Very shortly it will be the first anniversary of missing flight MH370 with no immediate prospect of finding the missing airliner in sight. Since then there have been several high-profile crashes which resulted in a fatality rate that tripled the previous years total. That said air travel still remains the safest mode of transport and 2014 was the safest ever if calculating it purely by the number of fatal accidents. 2015 has already seen a couple of catastrophic accidents but is continuing the trend of increasing safety. More details are in the Real World news below.

In other news there have recently been some significant changes in the skies - the Airbus A350XWB has entered revenue service, the last MD-11 has left passenger revenue service and BA will soon have replaced its entire B737 fleet with Airbus A320’s, with the last 737 flight expected in June.

Charlie McKenna UKD301 has written a short article detailing a short hop he made between our two Air Taxi bases in a Beech Baron and invites you along for the ride. We do have repaints for the Baron (FSX default and Carenado payware) but Charlie has chosen a stealth option (plain white) presumably to catch out the staff!

Simon Dobby UKD131 won the caption competition from the last Directions with "24-8511, tower, er, you appear to be flying upside-down-down-under, over". There are no prizes as yet but I may bring back the old UKD mug!

For years I never thought I’d buy a tablet as I’ve always managed with my laptop but with my overseas jaunt looming large I was persuaded they have merit. After I bit the bullet and bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 I was impressed with it’s graphics and was curious what games were available. While looking for free games (or ‘apps’ - what’s wrong with calling them programs?) I then ‘discovered’ a little gem called Extreme Landings. The idea is you fly an Airbus A340 and land it - funnily enough one of the early airports is Princess Julianna (TNCM). You fly it by tilting the tablet in the direction you require. The instrument panel is not very realistic but the gauges are really good. The game is similar in style to the FSX Missions and the plane has lots of mechanical breakdowns. There is a payware version available as well, anyway I refer you to the videos section below.

Newshound aka Mark UKD171


“The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
 Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

 

Island hopping in the Caribbean in the Islander. Screenshot by Graham UKD140

Do you have a screen shot you are proud of? Please send it in and share it with us.
To enter in the next e-magazine send your entries to Newshound: mark[at]planecrazy.me.uk 

Don't worry about editing pictures, sending them as a full size bmp is best and I’ll edit them for Directions

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Kidlington to Sywell

The following article and pictures are the work of Charlie McKenna UKD301, and this is how he went about this short hop. As I mentioned earlier we have repaints for the Baron if you wish to fly this yourself - not to be used for realworld navigation (lol!).

Sorry for not being around much, real life has impeded my simming schedules. Also VATSIM controller training as well. But I am back and shall try to get back to writing this section regularly.
Today we are doing a taxi flight between the two Air Taxi bases, Kidlington and Sywell. I shall be flying this in my trusty Baron PH-ADI (that’s the registration for all of my GA aircraft to be honest).

Before you start your journey you will need to do the Pre-Flight Inspections. Check that your tires are fully inflated, control surfaces free and the fuselage is fully intact. Now you can proceed to start your engines. Set prop levers to start and feather, mixture rich and crack the throttle by ¼ Inch. Then you may apply the starter and watch the engines burst into life.

 At this point you may do a flight control check, full left, full right, neutral, full up, full down, neutral. Now you may commence your taxi. I recommend runway 03 as will put you on track to Sywell. Once at the holding point I highly recommend a backtrack. After turning around you may apply take-off thrust and you shall be on your way.

At this point I highly recommend tuning the Daventry VOR on 116.40 just to provide a navigational reference just in case you get lost. Once you have reached you cruising altitudes you may trim out your aircraft. On GA aircraft you trim for speed. For instance trim down for higher speeds and trim up for lower speeds, it’s as simple as that.

Once you are over the town of Kidlington you should start looking for the airfield which should be around your one or two o’clock. At this point you should join the traffic pattern for runway 03. Slow to approach speed and drop one notch of flaps. Once on finals slow to landing speed, drop the gear and lower the final stage of flaps and perform a normal landing. However if you have a tendency to float things like me fly the plane into the runway. After landing taxi to the hangers and park your baby up for the night. For you, go and enjoy a well-earned cuppa tea. Until next time see you all in the skies!

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29 DEC 2014    Boeing 747-443   Virgin Atlantic   G-VROM   C/n / msn: 32339/1275 

Virgin Atlantic Flight VS43 took off from London Gatwick Airport (LGW), U.K. at 11:43 hours local time, bound for Las Vegas (LAS).
After takeoff, the aircraft, a Boeing 747-400, developed problems retracting the undercarriage. The flight climbed to FL320 while heading in a westerly direction. The flight entered a holding pattern over the sea near Barnstable from 12:08 until 12:54 when it headed back to Gatwick Airport. It descended to 2275 feet and carried out a pass over the runway at 13:39. The flight then entered a holding pattern at 2275 feet to the south of Gatwick.
Then another low pass was made over the runway at Gatwick at 1275 feet at 14:41. The flight then entered a second holding pattern over the south coast of England at 5300 feet until it finally continued to land at 15:44. After landing the aircraft leaned heavily to the right.
Photos of the aircraft showed that the right hand main undercarriage leg had become stuck sideways and could not be fully deployed on landing.

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04 FEB 2015  ATR 72-600 (72-212A)  TransAsia Airways   B-22816   C/n: 1141  

A Transasia ATR-72-600 operating as Flight GE235 from Taipei to Kinmen Island impacted a highway viaduct and the waters of the Keelung River near New Taipei City shortly after takeoff. Forty-three occupants on board the airplane are confirmed to have suffered fatal injuries. Fifteen were injured.

The airplane took off from Taipei-Sung Shan Airport's runway 10 at 10:51 hours local time and turned right, climbing to an altitude of 1350 feet. At 10:52 the master warning sounded in the cockpit associated with the right engine (nr.2) flame out procedure message. Some 26 seconds later the left hand (nr.1) power lever was retarded to flight idle. After twenty seconds the left engine condition lever was set to the fuel shutoff position resulting in left engine shutdown.
Instead of continuing the climbing right hand turn, the airplane had turned left and began losing altitude and speed with several stall warnings sounding in the cockpit. At 10:53, the flight contacted the Sung Shan Tower controller declaring a Mayday and reporting an 'engine flameout'. The airplane then turned to the right while the crew attempted to restart the left hand engine.
This succeeded at 10:54:20 hours. Fourteen seconds later the stall warning sounded in the cockpit. Video footage of the accident show that the airplane banked almost 90 degrees left as it hit a taxi on a viaduct. Parts of the left hand wing broke off upon hitting the barrier of the viaduct. The airplane broke up as it impacted the Keelung River and came to rest inverted.

Time to get that grey matter working!. Email answers to mark “at” planecrazy.me.uk or use the message facility on FS Airlines.  Answers will be posted in the next Directions but if you email me your guesses I will reply straight away (in confidence - so no need to worry about embarrassment.

1>  Which of the following instruments is usually NOT equipped with DME?
 
a)        ADF
b)        NDB
c)        VOR
d)        ILS


2>  What does VHF stand for ?

a)    Vertical High Frequency
b)    Very High Frequency
c)    Very High Flight
d)    Vertical Horizontal Frequencies


3>  What does ADF stand for?

a)     Automatic Direction Forecast
b)     Automatic Direction Finder
c)     Automated Dual Frequency
d)     Automatic Distance Finder


 

Answers to last Directions quiz: