Around the World - Part II

[chris]

Here is my next around the world journey in FS2004. The plane I'm using is the excellent payware Altitude Concorde.

At all times I will be complying with real word correct Concorde flight procedures. Meaning no going supersonic over populated land, or exceeding 250kts below 10,000ft, except when flying over ocean or unpopulated land, and also going through all pre-flight, mid-flight and post-flight check-lists.

The flight plan:
London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

So far, I've completed London to Bahrain. The departure early in the evening from Heathrow hit delays right away, with me stuck behind a BA Airbus A320 while it waited to get permission to taxi across a busy runway (9R). :rolleyes:

Once clear of Heathrow and the hordes of Airbuses, the flight proceeded over Europe (Belgium, Germany, Italy, etc) at 29,000ft with the plane moving at a slow 570kts. After a few close calls with other subsonic planes, I arrived at Vicenza, and was ready to begin acceleration. By this time, the fuel load had gone down to around 55 tonnes, from over 95 to begin with.

Once supersonic, the plane climbed to around 55,000ft, descending back to around 53,000ft on a few occasions, and then climbing back higher later. Eventually it achieved just over 58,000ft, not bad considering the generally warmer temperatures over Saudi Arabia, and the rather sharp turn (done manually) to the south over Northern Lebanon.

By the time I'd reached Saudi Arabia, the plane had just 30 tonnes of fuel left. Fortunately the fuel consumption had dwindled down to around 3.5 tonnes per hour at FL550+, and on decelleration, this went down to around 1 tonne per hour.

I overflew Dhahran, and circled to autoland in darkness at RWY30 at Bahrain international airport. The flight had taken around 3½ hours. The maximum speed reached was Mach 2.03. The maximum altitude achieved was 58,259ft.

Next will be Bahrain to Singapore. :)

[chris]

Just finished Bahrain to Singapore.

I got stuck in unfortunately warm weather conditions above 45,000ft. The lowest temperature was only -57°C. Very bad for performance.

So Concorde struggled to climb to 52,000ft by the end of the flight, with poor fuel economy as the result. Each engine was using 5.5 tonne of fuel per hour mid way during the flight! I had a full load of fuel, and finished the flight with just 15,300kg fuel left over. :eek:

My flight time was for the record 3 hours and 20 minutes.

[chris]

I've now arrived in Australia, landing in Perth.

My flight took me south from Singapore, and then south west in between two Indonesian islands over narrow stretch of ocean, and then proceeded south-east again. I flew along the coast of Western Australia at Mach 2.0, just keeping enough range to put the coast out of the range of sonic-booms.

I was cleared to land RWY21 in fog, and was hoping for LAND3 (autoland) given the conditions but the ILS didn't support it, so I instead did a manual landing, touching down gently about 1/4 of the way down the runway, while A6-EMD Emirates 777-200 waited for clearance to depart for Dubai on RWY21. I turned around, and waited for A6-EMD to depart before rolling across the runway again towards the gates.

The flight took just over 2 hours for the record.

The plan was:

1.WSSS: N01° 20.8' E103° 59.2'
2. TI: N00° 55.2' E104° 31.6'
3. PL60C: S02° 38.1' E105° 37.4'
4. CARLI: S05° 14.9' E106° 12.7
5. GUVIL: S07° 17.3' E105° 14.6'
6. QUINS: S31° 37.5 E115° 25.9'
7. YPPH: S31° 57.5 E115° 57.6'

En route, I passed a Qantas 767 also enroute to Perth, and a number of Singapore "heavies". By the time I'd finished the flight, and finished the shut-down procedures, the Qantas 767 still had not arrived. Next leg of the RTW trip will be Perth to Sydney. And then Sydney to Nadi. I've decided to make this a full round the world, and not the mini-RTW I planned earlier. My destinations will be the usual RTW destinations for Concorde, like Nadi, Honolulu, etc.

