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Merry Christmas from the team at UKDirect.

In a bid to embrace new ideas (not my idea, bah, humbug!) UKD will be making an entrance on Facebook courtesy of Andy UKD579 who will be our Facebook executive so if you use social media please be a friend! A link will appear on the homepage soon (I imagine!)
2016 was remarkable for many things - the first polymer banknote was introduced in the UK (£5), the entertainment industry bore an unprecedented  heavy toll with many stars passing-on, Hilliary Clinton became the first female president, Donald Trump was elected US President, oh yeah Brexit happened, Juno completed it's 5 year journey to Jupiter, the Rio Olympics, a UK tennis player (Andy Murray) become world champion, UK boxer Tyson Fury become another World Champion (looking forward to Murray V.s Tyson!)
Also in 2016, China unveiled the "Sunway TaihuLight", a home-grown super-computer with a Linpack rating of 93 petaflops, a peak performance of 125 petaflops and featuring 10.6 million CPU cores. This became the first supercomputer to demonstrate a peak performance of over 100 petaflops, or 100 quadrillion floating point operations per second - it all sounds impressive however it failed the ultimate test as it was brought to it's knees trying to run FSX with sliders set to max!

Laminar Research's X-Plane 11 should be out about the time this is uploaded and a look at a Beta version is one of the videos below. I believe you can download the beta version to try it yourself. First impressions are good - the biggest problem with earlier versions was the user interface and it seems they have got it right this time. Surprisingly I can't find a video on You Tube rounding-up 2016’s add-ons for FSX/P3D. Dovetail's FSX follow-up is proving more difficult than they imagined and is delayed until next year; P3Dv3.4 keeps on getting better but still suffers from memory leaks (albeit not as much now) and really needs a modernising 64-bit rework before X-Plane dominates it.

Fly to see Santa in Lapland from a selection of UK airports! Graham UKD140 has created some extra flights to use with FSAirlines over the festive period - further details below with suggestions for a great freeware airport, departing from an airport near you!

And as if that wasn't enough you will find videos, pictures, and seasonal jokes so get stuck in.

 

get back to work

Merry Christmas from UKDirect

Two thousand years ago, the Holy family had a ramble from Nazareth to Bethlehem - in much the same way as I’m having a ramble from Norwich to Swaffam. Although I’m not comparing myself to Jesus - I don’t want to get bogged down in that whole controversy again!
Alan Partridge

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying “Toys not included”
Bernard Manning

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Graham in ATR

Graham UKD140 in the CDA  ATR-42
Sorry Graham I can’t remember where you said this picture was taken - looks like it might be Southend but I’m not certain. I’m sure the bloke on the right will move those cones if you wave him in!

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

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2016 REVIEW

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Real-world aviation headlines this year unfortunately included several tragedies - a short respectful mention follows before returning to the merriment:

  • 24th February Tara Air Flight 193 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, serving the route from Pokhara Airport in Pokhara, Nepal, to Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal. Eight minutes after take-off, the aircraft serving the flight, a Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter with registration 9N-AHH, went missing with 23 people on board. Nepal's police and army dispatched three helicopters to search for the missing aircraft; the search was hampered by bad weather. Hours later, the wreckage was found near Dana village, Myagdi district. There were no survivors.
  • 19th March Flydubai Flight 981 a flight that crashed during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don Airport in Russia, resulting in the death of all 55 passengers and seven crew.
  • 13th April a Britten-Norman BN-2T Turbine Islander operated by Sunbird Aviation crashed about 1,200 m (0.65 nm; 0.75 mi) short of runway 7 near Kiunga, PNG Kiunga, Papua New Guinea. Eleven passengers (including three children) and the 31 year old Australian pilot, Benjamin Picard, were killed.
  • 19th May EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Cairo crashed in the Mediterranean Sea No mayday call was received by air traffic control, although signals that smoke had been detected in one of the aircraft's lavatories and in the avionics bay were automatically transmitted via ACARS shortly before the aircraft disappeared from radar. The cause of the disaster is under investigation.
  • 28th November LaMia Flight 2933 crashed in Colombia after exhausting its fuel and killing 71 of the 77 people on board.
  • 7th December Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661 a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad that crashed near Havelian. All 47 people on board died

Has it stopped Reigning?

The 747 "queen of the skies" has fallen out of favour worldwide since the introduction of the rival Airbus A380 superjumbo, the world's biggest airliner, and more efficient jets such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the A350. Sales of the latest version of the jumbo, the 747-8 launched in 2011, have been slow. In fact, Boeing is reportedly considering ceasing production of the 747 entirely in the near future. The most recent passenger version of the plane has suffered from poor sales compared to other aircraft.
In another sign that the era of the jumbo jet is coming to a close, the Boeing engineer behind the development of the original 747, Joe Sutter, died in August, aged 95.

