Let's go to Hawaii

I have never been to Hawaii in real life (but would love to go!). After seeing many real life flight reports from NWA captain Rand Peck's excellent blog I figured I would give PHNL a turn.

Flying to PHNL is similar to planning a trans Atlantic flight due to the limited diversion airports and the duration of the flight (5+hrs). So out comes the plotting chart!

Plotting Chart For Today's Flight

Today's flight is for United Airlines. UAL75 KSFO (San Francisco) to PHNL (Honolulu, Hawaii). In real life this was a 777 flight today but I wanted to do it in the 747-400. UAL does fly the 747-400 to PHNL from KSFO mind you.

I have flown out of KSFO for real within in the past year. An excellent video I shot of the departure from runway 01R can be seen by clicking here.

Flight simulators limitation of crossing runways prevents the way DEP and ARR are done in the real deal KSFO. Runway 01L/R for departures and 28L/R for arrivals. So you get what you get with FS9, and that means ARR and DEP off the same runways preventing the mess of crashing into an AI plane while taking off (or landing).

At the gate KSFO

So today we departed off runway 28L with the weather at KSFO wind 300/11kts clouds 3'500 scattered and 14C. Using the GAPP3.SFO SID to BEBOP and then onto the west bound R464 track, taking us to Hawaii.

UAL flight number 75 has 290 passengers on board and 160'000 pounds of fuel. More than I need but enough extra if we run into trouble. A decompression over the Pacific would call for a much lower altitude and much higher fuel burn. Thus the reason for extra fuel.

Ocean Beach in San Fran off the left wing

The ride out was smooth until we approached the BEBOP way point. It got a little bumpy but as the flight settled in things smoothed out.

It's a pretty dull chore doing cross ocean flights. Logging fuel and time at each way point with nothing to look at but clouds and water. I did not even get to see the odd east bound flight as the R464 is a west bound only track. East bound tracks are 100nm north and south of our flight.

At the way point BILLO we are halfway there and we have burned just a tad over 65'000lbs of fuel and have gone tank to engine some 400nm east already.

BILLO way point and tank to engine

We did a step climb 100nm east of the BEATS way point. Stepping from our original cruise altitude of FL340 to FL380.

Looking at the rest of the legs west along the R464 track from BEATS we have 300nm to BANDY, 219nm to BRADR and 108nm to BITTA. I'm glad I took on the extra fuel as the FMC is calculating 45'000lbs on landing. Just about enough reserve (20'000lbs is the minimum)

Step climb to FL380

As we chased the setting sun a dusk landing was in store for us at PHNL. ATIS an hour away from arrival was reporting wind 020/08kts with clouds scattered at 3'000 and a balmy 26C. Calling for a MAGGI3 arrival on to runway 08L.

Pacific sunset

Not much traffic on the way to PHNL, we started our decent just before the MAGGI way point giving us a nice view of the island at dusk. Auto brake one for the 12'000 foot plus 08L and flaps 30 with a VREF of 146kts (+5 as UAL SOP state) so make it 151kts.

Over Honolulu

Atis held true and we flew the last 1'200 feet by hand, coming in a bit high but with the long runway it was a grease job to say the least...

On final 08L PHNL

Just for the record I had a hair under 40'000lbs of fuel on landing....

Getting my shorts on at the gate PHNL

Also of note, you gotta hear the 80's band Teenage Head sing Let's Go To Hawaii...(CLICK HERE FOR THE SONG!)

Ahhh that takes me back to the days of drinking draft beer and using pick up lines. I can see a Hawaiian airlines MD-11 flight back east to KPDX in the near future....

Addon's used: FlyTampa KSFO, MegaCity San Fran, FSDT PHNL, MegaCity Hawaii, Aerosoft AES, and the PMDG 747-400

Piper Arrow IV 28RT

It has been a long time since I did a general aviation flight for my virtual flight log. In fact I think my last GA landing for the log was at TNCM back a year and a half ago.

I do much more sim flying than I add to my virtual flight log mind you. Maybe a ratio of four to one (four off the cuff and one on the log). I only count the flights that I actually prep and plan for. Not the flights where I do touch and goes or where I am shaking down a new bird I'm trying to learn to fly.

For example I did many short flights and touch and goes in the PMDG MD-11 before I finally did one for the virtual flight log.

So today called for a general aviation flight. Something that is familiar with me in the real world as well as in the sim.

(check out this real world landing at KTTD in Oregon that I gave up to the instructor due to the sun glare)

I recently got ORBX FTX on sale. And once that DVD was shipped to the house I got a few of the airports they made too. I'm telling you that nothing beats FSX&FTX for GA flying. Not to mention the vertical air simulation in FSX is amazing. I am still a hardcore FS9 user and nothing will replace that for airline simulation but the FTX/FSX combo knocked my socks off.

So a short hop featuring FTX&FSX was in the cards for today's flight. Cessnock (YCNK) to Tamworth (YSTW) in the Carenado Piper Arrow IV 28RT. A total of 110nm take off to touch down.

Taxi on to the active at YCNK


Weather at Cessnock was wind 110/17kts and few clouds at 6'500ft. A few showers were en route near Scone and some turbulence due to the up sloping winds in the foothills but nothing serious. A mean low was in the northern part of OZ causing for some windy conditions. Still I chose to go VFR at 6'500 feet and backed it up with the GPS as well as tracking the Tango Whisky VOR (116.00) on the in bound 312 radial.

Once over Scone the winds and turbulence were as expected. I did capture a short video of the action in FSX showing how the plane can get tossed around. Click on the image below.



Getting grey and bumpy near Scone


I tuned the ATIS at YSTW and they were reporting wind 118/15kts and clouds 5'600 scattered. They were using runway 12L, setting up a bit of a crosswind landing. Taking on 15kts in a small bird like the PA IV 28RT is a bit of challenge.

I used the runway 12L VOR approach, tracking the out bound radial 318 for 8nm after passing the Tango Whisky VOR. Then a tear drop turn on to the approach heading of 120.

And look at the altitude and DME in the shot below. I am very proud of my virtual flying skills here. Steady hands now!

Flying the 12L VOR approach YSTW


I was fighting the wind a bit all the while taking in the awesome FTX scenery below.

On short final 12L at YSTW



One draw back for me in FSX is the frame rates. My dual core 2.93 (and my quad core 2.4ghz for that matter) struggle with the frame rates for sure. In the short final shot there I was getting 18-22 frames. This was on medium settings. But to be honest the frames with FTX installed are no different than the default FSX and it looks awesome as hell in FTX, even on medium settings. Taxi around the terminal and ramp area can get as low as 12-15 depending what you pan around to look at.

Parked for the day


So there you have it, a GA flight in FSX. I plan on doing more of these in the future. It is very satisfying flying the old fashion way using NAV radios and ADF's. I also love the hell out of my Aerosoft Twin Otter. I plan on doing some flights in it around FlyTampa's Grenadines package soon. So keep an eye out for that.

I may head off to PHNL in the MD-11 or the 747-400 next.