Come fly with me

[allardjd 1,853]

I know a bad idea when I see it - and that's a BAD idea.

John

[brett 2,316]

Bad idea yes....the video would surely be entertaining though.

[Quickmarch 488]

VVTS, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam to VVND, Hanoi, Vietnam

Equipment is a 777-200 (B772). Correctly identified by virtue of its size and the Safety Procedures

Card thoughtfully supplied by Mr Boeing. That would be unlike the previous flight where the SP Card for a 777-200 was thoughtfully supplied by the airline, but in an Airbus. They're all the same aren't they?

Registration: VN-A145

We're snuggled up to gate 4, domestic terminal,VVTS. The domestic routes in this country are well

travelled, this is the second of two B772's destined for Hanoi within the same hour.

Here's the flight plan, direct, less SID and STAR: http://skyvector.com...VV.NAH:V.VV.NOB

I don't have access to sim software here so this route is a "best guess".

Pushback at 0526Z (1226 local). Here's that 1/20th of an acre wing I was remarking on in an earlier

post.

Engines started we begin taxiing (approx north) down the length of the domestic Aircraft Stands then make a left turn onto W7B and head for the west end of the airfield.

We go all the way to the end on W9B to W11, then cross 07R/25L with no hold, onto W6 and immediately cleared onto 07L and cleared for T/O. Rolling start at 0537Z. All normal, takeoff at 37:36.

Climbout is straight ahead, gear up, clean up the wing, then a small left turn at 40 onto course NE

for Pleiku. At 43, we're 37 miles out - GS-395mph, ETA 14:16L (0714Z).

The following shot was taken at 12:45L (0545Z) coming up on FL230, 543 mph,

The enroute portion of the flight went off as advertised. The seatback nav system reported the

following figures: (times are local)

1251 - FL290

1300 - FL390 - 543mph

1330 - FL390 - 555mph - oat -61F. We're justabout over Hue at this time and shortly after go "feet

wet". Looks to me that we're following W1 which is the route I estimated we would use.

1355 - TOD - Start Descent. GS 492mph, 17 min to go.

At 1440 the spoilers popped up and stayed that way for almost two minutes. That got us down to FL160 fairly quickly and the A/C had`slowed to 421mph.

12 min to go, 15000ft, GS 395mph

07 min to go, 7900ft, GS 330mph

Spoilers again for approx 1 minute

04 min to go, 3760ft, GS 291mph

1411 - Now we're into a steep right bank, flaps coming down, airport in sight ahead of the starboard

wing. We've come around from a NW'rly heading to the runway heading of 110 degrees (almost a 180).

1412 - Established on final, 2770ft, GS 200mph

1413 - Gear down, lots of flap

1414 - 948ft, GS 161mph

1416 - Touch down - 11R - sorry about the low quality shots. The low afternoon sun was on the

windows.

Here's a shot of the spoilers at full deployment, again apologies for the quality.

Final shot is taken just before 1417. We're slowed waydown at this point and about to exit the runway. If that is the terminal at VVNB, then we've arrived at our destination.

This was a short taxi. We exited on TWY S4 (S4 is the middle taxiway, right off 11R, E3 is its extension onto the apron) and rolled straight ahead to E3 and Gate 9.

Hanoi is not the big skyscraper type of city that Saigon was. It is a bit less modern on the surface,

but behind the facade is the same 1st world style hotels. Once out of the hotels, you're in a

different world. Hanois' scooter traffic is possibly more frantic than Saigon's. Red lights mean

nothing to most of the scooter drivers, so crossing the street has the same death-defying feel to it as it had in Saigon.

There's been a slight change of plan: We were going to go directly from Hanoi to Laos, but the

decision has been made to divert to Hong Kong for a week.

I'll see what I can find and post in the way of a flight plan for VVNB to VHHH. It will be a few days

yet. We're off to Halong Bay on Saturday for a jaunt in a mini-cruise ship (can't get enough of boats,

can I?) then back to Hanoi, briefly, before we "kick the tires and light the fires" for China.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

Great commentary, March, and the photos aren't half bad either. Not quite like being there, but certainly worth looking at. Mind them scooters. Maybe you could rent one?

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Yes, it's possible to rent one. It would be sort of like hopping out the door of an aircraft at 10,000' without a parachute. Statistically, you're going to die.