 Air India breaks Emirates' record for world's longest flight by swapping direction of Delhi to San Francisco service

Oct 27 2016 http://www.traveller.com.au
When I first read this story I thought about buying glasses but apparently it’s true!! It’s the kind of mad idea that even Graham 140 would have baulked at but that would only be because it wasn't planned with a Twin-Otter in mind!! :p

Air India has snuck up on its competitors to snatch the title of the world's longest non-stop flight route. Until earlier this year, the airline's Delhi to San Francisco route sat second in the table of greatest distances flown by a passenger jet, but then the Indian flag carrier changed the direction of travel from crossing to the Atlantic to the Pacific, and added 1400 kilometres onto its route. The eastern route meant that Air India's Boeing-777 200ER flew 15,300 kilometres, surpassing the previous holder of world's longest flight, Emirates' Dubai-Auckland route that clocks up 14,120 kilometres. What's more, by flying east over the Pacific, Air India took advantage of the 138 km/h tailwinds of the Jet Stream and knocked two hours off its flight time, covering the distance in just 14-and-a-half hours.
"The Earth rotates from west to east, and winds flow in that direction too," a senior Air India official told the Times of India. "Flying west means facing strong headwinds, that decrease an aircraft's actual ground speed, and flying east means getting strong tailwinds, which do the opposite."

He said that flying across the Atlantic usually means headwinds of 24 km/h, making the aircraft's speed around 776 km/h, whereas the eastern route over the Pacific usually encounters tailwinds of 138 km/h, making the aircraft's ground speed around 938 km/h.

 UKDirect breaks Air India's record for world's longest flight by swapping direction of Gatwick to Jersey service!!

STOP PRESS:  UKDirect has announced it is to operate a new service between London and Saint Hellier in a Twin-Otter. The route which is expected to take advantage of the Gulf stream, jet-stream, trade-winds (and possible solar winds if we can climb high enough) will take in 148 other cities as it heads east!!

Baltia Airlines: The airline that has never flown a single passenger in 27 years

A US airline, which was founded in 1989 with the aim of offering a "high quality three-class passenger service" has just taken its only aircraft out of service – despite having never operated a single commercial flight in its 27-year history.

Baltia Airlines started with great promise. It aimed to offer the only non-stop flight from New York to St Petersburg, as well as holiday packages, a frequent flier programme and a concierge service, but it is yet to carry a single passenger or package. The airline, which officially operates from John F Kennedy International (JFK) and has another base in Michigan's Willow Run Airport, claims it is still awaiting its operational approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)... after 27 years.

The airline is said to have failed the evaluation from the FAA seven times, apparently due to a problem with the deployment of its aircraft slides, Michigan Radio reported in November. The carrier is said to have moved its operations to Michigan where it is apparently easier to gain FAA approval than in New York, where Baltia failed all of its certification tests, according to the radio station.

Baltia, which has earned no revenue since its inception, has accumulated a debt of more than $US119 million as of March of this year, according to Michigan Radio. The New York-based carrier hoped to become "the leading US airline in the Trans-Atlantic market", offering connections between major cities in the US and Europe when it was founded. It expected to begin operating flights last year, according the company's website. But in March this year, the airline announced it would also be abandoning its plan to operate its only aircraft, a 37-year-old Boeing 747. The plane did fly one route last year (from Willow Run to a maintenance facility in Oscoda, Michigan), but it has been dormant since.
The airline added it would be looking to lease newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft in a bid to facilitate its air operator certification process.
 

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Is That All You've Got?

As if you needed more proof that UKDirect is the best airline:  Emirates only operate the Airbus A380 and long-range Boeing 777s in their passenger fleet! The Middle East carrier recently retired its last remaining Airbus A330 and A340 planes from active service.

Emirates retired its last A330, registered A6-EAK after 14 years of service. The plane flew more than 60,000 hours and 45 million kilometres during that time.
The airline announced it would start flying the world's shortest A380 route from December, a 379-kilometre hop from Dubai to Doha, Qatar. The A380's maximum range is more than 15,000 kilometres.
Emirates is the largest operator of the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777  aircraft with 85 Airbus A380s and 160 Boeing 777s in its fleet. The  airline has 150 orders on its books for the new Boeing 777X aircraft.  It's is due to take delivery of its first 777X in 2020.
 

 

Emirates A380 and Jetman Dubai Formation Flight | Emirates Airline   [4:05]
Published on 5 Nov 2015

Learn how the Emirates Airbus A380 and Jetman Dubai flew together in a breathtaking formation flight over Dubai to make aviation history, in this exclusive behind the scenes video.

Jennifer Aniston TV commercial | A380 | Emirates Airline   [1:30]
Published on 5 Oct 2016

Watch as Jennifer Aniston returns on our A380 with a new friend.  For behind the scenes videos, please visit http://bit.ly/JensBack

I really must talk to Andy UKD579 about a
UKDirect advert although I suspect our budget wouldn’t even cover Nora Batty’s expenses!