Attached are a few screenshots of G-BOAB on arrival, the first while waiting for the Emirates 777 to depart, the second at the gates. And the 3rd screenshot is the Emirates 777-200.

[chris]

I've since arrived in Sydney. I took off from Perth and flew straight towards Albany, and then made a left turn to fly across the Great Australian Bight.

I achieved 60,000ft on this flight thanks to cooler temperatures and a light fuel load. The flight took roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes. Attached are some screenshots from the Perth -> Sydney flight.

Next leg of my flight will be Sydney to Nadi. So far, the following legs of the journey marked in red are complete.

London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

Could go straight from Oakland to New-York, and then straight from New-York to London, but you can't have a RTW trip without visiting Nassau! :)

[Frank N. O.]

You just can't get enough of that plane huh? You're just plane Concorde nuts (we should get a pilot-smiley) :D

On another note, I see that OY-country is once again overlooked in your busy flight-schedule so I'll give you a little screenshot of what you're missing.
Pardon the quality but I've just re-installed FS9 to get rid of bad instruments etc. and haven't re-installed L&P's excellent freeware Copenhagen International Airport, and I had to compress it over 20% to get it under 100kb so you can't read the mach-meter read 2.81. Pardon the angle but I didn't have my joystick hooked up and keyboard flying is hard!

Edit: lol, I pulled a Ryan T (forgot to add the attachment before clicking post).

Greetings
Frank
P.M. There's a P.S. for you with good news from me, and furthermore I actually had a good day today, all things considered :) (it's clear, I suffer Heavily from lack of sunshine).

[chris]

I thought that was my trick, posting a message and forgetting to upload attachments. ;)

Copenhagen might be on the next RTW flight. I tend to stick with usual destinations I know this plane did visit. I don't like to spend much time flying over land either. I prefer to go supersonic as quickly and soon as possible for reasons of fuel economy.

Sometime during this flight, I might prepare a sort of RTW video. :)

[chris]

Here is the Sydney to Nadi flight plan for my next leg of the RTW journey:

YSSY, DCT NOBAR, A579, PUPEX, VIPOB, LAWAI, NFFN
Distance: 3172.4km
Time est.: 1hr 45 minutes.

This flight will only use a light fuel load. Cruise speed will be around 1140kts.

[chris]

En route screenshot from Sydney to Nadi attached. :)

The plane is climbing through 52,000ft after 1 hour and 7 minutes since the timer was started on take-off.

[chris]

I have arrived in Nadi, in the absolute worst of weather conditions. Heavy cloud was down below 2000ft, it was raining heavily. It was totally instrument flying for a while. Concorde handled the conditions with little trouble though, thanks to its excellent auto-land feature.

At 48,000ft, the MAX CRUISE activated, along with the MACH HOLD for a little while. The plane steadily cruise climbed to around 54,300ft during the period of the flight.

Some facts:
- Highest altitude reached was 54,300ft.
- Highest speed reached was Mach 2.02
- The time taken was exactly 2 hours and 1 minute.
- The left-over fuel was 16.75 tonnes.
- The lowest ambient temperature was -61°C
- The highest ambient temperature was 18°C in Sydney.
- The highest fuel consumption was on take off, with the plane consuming around 60 tonnes of fuel per hour for a brief period of about 1 minute.
- Normal fuel consumption at 52,000ft was around 20 tonnes per hour.
- The lowest fuel consumption was roughly 3.2 tonnes per hour on descent.

My RTW progress is as follows:
London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

Here are some further screenshots of the latter stages of the flight from Sydney to Nadi, including the landing:

[chris]

Here is the flight plan for Nadi (NFFN) to Honolulu Internation Airport (PHNL):

NFFN, WP1 (S17°30', E177°30'), A579, CATCO, DCT HNL62, DCT KEOLA, DCT EWABE, PHNL.