It is really hard to describe how insane the traffic is. I think you have to experience it to believe it.

I was reading in the local (English) newspaper, this morning, about one of the government ministries coming to the realisation that people are dying on the streets in motor vehicle accidents. I don't know if it's possible, but a good start would be to enforce the traffic laws, provide they've written some. Just outside my hotel, there's a traffic light. This light sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It took me two days to figure out that the green "walk" signal is only on one side of the street. If you happen to be crossing the other way, you need to look behind you to see the sign. Doesn't matter anyway, if 50% of the scooters stop at a red light, it's a good day.

Beware!

Cheers,

March

[mutley 4,498]

Loved that PIREP March.

Looks like your are living my dreams there!!

Safe travels..

Cheers,

Joe

[Quickmarch 488]

I'm afraid I got tired of waiting on Rosario , here in Hanoi. I understand he has been unavoidably delayed on the ATWC IV. Sorry, Rosario, your beer got a bit warm so I drank it and I'm off to Hong Kong tomorrow. 

Hong Kong is a bit of a diversion from the original itinerary. What the heck! The town is close enough and I've never been to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. I'm off to see the sights, snarf a bit of the local nosh, ride the Kowloon Ferry, and take the funicular to the top of the mountain.

For those who may be interested in the method I use to flight plan for these numerous Asian Airlines, I offer the following:

VVNB to VHHH

Thursday, Nov. 28, Hong Kong Airlines HX529 @ 1935L (1235Z). Here's my method -

Flight Tracking History for Vatsim

http://www.vataware.com/index.cfm

Use the "City Pair Search" in the left column menu

Select (for instance) VVNB to VHHH

Returns: http://www.vataware.com/citypair.cfm?from=VVNB&to=Vhhh

Under "Routes", click the button to see Top Routes between these two airports.

Returns: Flight Tracking History for Vatsim

Vatsim routes between selected airports

http://www.vataware.com/routes.cfm?from=Vvnb&to=Vhhh

Based on this information, I'll use the most common route. I realise that ATC may well assign alternate SIDs and STARs. This is for planning purposes.

SID Hakao 1 Alpha

Route: TEBAK:GYA:POU:SIERA

STAR - Sierra 5A

I then go here: http://skyvector.com/ and plug in the route. I only do this because it is a much easier format to use than the "Google" style format available on the VatSim site. Using Skyvector shows you all the Hi-Alt fixes, VORs and NDBs, etc.

The route is here:

http://skyvector.com/?ll=22.033202229410374,106.45312500392731&chart=304&zoom=2&plan=F.ZG.TEBAK:V.ZG.GYA:V.ZG.POU:F.ZG.SIERA

There may be a way to see this stuff on the VatSim site, I just haven't got that far into VatSim yet.

Here is the link to the main DropBox folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/japr7d1sga8vrog/MiUK-Ajbi3

This folder contains most of the RW plates and a lot of the other detail used in this series of RW flights. Here is where you will find the RW plates for VVNB - in the sub-directory where VVNB is the destination.

  

Here is the appropriate RW plate for Hong Kong (caution, large file):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dnqvboibea6euq6/eUU1EU9nJ9

John Allard's A/P  diagrams are here:

You won't find VHHH in this group as I've done an end-run on JA by diverting to Hong Kong. However, you will find the A/P diagram in the MH file library as John has uploaded that one in the past.

See you all in HK

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

The city pair search on the VatAware site is pretty neat - it coughs up a history of VatSim flights between them with a lot of data, including exact routing.

John

[Quickmarch 488]

For this leg, equipment is an A320-200, registered B-LPB (Hong Kong Airlines).

The flight plan and chart references are contained in a previous posting, just above this one.

LPB is designated Flight HS529 and is parked at Gate 4, VVNB. This flight is planned to depart at 1930 Local (1230Z).

Passengers are invited on board a little late due to a SNAFU a little earlier with a broken A320 remaining in Gate 5 (the original,planned, departure gate for Flight HS529).

All is well and passengers aboard, doors closed and cross checked.

I hate to disappoint all you MH'ers who are expecting my usual high end photo shoot, but this flight started at night, in the rain and the clag. The only shot I can offer is the following while parked up

at the gate with the apron lights. It's a great shot of raindrops and bright lights on yet another commercial aircraft wing (this one a tad smaller than the last - Joe, I'll do the math later so you can get on with the ploughing, provided you survived the waterskiing experiment.

