Before I begin I’d just like to say how nice it is to be able to write this for so many new members of UKDirect (and returning oldies!). Since the last edition the UKDirect phoenix has truly risen and it makes me feel proud that you all want to fly for us. Thanks to all of you! My eye’s going moist because there’s something in it thats all :)


Right back to business; Welcome to the latest ramblings from a feverish mind!

In the UK the weather has just turned from a cold winter to record-setting warm temperatures  as I write this - I’m a slow writer! This is never a good thing for computer based hobbies. Despite the tantrums and protestations the wife still dragged me down to the beach whenever she could which has resulted in a slow-down of repaints and less flying hours. I expect the same happened with most people but having said that we have set a few records here in the past few weeks - record numbers of pilots, and record numbers of flights flown for UKD. It’s a measure of how far we’ve come when I started being concerned because there was ‘only’ five flights on one day - not so long ago we only saw that much activity in a month!!  All this activity has kept the Panda’s in the paintshed busy (more on that below) and we have had to recruit more ground crew to maintain the fleet. Unfortunately the air conditioning broke down at the most inopportune time and the heat caused them all to just slouch around without much maintenance going on - which reminds me I have to make sure that air conditioning stays broke <ahem>!!!


I expect by now that your highly developed sim-pilot senses have noticed that Directions has had a make-over; hope you like it! Suggestions are always welcome - except that one made by James 154 which I think was physically impossible !!

I’d like to remind you this e-magazine is for all members of UKDirect and as such if there is anything you would like to see here please ask - or even better if you feel confidant write it - and I’ll include it, same goes for any screenshots, just email them in like Ruud did below.

This month you’ll find all the regular features are here - best screenshot, a mix of real-world aviation and flight-sim news, FSAirlines tips, fleet updates, competition and humour. See you next time and keep the blue side up!

Newshound aka Mark UKD171

L-1049H Super Constellation painted and picture by Ruud UKD104
Ruud (the cargo manager) painted this model by www.calclassic.com of a Connie and submitted the picture too. If you would like to try it you can contact me or Ruud and we’ll arrange it (it’s not on the website yet).
If you a screen shot you are proud of send it in.
To enter in the next e-magazine send your entries to Newshound: mark[at]planecrazy.me.uk

The latest repaints to leave the shed are all on the Fleet pages and cover a wide range of types from light aircraft for VFR flying to the truly big iron widebody jets such as the ‘Death Star’ aka MD-11 in UKDirect liveries and both subsidiaries (Sun and Cargo) for FS9 and FSX, phew. Briefly the list goes something like this:

More repaints are on the way but if there is anything you want to see just let me know and I’ll see what I can do; just like Terry UKD186 asked :)
Even if it is another version/model of an existing repaint or payware


All new repaints are available on the Fleet page.

As anyone who has checked the forums recently will know FS Airlines (fsa) throws up lots of questions especially for those not so familiar with it. I’m not going to repeat everything that has been said there but just make a few general principles clearer, if you haven’t already read the forum posts then a visit may be worthwhile.

1. The fsa client is constantly developed and added to. When an update is released you will need to download the latest version. Because it is still being developed anything I write below may change in a later version! :)
2. Although the routes have been set in a timetable and allocated a set day and time they can be flown anytime you like. You don’t need to wait until that real day or time and you don’t need to set your sim to that day/time. For now you can safely ignore it if you want to.
3. There seems to be an issue with using Internet Explorer 9 and the fsa website. If you experience problems I suggest trying to use Firefox or Chrome.
4. Sometimes the client will report “wrong aircraft”. The problem is usually with the model you want to use and is due to an incorrect gross weight setting in the aircraft.cfg. Refer to http://www.fsairlines.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=4972 or if you email the aircraft.cfg to me I will edit it for you.
5. You are allowed to use time compression but it’s not compulsory and you can select what you like within the set limits. On shorter routes it is usually limited to x2 or x4, on some routes it is turned off (x1), longer routes typically allow higher sim rates to be used, it’s up to you.

Just as I’m writing this magazine a new client has been released.
Client v2.1.0 by Konny - Apr 2, 2012
We've updated all Client versions to the new stable release v2.1.0. Together with all the changes from the last beta releases we finished the implementation of the aircraft configurations. So from now on you will get passengers in all the three categories 'Economy', 'Business' and 'First' according to your configuration.

