London Heathrow - Glasgow (EGLL- EGPF)

Heading Northward to the land of, Whiskey, Tartan and bloody awful weather!







Don't be fooled, it might look clear but the weather leaving London got nasty crossing the Scottish border. Turbulence, rain  and a missed approach probably gave my passengers plenty to complain about when they climbed off this roller-coaster. Poor visibility with a cloud base at 900ft forced a go around at Glasgow when I failed to line her up on the first attempt.

Airport Scenery (EGPF) Glasgow International Airport. This airport is from the UK2000 sim stable and as always looks great. Sold seperatly, I think you can also get it bundled together with Edinburg on CD format. I was a bit disappointed that the AES system did not start up on my arrival, this could have been on he AES side rather than the airports. No jetways where displayed. UK2000
AI Traffic Not much activity on the way up. Things where rather quiet. However this elegant old lady was at the London Heathrow to see us off. This is one of the static aircraft in the London Heathrow Xtended package.
Charts  Still by far, the best source of free AIP and plates is the UK NATS site. For Glasgow International Ground layout try here

THE FLIGHT PLAN

Time	Notes
	The Planning: The second of the Aerosoft "AtW" legs. Most of the other pilots had been logging there flights during the week, reporting fairly poor weather. The UK is expecting another lashing of high winds this week. I managed to squeeze the flight in, arriving Glasgow as many are discussing the next leg out to Iceland. The high winds ruined my fuel conservation and I arrived using almost twice of what was expected.
	The Route: EGLL/ WOBUN/ DTY/AKUPA/ LESTA/ DISAL/ BOLBI/ POL/ RIBEL/SHAPP/ ABEVI/ TLA/ LANAK/ GOW/ EGPF
	The Weather: Pretty Grim over Scotland!!

Paderborn Lippestadt - London Heathrow (EDPL - EGLL)

London Baby.

An unexpected detour back to the English isles. I'm a few days behind the Aerosoft "Around the World" contigent who have already left Heathrow and making their way northwards up to Glasgow. A few technical issues with my sim has seen me a day behind and chasing to catch up. Unfortunately the heavy workload that is Heathrow, was punishment on my computer. My machine taking a lot of strain to keep up. Taking a heavy knock in FPS.

Airport Scenery (EGLL) Heathrow Airport. This was one of the first "Mega" airports in my collection and for this trip I upgraded it to the Xtended. To really enjoy this addon takes a lot of tinkering around with the settings to find that happy medium between FPS and detail.  Aerosoft London Heathrow Xtended.
AI Traffic Not to sure about this seperation level? This is London airspace! So the skies where packed with trails. Unfortunately on the landing at Heathrow my AI crashed and I had no traffic at any of the gates. The workload just to much for my computer,
Charts  Still by far, the best source of free AIP and plates is the UK NATS site. For all the Heathrow details try here

THE FLIGHT PLAN

Time	Notes
	The Route: EGLL/HMM/GORLO/REFSO/LOGAN/TRIPO/SABER/ BRASO/LAM/EGLL

Frankfurt Main - Padderborn Lippstadd (EDDF - EDLP)

A change in Direction.

A post on the Aerosoft Forum about flying around the world together with a group of FSX enthusiast has caught my attention and caused me to reconsider how I would continue with my own "At'W". The initial plan was to head eastwards around the world with a detour down Africa stopping at some key european airports on the way. But the idea of taking on this adventure sounds more exciting when travelling with others,sharing the route as we go. So after a lot of deliberation I will turn westwards and join this group of travellers. You can find more detail on this journey here. So instead of the next leg to Amsterdam, it would appear I need to race towards Padderborn Lippstadd for the start of the London leg.

Airport Scenary (EDLP) by Aersosoft . Padderborn/ Lippstadt.  This is one of the airports from the Aerosoft stable, as they are promoting this trip they had discounted their product. A nice addon that looked great. I had unfortunately not realised that it is one of the few Aerosoft products that needs a "season tool" to be loaded seperatly to change the scenery to suit the season. Things were looking very green when I arrived on a cold and frost afternoon.
AI Traffic Really enjoying the World of AI addon. Not much scheduled out of EDPL at the same time but a great little airport.

THE FLIGHT PLAN

Time	Notes
13H15	The Departure:
	The Route: EDDF/MARUN/WRB/EDLP EPDG departure rwy29 via SID EDDF arrival via STAR

Gdansk to Frankfurt Main (EPGD-EDDF)

Welkomin Franckfurt.

Welcome to one of the largest and busiest airports in Europe. The shear volume of air traffic through Frankfurt Main International airport was one of the main reasons I wanted to stop in here. During 2011 the airport saw 487 162 traffic movements along its runway, a good 7000 more than London Heathrow making Frankfurt the 11th busiest airport for that year.

