November 2011 - Extra Flights Tab

Having arrived into the former headquarters of our Virtual Airline (Mumbai) just the day before, I was compelled to do one of the Flight Club Airways VA flights first this month.
Flight 198 is scheduled to leave at 06:50 AM and flies to Nairobi. I took a 757 in an older-themed paint scheme (this is not Tony's original but just a poor copy) for this 2,400-mile flight across the Indian Ocean. (pict1) Mumbai was hazy as usual (pict2) and although there really weren't any clouds over Kenya, the descent and landing were bumpy and there was lightning all about. (pict3) (pict4) I shut down at 11:16 AM.
I spent ten days in Kenya enjoying some nature time. (pict5)
Next I set off to take on David Hopwood's SE African 732 flights which start off in Dar es Salaam. (come to think of it, there should have been a Dar es Salaam flight from Mumbai!) Oh well. Taking a page from Bill's book, I headed to http://www.skyguideonline.com and found that 5H523 flies from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam with a CRJ. I loaded a Kenyan DC-9 and set my departure time to 16:00 local for the one hour flight south. (pict6) Pushback was on time but I had to restart the engines 2-3 times before I found the faulty fuel pump switch. I left about 20 minutes late but the flight was uneventful otherwise. The highlight was the flight past Mt Kilimanjaro. (pict7) The landing was surprisingly good (why don't I fly DC-9s more often?) (pict8) (pict9) and shut down was at 17:23. (pict10) (Twenty-three minutes late)
I spent the night of November 9th in Dar es Salaam. The next morning I took QM301 to Lilongwe and connected to QM141 to Blantyre arriving on time around 10 AM. (pict11) (pict12) (pict13) (pict14) (pict15) (pict16) I stayed here through the weekend. (pict17)
Surprisingly, I could not find any real-world connections from Blantyre to Livingstone, Zambia (not just because it was Sunday but there weren't any direct flights - so I made my own). November 13th I departed early in another DC-9 arriving to Victoria Falls at 6 AM. (pict18) (pict19) (pict20) (pict21) (pict22) (pict23) I spent three or four days here before moving on. (pict24) (pict25)
SA49 flies Livingstone to JoBurg in an A319 departing at 1:15 PM and arriving at 3:05 PM on November 17th. (pict26) I flew an Air Zimbabwe livery for that leg (pict27)and didn't linger long in the big city but take SA357 (a real-world 738 flight) to Cape Town, departing at 5 PM and arriving at 7:10. For this last leg I took the Kulula livery 732. (pict28) (pict29)
I spent the entire weekend in/around Cape Town.
November 22: I took an Ethiopian 787 to Addis, Ethiopia. Departure -6:45 AM, Arrival -14:23. (pict30) (pict31) (pict32) (pict33) (pict34) (pict35)
My plan was to quickly turn around and continue on to Amman, Jordan where I planned to fly Arpad Janos' Malev Hungarian flights to Milan the next day. However .... As I was taxiing to the gate (pict36) the very next plane to land was an Ethiopian 757. (pict37) That 757 parked at the gate right next to me and the pilot was jumping up and down and screaming something and frantically pulling his headsets off and bouncing around the cockpit! I thought there was a poisonous viper on board. The 757 pilot bolted out of the cockpit and up and jetway and through the airport and back down my jetway. I could hear his shrieks well before he burst through my own cockpit doorway. "You are flying the 787!" he blurted. "Ummmm, yes. Yes I am" I replied coldly. "My name is Daniel and I am Ethiopian!" he exclaimed. "Okaaaaaay..." "You are like a friend that also flies Ethiopian liveries and I have not seen a 787 before." "Well ... here it is." That was my introduction to Daniel Kigera who is keen to do some flying with us as his school schedule allows.
I spent an extra 24 hours in Addis with Daniel talking planes and flightsim. The next day, Wednesday November 23rd, Daniel and I flew the 787 on the Amman. (pict38) (pict39) (pict40) (pict41) (pict42)
For the sake of time (and photos) and to prevent our readers from completely falling asleep, I would have you refer back to my PIREP from October 2010 (just a year ago) when I flew this flight the first time. (pict43) This flight seemed bumpier than I recalled last year but we arrived close to on time and pretty much in one piece.
I spent the weekend in Italy.
Finally we give a nod to our own Tony Radmilovich and his BizJet flight into Cannes. Monday November 28th I loaded real weather from Milan and departed in the EMB Legacy 600. I flew south to Sestri (pict44)and then down along the coast to Albegna (which looks like a very tricky approach!) (pict45) My next waypoint was an NDB at Nice at which point I descended to 2,500 feet (pict46) and loaded the strong gusty winds Tony had recommended. (pict47) I kept Otto flying the plane until I turned finals at 1,800 feet. (pict48) (pict49) From there it was a 5-mile hand-flown approach that was really pretty easy. (pict50) I didn't see the noted hedgerow but there was a highway just before the offset threshold. (pict51) The landing was smooth but the runway seemed rough. (pict52) I taxied over to the fueling station and shut down. (pict53)
THANK YOUS go out to the following: Brad for encouraging us to start a Virtual Airline David Hopwood for the SE African Flights Daniel Kigera for joining us as a guest Arpad Janos for the real-world Malev flights Tony for the Cannes flight and all of the web help over the past ten years