Vienna - Innsbruck (And Return) Flight Review

By Cedric De Keyser

Ready to taxi

I've recently made this short flight over Austria and decided to share this virtual experience with other civil aviation and flight simulation enthusiasts - this is the first time I'm doing so.

I live in Belgium and so usually "fly" from/to Belgian airports (mainly Brussels-National) or neighbouring hubs (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris) on short, medium or intercontinental commercial flights simulations. A domestic flight in a foreign country is relatively rare, that's what makes the first exception for this one. Another fact is that I always try to fly as realistically as possible, which means respecting the route, airline, aircraft type and schedule if possible. The flight we are talking about here was, according to Austrian Airlines' timetable, OS5901 VIE-INN (there are several flights a day), which is actually operated by Tyrolean Airways (VO), using the turboprop aircraft Dash 8-300/400 or the jet aircraft Fokker 70.

Taxiing out (First Officer's view) - "Cabin crew, take your seats!"

I made this flight with a Douglas MD-87 of Austrian Airlines (here comes the second exception), a relatively old and noisy aircraft whose days in scheduled operations are unfortunately numbered. This is the type of aircraft that the company has used on its Vienna-Brussels service until recently and which is now being operated by CRJ, Fokker 70 of Airbus A320 depending the time of the day.

Innsbruck's 6562 feet (2000 m) runway is long enough to accomodate the aircraft and I thought that bigger types and wide bodies were never to been seen there but I was wrong: I've found a real picture showing a Boeing 767 of Lauda (Austria's leisure airline) visiting the airport.

Situated in a valley in Tyrol, in the heart of the Austrian Alps, this 1900 foot (570 m) high airport is well known for its particular and dangerous approach, one of the most challenging approaches in Europe.

Ready for take off - note the flight plan path in the Nav Display CRT gauge

The navigation tool used for the flight was NavDash 2.5. The flight plan was encoded in the flight management computer following the information found on E(LO) 9 Jeppesen Low Altitude enroute chart and routed via VALIK intersection, Linz VOR (LNZ), Salzburg VOR (SBG) and then directly towards Rattenberg NDB (RTT), entry point for an eastern approach of Innsbruck. The progress screen of the FMC showed that a distance of 227 nautical miles (420 km) was to be covered.

A cruise altitude of 15000 feet (4500 m) was chosen as well as a cruise speed (ground speed) of 320 knots (590 km/h).

The fuel tanks were not fully filled up (40%) for this short flight, allowing a shorter take off run. I turned the seatbelts and no smoking signs on before an imaginary welcome message to the passengers. At 17:10 local time (16:10 UTC) the engines were started.

Take off

The aircraft was parked at a remote stand at Vienna - Schwechat International (LOWW) and no pushback was required. I gently gave a thrust of 60% N1, followed by the typical rating rise sound of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbojets and the 53000 kg (this is the take off weight considerating the amount of fuel loaded and that 90% of the seats were occupied) heavy aircraft began to roll. Once reached the taxiing speed of 15 kts (28 km/h) the throttle lever was brought back to a lower position.

Flaps were set to 11 degrees and after a short taxi to runway 29 the aircraft (which was number one as no traffic was generated on this airport) lined up for an immediate take off.

Cruise

The throttle was brought to 80% N1, and as the engines were correctly responding, full power was given to make this baby fly. At 150 kts (278 km/h) the aircraft rotated and at 160 kts (296 km/h) flight OS5901 was airborne.

With a positive rate of climb, the gear was set to 'up' and once reached the altitude of 2000 feet I pushed the LNAV button of the FMC ; the autopilot, which had previously been engaged, made the aircraft directly head to the first waypoint of the flight plan with a slight left turn (I didn't fly the SID - standard instrument departure - as I don't own these charts for LOWW).

Starting descent

As the speed was increasing, flaps were retracted and power reduced (by the way, I've heard that if full power - take off rate - is set to an aircraft engine lasting 5 minutes, the high technology jewel will be irreversibly damaged as the turbine components will melt due to too long high temperature exposure, even if they are engineered to work at temperatures exceeding their melting point in modern turbofan engines; but that's another story).

After some little turbulence undergone in the stratus clouds above Vienna the cruise altitude of 15000 feet (FL150) was quickly reached (passing 10000 feet the seatbelts sign was as usual turned off). Auto thrust was engaged to maintain a cruise speed of 320 kts - as the plane was then entirely controlled by the autopilot, I could contemplate the immaculate sea of clouds I was flying over with, on the left and later forward, the peaks of the Alps emerging.

Kai Tak International

The sun was slowly going down but I didn't have much time to gaze at the sunset as I had to attend to the descent and approach of our destination. As you've understood, in a way to make things a little more exciting, I set some relatively bad weather at Innsbruck, an overcast sky with cloud base of 4550 feet and summits at 5300 feet, but with good visibility and winds calm. At about 20 nm before Rattenberg the descent started. The approach procedure for this flight was a LOC DME EAST, to be followed by a landing on runway 26 at Innsbruck (LOWI).

