BA006 - A Journey From East To West

[CyprusAirwaysA330 0]

Lads,

Its been a long time since I posted shots. A year ago, a member of my family went to Tokyo for business. On the return trip, she was kind enough to ask the pilot for the flightplan. The amused pilot not only gave her the plan, but also a set of charts covering the entire of Siberia and Northern Asia, and Europe. I was duly given these, and for a long time, I have wanted to fly this flight. However, due to many difficulties, namely the flightplan was using a later AIRAC then I had installed, meaning I had to buy some Navigraph credits, and due to the flight length, as well as many step climbs, meant I had to plan it carefully through the day. Well, heres the result. Hope you like them.

PS. Sorry for those of you who don't like night shots, this flight takes place excusively in night time hours.

Warning - There are a lot of shots.

No flightplan shot as FSBUILD couldn't handle the flightplan, so straight to a shot at the gate.

The Passengers all on board, all systems ready to go, we can push back.

Taxiing out, our lights illuminating the airport at 01:30 local.

Passing some special liveries, the Japanese have a lot of these.

After a 16 minute taxi (without having to hold either!) we are cleared to takeoff.

Accelerating, we have plenty of runway.

Airborne!

Passing the airport perimeter as we are swallowed into the fog.

We exit the fog only a 1000 feet later, climbing over rural Japan.

Flaps up now, a bit higher over the suburbs of Tokyo.

Landing lights exstinguished after a 11 minute climb to 10,000 feet.

Cruising now, taking a last look at the dark Japanese land.

Heading almost North to Russia, the sea reflecting the moonlight nicely.

Russia!

Encountering Aurora Borealis over Northern Russia.

My view of the Northern Lights.

The Sun chasing us.

Dawn and the Northern Lights.

An hour later, we are still watching the Northern Lights.

More Northern Lights.

Dawn chasing us.

Chasing the Northern Lights.

Another view from my seat.

Passing a Transaero 767 heading where we came from. The TCAS went crazy because ATC let him come so close.

Clouds over Russia.

Dawn is till following us.

Different colours for the Northern Lights.

Not much to see down there.

The Sun and our Tail.

More Northern Lights.

The Moon glinting off a lake in Northern Russia.

The Artic Sea, North of Russia. Canada is only a mere three hours away.

Dawn is falling behind, we are travelling faster than the sun rising.

Aurora Borealis. again.

Over the sea between Finland and Sweden

Snow over Sweden at 39,000 feet?!?! Marcus must be down there somewhere.

The Wipers at work against the snow.

The office.

Denmark.

The North Sea.

The UK. Nearly home!! Commencing our descent now.

Lights on at 10,000 feet.

Heathrow in sight as we fly downwind.

Turning onto finals through a cloud.

Flaps and gear all down, autopilot off.

Nearly there.

Touchdown after 11 hours 27 minutes.

Braking hard.

Turned off the runway, cleaning up the flaps and lights.

Taxiing towards T5.

Turning into the gate.

Parked up next to an Airbus and some Jumbos. 04:20 local.

Thanks for looking guys. I can PM you the flightplan if you wish.

Altitudes flown - 31000feet, 10600 metres (34800 feet), 36000 feet, 39000 feet.

Addons used - Flightsim Commander, UK2000 Heathrow Extreme, Overland Japan Airports, PMDG 747-400. Thanks for looking.

[dgor 0]

:great:

Those are absolutely brilliant CAA330! Beautiful aircraft, great scenery and some lovely pics of the Northern Lights. A real mammoth of a flight too - well done for taking that on and completing it, and even managing to get such great screenshots in the process :smile:

Thanks for posting :-)

Dave

[fighterpilot 0]

stunning Hugo! :gtfl: :great:

I am living close to Gotenburg, almost 50km east.

and snow at FL390? :great: well we have had some strange weather lately :smile:

usally when I do flight around 10-12 hours Im doing it on the night, as I am going to sleep after takeoff and then land in the morning, I just put ATC on hold, I nkow you can't put the ATC on hold in the real world but it's only a simulation, how did you manage do make such a long flight on the day?

[CyprusAirwaysA330 0]

Thanks for the replies guys, good to read your comments.

usally when I do flight around 10-12 hours Im doing it on the night, as I am going to sleep after takeoff and then land in the morning, I just put ATC on hold, I nkow you can't put the ATC on hold in the real world but it's only a simulation, how did you manage do make such a long flight on the day?

I used to do that, but I found that things like step climbs were impossible to do, and the screenshots weren't that great. Plus, I don't like leaving a computer running over night without being supervised at least every couple of hours. For this flight, I got up relatively early (7:30), and flew it throughout the day. I planned my schedule around it, so that I would be there whenever fuel tanks needed reconfiging, or a step climb was needed. I left the ATC on hold. The rest of the time, the computer had FS minimised and could be used for other simple tasks. (no playing other games!)

[fighterpilot 0]

well, if I fly routes like 2-5 hours I am startong up Call Of Duty to play online as I am flying, it's gets a little bit slower when playing but the time goes faster that way

[mutley 4,498]

I have to agree these are breathtaking shots, love those Northern Lights :smile:

Cheers

[hurricanemk1c 195]

The standard of these shots are :dance:

Which sim were you using?

[rob16584 42]

Great shots