 

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Cathay Pacific's last Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes final flight

Cathay Pacific has bid farewell to its "queen of the skies" after the airline's last Boeing 747 jumbo jet made its final flight.
The plane took off from Haneda Airport in Tokyo to fly into Hong Kong for the last time (October).

Cathay had been flying 747s since 1979, when the introduction of the  double-decker jumbo jet allowed the airline to fly much further  distances and carry more than 400 passengers - double what the aircraft  it replaced, the Boeing 707, could carry.
The airline chose Australia as its first destination for the iconic jet, with the first flight to Sydney, via Melbourne, taking off in August 1979. At its peak, the airline operated 32 jumbo jets on routes from Hong Kong to Europe, the US, Australia and more.

"The 747 fundamentally changed the way people were able to travel," said Cathay Pacific general manager operations Mark Hoey, a former chief pilot of the 747. "Being able to carry more people for far greater distances than before meant the 747 effectively shrunk the planet.
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 World's shortest international flight: ‘People's Viennaline’ offers 8-minute flight

Nov 3 2016
An Austrian airline has begun what it claims is the world's shortest  regular international connection - an eight-minute hop across Lake  Constance.
The flight offered by People's Viennaline connects St.  Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland with Friedrichshafen in southern  Germany. It's part of a route that continues onward to Cologne, but  passengers can book only the short part for 40 euros. An Embraer 145 short-haul jet will connect  the Friedrichshafen airport with the Swiss airport Altenrhein. The  flight time for the around 20-kilometre-long route between the two  regional airport is around eight minutes.

German news agency DPA  reported that environmentalists aren't thrilled by the new route, which  began service on Wednesday. Swiss Green Party politician Meinrad  Gschwend says he wants the flights banned.
The airline says driving around the lake for an hour would produce as much emissions as the short flight.

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 Virgin Galactic and Boom unveil new supersonic XB-1 jet that will fly cheaper than the Concorde

Nov 17 2016
The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator, a prototype of a larger airliner and nicknamed the Baby Boom, was  unveiled at a hangar in Colorado by US-based Boom Technology and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

The jet will be 10 per cent faster than the now defunct Concorde and two- and-a-half times faster than current jets, meaning it will be able to cut flight times dramatically. Travellers will be able to fly between London and New York in three and a quarter hours and for much less than the price of a ticket on Concorde, which  had its first commercial flight in 1976 and became famous not only for  its sky-high airfares but its famous passengers including Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor.

Concorde was seen as a luxury offering  between the 1970s and 1990s with tickets costing around £4350 one way from London to New York. But falling passenger numbers and a fatal crash in 2000 ultimately led to its demise in 2003.

Boom chief executive and founder Blake Scholl said the Concorde was limited by technology at the time, something his company has overcome. "Concorde's designers didn't have the technology for affordable supersonic travel, but now we do," Mr Scholl said "Today, we're proud to unveil our first  aircraft."

Boom's airliner will offer a similarly premium  experience to Concorde, with only one seat on each side of the aisle and flights at a higher altitude to cut out turbulence. A flight from New York to London would cost £1,460 and take just over three hours, down from about an eight-hour flight. The first test flight of the prototype is scheduled for late next year (2017). It will be built into an airliner three times its size and Virgin Galactic will have the option to buy the first 10 plane bodies produced by the company.

"I have long been passionate about aerospace innovation and the development of high-speed commercial flights," Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said. "As an innovator in the space, Virgin Galactic's decision to work with Boom was an easy one."
 

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FSAirlines News

It would appear that FSA is still being developed which is good news although it might not be to everyones satisfaction. There is currently a beta client available but we are yet to see what all the planned changes are and how the changes will be implemented. One of the changes though is enforcing a Max Landing Weight.
If you check your flight report after flying I suspect many of you will see the message “exceeded maximum landing weight”. There is no rating penalty assessed so your score will still be 100% even with that message. What does happen is extra wear and tear is put on the aircraft so it's serviceability is reduced, costing UKD more virtual dosh.
It seems we may have to reduce cargo and/or seating on all our aircraft which wont really make a visible difference to you, our pilots.- although a couple of you (who shall not be named!) in early November took an alternative approach and reduced their fuel load instead with disastrous consequences! :)

Graham 140 quizzed Joe Fremont (one of the FSA team) on this subject asking ‘If FSA is going to assess Max Landing Weight then surely this needs to  be added to the Operating Limits section as a planning reference?’ to which Joe replied ‘Yes it is a bit advanced, that's why there is  no rating penalty assessed, just noted on the report. But you're right,  it should be added to the aircraft detail sections. I will add that in my next update.’

