Nels - Honolulu Question

[Chris_CYWG]

If the winds are out of the west can you verify if 26L is used for approaches?? Any pics of some AI on approach??

Many thanks,

Chris

[ctwo7]

You can always request to land on that runway. http://www.fsgateway.net/hawaii/images/h29.jpg http://www.fsgateway.net/hawaii/images/h28.jpg http://www.fsgateway.net/hawaii/images/h30.jpg

[Aloha717200]

26L is opposite 8R, which is the Coral Reef runway, the FS default active in FS2002.

In real life, most of the approaches are done on 8L, 8R, and 4R, simply because of the terrain and city which lies west of the airport, in addition to winds. But if winds require a an approach from the West, then 26L is the most often used for that, as it's the furthest from terrain and building obstacles.

As far as I know, the visual approach to 22R is the LEAST used approach to Honolulu, simply because it requires a fast descent over the Koolau range, low flight over tall buildings near Honolulu, coupled with the fact that 22R is the shortest runway at the airport. It's used mostly for GA landings.

22L uses a back-course on the 4R ILS, but it is often avoided as well for the terrain obstacles. Again, mostly GA and commuters will use this approach, huge airliners...only if necessary.


Much preferable, if 26L cannot be used, is the parallel 26R, but normally a straight-in approach will not be used. ATC, and the honolulu residents, much prefer to vector the jets for a turn onto short final, to avoid the buildings of Waikiki and downtown Honolulu which are RIGHT under the approach path, along with more of those mountains to the west.


So there you are, the run-down of Honolulu's tricky approaches. :D ATC loves to vector jets to 4R, 8L, and 8R most commonly in real life. Fewer obstacles and population density. :D


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Brandon Williams, Aircraft developer, flightsim.com
Forum moderator: http://www.genesis-music.com

[N700MS]

I've always gotten FS2002 to have me land on runway 8L when I land in honolulu. You can kinda choose the runway by changing the way you make your flight plan. It never fails, I always get 8L.

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[Aloha717200]

That's because FS2002 has an issue where only one runway can be the active in the default settings.

By default, the longest runway is the active, no matter what. If two or more runways are the same length, then the active is the one that appears first in the runway listing. Always.


The way to change this, is to download AFCAD from flightsim.com, follow the instruction manual, and then change the airport so that a different runway is the active, or you can close one runway to landings, and another to takeoffs, and as a result have two active runways. One for takeoffs, one for landings.


Get AFCAD it's well worth the download time! :D


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Brandon Williams, Aircraft developer, flightsim.com
Forum moderator: http://www.genesis-music.com

[Chris_CYWG]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info on the approaches into HNL, but what I was really trying to get at is if the AI traffic can actually do the approach to 26L the way its supposed to be done (Not straight in over the city). I am curious because it can apparently do a circling approach... does anyone know if you can make your own approaches?

Chris

[koopas]

Hi Brandon,

Living on Oahu, I'd like to know how well FS2002 models Hawaii in general. Is there Diamond Head, Koko head, the Waianae range, etc.? Is the scenery realistic? Can you see the major highways (H1, H2, etc.)?

Thanks!
Alex

[scott967]

I would say fs2k2 does a fair job on Hawaii. Don't know if 2004 will be any better. I haven't sen any indication that things like roads or rivers will be done any better in 2004. I replaced the default with the FS Genesis Hawaii mesh and land class which improves things. Also added Lago PHNL and a couple freeware airports (PHKO and IIRC PHLI). The main problem with improved mesh in fs2002 is that the default airports tend to end up in holes or on plateaus. It would be nice to know if 2004 can do anything about that. At a minimum it would be nice for the mesh to gradually transition from the flat airport elevation to the surrounding area. Better would be if the airports could be placed over mesh instead of flattened. For example, the default Wheeler Army Airfield has a couple of taxiways at airport elevation on the west side. In reality, these are a "hidden" runway at the bottom of a ravine / gulch and a connecting taxiway which runs uphill to the main airport. The hidden runway is inactive but was designed for WWII and was connected via a tunnel to an underground assembly facility built into the mountains where the current NSGA Kunia is.
Because the taxiways are at airport elevation in 2002, there is a steep cliff at the edge of the airport, where it joins the correct mesh elevation in the gulch.

As far as approaches, I have been in GA which did the 22L, and we flew down the H-1 from Kokohead to the airport and turned left to the runway. You may recall a few months ago when there was an uproar when a Japan Air or Korea Air (forget) 747 flew over land when doing 26L during a Kona winds day. It will be interresting to see what 2004 does with the AI (same thing for the Northern approach into KDCA which flies down the Potomac River).

scott s.
.