In response to my last Blog Posting I decided to fly MAN to ALC (Alicante) on FS2004.

Well my latest venture has all been inspired by a very significant development concerning Manchester Airport (MAN) where I last visited the Aviation Viewing Park on July 16th 2017. The development is that having last been seen there in 2005 Malaysia Airlines returned to MAN from KUL via HKG using the Airbus A380-841 on July 15th 2017 (MH8158 KUL-HKG-MAN.) After a nightstop the aircraft returned on July 16th 2017 (MH8159 MAN-HKG-KUL.) Airbus A380-841 9M-MND was used on the first flight back into MAN as seen by me today on departure.

Though it is not 9M-MND Project Airbus for FS2004 has produced a good rendition of 9M-MNA in the colour scheme worn by these aircraft in service with Malaysia Airlines. Once I have solved the weight and balance riddle because on FS2004 the aircraft by default is WAY too heavy to operate I will be able to recreate the MH8158 / MH8159 rotation in it's entirety. MH8158 is timetabled for a duration of 13:00 hours with MH8159 being much the same. So to accomplish this I am looking forward to a total number of 26:00 flying hours on FS2004 which I will probably have to spread over four days!

Scenery-wise I have the UK2000 Payware FS2004 package for Manchester - Extreme Edition along with the FS2004 World Airports 3 Edition of Hong Kong CLK which is Payware from JustFlight. For Kuala Lumphur I will have to use the default scenery as I cannot find any FS2004 packages available for this location. This will not be the first time I have landed or taken off from KUL: In July 2009 I share-flew Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-2H6ER 9M-MRD by Project Open Sky between KUL and AMS as MH16 and remember a bumpy climb out up to around 25,000 feet surrounded by thunderstorms and convective activity! This was entered into my logbook and I could not believe it when five years almost to the day later the same aircraft became headline news as MH17 ... For every wrong reason there practically could be.

Then in March 2015 I flew the Project Airbus A380-841 9M-MNA between LHR and KUL non-stop as MH4 real time which meant an eleven hour flight on FS2004 with no assistance this time which concluded with a successful ILS Approach and landing! It is this same Project Airbus A380 which I will be using to emulate MH8158 / MH8159 and all 26 hours of it however many days it takes me ...