The bottom line is if you don't use the beta client (i.e. you use the same client you've been using for years) there are no changes to your flight. In the future we will probably reduce seating capacity slightly to reduce our aircrafts Max Landing Weight. Then there will be no change at all for you - which does raise the question ‘why are they bothering with this?’

 

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

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

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Armstrong, Miller, Mitchell & Webb as WW2 Pilots [3.14]

Armstrong and Miller, Mitchell and Webb team up in this sketch for Comic Relief featuring four very peculiar Second World War pilots.

 

Helicopters Won’t Just Drop Like A Rock If The Engine Dies [4.27]

In fact, you have a better chance at surviving in a helicopter when the engine fails than you do in an airplane. Helicopters are designed specifically to allow pilots to have a reasonable chance of landing them safely in the case where the engine stops working during flight, often with no damage at all. They accomplish this via autorotation of the main rotor blades.

 

Testing Nasa Prototype Aircraft -NASA Documentary [23.51]
The Boeing X-48 is a small experimental aircraft developed by the University of Cranfield, Boeing and NASA to test the Blended Wing Body (BWB) configurations.
This aircraft was developed by the teams of the Boeing Phantom Works with the NASA Langley Center. A remote-controlled model was first created to study the characteristics of the flight.

 

That Time a Passenger Loaded Boeing 767 Ran Out of Fuel Mid Flight  [9.08]

On July 23, 1983, in the small town of Gimli, Manitoba, Captain Robert Pearson and Co-Pilot Maurice Quintal expertly glided a 100-ton Boeing 767 carrying 69 people to a safe landing without engines, air brakes or flaps, and minimal control of the aircraft. To learn more Google search for ‘The Gimli Glider’. This video should be part of the training package for newbie UKD pilots!!

 

QI | Amy Johnson and Paper Aeroplanes  [1.16]

July 1: On this day in 1903, Amy Johnson was born.

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X Plane 11 Beta 2   [21:09]
Published on 7 Dec 2016

A short Cirrus flight from Bristol (EGGD) to Filton (EGTG - now closed) - using Ortho4XP photo scenery.

My current System Specs: i7 4790K @ 4.7Ghz,,16 GB DDR3-RAM, SSD Samsung 1TB, MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, Windows 10 64 Bit

X plane 11 Beta - New York VFR   [21:09]
Published on 9 Dec 2016

Following on from my First Look video of X-Plane 11 Beta, I look at various graphics settings on a VFR flight around New York city..
 

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New UK2000 Sceneries of 2016

3rd September 2016 Aberdeen Xtreme Released!
16th July 2016 Exeter Xtreme Released!
16th January 2016 Humberside Xtreme Released!

UK2000 sale
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Its seems to be 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 (VFR Airfields series) including some in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The versions for FS2004 are now free! The FSX and P3D Xtreme airports are in my personal opinion the best there is.
The sale only applies to download versions but includes the latest releases and ends 31st  Dec 16.  http://www.uk2000scenery.com
Save 25% if you order 1 product, 30% if you order 2, and save 40% when you order 4 or more from the following:

Aberdeen Xtreme
Exeter Xtreme
Humberside Xtreme
Southend Xtreme
Stansted Xtreme V4 (2015)
Birmingham Xtreme V3
Prestwick Xtreme
Jersey Xtreme
Heathrow Xtreme V3
Luton Xtreme
Leeds-Bradford Xtreme
Doncaster Xtreme
Edinburgh Xtreme **V3**
Glasgow Xtreme **V3**
Cardiff Xtreme
East Midlands Xtreme
London City Xtreme
Cumbernauld Xtreme
Newcastle Xtreme
Liverpool Xtreme
Gatwick Xtreme
Bristol Xtreme
Manchester Xtreme
Belfast Xtreme
VFR Airfields Volume1 Version2
VFR Airfields Volume2 Version2
VFR Airfields Volume3 Version2

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Graham UKD140 in the UKWC MD-11F

Graham UKD140 in the UKWC MD-11F
Graham is route testing the East-bound Gatwick-Jersey flight and has just finished leg #96 landing at Pago Pago (?). Hey that's not a Twotter!

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

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Monty Python clips

Monty Python - Expedition to Lake Pahoe [6.59]

Much silliness is afoot as the Royal Navy prepares an expedition to Lake Pahoe and a reporter turns into a pirate

Monty Python, RAF Banter  [6.56]


 

Monty Python - Airplane Hijack [1.20]


 

Monty Python’s Cheap airline sketch [2.14]
 

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inflightrestart

Thanks to Phil 101 who sent me this picture of a pilot conducting an in-air restart!! Not sure if its Phil in the picture!

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UKD can exclusively reveal PMDG’s newest project - the Gyro-Helicoplane! A real magazine cover from Mechanics And Handicraft 1933 when helicopters were still science-fiction!

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