서울 한국

Seoul South Korea!

Because that is the destination today.

I had planned on a route in the USA but as I was searching for timetables in PDF format I came across All Nippon Airlines site and then it hit me. I have not done a flight over Japan in a long while. And with all this great Simmers Sky payware Japan scenery that I own I was due for a trip over the land of the rising sun.

Not to mention I can take the PMDG 747-400 out for a spin and head to another great scenery done by the same gang, that would be Incheon International Airport. Two large International airports only a couple hours from each other makes for a great route with lots of heavy action.

Flight # ANA225, RJAA (Tokyo, Narita) to RKSI (Seoul). It is an early Monday afternoon flight and was scheduled for just over two hours gate to gate. I was loaded pretty heavy due to the fact I took little fuel for the short trip, with my ZFW at 537'000lbs plus, 143'000lbs of that is just the cargo and passengers. Gotta love the lift power of the Queen.

At the ANA terminal RJAA

Departure weather at RJAA was wind 330/13kts, clouds 4'000 few and +13C. Using the SWEY4 departure off runway 34L I had a quick taxi to the active and was off in no time. Heading North at first then some DCT short cuts that took me directly over the city of Tokyo as I headed west. I got a great view of the city but en route it was much too cloudy below to see Mt. Fuji.

JAL 747-400 landing 34L RJAA

We had some pretty good head winds at FL380, pushing into the high 80kts and low 90kts at times. Weather was good enough along the way with no problems and mostly scattered clouds well below our flight along the route.

As I crossed over the Sea Of Japan and into Korea near Busan it got bumpy enough that I had to reduce speed (.82 for the 747-400). And it continued bumpy until my T/D point. 

Over the sea of Japan

I started to double check the weather at RKSI and it was not looking too bad. When we departed RKSI they had forecast winds 240/07kts, 3 miles visibility in haze with no clouds and +1C. But a couple hours of afternoon air cleared the haze around RKSI and we were looking at winds 337/05kts in light haze with 5 miles visibility. Setting up a landing onto runway 34 and a KAKSO1S arrival.

Short final runway 34 RKSI

I flicked off the A/P at the 1000ft call out and hand flew the last thousand on my own to the long drawn out 13'000ft runway below for a real grease job. Plenty of heavy action in the area too with an Air Canada 767 landing just ahead of me and an Asiana 747-400 just behind me, that ended up going around as I dragged myself off the runway slowly.

With other heavies at the RKSI gates

2 hours 12 minutes on the log and time for a "Hanjeongsik" and maybe a couple Hite beers before bed.