We pushback at 1942 Local. Engines started - lots of time as there is construction going on at the adjacent Gate 5 and the pushback is a long one. Almost 100M, that is almost back to the extremes of the gate apron and into the E-W taxiway. The tug stops, disengages, the ground crew says "Good Night, and Safe Flight".

Pre-taxi checklist complete, we advance the throttles to get this baby rolling and after a few feet to establish a bit of groundspeed, make a long right hand turn to get aimed west on taxiway E-W. at the end of the apron we make a short right on to Sierra 6 Alpha, then a left onto Sierra 1. S1 takes us all down to a right onto Sierra 7 and a short hold at RWY 11R/29L. Cleared across this runway we continue onto 11L with a rolling start at 56 after the hour.

Takeoff goes as planned and we log 1256:41Z as free of mother earth with wheels in the wells a few seconds later. We're on a straight out departure directly into the clag, then a slight left turn onto course with the flaps coming up and stowed at 59.

At 1300Z we are clear of cloud with another layer visible above. TOC at 1314Z.

This is where things get fuzzy. There was no clear indication of TOD as there were several power reductions and altitude changes along our route as we encountered quite a bit of turbulence.

Turbulence doesn't bother me at all, but the screaming brat in the seat ahead of me required earplugs and the Bose headphones to completely cancel the high dB. This kid was out of control. Every time she didn't get her way she'd start. Now, don't get me wrong. I like children. It's over-indulgent parents that can be a problem.

The TOD seemed to be about 1350Z . Flaps 1 at 1412 and gear at 1414, just about the same time the ground lights became visible and we popped out of the clag. More flap at 1415 and over the fence at 1417:30. Touchdown at 1417:42, spoilers and reverse thrust had us slowed and turning right off RWY 07L onto TWY A7. Our route then took us right onto Whiskey and left onto W1. We wound up parked in the cheap seats - W123. This requires a bus ride from the apron to the terminal.

It's a feature of our modern flight capability that you can be in the third world, dodging scooters and water buffalo on the airport road, (pic is Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon - yes I AM on the back of the scooter taking the picture)

then two hours later arrive in a fabulous city that has to be seen to be believed (pic is Hong Kong).

For those who have never been to Hong Kong, give it a go! There are NO scooters, in fact, there are almost no private cars (those private cars that are here tend to be manufactured by Mercedes, Bentley, Audi, and BMW). Everything by way of land transport is done by excellent public transit systems and taxis. Neither is expensive. A ride on the public transit system costs the equivalent of $0.30 per instance, regardless of the length of the ride. You can go one stop or ten for the same fare.

The restaurants are excellent. Dinner for two at a decent restaurant will run you $500 - $800 HKD (divide by 8 for USD or CAD). This is about the same as it would cost in Vancouver or Brisbane. A pint of the best is around $48 to $52 HKD - approx $6 USD.

Where it begins to hurt is the real estate market. Land here is incredibly expensive so a square meter of floor space can be pricey. Our hotel room measures 2M X 4M, contains a queen size bed, a toilet/shower room, a tiny desk and a bit of floor space if you need to change your mind. The TV is (fortunately) a wall mounted LCD that is very thin and almost the same width as the bed. There is no place to sit other than on the bed. The upside: the mini-bar is complimentary.

Buy an apartment? Better own an oil well! The prices for buying or renting are insane. The local Real Estate office offers one apartment: 560 ft, one brm with spacious living area and open kitchen - 20K. That will be per month (remember, divide by 8). The adjacent ad is for an 800 sq. ft apartment with 3 side windows. This jewel is offered for sale at 7.98M ( that will be "million", remember, divide by 8).

Those of you MH'ers living in downtown London, Paris or Rome may not find thes prices all that bad, but for a small-town Canadian boy (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) they're downright unbelievable.

That's my report on Hanoi to Hong Kong. We leave Hong Kong on the 6th and return to Hanoi for one night before flying out to Luang Prabang, Laos. There is little point in reporting the return flight as it is another night flight that is the reverse of this one. I'll report on the flight to Laos after the 7th.

Cheers,

March

[brett 2,316]

Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to have to live there$ The scooter traffic in HCMC looks like a wild amusement park ride, they should charge admission.

