Tonight's flight is with American Airlines in the ever steady LVD 767-300ER. AAL#2162 on an evening route, KDFW (Dallas) to MGGT (Guatemala City).
Gate D21 KDFW
Weather at KDFW was wind 163/18kts gusting to 26kts with clouds 2'900 few and a warm evening temperature of 24C. Using the DARTZ3 departure off runway 36C not far from my gate at D21.
Pushing back
Typical busy traffic with the slew of American and American Eagle flights making the way in and out of Dallas, with the multiple runway use at KDFW I had no fear of waiting around and was off quickly.
Holding short 36R with the setting sun
The SID tracks you back south, then north and out over the the city to the DARTZ way point and then you are on your way. For me that was heading south towards Houston and then along the B753 airway out over the Gulf Of Mexico towards southern Mexico and Central America.
Climbing over Dallas
Weather en route was mostly overcast until I was mid way over the Gulf near the MARTE way point where we picked up Meridia Centre. As we kept tracking south we then picked up CenAmera center towards Guatemala along the A770 air way. At our T/D point we could see light thunder storms in the vicinity and we had a little turbulence. MGGT ATIS was reporting decent conditions for the landing with wind 178/08kts with 4 miles visibility in haze and clouds 1'400 broken. Not perfect but decent enough and well beyond minimums for a VOR/DME approach on to runway 19.
Traffic over the Gulf at FL350
This approach sees me track the A770 airway along to the AUR VOR, turn right while over the field and then fly a 15 mile DME arc around again to a VOR DME approach to runway 19. Only a PAPI for vertical reference with no glide slope.
Over Guatemala with Mt Agua off to the right
It was a bit unnerving as we flew in and out of haze over the airport at 15'000ft and then onto the arc at 11'000ft with the two massive volcano's that surround the airport sprouting up on each side. Agua was the volcano along my DME arc and it did pass directly in front of me but due to the haze I did not see it.
Final for runway 19 MGGT
As I made my 15 mile final I hand flew the last 1'400ft to what I will call a plant down and not landing. It's not that my landing was hard, on the contrary it was very soft, but the nose cam down a bit heavy and considering how easy the situation was I should have fared better. But with flight simulator every landing is fun, even the bad ones....
At the gate MGGT
Quick note on the MGGT scenery by Latin VFR. It is terrible at night and fairs much better during the day. It does not look as good as some freeware to be honest. I think the next time I will fly in/out here during the day as it looks much better then. Not really needed to say but I will anyway, FSDT version of KDFW is splendid as usual. Three hours gate to gate......
4 comments:
Another night flight!! WOOT!
The ramp shots are amazing, you know I love short final shots better but these are so good I can't decide here, especially with the sunset.
Very interesting route too, a new addition to the log.
The CenAmera CTR spoke perfect english too!
Can't go wrong with that add-on, Al! Shame to hear about the quality of the La Aurora scenery, but then LatinVFR can be a little hit-and-miss with their ground textures. I was looking at their new Lima scenery on SimMarket tonight, but not sure if I'll take the plunge.
MGGT is not too bad in the daytime, the textures are much better during that time of day.
The night textures, well, they suck!
Post a Comment