ASN ACCIDENT DIGEST   http://aviation-safety.net/index.php
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15 MAR 2012   07:15   Convair CV-340  Jet One Express  N153JR  C/n / msn: 117  First flight: 1953

A Convair CV-340 cargo plane crashed shortly after departure from San Juan-Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU), Puerto Rico. Both pilots were killed. The airplane took off from San Juan on a cargo flight to Saint Croix (STX), Virgin Islands. It carried 2500 pounds of cargo mainly consisting of bread. The flight came down in the Torrecilla Lagoon on the east side of the airport. It sank in 30-50 feet of water. Local newspapers report that the airplane involved was a CV-340. Jet One operates just one CV-340 so the airplane involved was probably N153JR.
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15 MAR 2012  14:00  Cessna 501 Citation I/SP  private operator  N7700T  C/n / msn:501-0248  First flight:1982

A Cessna 501 Citation I/SP corporate jet was destroyed in an accident at Franklin-Macon County Airport, NC. The five occupants were killed.
The airplane was inbound from Venice Municipal Airport, Florida (KVNC). It crashed during landing and came down just to the right of runway 25, just before the end of the runway. The airplane burst into flames.
Witnesses report that the airplane touched down half way down runway 25 (a 4400 ft/1341 m asphalt runway). The right wing is said to have touched the runway after which the airplane rolled over, coming to rest upside down.
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02 APR 2012  07:44  ATR-72-201  UTair  VP-BYZ  C/n / msn:332  First flight:1992-10-20 (19 years 6 months)

An ATR-72 passenger plane was involved in an accident shortly after takeoff from Tyumen Airport (TJM), Russia. According to the airline, UTAir, there were 39 passengers and four crew members on board.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported there were 12 survivors with sustained serious injuries.
Flight 120 took off from Tyumen Airport runway 21 on a regular domestic passenger flight to Surgut (SGC). The airplane crash-landed in a snowy field approx. 2,5 km past the end of the runway. It broke up and a fire erupted.

Washington pursues Airbus subsidies case in WTO

By Brian Beary in Washington and Lénaïc Vaudin d’Imécourt in Brussels | Monday 02 April 2012

In a widely-expected move, the United States government has decided  to continue with its lawsuit against the European Union at the World  Trade Organisation (WTO) over European government subsidies for aircraft manufacturer Airbus. US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk announced, on 30 March, that he was requesting the establishment of a WTO panel to check whether the EU has complied with a May 2011 WTO ruling against  it. Kirk refuted the EU’s claim, made in a December 2011 report, that it had complied with the ruling, saying “the EU has not removed its  WTO-inconsistent subsidies and has even provided new ones”. The US is  indeed accusing the EU of providing new subsidies to Airbus to support  the development of its latest model, the A350.

While stating that he regretted the US decision to establish a compliance panel, the European Commission’s trade spokesman, John Clancy, argued that “the EU notified its compliance with its WTO obligations in the package of steps taken at the end of 2011”. He went on warning the US that they had “yet to do the same in the Boeing case”.

Meanwhile, the case which the EU brought over subsidies Boeing has received from state and federal governments in the US continues in parallel. While both cases were initially filed in October 2004, the Boeing case is now almost a year behind the Airbus one in the dispute settlement process. In March this year, the WTO ruled against the US government in the Boeing case, finding that the giant US airline manufacturer had received between US$5 billion and US$6 billion in illegal subsidies from the US government between 1989 and 2006, still much less than what European company Airbus received from EU member states (approximately US$18 billion). Washington has been given six months to comply with the WTO ruling.

Pete Dowson announced the availability of newer versions of FSUIPC. It’s now version 4.80 for FSX and Prepar3D, and version 3.999 for FS2004.
http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html


Prepar3D - Lockheed Martin have released an academic license for Prepar3D which brings the price down to just under $50.00 - about £35 quid in real money. I have just bought a license and downloading my copy whilst writing this! I will bring you more updates on this sim in future Directions.
Aerosoft said “Prepar3D for everyone A lot of flightsimmers have been checking out Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D because it basically is FSX on steroids. While Microsoft might have stopped with the development of ‘serious’ simulators, Lockheed Martin bought the rights to FSX and kept on perfecting it. Prepar3D is faster, less buggy and offers some additional functions compared to FSX. But up to this moment it was very expensive and only for professionals. Not any longer as there is now an Academic version that is only $49 and available for everybody. Yeah!”
http://www.prepar3d.com/latest-news/
 

Panic Buying

Oooohhh, a topical subject!  One of the more difficult aspects of using FSAirlines and indeed simming in general is calculating the correct amount of fuel to take. In the cost-conscious real world pilots are under pressure from their employers to take the minimum load possible (to reduce costs), as simmers we don’t have to worry about that and I for one was guilty of just taking what I thought would do the job - plus a good splash more! And of course if that amount of fuel proved inadequate then you could just fill up again from the sim menu.
For better or worse FSA makes us think again as fuel has to be bought which affects the bottom line and in-flight refuelling is prohibited. “Why is he banging on about this” (I hear you ask!) well there is a website which can help you decide how much fuel you need: http://fuel.aerotexas.com/
It is provided for flightsim use only and all you need do is enter your departure and arrival airports plus aircraft type (or similar if its not on the list). It works by displaying the average fuel consumption uploaded by other simmers and if you feel so inclined you can download their client and run it alongside the fsa client to upload your fuel usage automatically.