[Quickmarch 488]

We just popped back to Hanoi for one night. Today we head for Luang Prabang in Laos (VLLB).

Where you see something like "pic here", I'll get back and edit this post when I know I have a reliable Internet connection. For the time being, here is e text:

I want to make a few comments about Hong Kong in lieu of a flight report. As I mentioned earlier, it's a night flight and going over ground already covered. Suffice to say all went well including the taxi ride from VVNB to Hanoi's Old Town.

Hong Kong is a "must visit". It's quite a place. Modern, yet true to it's roots. Crowded and expensive were two of the adjectives I had heard during conversations about HK. Neither are really accurate. True, there are a lot of people, but the overhead walkways keep the people off the streets and the superb public transit system keeps the cars off the roads.

One strange thing that happens every Sunday is that all of the domestic help, most from other countries, get together on or about the walkways in the vicinity of the Central bus station. They get one day a week off and they come downtown to meet and chat with their friends, relatives and acquaintances. they even build little cardboard enclosures to define their "house".

You can buy any expensive item you care to mention; from Ferrari to Brooks Brothers and Prada, it's all available. However, you will be well fed for a reasonable amount of cash and your transportation will cost you almost nothing.

We bought what they call an "Octopus Card" which is just a stored value card for use on the Ferries, busses and trams. The card costs $150 HKD which includes $100 HKD in fares and a $50 HKD refundable deposit. After a week running around all over the island and Kowloon, I had used $71 HKD so I was refunded $79 at the airport.

The train trip to the airport is a thing of beauty. The ticket costs $80 HKD ($10 USD). There's a baggage and check in counter at the train station in downtown HK so you don't have to stand in a lineup at the airport. Super fast train, too.

Cheers,

March

Keep the shiny side up

[Quickmarch 488]

VVNB to VLLB - Dec. 07

Today's flight is a short one. Based on the flight planning method I described in a previous post (above) here's the flight plan: http://skyvector.com/?ll=20.690693143286104,103.69409180076354&chart=304&zoom=3&plan=A.VV.VVNB:N.VV.MC:A.VL.VLLB

John Allard's airport chart can be found here:

Looks like a pretty simple airport - one set of runways, 06/24 with no taxiways shown in FS. FS differs somewhat from the RW (not surprising). The runway set noted has been closed in the RW, replaced by 05/23, an 8200 ft X 148 ft runway that was likely built since the FSX database was produced. This difference was brought home when our ATR 72 sauntered down the runway without any real hard braking and turned left onto the apron. No wonder! We landed on 23 and the pilot had the whole thing for deceleration.

This was another night flight, so no pictures to post.

Equipment was an ATR 72. it always seems strange walking up the aft steps to get aboard. This makes a huge amount of sense. I've never seen the purported prop to keep the aircraft from tipping backwards. This one didn't use it either, or I didn't see it, anyway.

The other thing about this flight and, in fact, the flights in and out of Hong Kong is the prevalence of bus transport to remote parking on the apron. It seems strange to walk down the jetway and then down a flight of stairs to a bus. these things are very uncomfortable as there is a minimum of seating so you're likely to spend a fair amount of time standing up while they load a planefull of pax.

Because of the bus transport, i'm going to have to guess at the departure parking. All I can say for sure is it was way out in the weeds, likely Gate 16 or 17.

Engine start at 1847L. No pushback was needed as the pilot simply taxiied forwards and into a couple of left turns to put us on E-W taxiway on a westerly heading. A right turn onto S4 with an immediate left to S1 then a long run down to a right onto S7. We had a short hold (for no apparent reason) at 11R/29L then on to a rolling start on 11L.

Rotate at 59:04, gear almost immediately, then flaps coming up at 1900:10 and a left turn into the clouds.

The balance of this flight was pleasant and smooth. I got no real indication of a power reduction to definitely identify TOD, but the captain was on the tannoy at 1948 telling us to button up for our imminent return to mother earth.

We broke out shortly thereafter and cruised along for a few minutes with very little in the way of lights visible on the ground, sort of one per five miles - not a lot of population. Gear down at 2000 with touchdown following at 2007.

Only one more comment: Canada must have really pissed off the Laos at some time. You must get a Visa at the airport and there's a huge board showing the price per person. There's everything from $20 to $30 for every country you can imagine. There I am holding a Canadian Passport that requires the only payment over $30 on the board - $42. Sure gives you that warm welcome feeling.

