In a previous post I indicated I joined the EuroHarmony Virtual Airline where I have callsign EHM-2198. To get past the first boring ladder of Class 1 aircraft, I downloaded the Sukhoi 80GP from their fleet and installed their flight logger software. I have to build up 4 hours on this sort of a/c before I get promoted to Class 2 which is the Medium Turboprop category for rank "Turboprop Captain". In class two I only get to use Dornier 328 (a nice one) or Saab 2000 (another nice a/c).
But until then I have to bore myself with small turboprops so to get it over with I made two flights. I have 1:15 hours to go for the promotion to Class 2.
Torino to Zurich
My inaugural flight on EuroHarmony which earned me my official callsign (you get a temporary callsign until you do your first flight) was from Torino, Italy to Zurich, Switzerland. Departure was in the wee hours of the morning so the flight was IFR in darkness.
Departure was at 05:45 local time and the flight took 1:19 hours to complete. I took off and climbed to FL140 until I entered the Milan airspace and was instructed to climb to FL150 because I was flying in lower RSVM Italian space, he also assigned me Squawk code 0404. I was under control of Milan Approach (LIMM_N_APP) until I left their airspace. Unfortunately by that time the Swiss Radar position was not lighted anymore so no ATC to guide me in the rest. Anyway I had my flight plan and could continue navigation.
I had a nice view of the sun breaking down on the Alps, very nice indeed! I think I will fly more often in this region. Then as dawn broke I landed on runway 10 of Zurich.
I found several a/c in the vicinity so I had to constantly watch out my TCAS display to make sure I did not cause an accident (virtual of course).
To be honest I don't like how this Sukhoi 80 sim aircraft is performing on approach, does not seem too stable or I got used to the bigger birds (B737) but normally I don't have this sort of problems when I take the sim Beechcraft for Cessna for a ride.
Zurich to Salzburg
In my hast to get past Class 1 aircraft I made this new flight (two in a weekend!). I took the same Sukhoi 80GP from Zurich on another morning flight (8:55 AM local time). After checking all the charts, the flight plan, setting up the frequencies, etc. I started the new flight.
I taxied from virtual Gate 35 to runway 10 and took off from ZRH. I veered to the left on takeoff to follow the DEGES SID. Cruise altitude was FL150.
After about 10 minutes in the air I entered the virtual airspace of Munich Center South, tuned to the frequency of EDMM_S_CTR on 124.050 and was assigned Squawk code 5003. The channel was quite busy with around 8 flights being controlled by this ATC.
The airspace was quite busy as it was european weekend afternoon so everybody to their virtual planes! There were aircraft flying up, down, left and right of my so it was stressful, specially because I had to obviously follow the directions of the ATC which kept me busy as well. No time to enjoy the scenery that much or take screenshots.
At some point the Munich center ATC (virtual) instructed me to descend to FL130 and contact Salzburg approach on 124.050 which was incorrect, I asked for confirmation indicating it was not what my IvAp client was indicating but he gave me the same frequency. I had to disobey and tune to the correct frequency to receive further instructions from Salzburg Approach.
I had to descend further, traffic was heavy in the area so I could see them on my TCAS as well as from the cockpit window. Then I was instructed to change course out of my flight plan due to traffic in the area. In the end the ATC took me near the Salzburg (SBG) VOR from which I was instructed to turn heading 180 and intercept the localizer of runway 16.
Yet again this Sukhoi proved relatively unstable on approach causing some bad situations. I also noticed that with the panel of this a/c it is not possible to set the QNH.
No comments:
Post a Comment