Descent (approaching RTT) - the passenger should hope that the pilot knows what he is doing

Innsbruck's approach is very particular. It consists of an instrument approach followed by a visual approach. The instrument approach is similar to a common ILS approach, except that the localizer will lead you on an invisible path whose axis is not the runway axis (there is an offset between the localizer course and the runway centerline heading) and whose "target" is not the runway treshold, but a spot from which the approach turns to a visual procedure (for LOWI, the localizer - OEV loc. - is situated just south of the airport and up to 6 nm can be flown visually). There are a few airports in the world that allow such particular and curved approaches, I can cite Innsbruck of course (LOC DME EAST/WEST rwy 26, Honolulu Int'l PHNL (LDA/DME rwy 26L), Reggio Calabria LICR (VOR/DME SDF rwy 33), and the best known of all, but nowadays closed Hong Kong Kai Tak Int'l VHHH with its IGS rwy 13 procedure. This was the most difficult approach in aviation history, because of the offset making aircraft (mainly 747 types) negotiate a 47° right turn on short final over a very dense urban area, demanding a special qualification for the crew. As I've also tried it like many nostalgic FS pilots here is an illustration:

Approach on track 211° - note the localizer signal in the nav display

For Innsbruck the offset is only 5° (localizer 256° and rwy 261°) but the danger comes from very high terrain in the immediate vicinity of the airport, more precisely to the north and south, as well as in the approach path.

The approach begins at Rattenberg NDB, with a maintained altitude of 9500 feet, turning left to 211° before intercepting OEV localizer (256° 111.1 MHz). At that time, the seatbelts signs had been turned on again and the speed reduced to 220 kts (410 km/h).

Intercepting the localizer

At about 26 nm (48 km) from the destination I received the localizer signal, showing that the current altitude of 9500 feet was OK. I turned the ADF frequence to 313 kHz to get the signal from Absam NDB (AB) located on the approach path at about 6 nm from runway 26 treshold.

At 22 nm from OEV the localizer was intercepted, making a right turn over 7300 feet (2200 m) high terrain (meaning only 2200 feet or 660 m below the aircraft), with the new heading of 256°.

Had it been a usual ILS approach, I would already had been on final, slowly descending to the airport following this invisible way. I didn't turn the autopilot to APCH mode for the instrument approach as I usually make manual approaches and landings when the cloud base is not too low and the visibility not too bad.
 

Final (instrument approach) - the airport is somewhere under these clouds, at 12.5 nm (23 km) from current position.

Final (visual approach) - at about 1.5 nm (2800 m) from runway treshold, full flaps, spoilers armed

I began to lower the flaps with the speed reduced to 170 kts (315 km/h). Passing 5300 feet the aircraft penetrated the cloud layer, by then nothing could be seen during long seconds. At 4550 feet we got out of the haze, with the airport's reassuring runway and approach lights in sight, but not yet lined up with the runway. The gear was set down. As flight OS5901 came to its end, we left (and thanked) the localizer's precious help to concentrate on the visual approach. The speed had then been reduced to 150 kts (277 km/h).

The landing was smooth and I used full reverse on this relatively short runway so could exit via taxiway A (had the landing been longer, I should have to make an u-turn at the end of runway 26 and backtrack the runway).
 

Short final - airspeed: 138 kts (255 km/h)

Flaps and spoilers were retracted and after a very short taxi to the terminal the engines were switched off, parking brakes set at 18:05 local time, 55 minutes after the engines were started at Vienna.

Arrival

Return Flight

I didn't made the return flight the same day but two weeks later, on the 25th of March evening. The review of this flight will be far more brief than the one of the outward journey, I will only say a few words about the special departure procedure that was observed.

Ready for take off

The flight routed via the same waypoints (RTT, SBG, LNZ, VALIK) as the going flight, but with a different cruise altitude. I set clear skies all along the way, which gave the opportunity to see the landscape; rather interesting in the first 30 minutes of the flight.

Departing from Innsbruck is as special as arriving. Aircraft, once airborne from rwy 08 or 26, have to intercept OEJ localizer (068° 109.7 MHz) located east-north-east of the airport, the initial departure being a visual procedure.

Upon reaching the localizer, aircraft must change to 66° using the localizer back course and then head towards RTT NDB. Departing aircraft must also observe maximum rate of climb due to the surrounding high terrain.

I departed from runway 26, then climbed on track 270° before negotiating a 200° tight left turn under visual before reaching the 68° heading of the localizer. I guess this departure sequence must be quite sickening to sensitive passengers but I've never experienced it in real life. As the aircraft was climbing, we could progressively discover the mountains stretching as far as the eye can see.

Departure (heading 66°) - maximum climb gradient

Tools Used

Aeronautical documents:

Cruise - between Rattenberg and Salzburg

• JEPPESEN enroute chart E(LO) 9, approach plates and airport diagrams for Vienna - Schwechat (LOWW) and Innsbruck (LOWI), ARRIVAL and SID charts for LOWI.

Commercial Software:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Professional Edition

Freeware Add-On Software:

• NavDash 2.5 by Masakazu Iizuka (NAVDAS25.ZIP)
• NavDash 2.5.4 update for FS2K by Masakazu Iizuka (ND254UP.ZIP)
• FS2000 Replacement Clouds by Chris Willis (RPRL3CLD.ZIP)
• Vienna Schwechat International Airport Scenery v0.99 by Stefen Siegl and Philip Zajicek (LOWW_099.ZIP)
• Innsbruck Scenery v1.1 by Ricky Blanco and Neus (IBF.ZIP)
• MD-87 EFIS Panel by Paul Golding/Project Freeware (PGMD87V1.ZIP)
• Austrian Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-87 by the Project Freeware Group (included in the PGMD87V1.ZIP package)
• Boeing 707-320 Sound Package, an original sound set by Daniel R. Careri, modified by Charles Fox (CF707SND.ZIP)

On short final rwy 29 at Vienna

Hong Kong Screen Shot:

• Kai Tak 2000 Scenery v3 by Thomas Kwong (KT2000V3.ZIP)
• Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 - Project Open Sky, designed by Mitsushi Yutaka and Hiroshi Igami, flight dynamics by Johan Dees, painted by C. Vincent Cho (OS744CX.ZIP)

Many thanks to all these people for their quality add-ons.

Hope you've enjoyed reading this review.

Cedric De Keyser
cdk@ngi.be