Next up - Dec. 14, Luang Prabang to Chiangmai. VLLB to VTCC

Cheers,

March

[Quickmarch 488]

Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai, VLLB to VTCC

It's another short one, but this time during daylight so we may have some decent pictures. 66nm down R215 to NAN, then a left onto R207-W12 for 104nm.

I'm posting this from my hotel room in Luang Prabang, so no pictures until I get to Chaing Mai and find an Internet connection.

Here's the flightplan: 

http://skyvector.com/?ll=18.60529553253949,100.16821289446405&chart=304&zoom=3&plan=A.VL.VLLB:V.VT.NAN:A.VT.VTCC

No word on equipment yet.

Our hotel in Luang Prabang is SW of a direct line with 023. This seems to be the runway of preference as there are a lot of airplanes climbing past my easterly facing balcony.

Coming off 023, the logical SID is TOMIP. This requires a slight right at 1800’ - D3.4 off LPB 230 to intercept R215. The opposite runway is similar except that the turn is at 2770’ - D6.3 to LPB, to R215.

Landing at Chiang Mai offers an ILS on runway 36 and a VOR/DME approach to either 18 or 36. 36 also has a VOR approach.

See you there

[Quickmarch 488]

All goes well with customs and immigration and they graciously allow us to leave the country without further punitive charges. Nasty Canadians!

Equipment is an ATR 72, reg: RDPL 34176

Pushback at 1301 local, we're parked up adjacent the runway, facing west. This is our likely takeoff direction as the somewhat weak breezes are coming from that direction. Sure enough, engines started, flaps 15, we turn right onto the very short taxiway then another right and head out down the runway, backtracking at a high rate of knots.

Someone up front is in a hurry. So much so that he doesn't bother using the whole thing. We're lightly loaded at about 30% capacity and the Captain does a U-turn about halfway down, lines up, and lights the fires for a short trip down 23.

We're off at 1308:44. Throttles back a bit and flaps up at 1311 we start the climb. The transition to the TOMIP departure is almost un-noticeable.

TOC at 1323, then a slight right turn over NAN VOR at 1332. A beautiful day for flying.

TOD at 1349 and we're on our way downhill into VTCC. It gets a bit bumpy as we get closer to the ground. Lots of agri stuff down here for Joe to plow, that's likely the cause for the rising air.

Setting up for landing, gear and flaps 15 at 1402, followed by flaps 30 a few seconds later.

At 1404 we're established on final, estimate is less than 1000 Ft. Someone is using the same set of house plans over and over.

Touchdown at 1405 and a short rollout, unfortunately just past the turnoff so a 180 is necessary. These ATR's have an impressively short turning radius.

Exiting the runway with a left, left, I see a strange aircraft parked on the military apron. Sorry about the low resolution, but maybe some of the gurus on Mutley's "Name the Aircraft," will be able to identify the small single jet under cover on the apron.

We park up at Gate 9 right beside the air ambulance and a few Pilatus Porters, probably belonging to the local air force.

That's all folks. Deplane, customs, baggage, and my buddy Steve waiting for me at the exit. The only potential problem occurred when the Immigration guy questioned me as to where I was staying in Chiang Mai. I'd forgotten to get Steve's address so I had nothing to put on the appropriate line on the Immigration card. I told him "Steve's house". He shrugged his shoulders and stamped my passport, saying enjoy your stay at Steve's. Rare humour from Immigration.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year. Come Fly with Me will go dark for the balance of the holiday season as we're not going anywhere by air. We've a few motorcycle trips planned for incountry.

Next flight will be sometime in early to mid January as we head further around the SE Asia circle.

Cheers,

March

[brett 2,316]

Great pic's and commentary. Funny story with immigration guy but watch for dark vans parked for a long time outside Steve's house. Thanks for the holiday wishes and I send them back at ya, to you, the family and friends. Enjoy the travel reprieve.

[Quickmarch 488]

This is a teaser.

Guess where I am now. Details follow.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

Hmmm - reminds me of a former boss's threat of "bring your own hammer" meetings, where he'd direct you to do what the unfortunate guy in your photo is about to do until he would tell you when you could stop. He never followed through, but the threat was sufficient for him to get what he wanted.