This one is simple! Just identify the aircraft types in these two charcoal drawings. Email answers to ukd “at” planecrazy.me.uk or use the message facility on FS Airlines.

Answers to last Directions: 1> BAe146 and 717   2> Airport is EGHI Southampton International

Dear Fellow UKDirect Aeronauts (apologies for the length of this post!) I’ve trimmed it a little!

Firstly can I welcome all of our new (and returning) pilots to our roster. It  is very nice to see so many people on the roster after what must be 2  years or so with a "skeleton" staff!  All this new-found personnel activity at UKD has caught me in the middle of what I call my "Schedule Review".

UKDirect existed as a VA long before FSAirlines came along, and was  started by a small enterprising bunch led by a chap called Dean; before I joined several years ago now and it had already built up a good set of flights in various aircraft.
The schedules in FSAirlines have  evolved from that time .. hence my "Schedule Review". I started working through the fleet list, working on specific aircraft types one at a time and  using a trusty and expansive Excel spreadsheet started allocating specific aircraft to specific routes, in effect building a  weekly timetable for each aircraft.

This process is on-going, and thus far I have about 700 flights allocated to specific aircraft  registrations (by the way, I have not touched the cargo schedules - Ruud is the Cargo Manager and I currently leave the cargo schedules in his  capable hands). A side effect of this review has been that a number of  aircraft that used to fly certain routes no longer do so (for instance,  if route UKD0000 from EGxx to LFxx previously could be flown by an A320, A321, B738 and F100 I will have allocated it to just one of those  types, so the other three will have "lost the route").

All the  time there were only a few of us regularly flying (i.e. once a month or  more) this wasn't really an issue. However, now we have many more  pilots I need to amend my plans somewhat to reduce the likelihood that  many of you will have problems finding a route that you want to do.

UKD being a  democracy (I hope!) I would like to do a pilot "poll" to find out what  aircraft you would like to fly and where you would like to fly them from ... if  the schedules more accurately match what you want, you are more likely to fly more often, and the more often you guys get in your planes, the greater a VA UKD becomes.

So could you each let me  know what airport-base/aircraft combinations you would most like to fly  (say, up to about ten combinations). For instance, you might have  recently bought the PMDG MD11 so would love to fly some medium and long  hauls out of Stansted in MD11s; or you have bought the complete set of  UK2000 airports so would love to fly Embraer regional jets domestically, or you own the ATR-72 and Wilco 737 so want to fly turboprops  regionally/short-haul and the Boeings short-haul out of specific major  UK airports. You may also have very specific routes in mind - for  instance, B747-200 from Stansted to Dubai, New York and Hong Kong, or a  Beech Baron from Bournemouth to Bristol; I am happy to make such things  possible.

The results of this would then at least allow me to prioritise which airframes and hubs to focus on.

I want to ensure that our schedule is both flyable (i.e. realistic)  and popular among UKDirect's crews, and with your help (via the above  plea for information) I think we can achieve this over the coming  months.

Best regards
Simon

The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb.

— Benny Hill

There is an art . . . to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

In response to how he checked the weather, "I just whip out my blue card with a hole in it and read what it says: 'When color of card matches color of sky, FLY!'"

— Gordon Baxter

WHY I WANT TO BE A PILOT

When I grow up I want to be a pilot because it's a fun job and easy to do. That's why there are so many pilots flying around these days.
Pilots don't need much school. They just have to learn to read numbers so they can read their instruments.
I guess they should be able to read a road map, too.
Pilots should be brave to they won't get scared it it's foggy and they can't see, or if a wing or motor falls off.
Pilots have to have good eyes to see through the clouds, and they can't be afraid of thunder or lightning because they are much closer to them than we are.
The salary pilots make is another thing I like. They make more money than they know what to do with. This is because most people think that flying a plane is dangerous, except pilots don't because they know how easy it is.
I hope I don't get airsick because I get carsick and if I get airsick, I couldn't be a pilot and then I would have to go to work.

— purported to have been written by a fifth grade student at Jefferson School, Beaufort, SC. It was first published in the South Carolina Aviation News.
 

Arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud, after a while you begin to think the pig likes it.

— Seen on a General Dynamics bulletin board. It was Mark Twain who said, "Never try and teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig."

Doctor Rumack: "When are we going to be able to land?
Ted Striker: "I can't tell.
Doctor Rumack: "You can tell me, I'm a doctor.
Ted Striker: "I don't know.
Doctor Rumack: "Well, can't you take a guess?
Ted Striker: "Not for another two hours.
Doctor Rumack: "You can't take a guess for another two hours?

— from the 1980 movie 'Airplane.'