Merry Christmas from the team at UKDirect.
This is probably the hardest Intro I've had to write following on so soon after hearing the sad news of Simon UKD102/239’s passing away, but as I was recently reminded he wouldn't want us to be upset and would want us to keep on flying; he was an enthusiastic member of our VA and was always keen to learn how things worked in the aviation world. Many members past as well as present have written with fond memories and to express their sadness. A web page will be created to remember him where members can leave messages but he's not left us yet as he features again in this newsletter. However our loss is insignificant when measured against his families feelings and its to them we extend our condolences and prayers; blue skies Simon.

This is the first Directions to be written for quite a few months, unavoidable as work commitments dictated that I should spend most of the year several thousand miles away and severely curtailing my time at home and therefore flying. At the time of writing I don't even have anyway of uploading this yet - but obviously if your reading this then I overcame that problem too!

Real-world aviation headlines this year was dominated by several tragedies - the Germanwings crash in the Alps and the plane crash in Egypt springing to mind, but there were lots of other incidents throughout the year and the main ones are briefly mentioned below (we don't want to dwell on it at this time of year do we?)

In the virtual world there have been some interesting developments - Lockheed Martin’s Prepared (P3D) v3 was released which claims to have fixed the memory leaks that plagued FSX. FSX was re-released as a Steam edition by Dovetail Games who also announced they are working on a successor to FSX to be released in 2016. Laminar Research’s X-Plane 10 has taken a larger market share than ever before and is also available via Steam and many of the 3rd party vendors have started supporting this great sim. Looking at add-ons, UK2000 have recently released Southend and Jersey airport sceneries (for FSX, FS9, and P3D) as part of their Xtreme range. There is a complimentary photo-scenery of the island of Jersey as well (freeware) whether you use their airport or not. Finally all their earlier releases of UK airports for FS2004 and before have been made freeware too [click here]. REXSimulations hugely popular Soft Clouds has just been released for FS9 so developers are clearly not giving up on all the old sims just yet.

While I've been away Charlie McKenna UKD301 liked the Majestic Dash-8 Q400 so much he made a repaint for it which is available below (see screen-shot). Graham UKD140 has also created some extra flights to use with FSAirlines over the festive period - further details below.

As if that wasn’t enough you will find videos, pictures, and seasonal jokes so get stuck in. UKDirect is back!

 

from UKDirect

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, lets hope its a good one with plenty of cheer.
John Lennon

Majestic Dash-8 Q400 “Innsbruck” by Charlie UKD301
Not only has Charlie taken the photo but he painted the model. Click here for the textures (will be placed on the Fleet page soon).

Do you have a screen shot you are proud of and wouldn't mind seeing messed up on here? 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

Throughout 2015 there were a number of unfortunate aviation incidents leading to high loss of life, admittedly some caused by war but others were shocking for other reasons. Without going too deep with details here is a brief look at the worst:

• 18th January a Syrian Air Force Antonov 26 transport plane crashed near Abu adh Dhuhur Air Base, killing all 30 on board.
• 4th February a Transasia ATR-72-600 impacted a highway viaduct shortly after takeoff. Black box evidence showed the master warning sounded in the cockpit shortly before the wrong engine was shut down. 43 occupants on board the airplane are confirmed to have suffered fatal injuries. 15 were injured.
• 24th March An Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings was destroyed in an accident in a mountainous area in southern France. All 144  passengers and six crew members were killed. The co-pilot with a history of depression caused the crash whilst the pilot was locked out of the cockpit.
• 30th June The Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport plane, operated by the Indonesian Air Force's 32 Squadron, was destroyed when it  crashed shortly after takeoff from Medan-Soewondo Air Force Base. On  board were a crew of 12 and 110 passengers.
• 16th August An ATR42-300 crashed en-route to Oksibil (Indonesia). The pilot spoke to controllers prior to landing but contact was lost on approach. The aircraft wreckage was found the next day on a ridge of Tanggo Mountain at approximately 8,300 feet AMSL, about 17 km  from the airport. 54 fatalities.
• 5th September A BAe-125-700A jet, registered 6V-AIM, was reported  missing about 110 km off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, during a flight  from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Dakar, Senegal. On board were a French patient, 3 crew and 3 medical staff. It is presumed the aircraft continued flight after hitting a Boeing 737-800 over Senegal, until it crashed  into the Atlantic Ocean. After landing unspecified damage was found on the 737.
• 31 October An Airbus A321, operated by Metrojet (also known as  Kogalymavia), was destroyed in an accident over central Sinai, Egypt. All 224 on board were killed. Latest reports suggest an explosive device was placed on board at Sharm el Sheikh airport by airport staff.
• 4th November 43 people died when an Antonov 12 cargo plane, registered EY-406, was  destroyed after impacting terrain shortly after takeoff from Juba  Airport, South Sudan.

