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That's interesting: we still fly westwards and'll get one more hour time lag instead of loosing it. The fact is that China, which lies on 5 different time zones, actually has only one time setting (UTC+8) for the entire country. Hopefully Russia (11 time zones) doesn't do the same.
Another particular thing for this leg is the lack of data in the Chinese airspace: don't believe you are using the wrong chart (where the hell is that airport ?), there is a very large blank zone covering a great part of the territory on the Jeppesen documents, Lhasa being right in that area. This is probably due to military/defense airspace restrictions, though Lhasa does being used for passenger flights as well as Airbus Industries for high altitude airfields testing purposes.
Despite this, I will be able to reach it as the 7th stopover of the trip, thanks to the information provided with the scenery add-on (the airport was also missing in FS2002 default scenery). The last waypoint of the flight plan will be far away from destination, since no information is to be found any more once entering Chinese airspace 'blank' area. We will head to Singapore, crossing the Java Sea, next the Thailand Gulf prior to reaching Bangkok, then Mandalay in Myanmar, after that direct to Lhasa.
 Take off |
 Departure |
Flight Plan
DEP: WIII Jakarta - Soekarno Hatta Intl 07R ARR: ZULS Lhasa - Gonggar 27 ALTN1: ZUBD Changdu - Bangda ALTN2: VNKT Kathmandu - Tribhuvan Intl CRUISE ALT: FL340 CRUISE SPD 460kts TAS M0.8 ROUTE: WIII DKI BUNIK BOSLO PKP ANITO VTK VMR VKB REGOS BKK CMA MDY ZULS DISTANCE: 2371nm (4386km - 2740 miles) FLIGHT TIME: 5:18 HRS
Jeppesen enroute charts used
FE(H/L) 1 Far East, ME(HI) 2 Middle East/South Asia
We left Jakarta at 8:30 local, there was still stormy weather but expected to clear once we w'd be heading to the North.
 Approaching Bangkok |
 Irrawaddy River north of Mandalay Rice crops below |
What follows is the story of a great virtual experience. If I sometimes complain about how Microsoft has modelled Belgium and other European countries, let's say that the job done in the Himalayas is nothing but a college geography lesson.
First, after leaving Myanmar and its jungle, we overflew Mounts Naga, at 300nm from destination as an introduction to the reliefs that would follow. Then was the river Brahmapoutre plain, a flat country quickly followed by the rising terrain of the Himalayas, whose mounts had been in sight at 260nm from destination.
 Brahmapoutre River |
 First mounts in the Himalayas - there seems to be a road down there |
And let's enjoy the scene...
The destination airport is one of the highest airfields in the world (maybe the highest, does anyone confirm ?), located at 11,621 feet (3486 m) on the Tibetan plateau. In such a case, there is a great difference between the barometric altitude (the altimeter reading) and the AGL value, the 'true' altitude above ground level. The approach, already difficult because of very high terrain in the vicinity of the airport, is made critical because the aircraft does not behave like at normal approach altitudes neighbouring the sea level. The engines as well as commands (aerodynamics) have a different response. Another thing is that once again I don't own any approach chart: I only have ILS, VOR and NDB frequencies. This is very helpful, but will not tell me how is the approach trajectory (this was on the contrary the case with Innsbruck for those who remember my first review).
The following pictures show the descent and beginning of approach.
Lhasa owns the famous and imposing Potala Palace, former residence of the Dalaļ-Lama located 20 nm N-E of the airport. With respect to the Tibetan community, it will not be overflown in this journey.
Lhasa is the kind of airport that can be approached by only one side, mountains making landing dangerous or even impossible on the other. Located in a valley, runway 27 has logically almost the same axis. Another valley almost perpendicular to that one, east of the airport, was used for the crosswind approach phase with 340° heading. Once in the main valley (i. e. where the airport was), the localizer was to be intercepted, negociating a 70° left turn to join base and final. Anyway we must turn right or left or climb because proceeding straight ahead would have made this review end prematurely.
I missed the localizer interception, the turn being too wide. But that wasn't serious, I still had 11 nauticals (20 km) to correct and align with the runway, but keeping in mind that the distance would be covered in less than 4 minutes.
The 13,123 feet (3937m) long runway was comfortable for a landing that seemed like a common one (I'll probably have to reconsider that once we w'd have to take off), though the reverse was not as effective as usual.
We arrived at 13:05 local time. Even if being astonished by the landscape as the first contact with the country, we won't stay seven years here and 'll leave two days later.
In this flight we will link two extreme locations, departing from the highest region in the world and landing on one of the lowest airfields, only 6 feet (1.80m) above sea level.
The Maldives archipelago consists of 26 atolls and more than one thousand islands among whom 220 are lived in. The international airport itself is built on a coral reef and the transfer to the capital Male and other islands is made by boat or sea planes.
These turquoise blue aquariums are a very fragile environment: shall the average oceans level rise of a couple of feet, flat islands like Maldives would disappear for ever.
To find a excellent scenery add-on I had to go back to FS98 !... This time, I managed to make it almost compatible with FS2002 thanks to an 'exclude' code in the scenery.cfg.
Flight plan
DEP: ZULS Lhasa Gonggar 09 ARR: VRMM Male Intl 18 ALTN1: VOTV Trivandrum ALTN2: VCBD Colombo - Bandaranaike Intl CRUISE ALT FL370 CRUISE SPD 460kts TAS M0.8 ROUTE: ZULS DAC CEA MEENA SAMON VVZ MMV TTR MDI TVM NOKID MUGBA MLE VRMM DISTANCE: 1884nm (3485km - 2180 miles) FLIGHT TIME: 4:15 HRS
Jeppesen enroute charts used
ME(H/L) 6 Middle East, ME(H/L) 7 Middle East
The route will include Dacca in Bangladesh; Calcutta, Chennai (Madras) and Trivandrum in India, whom we'll be huging the eastern coast.
We started at 13:30 local and taxied to runway 09. The departure path would be similar to the approach path. Once airborne, we will climb straight ahead and once a secure altitude will be reached, turn right heading to Dacca.
Flaps were set to 20 and max power was applied with brakes set to make the take off as safe as possible. The acceleration was slower than normal, the rotation speed of 150 kts was though reached at 2/3 of the runway and flight HZD1989 was airborne for the 8th time.
But the aircraft was used at its limits: we remained below 180 kts until reaching a reasonable altitude, the climb rate couldn't be set greater than 1500ft/min. After 3 minutes, the most critical departure phase was over, the speed began to increase, we could totally retract the flaps and raise the climb rate.
Once again, the first part of the flight was to make the photographer crazy. After only 20 minutes of flight, we were approaching the Himalayas' spurs covered with tropical vegetation, a further ten minutes and we were again above the flat country of the Brahmapoutre plain.
 Passing Dacca |
 Passing Calcutta. 15 million people below |
The approach seemed to be rather 'light' in terms of difficulty compared with the previous one. At 30nm from destination, the first atolls could be seen. We made a direct approach to runway 18 which has no ILS (rwy 36 does) - a little backtrack was necessary after landing since there are only 3 taxiways connecting to the terminal. We parked next to a Condor aircraft that was getting prepared for the flight back to Frankfurt, it was 14:30 local time and of course, warm and sunny...
Due to the very limited parking locations at Male, we will stay only one day here and proceed to Africa tomorrow.
 Final - not easy to run a 5 year old scenery with FS2002! |
 On the ground once again - we've just passed the last taxiway and will have to backtrack |
That will be the last leg above the ocean, and already the last continent that we'll visit before returning to Europe. The flight plan is not a straight line across the Indian ocean: we will first head towards Seychelles, then proceed westwards to Mombasa on the African coast, then direct to Kilimanjaro. We left Male at noon, expecting a mid afternoon arrival.
Flight plan
DEP: VRMM Male Intl 18
ARR: HTKJ Kilimanjaro Intl 09
ALTN1: HKMO Mombasa - Moi
ALTN2: HKJK Nairobi - Jomo Kenyatta
CRUISE ALT: FL350 CRUISE SPD 460kts TAS M0.8
ROUTE: VRMM ESKOL ELKEL MONTO OTKIR PRA KATEB
ALRUS XABON MOBAT MOV GADLA KV HTKJ
DISTANCE: 2340nm (4330km - 2705 miles)
FLIGHT TIME: 5:15 HRS
Jeppesen enroute charts used
ME(H/L) 9-10 Indian ocean (orientation), A(HI) 6 Africa
 Departure - Male is visible on the right |
 Passing Prasline Island in Seychelles and heading to Mombasa |
Kilimanjaro is the top of the African continent, its 5963m (19,876 ft) dominating the Massai country, a well known ancestral people whom basic food consists of cattle milk and blood.
The small airport (at 2932') located at the base of the mountain doesn't really look like an international hub but can accomodate wide bodies, its construction probably beeing linked with tourism. There is no ILS, but VOR and NDB navaids.
We made a VOR approach for runway 09, and since we were arriving from East, we had to overfly the airport and then loop back to it. Arrival time: 15:45 local. We will stay and rest here for two days before taking off again to the last stopover of the trip in the deep Sahara desert.
African sunset
Cedric De Keyser
cdk@ngi.be
