Martyn 9 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Parked up outside the terminal building at Wellington, about to close the doors Starting pushback from the gate Finishing the last bits of input into the FMC Final panel sweep prior to taxi, lights and seatbelt signs are checked A shot taken from the next gate along Getting the weather radar and TCAS configured Definitely one of the shortest taxis I've ever done. must be a lovely airport to fly from in real life Tower's view of me approaching the threshold of rwy 34 Landing and strobe lights on, clearance for takeoff received Starting the roll, TOGA activated and all engines reading steady It certainly isnt the longest runway... in order to fly the 1600nm of the route, a full load of fuel was required and this made the takeoff distance a tad longer than I desired Safely clear of the runway and surround objects, starting my turbulent climb LNAV and VNAV are taking over, it was quite a busy departure which was made all the more difficult due to the clouds containing heavy turbulence The captain checking for GA traffic flying along the coast The baton is back there somewhere... Leaving the northern coast of the southern island. My route takes me north from Wellington, right up to the northern tip of the north island and then on a pretty direct airway straight to my destination Passengers view of the fluffy clouds below I'm sure the aircraft blinded some people with that shiny paintwork The INS confirming that I have a light tailwind The Progress page telling me how little fuel I will have to spare towards the end of the flight Due to that lack of fuel, I step climb 1000-2000ft at a time from my initial cruise at 33000 finally reaching 36900. Building up a fair old speed now Switching the anti ice on as it drops to -10c outside Thats one midget 737! Around this area I passed the international date line Approaching the top of descent at FL369, those step climbs gave me about 20 more minutes of fuel Calculating the descent path Disengaging LNAV as I have no STAR for this airfield. I opt to use basic autopilot to get me onto the glideslope before making a manual landing The island is now in view Turning onto a short final Rain and wind kick in, autopilot turned off for a bumpy ride into the airfield A shot on finals, with a cruise liner in the background Looks like another short runway.... :mrhappy: A smooth touch down...thank you, thank you, no need for applause! Rollout and a quick scan of the instruments Turning off onto the taxiway A quaint little airfield, not sure its designed for anything larger than the 737 Nearly there now APU On, engines off Doors open, passengers been thrown out onto the tarmac A view of the lovely cabin Getting the locals to polish the paintwork after the rain dirtied it Thats one clean airport! Quite good for freeware An overview of the fuel left, it could have been a lot less. Got to love the features of the FMC Hope you enjoyed the pics! Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Fantastic post Martyn, Made even better for me by spending the last 2 hours of the fight on MSN last night talking me through the progress, I was passing the updates on to dgor on the other line! You weren't kidding about the fuel :yes: If these are your laptop graphics the machine must have go red hot :mrhappy: I've never seen better, the cockpit detail really is some of the best I have seen. The airport scenery doesn't look too bad, ideal for this sort of use. Thanks again for taking the challenge over the international date line and one step closer to completion. Ready now for ddavid to take us back to the Northern Hemisphere :wink: Link to post Share on other sites
mulletman 0 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 beautiful shots, beautiful aircraft and beautiful scenery! Link to post Share on other sites
B77W 0 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 :shock: Very nice Shots!! Must be the best laptop shot's i've ever seen! Sam Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Martyn, Very, very nice. I really enjoyed it. I'll bet you did too. Is the fuel quantity on the FMC in hundreds of pounds? John Link to post Share on other sites
Martyn 9 Posted April 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 I had roughly 11500 pounds of fuel left, it would have been a lot less if I hadn't been step climbing. @Mutley: Yep, this was done on my laptop(sold my desktop). It doesn't get hot, only warm and the fans are lovely and silent :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
JoeEllwood 0 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Those screenies sure look good Martyn - great post! Link to post Share on other sites
dgor 0 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Brilliant stuff Martyn - I love the Wilco 737. Particularly the reflections off the glass instruments in the VC. Where is the scenrey for the airports from? Link to post Share on other sites
Martyn 9 Posted April 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Both are available from Avsim, just search for the airport name Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Hi Martyn - RESPECT ! - really professional flight - brilliantly executed. Thanks for bringing in the baton with such style. All I can hope is that it reaches Honolulu in one piece...... Cheers - David. :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
mark.hudson6 0 Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 A great post and a wonderful set of shots. Cheers Mark :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
KaptainPhee 0 Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Martyn!!!!!!!! :mrhappy: Simply Breathtaking, great work on a truly wonderful selection of shots, you should sleep sound tonight knowing they are all STUNNING!!!! Link to post Share on other sites
Martyn 9 Posted April 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Thanks for all the comments! Hopefully Mutley will let me fly another leg later on in the challenge Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 We will see :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
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