SO basically, it is a standard take-off (no noise abatement procedures) from Nadi, up to the WP1 where I intercept the A579 jet-airway. I proceed along the A579 jet-airway until I reach CATCO intersection, and then fly direct to HNL62 intersection, then direct to KEOLA intersection, and then direct to EWABE intersection. Depending on the runways in use, the final two waypoints may not be used.

Those would put me in line with the almost 3.75km long runway 08L, the longest of all the runways at Honolulu. The distance of this flight is around 5140km, significantly longer than Sydney to Nadi, but well within range.

[chris]

Some screenshots from the Nadi to Honolulu leg of my journey.

1st one shows climbing through 40,000ft at around Mach 1.6, with the reheat burning away spectacularly.

2nd one shows the sun beginning to rise in the east. Speed is about Mach 1.75.

[chris]

A couple of more screenshots showing the awesome view from 60,000ft. :D Managed to achieve the magic FL600 on this flight already. Actually 60,162ft to be precise. :D

The second screenshot is looking out through the window in the passenger cabin. You can see the deep blue sky, and how far below the clouds are. :)

Unfortunately when I go back to the flight (paused at the moment), I think it will descend about 500-1000ft because of a sudden temperature change. I'm about 500Nm out from Honolulu. :)

[chris]

Arriving in Honolulu, flying towards final approach for ILS runway 08L at a steady 210kts.

[chris]

I've arrived in beautiful Honolulu during some minor showers, but nothing serious. I didn't used LAND3 autoland this time, just the Glide function of the autopilot and executed the rest of the landing manually at runway 08L. :)

When landing manually, you use the radio altimeter to help you judge when to flare the plane. The approach attitude is around 10°, and you can set a bug on the artificial horizon indicator to help you remember this. At around 15ft, inboard engines have the thrust reversed, and on touch down, all engines have the thrust reversed. Depending on the weight of the plane, the speed the approach is flown at will differ. If heavier, it might be around 185-190kts, if lighter, it could be 165kts. Those speeds are still quite fast, so one needs to be quite precise.

If you make a mess of the approach, you merely need to move the throttles all the way forward to the stops, and the plane will execute a go-around for you, pitching up and levelling the wings. Once this is done, it will maintain a steady climb and wait for your next input.

Some flight information:
- Highest altitude in the flight of 60,260ft.
- Highest speed was Mach 2.03 which was reached at around 59,000ft.
- Flight time was 2 hours 47 minutes!
- Coldest temperature during the flight was -65°C
- 28.3 tonnes of fuel remained at the end of the flight.

My RTW progress is as follows:
London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

Without further hesitation, here are the final screenshots of the landing approach, and the landing itself (with lots of tyre smoke). Enjoy. :)

[chris]

Here are the flight details for Honolulu to Oakland (3910km):

PHNL, DCT BAMBO, SHARK, R465, CINNY, OSI, KOAK

So that is departing from Honolulu (PNHL), flying direct to Bambo intersection, then onwards to Shark intersection, then following the R465 jet-airway along to the CINNY intersection. After that, I fly towards the OSI vortac, and finally approach Oakland Intl airport (KOAK).

So, I'm nearing the end of my RTW journey. After PHNL-KOAK, it's just KOAK-KIAH, then KIAH-MYNN, and then a long-flight from MYNN-EGLL. MYNN-EGLL will require 100% fuel load, since it is almost 7000km long, just 340 less than the real world distance record for my plane.

At the end, I'll total up the flight time, and see how quickly I got around the world. ;)

[chris]

Just 49 minutes into my flight from Honolulu to Oakland, the plane is cruising at Mach 2.015 (1132kts), and the altitude is just over 55,500ft, with the plane steadily climbing on occasions.

The weather is pretty good up this high, but on departing Honolulu, it was beginning to look nasty with some very heavy rain looking like it would arrive soon, so I hurried my pre-flight preparations and departured as soon as possible.

I should be in Oakland in a short while.

[chris]

2 hours and 16 minutes since departing Honolulu, I've arrived in Oakland in the United States of America. I landed at Metro Oakland International Airport, on runway 29 in hazy conditions.