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Monday January 7, 2013

Equipment: Airbus A300-600, Reg. HS-TAW, Thai Air, Gate 7, VTCC, Chaing Mai to Gate B3, VTBS, Bangkok

The route for today's flight can be found here: http://skyvector.com...T.BKK:A.VT.VTBS

322NM - 41 minutes at a planned 470Kt cruise

Destination Airport - VTBS

Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi Int'l

Pushback and engine start at 1129 Local for an advertised 1130 departure. Pushback required turning the tail to port for a southerly heading. To follow the taxi route, check out John Allard's airport chart of VTCC at:

http://forum.mutleys...w-tour-of-asia/

Taxi commenced at 1132 after pre-taxi checklist completed. The taxi route had us turning immediately right onto TWY P, then left to TWY F. All the way to the end where F morphs into G for a short hold for landing traffic and completion of the pre-takeoff checklist.

All set to go and released by ATC with takeoff clearance at 1139, we roll onto RWY 36 and advance the throttles to stabilise the engines. Everything is GO, so right to the stops. VR at 1139:50 and off at 39:52. Positive rate, gear up.

At 11140L we start a 180 right turn, then shortly after a slight left to continue SID KEDOB ONE BRAVO to hook up with with A464. See the bottom routing in the following SID.

Here's a shot out the starboard side (mid turn) of Chaing Mai.

Note the top of the smog layer in the following picture. Chaing Mai needs to clean up its act.

At 1154 we reach TOC at FL330 and accelerate to 470Kt GS

TOD comes at 1212. TTG: 25 minutes, DTG: 75 miles. It's all downhill, now.

ATC assigns RNAV STAR NUMAN ONE BRAVO for RWY01R. So we start the dance at BEKOD, 162 to TEREX, 154 to NUMAN, 155 to BS644, 195 to MISTA (downwind), 105 to PARKK (base), 040 to DEBRA and the ISES Localizer for a straight in to RWY01R.

The turn to base comes at 1229 and we start lowering flap. We've slowed to 197Kt at his point. The ocean is in the distance off our starboard wing.

At 1231 we make the left turn at PARKK, slowed to 193Kt at 2200 feet.

At 1232 we're on the Localizer, more flap and the gear is selected DOWN. 135Kt over the fence -

Touchdown at 1235:05.

This is a monster runway. We don't bother with the buckets as we're assigned a gate at the North end of the airport at Concourse B. In any case, we're slowed down enough to exit the runway at B3.

We're assigned a non-standard taxi route: B, left C4, T4, left Gate B3

And, finally, into Gate B3

Suvarnabhumi Int'l is a beautiful, new, airport with a very modern style Airport Building as you can see in the photo, above.

The city of Bangkok was one where we were a bit dubious about travelling to. Friends and fellow yachties had told us it was dirty, smelly, crowded and unpleasant. I'm wondering which Bangkok they were talking about. The Bangkok we're in is "non of the above", in fact, it is one of the cleanest cities we've visited on this tour of SE Asia.Penang coming up Friday night. It may be another of the trips that doesn't need to be pictorially covered as it will be dark, typical of nighttime travel. However, I will attempt to track the flight as well as I can from somewhere back in the "tube of seats".Cheers, March

[allardjd 1,853]

Good stuff, March. How did I miss diagramming VTBS? Was that a change in your itinerary?

I did VTBD for Bangkok.

John

[Quickmarch 488]

This post edited

Further info, John.

VTBT appears to be little used these days. Mostly by the discount airlines? It is now called the "old" int'l airport versus the "new" one that we flew in to.

I'll hazard a guess that VTBS (New) doesn't exist in FSX. However, I've no way to check.

Sorry for the mix-up.

You didn't miss anything, John.

We were never planning on coming here. The flight arrangements from Chaing Mai to Penang were way cheaper going through Bangkok so we made the decision to re-route.

Flying around here is so cheap that we don't make bookings until the last minute. For instance: Tiger Air flys from Langkawi to Singapore for $35. I don't think they serve lunch. Most of the other flights are $100 - $200 pp.

