in the direction you want to go. In some types if you go more than 180 degrees to your current heading it will try and turn the other way so you'll have to have a few goes at adjusting the heading to get round. In other types, you won't, and can just spin it round the whole way, much easier. 3 - Enter a hold with a leg length (or time) of 0. This is a bit heads down and sometimes a bit fiddly to do but if you are already in the hold then changing the leg length of that hold to 0 (which it will do the next time over the fix) will have the correct effect and is pretty straightforward. In my experience, despite 0 being in leg length/time it may well roll the wings level for a second or so before putting it back on so you still fly a sort of hold shape in the sky but it's normally good enough for ATC (I've often done it this way as most orbits I fly are over the holding fix at LHR where they're just trying to get the 2.5nm spacing right, and I've ususally been there a good 5 or 10 minutes already). As a member of the crew you are free to decide the best way to accomplish this orbit depending on your circumstances. I would guess that 2 is the most common with 3 being effective in certain circumstances while 1 would be used very rarely but is a perfectly acceptable way of achieving it. As everyone else has said, if you're given a speed restriction on the approach, it normally comes with a point at which you can resume own speed. Yesterday (into LAX), we were given 170 to JETSA (about 10 miles from the runway). It's highly unlikely they won't give you that point and if they don't, ask them. In the US (as Kyle has already mentioned), if you have a speed restriction and you're then given an approach clearance then that speed restriction is lifted unless given again. LHR usually gives 160 to 4 and this is usally the fastest I like to be at this point (unless we have a stonking headwind), I can normally recover from that but much more and you're into very careful energy management and need to be thinking about the very real possibility of a go around. The A380 gets either 160 or 170 to 5 (I'm not sure, I don't fly it). As previously stated, LGW has adopted the 160 to 4 procedure as well now. This can be quite an issue for pilots, approach speed restrictions are there for spacing and hence safety but if you don't allow enough time/space to slow down you won't make your approach stability criteria and have to go around. I try to include in the brief the sort of restriction we're prepared to accept so in the heat of battle we don't take something that commits us to a go around early on. JFK are famous for that and on receipt of an approach speed restriction we can't do (or aren't prepared to accept), just tell them, along with what you can do and I've always found them quite helpful. In the US you need to be very careful as many of their ILS DMEs don't read 0 at the threshold, sometimes thery are as high as 2nm at the threshold so your waypoint that says 5.5D on the chart could actually be only 3.5 from the threshold which is usually just over 1000ft above the airfield which is pretty much our approach stability point (it's actually when it first says "1000" on the rad alt so depending on the terrain, it could be earlier - see LGW 08R). Hope this helps, Ian Webber

Using the naughty Orbx textures for FS9 had an enhanced or dense autogen option which I found put trees on many airport background textures. I ended up using Evo and TNW for pretty much that reason. Hope this helps, Ian

Following on from my previous post, we're approaching Europe from the Middle East on our way to Barcelona. Still AI sightseeing, a rattle of Bulgarian Air Charter MD80s (I don't know what the collective noun for MD80s is). Out over the Med now A Siberian A321 making it's way to Barcelona just to the north of us. A sureal out-of-body under wing view of the French coast Being vectored out over the sea for the ILS to 25R, look at that lovely long beach... As ever in BCN, they've kept us high and now demanding speed and alt restrictions that are right on the limits of the aircraft. I'm doing my best here with the speedbrakes out desperately trying to kill energy... That marina is Arenys de Mar... I think. Being joined by a LATAM 767 from South America Managed to get the energy back to manageable levels and now nicely stable approaching 1000ft RA. Slight crosswind from the left, AP out and ready to finish her off by hand... Wing view of the rollout, about to exit the runway. Parked at the gate. The next A346 flights are going to be with Lufthansa but I thought I'd make a little detour via a Mauritius A340-300. I'm going to pick that up in ZSPD so now need to get there from LEBL. Obviously, I'm going via South America Avianca 788, AVA19 from LEBL to SKBO. Has dodgy RR engines so down to 140min ETOPS. Harvesting a flight plan off Flightaware gives the following, looks like 140 mins being used in real life here; 140 mins just doable... Parked at the gate. Just after take off. There are some fairly large turns early on on the 25L SIDs out of LEBL, here we are in one of them. Looking out of my window as we climb out, the three marinas/ports you can see are Cala Vallcarca, Garraf and Ginesta. Making our way out over the Atlantic, next stop, The Azores... Over the Azores we come across this German P3 Orion. After the Azores the sun sets and as we pass over the Caribbean we catch this InterCaribbean Jetstream descending towards it idyllic destination. Very dark by the time we reach Bogota, just one last on of us on the approach. Getting out to China from here will involve a flight down to Santiago, I initially planned to do it in the 788 (Avianca again) but they run that at night, the day flights are done in a single aisle Airbus... and Aerosoft had just released the A318/319 for P3Dv4. The temptation was too much so next up, a daytime flight from SKBO to SCEL in an A319...