- Flight time was 2 hours and 16 minutes
- Highest altitude reached was 57,900ft
- Highest speed reached was Mach 2.03
- Fuel remaining at the end of flight was 33.2 tonnes
- Coldest temperature was -62°C

My RTW progress is as follows:
London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

[chris]

Next leg of the round-the-world journey is from Oakland (KOAK) to Houston (KIAH). The distance is approximately 2720km, the flight will be flown at Mach 0.95, at around 35,000ft altitude.

The route is:

KOAK
ECA (116.00Mhz)
OAL (117.70Mhz)
BLD (116.70Mhz)
DRK (114.10Mhz)
ELP (115.20Mhz)
FST (116.90Mhz)
KIAH

Although the waypoints are all VORTAC's, I will instead use the INS rather than doing VOR to VOR navigation with the navigation radios.

[chris]

I'm now flying to Houston, from Oakland. I'm 31 minutes into my flight.

Approximately 12 minutes into the flight, I had a rather close call with a United Airlines Boeing 737-500 flying at 31,000ft. It passed by within 1 nautical mile. The TCAS system warned me of the United 737 before the ATC did. I simply climbed more quickly to 35,000ft to avoid the 737.

At the moment, I'm flying at 575kts (about Mach 0.985) at around 35,000ft between waypoint 2 and 3. I'm about 53 miles out from waypoint 3, and the INS estimates it will take 5.5 minutes to cover the distance.

[chris]

I've arrived in Houston during very heavy fog.

The flight took 2 hours and 45 minutes. I elected to climb during the flight to around 38,000ft to keep above other slower moving traffic at 35,000ft. During the flight, I maintained around Mach 0.985, sometimes getting close to Mach 1, but never exceeding it.

At the end of the flight, I had 31 tonnes of fuel left over.

My RTW progress is as follows:
London -> Bahrain
Bahrain -> Singapore
Singapore -> Perth
Perth -> Sydney
Sydney -> Nadi
Nadi -> Honolulu
Honolulu -> Oakland
Oakland -> Houston
Houston -> Nassau
Nassau -> London

So, two more flights left over before the huge journey will be finished. So far, I've flown almost 32,000km!

[chris]

Here is the plan for the next leg of my flight from G. Bush Intercontinental airport in Houston to Nassau International. I'll also include for your reference the plan for the next flight after it, from Nassau International airport to Heathrow in London (or alternate airport Gatwick). Maybe you might wish to try the same flights yourself in other suitable planes.

First, KIAH to MYNN: 2130.5km

1. KIAH Gate D5 - N29° 59.3' W095° 20.1'
2. VUH - N29° 16.1' W094° 52.0'
3. MAEKO - N26° 10.8' W092° 50.1'
4. MYDIA - N24° 0.24' W086° 09.5'
5. TANIA - N24° 01.8' W079° 31.7'
6. MYNN - N25° 01.9' W077° 27.1'

This plan is not the shortest possible route, but rather takes the shortest route to open ocean where I can go supersonic! ;) That means I can arrive faster than if I took the shortest distance, but had to fly subsonic.

Now MYNN-EGLL: 7200km
0. MYNN - N25° 02.2', W077° 27.4'
1. MAMEL - N25° 32.2', W76° 38.9'
2. EXTER - N25° 46.1', W76° 15.5'
3. MACCK - N30° 56.2', W66° 51.1'
4. CORAL - N32° 18.7', W64° 18.1'
5. LAZEY - N33° 35.3', W61° 29.1'
6. N35° 0.00', W060° 00.1'
7. N38° 10.00', W055° 10.0'
8. N41° 5.00', W050° 00.0'
9. N44° 0.00', W045° 05.3'
10. N46° 49.0', W020° 00.0'
11. N48° 4.00', W015° 00.0'
12. BISKI - N49° 6.0', W008° 00.0'
13. RILKA - N49° 25.0', W006° 20.0'
14. KATHY - N50° 31.2', W001° 20.0'
15. OCK - 115.30 Mhz - N51° 18.3', W000° 26.7'
16. EGLL - N51° 28.7', W000° 26.0'

WARNING: This is a very long flight! If you are using Concorde, load at least 94 tonnes of fuel before taking off, and take special note of the forecasted weather conditions along your flight path. This flight is only around 100km less than the real world distance record for Concorde of 7343km from Washington to Nice.