• 3rd April An overnight storm caused the collapse of Hangar No. 9 at Wichita-Colonel James Jabara Airport, Kansas. Six aircraft were parked inside the hangar at the time of the collapse and destroyed.
• 8th September A British Airways Boeing 777-236 operating as Flight  BA2276 to London Gatwick sustained substantial damage in an accident at  McCarran International Airport (KLAS), Las Vegas, Nevada. In the initial stages of the takeoff roll  the crew aborted the takeoff due to a no. 1 engine failure. After  coming to a stop on the runway, a fire developed on the left hand side  of the aircraft between the no. 1 engine and the fuselage. The airplane sustained substantial damage and two minor injuries were reported during the runway evacuation.

The missing Malaysian Airlines plane, flight  MH370, had 239 people onboard and was en route from Kuala Lumpur to  Beijing on 8 March 2014 when air traffic control staff lost contact with it. Despite an extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean, no  trace of the aircraft had been found until the discovery of the  barnacle-encrusted flaperon on Reunion Island, more than 3,700km (2,300  miles) away from the main search site, in July 2015. French investigators confirmed the aircraft wing part came  from the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, after one of three  numbers found on the flaperon was formally identified by a technician  from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which made the part  for Boeing.

Investigators are continuing to search for the rest of the plane. The Australian-led search has been combing a 120,000 sq km area of  seabed about   2,000km off the coast of Perth, using underwater drones and sonar equipment deployed from specialist ships.

In December 2015, Australian officials said they had refined  the search area and were confident they were looking in the right area for the plane. Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said officials were "optimistic" the remains of the plane would be found.

The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing highlighted the "immediate and urgent risk" tied to transporting lithium-ion batteries, saying there's evidence the batteries could cause "explosions and fires capable of destroying a plane". MH370 had 440 pounds of lithium batteries aboard and it’s theorised that the batteries could have caused a fire in the hold of  the Boeing 777 that overwhelmed the plane's fire-suppression system.

The cargo hold has a special liner intended to contain a fire until  it is extinguished. A battery fire might well have been intense enough to breach the liner and, in doing so, allow the airflow to weaken the concentration (and therefore the effectiveness) of the Halon gas used as a fire suppressant. If the batteries did catch fire and the flames were too intense to be controlled by the plane's systems, the fumes from the fire could have knocked out the people on the plane.

The cargo hold is located near to the electronics bay so it is therefore conceivable that the electronic and navigational systems in the bay could have been disabled by fire, leaving only the hydraulic systems working.

Seasons Bleatings To All

I have moved from the warmth of the Caribbean for the season to be jolly etc.. and am currently making a snowman in Astana, Kazakhstan whilst the 764 is on the ground being re-fuelled and re-supplied with mince pies. It was (inevitably) snowing steadily and thoughts of Christmas charters to Lapland came to mind. We have lots of aircraft sitting waiting around in the UK so I have made up some seasonal flights to Rovaniemi after finding some special Christmassy scenery on VATSIM at http://vatsim-scandinavia.org/pilots/airports/finland/efro-rovaniemi/ by Tatu Kantomaa.

Any A319/320/321, B734,737,738,739,752,753 or even the E170,175,190,195 are capable of making the 1300 mile trip with good planning. So I'll knock up some flights and the rest will be up to you..
If you decide to download the scenery read the PDF file as there are a couple of things to put in the FSX.cfg file so take care and make a back up first!
There are usually online events to Lapland (Charlie) and they are well supported by the community so have a look for any advertised.
Just keep your eyes peeled for a Jolly fatman in a red suit when airborne as I heard Rob Wright may be back!
Graham UKD140.

EFRO Rovaniemi

Do you have a screen shot you are proud of and wouldn't mind seeing messed up on here? 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

New UK2000 Sceneries of 2015

UK2000 released Birmingham Xtreme V3  and Jersey Xtreme sceneries alongside a reworked version of Stansted Xtreme now at version 4 with discounts for people upgrading.

Southend (EGMC) is also available as a free download with improved runway textures, lighting and some basic buildings.

Its seems to becoming an annual event - Gary Summon’s UK2000 scenery range is on sale at up to 40% off. The excellent scenery covers virtually every airport in England and Wales including some in Scotland and Northern Ireland. There are versions for FS2004!, FSX and P3D and in my personal opinion there are few alternative sceneries that beat these. Aerosoft’s Heathrow is good but I prefer Gary’s version and its cheaper too!
The sale only applies to download versions and ends 31^st  Dec 15.  http://www.uk2000scenery.com

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A Message From Aerosoft

Dear UKDirect,
We are happy to add two more products to our Virtual Airline discount series. Mega Airport Rome and Mega Airport Zurich V2 are now also available with 20% discount for all pilots of the VA’s we have an agreement with. Please note that we ask nothing in return from the VA’s, it is truly because we believe VA’s are a vital part of our hobby. Please inform your pilots and if any would like a discount code let us know.