Cheers,

March

[Quickmarch 488]

VTBS to WMKP

January 11, 2013 ( on my birthday)

Equipment, 737-400, Reg unknown, Gate 121, WMKP

Here's the link to the SkyVector routing:

http://skyvector.com/?ll=7.948623373971962,100.58898926165746&chart=304&zoom=3&plan=F.VT.REGOS:F.VT.UPNEP:F.VT.RELIP:V.VT.HTY:F.WM.LUNTU

After a long, long taxi ride from old town Bangkok (1-1/2 hrs in traffic that felt like 3 weeks as the taxi driver was one of those on the gas-on the brake- on the gas kind of guys). I was looking for the sick bag in the cab. This from the guy with the iron stomach - thousands of sea miles, thousands of air miles, never felt as bad as in that cab.

Finally arrived at the airport only to find that the first part of my trip was going to be by bus. Here I thought I'd bought an airline ticket.

Thai Air Bus Lines delivered us to Gate? 121, way out in the weeds on the east apron, between Concourse A and the freight terminal. You know you're flying on a 737 when the bus pulls up to the back door.

With that out of the way, things went according to plan. Too bad it was absolutely dark and my seat, 35A, was between windows. I had a peek-a-boo view of the apron on the port side of the aircraft. So, no photos for this trip. Reproductions of the pertinent Jeppesen plates only.

Push-back at 1938 for a 1945 departure. One of the advantages of travelling this far by bus is that the active was nearby, so the taxi trip was pretty short. From my lofty perch I could see that we taxied south on T5, then a left onto T3 with an immediate right onto C. We're number two to an A 320 that I can see out the left hand side. He's already on B1 and rolling towards the runway. We make the left onto B1 and hold while the 320 gets his act together and heads off into the night.

Our turn. We taxi slowly out of B1 and turn right onto 19L. 19L is a 13,000 foot runway aimed in the direction we want to go. Great! Here's the SID:

Throttles up at 1951:01 and we're rolling. Throttles to the stops shortly after and at 1951:22 we join the ranks of the airborne. Gear up, straight out departure. SID is SEESA 1C and pretty soon we're past the waypoint and aimed at BS518. 10,000 and "seatbelt signs off" at 1957.

TOC at 2010 and the PNF on the intercom to let us poor mortals know we've made it to FL330.

Bit dark out there to get any real feeling for when things are happening, so let's assume all goes well and we make another shallow left at JASSY to REGOS and W19-A464.

We enjoy a nice smooth flight in near perfect visibility as the ground lights are clearly visible towards the end of the flight as we fly over the land.

Now into the descent stage of this flight. TOD (as near as can be detected from seat 35A) occurs at around 2053 when we make another shallow turn, this time to the right and the FO gets on the horn to tell us to move our watches ahead one hour. I've been using local time throughout, so I'll continue with that practice.

My best guess, and it is based on ground light visibility and barely detectable aircraft bank angles, is we used the LUNTU 1A STAR or something similar. LUNTU 1A turns left off A457 a bit north of the Penang VOR and tracks 207 deg. over TAMIT (downwind) to a left (base) over OPOVI and intercept the ILS at KENDI. The FAF comes up at 7.8NM where we need to intercept the Glideslope at 2500 or below.

Gear down and locked at 2209 and touchdown at 2211:54 (remember the added hour). No serious braking required. We're off on TWY Charlie, then left on Alpha for the long run back to the SW where they put the terminal. A right onto Foxtrot then a left onto the apron and another right into Gate A4L and we've finished another leg of the Quickmarch tour of SE Asia.

BTW: You, too, can have copies of these airport diagrams, just like the one above. John Allard posts these on Mutley's Hangar. Type in the ICAO identifier in the search field under "Files" on any MH page. These diagrams are much better for SIM flying as they exactly match the Flight Simulator airports (which do not necessarily match the RW plates).

Here;s the RW Apron Diagram for WMKP

Next trip is to Langkawi. Langkawi has an airport but it;s so close to us that we'll be taking a ferry.

Stay tuned, next flight will be either; Langkawi to Singapore, Langkawi to Phuket or Phuket to Singapore as we may take the ferry from Langkawi to Phuket.

[Quickmarch 488]

VTSP to WSSS

Writing this, I’m in Singapore. Not a bad spot, overlooking the river at Robertson Quay (I think the locals call it “Key”, but we know better, don’t we?)

This will be the last in the series of “Come Fly with Me” as the return to Brisbane is an overnighter and will be short on photo opportunities.