[Frank N. O.]

I can't really say anything I haven't said before about your excellent flight plans but I would like to ask if you don't always load up full fuel? I've heard of several General Aviation accidents due to too low fuel-load to save money and while I know the fuel-amount on a plane weighs a lot then still....

Greetings
Frank

[chris]

I don't always use full fuel loads of 94 or 95 tonnes. But I always try to leave at least 20 tonnes in reserve. :) If I load up the plane with full fuel load, then I must use afterburners on take-off because the over-all weight will be around 170 tonnes or more. For MYNN-EGLL flights, the overall weight on take-off would be in the region of 174 tonnes!

In real life one Concorde pilot landed in Heathrow with just 5 tonnes of fuel left! Not surprisingly, the consequences were quite severe.

[chris]

Just started the Houston to Nassau part of my journey.

Take off from Houston was with afterburners, despite a fuel load of only 55 tonnes. :) In the 1st screenshot, I'm already climbing through 8000ft, and the INS is updating from the VUH VORTAC. It will remain like that until the VOR is out of range.

Pay no attention to the colour scheme on this plane. It's a new version of the plane under testing at the moment and I merely wish to test this colour scheme before sending it off.

Update: 2nd screenshot - I'm at 28,000ft now and doing Mach 0.95 already. I'm nearly ready to begin acceleration, just as soon as I clear the coast. :) To quote Clint Eastwood from the movie Firefox - "boy is this a machine!"

It accelerates so fast with a lighter fuel load!

Update 2: Now beginning trans-sonic acceleration and climbing again. :) Afterburners are lit! ;)

Update 3: 28 minutes into the flight, I'm at 56,850ft and overflying a Continental Boeing 737-700. My plane is just visible in the screenshot, over 26,000ft higher up. Notice the huge condensation trail. That's Speedbird Concorde 002. :) The other screenshot is looking down at the 737 from nearly 57,000ft.

[chris]

I've arrived in Nassau, after 1 hour and 25 minutes. The landing was done in GLIDE mode (LAND2), and I took over to manually flare the plane on landing.

- Highest altitude reached was 58,200ft
- Highest speed achieved was Mach 2.035
- Lowest ambient temperature was -60°C
- Flight time was 1 hour 25 minutes
- Aircraft weight on landing was 114.16 tonnes
- 25.56 tonnes of fuel was left.

Might upload a video of the landing as well..

The screenshots from left to right are:

- View from the flight deck at 58,000ft
- Descending through 17,000ft at a swift Mach 0.75
- Touch-down!

[chris]

VIDEO!:

Concorde Landing in Nassau (http://www.totalnfs.net/cpd/conc_nassau_landing.wmv)

Windows Media 9 format - 1m.09sec - 640x480px - captions included.

[chris]

Now I'm just preparing for the final flight in my round the world journey. The distance is around 7200km from Nassau to London. I'll be using maximum fuel load for this flight, so take off weight will be around 175 tonnes or so.

My departure procedure will be to use afterburners on take-off until 1000ft, at which point I'll disengage them and leave the throttles and accelerate to VMO and then I'll engage MAX CLIMB. At around Mach 0.95 I'll engage the afterburners again and leave them engaged until Mach 1.7. This departure procedure is known as the standard take-off procedure. It doesn't employ any noise-abatement techniques.