The complete list of products offered with discount:
Twin Otter Extended
Professional Flight Planner X
FS Flight Keeper
FSMap
Thessaloniki X
Mega Airport Oslo
Maastricht Aachen Airport
Mega Airport Dublin
Airbus A318/A319
Airbus A320/A321
Airbus A318/A319 & A320/A3231 Bundle
Mega Airport Rome
Mega Airport Zurich v2

With greetings,
Mathijs Kok

Rather than re-invent the wheel may I guide you to this website for reviews of addon aircraft, sceneries and hardware?
Thank you very much!
http://fsxgetstarted.com/

FSPS have just started a 50% sale on all their products - Booster, Fiber, Physics, Frictionality, etc across all the sims from FS2004 to P3Dv3
http://www.thefsps.com/

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Twas The Night Before Christmas -- Aviation Style

Twas the night before Christmas, and out on the ramp,
Not an airplane was stirring, not even a Champ.
The aircraft were fastened to tiedowns with care,
In hopes that come morning, they all would be there.
The fuel trucks were nestled, all snug in their spots,
With gusts from two-forty at 39 knots.
I slumped at the fuel desk, now finally caught up,
And settled down comfortably, resting my butt.
When the radio lit up with noise and with chatter,
I turned up the scanner to see what was the matter.
A voice clearly heard over static and snow,
Called for clearance to land at the airport below.
He barked his transmission so lively and quick,
I'd have sworn that the call sign he used was "St. Nick".
I ran to the panel to turn up the lights,
The better to welcome this magical flight.
He called his position, no room for denial,
"St. Nicholas One, turnin' left onto final."
And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Rutan-built sleigh, with eight Rotax Reindeer!
With vectors to final, down the glideslope he came,
As he passed all fixes, he called them by name:
"Now Ringo! Now Tolga! Now Trini and Bacun!
On Comet! On Cupid!" What pills was he takin'?
While controllers were sittin', and scratchin' their head,
They phoned to my office, and I heard it with dread,
The message they left was both urgent and dour:
"When Santa pulls in, have him please call the tower."
He landed like silk, with the sled runners sparking,
Then I heard "Left at Charlie," and "Taxi to parking."
He slowed to a taxi, turned off of three-oh
And stopped on the ramp with a "Ho, ho-ho-ho..."
He stepped out of the sleigh, but before he could talk,
I ran out to meet him with my best set of chocks.
His red helmet and goggles were covered with frost
And his beard was all blackened from Reindeer exhaust.
His breath smelled like peppermint, gone slightly stale,
And he puffed on a pipe, but he didn't inhale.
His cheeks were all rosy and jiggled like jelly,
His boots were as black as a cropduster's belly.
He was chubby and plump, in his suit of bright red,
And he asked me to "fill it, with hundred low-lead."
He came dashing in from the snow-covered pump,
I knew he was anxious for drainin' the sump.
I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work,
And I filled up the sleigh, but I spilled like a jerk.
He came out of the restroom, and sighed in relief,
Then he picked up a phone for a Flight Service brief.
And I thought as he silently scribed in his log,
These reindeer could land in an eighth-mile fog.
He completed his pre-flight, from the front to the rear,
Then he put on his headset, and I heard him yell, "Clear!"
And laying a finger on his push-to-talk,
He called up the tower for clearance and squawk.
"Take taxiway Charlie, the southbound direction,
Turn right three-two-zero at pilot's discretion"
He sped down the runway, the best of the best,
"Your traffic's a Grumman, inbound from the west."
Then I heard him proclaim, as he climbed through the night,
"Merry Christmas to all! I have traffic in sight."
Author unknown

An Elf and Safety Message

Please be advised that all persons planning to dash through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh, going over the fields and laughing all the way are required to undergo a Risk Assessment addressing the safety of open sleighs.

The assessment must also consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a venture, particularly where there are multiple passengers. Please note that permission must also be obtained in writing from landowners before their fields may be entered. To avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise nuisance.

Benches, stools and orthopaedic chairs are now available for collection by any shepherds planning or required to watch their flocks at night. While provision has also been made for remote monitoring of flocks by CCTV cameras from a centrally heated shepherd observation hut, all facility users are reminded that an emergency response plan must be submitted to account for known risks to the flocks. The Angel of the Lord is additionally reminded that prior to shining his/her glory all around s/he must confirm that all shepherds are wearing appropriate Personal Protective Equipment to account for the harmful effects of UVA, UVB and the overwhelming effects of Glory

Following last year’s well publicised case, everyone is advised that legislation prohibits any comment with regard to the redness of any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, exclusion of Mr. R Reindeer from reindeer games will be considered discriminatory and disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty of this offence.

While it is acknowledged that gift-bearing is commonly practiced in various parts of the world, particularly the Orient, everyone is reminded that the bearing of gifts is subject to Hospitality Guidelines and all gifts must be registered. This applies regardless of the individual, even royal personages. It is particularly noted that direct gifts of currency or gold are specifically precluded under provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Further, caution is advised regarding other common gifts, such as aromatic resins that may initiate allergic reactions.

Finally, for those involved in the recent case of the infant found tucked up in a manger without any crib for a bed, Social Services have been advised and will be arriving shortly.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas – be safe out there.......

 

Words can be listed backwards or forwards and in all directions. Some words didn’t fit the list so beware that Mach Numbe and R are one word! (for example).