Airport Scenary (EDDF) an FSX upgrade available from one of the PC Pilot freeware that came with the magazine circa 2012 (Frankfurt_Airport_v7 by Mark Alderidge). For Freeware it's great. But not the best for my trip around the world, with poor taxiway markings making it difficult to find the allocated gate. I'd still recommend this a freeware but would suggest payware if you are a bit more picky about the detail.
AI Traffic Lufthansa, Lufthansa, Lufthansa everywhere . . .how big is their fleet? All the AI from World of AI. Did hear a "springbok" callsign on approach but did not see him about.
AIP  The AIP charts from Rocketroute.com

THE FLIGHT PLAN

Time	Notes
13H15	Departure:
	The Route: EPDG/DEXIR/MALOX/BODLA/RAKIT/KETAP/TADUV/ KERAX/EDDF EPDG departure rwy29 via SID EDDF arrival via STAR
	The Weather: Started to get bumpy on the descent into Frankfurt, but clear skies at FL27. The departure from Gadansk was below minimums. Ground Ice. Visability on approach EDDF was good.
	The Approach NOTAMS had RWY 07R/25L closed so I landed RWY 07C.

Kiev to Gdansk (UKBB-EPGD)

Welcome to Gdansk

Well!! It has taken me some time to get here. At one stage it looked like I was not going to get out of the Ukraine at all. It would seem that the few weeks away from the simulator has made me forget how to fly this thing. I had a few failed attempts at landing EPGD over the week, but I'm going to blame it on the Russian President Putin and the fact the east of Ukraine has been under siege for a few weeks by civil war. I seem to have taken a few steps backwards in my flying and finding it difficult to capture the glideslope on landing.

Time	Notes
13H15	Departure: Nicely ontime via 18L
14H27	The Route: UKBB/KR/LIMVI/OLILA/GRU/EPGD
	The Weather: Fairly OK for the trip. Snow conditions around EPGD with active Thunderstorms and 40Knt winds. Requested a deviation and an increase to FL350 from FL320 to get around some thunder clouds around SOMOX.
	The Approach

AIP  These AIP charts from Rocketroute.com http://www.rocketroute.com/airports/europe-eu/poland-pl/plates-gdansklechwalesa-epgd.html
AI Traffic Fairly active sky. Had an Aeroflot A320 shoot past my nose to keep me awake. Followed a KLM flight out of UKBB. All AI from World of AI.
Airport Scenary (EPGD) Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport by Polish Airports Vol1  Drzweiecki Design  http://www.drzewiecki-design.net/prodPAv1_X.htm.

Moscow to Kiev (UUEE - UKBB)

Airtraffic control tower at UUEE not looking that impressed with me!!

The weather was terrible. The freezing rain and low cloud at Sheremetyevo International with the same low cloud over Boryspil International Airport, witnessed me slide off the end of the runway and have to run the flight again. The second attempt was no better. Terrible bumpy on the climb out of Moscow followed by two go arounds at UKBB before I managed to get her onto the ground. The same heavy winds that have been blowing a gale here at home and this could be an omen of things to come. I battled with the de-icing process before departure with the build up of more ice before I had even left UUEE. The snow effects at UUEE  impressive with flurries masking the boundaries of the taxi ways. Even though we departed ahead of schedule, we where late into Kieve. Needless to say the passengers are pissed and I've still to earn some points!

Time	Notes	Location
11H33	Departure: Was scheduled for a 12H00 departure	UUEE 8L
14H27	Arrival: 80 minutes late	UKBB18L
14H27	Arrival: 80 minutes late	UKBB18L
	Flight Report

Time	Notes
AIP  Found this great AIP resourse for the Ukrainian airports at http://vacc-ua.aero/?page_id=87&lang=en
AI Traffic Not excessively busy enroute , but one of my "go around" was due to being lined up a bit to close abeam another parallel Lufthansa flight. It would appear that I got in after the the British Airways Airbus flight from Heathrow . Nice variety of providers with Windrose on the apron. Windrose WOA-AI from Avsim
Airport Scenary I used the free download scenery for UKBB from http://www.interskystudio.info/. A very nice package that is worth a donation.

Helsinki to Moscow (EFHK - UUEE)

This is will be my first trip with FScaptain as my copilot. Going to see how many points I can score on this around the world trip. Screams from the passengers as we broke the speed limit and excess climb rate leaving EFHK, probably means the score is not going to be that great. The Helsinki add on is incredible with the snow banks being the most impressive, worth a repeat visit (probably in real life to). Going to start downloading alternate scenery as divert airports, just in case I can't get into UUEE , due to weather. Today's divert airport was St Petersburg (ULLI) Pulkovo airport but not needed. The routing was realistic on the way down towards Moscow. A moments panic on the descent into Moscow as the ground came rushing up a bit earlier than expected, forcing me to go around. More screams from the passenger in back . .