The flight plan as listed before is:
0. MYNN - N25° 02.2', W077° 27.4'
1. MAMEL - N25° 32.2', W76° 38.9'
2. EXTER - N25° 46.1', W76° 15.5'
3. MACCK - N30° 56.2', W66° 51.1'
4. CORAL - N32° 18.7', W64° 18.1'
5. LAZEY - N33° 35.3', W61° 29.1'
6. N35° 0.00', W060° 00.1'
7. N38° 10.00', W055° 10.0'
8. N41° 5.00', W050° 00.0'
9. N44° 0.00', W045° 05.3'
10. N46° 49.0', W020° 00.0'
11. N48° 4.00', W015° 00.0'
12. BISKI - N49° 6.0', W008° 00.0'
13. RILKA - N49° 25.0', W006° 20.0'
14. KATHY - N50° 31.2', W001° 20.0'
15. OCK - 115.30 Mhz - N51° 18.3', W000° 26.7'
16. EGLL - N51° 28.7', W000° 26.0'

I expect the plane will likely drift slowly up to FL600 as the fuel load becomes lighter.

[chris]

Here by the way is the forecasted weather along the flight route:


MYNN 020000Z 20005KT 9999 FEW016CB BKN200 30/26 A2998
MYNN 012200Z 020024 21005KT 9999 FEW015 SCT030 BKN200 PROB30 0612 3200 SHRA BKN015
FL030: 211/06 (25.00) FL060: 251/07 (18.50) FL090: 251/08 (15.20)
FL120: 229/08 (5.30) FL180: 333/01 (-5.20) FL240: 198/04 (-14.90)
FL300: 056/09 (-30.50) FL340: 079/09 (-40.60) FL390: 049/08 (-53.70)

TXKF 020255Z 17011KT 9SM SCT012 BKN140 BKN300 25/24 A3008 RMK SLP187
KNKT 012121 20012KT 9000 HZ FEW040 SCT100 SCT200 QNH2975INS TEMPO 2101 VRB15G35KT 3200 TSRA BR BKN030CB BKN100 BKN200 BECMG 0103 22006KT SCT100 SCT200 QNH2974INS BECMG 1012 27008KT SCT020 BKN040 BKN100 BKN200 QNH2970INS TEMPO 1218 VRB15G35KT 3200 TSRA BR BKN015CB BKN030 OVC060 BECMG 1820 01008KT SCT040 BKN100 BKN200 QNH2972INS T24/10Z T31/19Z
FL030: 185/23 (21.80) FL060: 208/12 (16.00) FL090: 239/16 (13.20)
FL120: 258/26 (5.70) FL180: 206/06 (-5.60) FL240: 069/07 (-17.40)
FL300: 267/21 (-30.70) FL340: 279/26 (-41.40) FL390: 272/25 (-54.70)

CWSA 020500Z AUTO 16012KT 1/8SM VV001 13/10 A3000 RMK PCPN 0.5MM PAST HR SLP160
CYQY 020213Z 020212 20008KT 1SM BR OVC004 TEMPO 0210 1/4SM -DZ FG VV001 FM1000Z 20012KT 1/2SM FG VV002 TEMPO 1012 3SM -SHRA BR SCT003 OVC010
FL030: 220/27 (19.50) FL060: 216/31 (13.80) FL090: 213/32 (10.60)
FL120: 216/33 (1.50) FL180: 215/28 (-8.50) FL240: 200/12 (-19.00)
FL300: 243/24 (-34.40) FL340: 233/27 (-45.20) FL390: 239/19 (-56.60)

CYYT 020500Z 20005KT 8SM OVC003 08/07 A3011 RMK SF8 SLP200
CYYT 020512Z 020524 20008KT 6SM BR OVC006 TEMPO 0512 2SM BR OVC003 FM1200Z 20012KT P6SM BKN012 FM1600Z 22015G25KT P6SM SCT030 FM2200Z 21015G25KT P6SM BKN015
FL030: 187/15 (10.10) FL060: 167/13 (9.20) FL090: 219/09 (8.30)
FL120: 262/20 (2.80) FL180: 271/26 (-6.60) FL240: 287/32 (-18.50)
FL300: 280/29 (-35.20) FL340: 282/44 (-45.00) FL390: 281/38 (-57.70)

LECO 020515Z 19001KT 0600S R22/0600V0900N R04/0350V0500N PRFG NSC 14/12 Q1021
LECO 020500Z 020716 VRB05KT 7000 FEW020 TEMPO 0709 1000 BCFG SCT010 BECMG 0911 04007KT 9999 FEW030
FL030: 029/15 (17.30) FL060: 127/05 (16.40) FL090: 160/11 (13.90)
FL120: 167/14 (4.40) FL180: 235/12 (-7.60) FL240: 261/13 (-20.40)
FL300: 234/09 (-37.90) FL340: 201/14 (-47.40) FL390: 206/20 (-57.30)

EICK 020500Z 22006KT 9999 SCT003 BKN006 BKN010 13/13 Q1013 TEMPO 5000
EICK 020300Z 020413 24010KT 8000 BKN005 BKN010 BECMG 0406 20012KT 3000 -RADZ BKN003 BKN006 TEMPO 0511 0300 FG OVC001 BECMG 0608 20016G28KT BECMG 1113 20020G35KT
FL030: 227/13 (11.90) FL060: 246/23 (9.10) FL090: 251/30 (7.50)
FL120: 261/51 (1.40) FL180: 259/52 (-11.10) FL240: 248/59 (-20.80)
FL300: 246/63 (-36.20) FL340: 243/67 (-46.00) FL390: 241/70 (-55.30)

EGDR 020450Z 23009KT 0200 -DZ FG SCT000 OVC001 15/15 Q1018 RED
EGDG 020430Z 020624 22010KT 3000 -DZ OVC001 TEMPO 0609 0500 BCFG BKN000 BECMG 0810 9999 NSW BKN007 BECMG 1012 BKN015 TEMPO 1218 SCT025 BECMG 1921 BKN012 BECMG 2224 3000 RADZ BKN005
FL030: 253/20 (13.50) FL060: 257/20 (11.80) FL090: 257/22 (10.60)
FL120: 259/23 (2.00) FL180: 268/46 (-9.70) FL240: 259/42 (-20.50)
FL300: 253/45 (-35.70) FL340: 245/45 (-46.10) FL390: 242/40 (-56.30)

EGHH 020520Z 25007KT 9999 FEW008 BKN025 16/15 Q1018
EGHH 020443Z 020413 25008KT 9999 BKN035 TEMPO 0413 8000 BKN012 PROB30 TEMPO 0610 4000 -DZ BKN008
FL030: 251/22 (13.40) FL060: 255/23 (9.90) FL090: 260/28 (8.70)
FL120: 268/39 (2.90) FL180: 272/34 (-11.00) FL240: 268/40 (-20.20)
FL300: 273/43 (-36.00) FL340: 272/52 (-45.60) FL390: 275/51 (-55.60)


This is the forecasted destination weather:
EGLL 020450Z 25006KT 6000 -DZ FEW006 BKN009 BKN014 16/16 Q1017 REDZ TEMPO SCT009
EGLL 020517Z 020413 23008KT 9999 SCT006 OVC018 TEMPO 0408 4000 -DZ BKN009
FL030: 244/20 (13.50) FL060: 256/19 (9.20) FL090: 252/19 (7.60)
FL120: 264/35 (0.50) FL180: 281/43 (-9.70) FL240: 274/47 (-21.00)
FL300: 284/49 (-38.20) FL340: 282/67 (-46.00) FL390: 286/62 (-54.70)


And this is the forecasted alternate destination weather:
EGKK 020450Z 22006KT 9000 FEW007 BKN008 OVC017 16/15 Q1017
EGKK 020444Z 021206 22007KT 9999 BKN022 TEMPO 0206 BKN008
FL030: 244/20 (13.50) FL060: 256/19 (9.20) FL090: 252/19 (7.60)
FL120: 264/35 (0.50) FL180: 281/43 (-9.70) FL240: 274/47 (-21.00)
FL300: 284/49 (-38.20) FL340: 282/67 (-46.00) FL390: 286/62 (-54.70)



Take-off from Nassau was in the most appalling weather conditions I've ever experienced in FS2004! Visibility was next to nothing at all! See the screenshot to see how bad it is. The screenshot was taken at about 2500ft.

