Leg 1, Segment 1: EGLL - EGPF

Thursday, 29 January 2009
Ok, nice easy first part of the journey from Heathrow up to Glasgow in Scotland. Here's the FS flight plan, which I then imported into the FMC of the plane (not realistic I know, but a whole lot quicker than typing in all of the waypoints into the keypad).


Once onboard at gate 134 and all pre-flight prep was done, I was cleared by tower for a pushback and start, and given taxi clearance to runway 9L.

Lined up at runway 9L, cleared for take off.


Immediately after departure, with VNAV and LNAV set on the FMC, G-DOCU starts a slow left-hand turn to intercept the HON VOR before climb out to FL320. Notice the cars on the motorway below (nice touch, even if it does slow my PC down to ridiculous frame rates.....)


On the glidepath for an ILS rwy 5 approach into Glasgow.

Touchdown on the tarmac of Runway 5 at Glasgow.

Arrival at Gate 1, prior to shut down.

A very nice start indeed, Leg 1 Segment 1 out of the way. Flight summary below:
Time of Departure (from 9L): 22:39 UTC
Time of Arrival (at gate): 23:40 UTC
Flight time = 1:01
Distance Covered = 320NM
Accrued Distance=320NM
Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed.....
Stavroski

G-DOCU, 737-436

I thought before I got started, I'd look into some information about the bird I'm going to do the trip in.



You can be the judge of how she looks in FSX, but overall I don't think Wilco have done a bad job at recreating her in the classic Union Flag livery of BA.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION:

Boeing 737-436 G-DOCU

Airframe Details : Construction Number 25854, line number 2417

Engine information : 2 x CFM International CFM56-3C1, 23,500 lbs static thrust

Date of manufacture / First flight : 22/12/1992

British Airways delivery date : 18/01/1993


Passenger capacity
147 to 168
Range, miles (km)
2,370(3,810)


Maximum gross weight, lb (kg)
Takeoff
138,500(62,800)
150,000(68,040)


Typical operating empty weight, lb (kg)
76,180(34,550)
76,760(34,810)


Maximum fuel capacity, U.S. gal (L)
5,311(20,104)
6,295(23,828)


Lower-hold cargo volume, ft3 (m3)
1,373(38.9)
1,095(31.0)

Leg 1




Okay, so I've decided on the first leg of my tour which will begin at London Heathrow and take me to up to Glasgow, before crossing to Keflavik in Iceland, and then onto Narsarsuaq in Greenland before making the hop across to Gander in Newfoundland....... nice short trips, so shouldn't pose too much of a problem fuel load and economy wise for the planning stages.




I will be posting the information of each segment of the leg, along with pertinent flight info and flight plan details.








The inception of the tour.....

Ever since I started flying seriously using FS (I use this term loosely becuase I don't fly to the Nth degree of realism using full checklists and SID's / STAR's every time as do some armchair pilots), I found myself doing the same hops most of the time in and around Europe and the USA, visiting airports I've been to in real life. Obviously this is fine, but does get a little boring after a while, and after speaking with a friend of mine who had previously started a world tour in FS2004 in an MD11, I thought what the heck, I may as well give this a go.

So, I've got FSX running on my machine and it's pretty stable for now (after a repair and a re-install of SP2). I've got a couple of scenic add-ons installed, and need to pick my bird of choice for which to start on my world tour. I know that I could go with a heavy and be around the world in a couple of hops, but it kind of defeats the object; so when thinking about my aircraft, I needed something small enough to get into some of the airfields I will be using - obviously a 744 would not be advantageous for this purpose. One of the add ons that I've got, which I'm a big fan of is the Wilco 737 PIC 'classic', and this seems ideal for the purpose. So, without further ado, it's settled then; I'll be using a 737-400, in British Airways livery (contrary to popular belief amongst my friends, I'm mildly patriotic). My plan is to try and see as much of the world as possible, whilst not 'back tracking' at all, so as to get around as smoothly as possible. I do aim to try and visit as many places as possible - it's not going to be a direct 'trek' straight across the continents as I traverse the globe, rather I want to try and get to as many 'landmark' places as possible.

Because I'm a saddo geek, and also becuase I have far too much time on my hands these days, I've created a manual paper based 'log book' which I'll using to record my flight details in good old hand-written scrawl. I'll post some pics of it up here as I go along, when it's actually been filled in with something useful. Well, that's it, all that remains is to get my route planned......... I've no idea how long this round the world trip will take, and since I have various distractions that sometimes get in the way of regular simming on FS, it may be on a somewhat sporadic basis that I update this blog...... oh well, here's to happy flying :) Chocks away and all that......

Stavroski
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