Now to the meat of it, the ageing A340, not many left, certainly not the pride of many fleets but solid workhorses. The latest A340, the 600, reached airlines (Virgin Atlantic being the first) in the early naughties (2002) as an enlarged A340-300. About 10 years behind the 300 and 200 series, it offered about 50 more seats (dependant on airline fit of course) but over 100t increase in MTOW. It provided airlines with similar passenger capacity to the 747 Classics but with about 25% more cargo volume. There were 2 versions of the 600, 642 and 643, the latter of the two being the HGW (High Gross Weight) version. Initial reactions to the aircraft weren't as great as hoped, fuel economy was not quite as advertised and airlines started asking questions. Airbus investigated and found the First/Business class cabins were heavier than they had anticipated which was bringing the cruise CofG forward, thus requiring a larger downward force from the elevator to keep it level and hence the aircraft acting heavier than it actually was. Fuel economy suffered. In 2007 Airbus started recommending a 5t reduction in the forward holds to compensate for this but the airlines weren't happy and the aircraft aquired an inefficient reputation which wasn't entirely true. Nevertheless, the A346 was the 2nd best selling A340 (after the A343) with 97 aircraft delivered (against 218 for the 300). Here we have one of Qatar's 4 A340-642's, A7-AGD parked up in Bangkok for the flight back to Doha. Taxiing out and looking back at the terminal. Similar view after take off and looking out over Bangkok. Many hours of darkness later (well, not that many) the sun starts rising behind us, we can't quite outrun it. Finally the same wingview coming into Doha, not many photos for this flight as it was dark for most of it. Sticking with the A340-600 theme, we'll be QTR654, the daylight flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Parked at the gate with the city behind us on a fine summer morning (probably nut sweatingly hot) Lining up behind a company A380 with a company B777 behind us. Shortly after take off... Despite being a day flight, after flying over the desert we then spent hours over the sea and there really wasn't much to see. Therefore, the last photo of this leg is us landing at Bandaranaike Int'l Airport. What we're actually looking at is the military apron, I've been in the process of converting all my Military AI over from my FS9 installation. It's not all complete, there're still plenty of models not converted (I know they'll work in FSX but my P3Dv4 and FSX(SE) setups all share AI so they need to be FSX models). The return flight is, unsurprisingly, QTR655 and is a night flight back to Doha. Shortly after take off... If there wasn't much to see on the way out, on the way home at night there was even less, so here we are parked up out in the boon docks of Doha airport. The last of the Qatar A346 flights is from Doha to Barcelona, QTR145. It's now an A359 flight but in the Summer season Qatar used an A340-600. At 9am there's still some morning fog to burn off, there's a definite haze in the air as we load up at the gate. A view from the main gear as we're being pushed back. The Wilco model is far from perfect in every regard but they've managed to make it look good enough to suspend your belief just long enough to enjoy it (providing you're not being too fussy). Here's a basic view of the main gear, somehow detailed with hydraulic lines and brakes but equally messy and disjointed (that back inside wheel is about to roll away for sure!) with dubious texturing in places. Of course, in real life, if you had this view you would be about to be squished. Taking off into the murk... We took off on the westerly of the two runways on the grounds we were going west(ish). FS AI traffic possesses less forethought so here we see an aircraft taking off on the easterly runway and then turning across me (in IMC). I decided to intervene (as ATC) and limit my climb to the initial SID altitude to ensure we stayed apart. I kept a beady eye on him and in the end we didn't come into conflict, TCAS remained silent. Our route took us firstly into Iran and along the mountain range along the western border with Iraq. Since I made this flight, they've started flying through Iraq again, probably about 100nm west of my track and up the eastern side of the country, over such infamous places as Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. As we make our way up and out of the desert we spy a few other aircraft, firstly a FlyDubai 737 going to Uytash, in Russia on the Caspian Sea. A trusty ol' BA Triple making it's way back to London. And finally a Mahan Air A310 parked up... somewhere... I'm all out of photos now so next time, some flying over Europe and into Barcelona, then figuring out where to go next to fly more A346 flights. Spoiler: we end up hitting South America, Oceania, Asia and Africa in 78's and a cheeky 319 before trying out an A343 and then flying with the largest named operator of A340's on the planet...