After a bit of swanning around various SE Asian countries – I think I left you after the flight from Bangkok to Penang. We reverted to taking ferries, very familiar thing to us Yachties, from Penang to Langkawi/Rebak, then from Langkawi to Phuket.

Our last leg, the one I’ll describe here was from Phuket, VTSP, back to Singapore, WSSS.

A bit of research yielded the SIDS available, the route, and the STARS that would get us into Singapore. Simply a matter of picking the applicable ones out of the options depending on departure and arrival runways and the GPS recordings (aboard) of our course.

Here’s the course, from end of SID to beginning of STAR: http://skyvector.com...GAKO:F.WM.ARAMA

Let’s have a look at the apron diagram for Phuket: (apologies to John A, as I pulled this one at the last minute and VTSP is not in the airport diagram group that he put together for this flight).

That’s our A320, Reg # SV-TAM, cold and dark at Gate 14, Apron B

We start loading passengers: one of the cool things you can do is get preferential boarding for about $5 on Tiger. Here’s our neighbour heading out to the active.

Boarding is at 1040L and at 1056 we push back, tail right to line up on the apron facing East. We taxi a short distance then make a left to TWY Charlie and hold for an incoming A320.

Once he’s clear, we taxi out, make a right turn and we’re rolling on 09 at 1107:18. V1 with VR right behind at 1107:54. V2 sees us on our way for a straight out, following UTHAI One Alpha to connect with R325, heading SE. This entails a (almost) 90 degree turn then a dogleg left at 1113.

Here’s the climbout, on our way towards Singapore. Beautiful country.

We hit TOC at 1126L. What a beautiful day to be flying!

At 1133 we make a right over Alor Seta to put us on 157 degrees and the continuation of A325. We saunter down this route with a GS of 425Kt and a small jog to 164 degrees to join up with A464 over VIH. After that it’s a few zigs and zags to stay on the HiLevel airway and out of KL and Malacca airspace.

We hit TOD at 1154 and start downhill.

At 1227L, we’re well into the BOBAG One Alpha STAR, heading for a radar vectored approach to 02C at WSSS.

We make a left, then another left at 1232. Slats and flaps at 1234 and gear down at 1236. We’re well and truly established on a long 22 degree final for 02C over the shipping in the harbour.

Over the fence at 1239L (looks like we’re holding someone up).

Our landing is a greaser at 1239.

Then full reverse thrust and a mess of speed brake.

- and we’re off at Echo Five

A tight left/right gets us onto Charlie One, then Charlie Two and a right opposite Gate F54 puts us at Gate F40.

Here’s the airport diagram for WSSS.

And, here's Tango Alpha Mike "Home and Dry".

That’s all she wrote.

I’m really looking forward to returning to the boat after a three month absence. I’ll also get to do a bit of flight simming instead of this virtual FS by flying around in the RW.

I might even fire up the 737 and see how she does following in the footsteps of all these fly-by-wire French jets. Should be more fun than riding shotgun!

Cheers,

March

PS – three days and counting

[allardjd 1,853]

Great series, March. I've enjoyed all of it.

Flew KMCO - KDEN and back in an A320 recently, which was neither exotic nor remarkable. I did have airport diagrams in hand for both ends, however, which adds some interest to what might otherwise just be a bus ride.

John

[Quickmarch 488]

There may be way less than I previously predicted by way of a report on the flight from Singapore to Cooloongata (Gold Coast Airport, AU). I'm not able to get much in the way of info as the whole Brisbane area seems to be having some water problems.

Looks like we may get in to Gold Coast tomorrow morning. Our flight is an overnighter, scheduled in at 0830 on Tuesday. However, getting from the airport to the boat may be a challenge as most of the commuter train lines are shut down. Even a diversion to Brisbane Airport won't be a help as that end is predicted to see the peak flood waters hit on Tuesday morning. Manly, where our boat is moored, is south of Brisbane and north of the Gold Coast.

Sure hope all is well with the boat as we are getting no communication from the Manly area. Most likely a power problem.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

Ouch!  All the best on all of that.  Keep us in the loop if you are able to.  Cell towers and hot spots and such are usually early casualties when those sorts of things begin to happen. 

 

I think Brisbane is too far south for crocodiles, but if you decide to do any wading, check with the locals first to see if I'm correct.  That would be a lousy end.

 

John