Update: Got visibility now at 8400ft. I'm climbing at VMO with the MAX CLIMB on. See the second screenshot to see how heavy the cloud was.

Update 2: After 40 minutes I'm at 50,800ft, and still climbing at around 125ft/min. The speed is nearly Mach 2.02. Fuel load is 68.98 tonnes at the moment. Briefly at around 48,900ft I had to re-light the burners and blast through a patch of warm air that was preventing the plane from climbing higher.

Update 3: Now after 43 minutes, we've just hit some cooler air, the conditions are ISA -03, and the plane has burst along to Mach 2.03. It is climbing at nearly 900ft/min now. I'm within 160Nm of Bermuda International airport, and the INS is being updated via the BDA VORTAC (113.90Mhz).

Update 4: After 57 minutes, the plane seems to have settled at around 53,480ft. It doesn't seem to want to climb further at the moment.

Update 5: Nothing serious to report, just another screenshot added showing the plane during one of those long Mach 2 turns. :) If those turns are not started early enough the plane can end up a very long way off course.

Update 6: That turn mentioned before caused the plane to drop down to 51,500ft. :shrug: It then sat at FL515 for a while before climbing again up to around 54,000ft where it is at the moment. The conditions are ISA -06.

Update 7: After 2 hours and 26 minutes, the plane is now climbing through 59,300ft, and FL600 is surely within reach. I have 38.29 tonnes of fuel left. I believe the plane might actually get FL610 on this flight. Very high altitude. The conditions now are ISA -10, and the ambient temperature is -67°C.

Update 8: The plane settled at 59,350ft for about 10 minutes (see 4th screenshot). Then the temperature increased to -62°C, so the plane dropped to around 55,500ft. But it is now slowly climbing above 58,000ft again. It's getting dark now as well. The sun is setting and I've put the lights on inside the plane. I've been flying for 3 hours and 1 minute.

[chris]

This is continued from previous post.

Update 9: The plane did start climbing again and achieved 60,140ft. :)

And finally after 3 hours 59 minutes I landed in London's Heathrow airport on runway 27L at 181kts. I had 18.06 tonnes of fuel left over. The landing was one of the smoothest I've ever done with Concorde, and it was right on the centre-line as well. So that's it - the whole journey is finished.

Some facts on the flight:

Highest altitude achieved: 60,140ft at 3 hours 19 minutes into the flight
Lowest temperature: -67°C
Flight time: 3 hours 59 minutes
Distance: 7200km
Highest speed achieved: Mach 2.07
Fuel remaining: 18.06 tonnes

Those who know a bit about Concorde will see something bad above - Mach 2.07 is indeed overspeeding. It achieved Mach 2.07 briefly before the Mach Hold activated and attempted to slow the plane down to Mach 2.02. The airframe wasn't stressed by the overspeed, and was well within TMO.

Also in the flight, there was a little incident where one of the engine air-intake ramps got stuck, and out of sync with the others. After some frantic adjustments it finally moved. If it hadn't moved, I probably would have needed to shut down the number 1 engine (to prevent damage to it), descend to 29,000ft and divert to a nearby airport.

So the next task is to add up the distances and total up the times and see just how far I flew, and how long it took in total. :)

Meanwhile, the last screenshot is attached.

Final Facts and figures:

Distance covered: 39,945km
Total time taken: 26 hours, 24 minutes and 56.5 seconds

Hopefully you've all enjoyed the updates, screenshots and the 1 video. :)