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Aviation has featured prominently in the news over the past few months and most of it has not been good news. London Heathrow airport was closed for several days due to drones flying in it’s airspace, Hannover airport was closed when someone drove a van onto the restricted side of the airport, FlyBMI and Germania declared bankruptcy and have closed, Emiliano Sala’s plane crash in January and of course the two fatal accidents that have led to the Boeing 737-Max being grounded. Airbus has announced that production of the A380 will cease by 2021 and El Al became the latest airline to retire their 767 fleet.

F1 2019 Tour, Phil UKD101 has created a new timetable updated to co-inside with the F1 Season which you can fly all in one go, or match the real-world event or however else you like. Pilots completing a successful tour will have a special F1 Tour badge next to their name on the roster. Achievement Badges have been awarded for completing the 2018 Tour.
UKDirect came to the rescue of many passengers stranded around Europe due to the collapse of BMI. UKD has taken up many of their routes increasing our connections between European cities which led to the next news item - another reason to fly is to gain the much coveted European Capital Achievement on your roster profile! Currently Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester are connected directly to every ‘European’ capitol and all the larger UK airports will have a varying number of connections. A dedicated web-page will appear in due course with full details.

Phil is also working on UKD Safari!! Actually when I say ‘he is working’ I should say ‘he has finished and is waiting for me to get all of my s### into one sock and create another dedicated web-page’ :) Expect that to happen later in April after my holiday!

This is also UKDirect’s 21st year! Happy Birthday UKD.

Newshound aka Mark UKD171

 

iFly Boeing 747-400 in UKDirect ‘special livery’ for the F1 Tour.
Phil UKD101 has created a new timetable updated to co-incide with the F1 Season which you can fly as quick as you like, or match the real-world event or however you like. Pilots completing a successful tour will have a special F1 Tour badge next to their name on the roster.

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

 Some screenshots of UKDirect G-UKLW Captain James Cook., and G-UKZB a Boeing Dreamliner . They are freely available for download from the Fleet page.

Boeing

Boeing 737 Max update
Since the crash of Ethiopian 737 MAX steps have been taken to establish the cause of the crash, and to bring changes to any of the systems which may have contributed to the crash. Since the grounding deliveries of the Boeing 737 MAX have been suspended, with many airlines searching for alternatives to fill the void that has been left. Whilst speculation continues as to the exact fact, the investigation into the crash continues at a pace.
French investigation authority BEA has undertaken the job of extracting the data from the Ethiopian 737 MAX flight data recorders and the black box. This data will then be used by investigators and their teams to determine the exact cause and the scenario leading up to crash.

As operators around the world found themselves having to ground their Boeing 737 MAXs, the effect on the industry has been profound. With airlines such as Norwegian Air forced to cancel a whole host of transatlantic flights, and scale back on certain operations.
US low-cost carrier Southwest airlines grounded 31 of the type, resulting in significant cancellations across their network.

The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX looks to carry on well into the coming weeks and months. With Canadian flag carrier, Air Canada confirming the airline will not resume operations using their Boeing 737 MAXs until July at the earliest. Questions surrounding the aircraft's safety, along with concerns regarding the certification process, continue to dent confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX.

Boeing 737 Stall Escape manoeuvre, why MAX needs MCAS!!

Following the 2 fatal accidents of the Boeing 737 MAX within such a short period of time, the U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed that Secretary Elaine L. Chao has requested that as part of the DOTs ongoing review into the many and varied factors related to aircraft certification, the Inspector General should conduct an investigation into the certification process for the Boeing 737-MAX 8.

This investigation will consider whether any factors were overlooked during the certification process for the aircraft type, which was certified by the FAA on March 8th 2017 following a rigorous flight test programme which began in January 29th 2016.
In a written memo to the Department of Transportation, Secretary Elaine L. Chao wrote: “Safety is the top priority of the Department, and all of us are saddened by the fatalities resulting from the recent accidents involving two Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia
As you know, Boeing requested an amended type certification for this aircraft in January 2012, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued the certification in March 2017
To help inform the Department’s decision making and the public’s understanding, and to assist the FAA in ensuring that its safety procedures are implemented effectively, this is to confirm my request that the Office of Inspector General proceed with an audit to compile an objective and detailed factual history of the activities that resulted in the certification of the Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft. Please keep me apprised of the status of your work as it progresses.”

Airbus

Production of the A380 will halt in 2021 after Emirates reduced their order from 152 to 123 and converted the remainder to 30 A330-900s and 30 A350-900s. Airbus CEO Tom Enders said that with no new orders coming in the order backlog will be cleared by 2021 but, keep in mid that A380's will continue to fly for many more years. Upto 3,500 jobs may be impacted by this decision but it is hoped many can be transferred to other Airbus prodcution lines.


 

Best year for Airbus
With the delivery of 800 commercial aircraft in 2018, Airbus set themselves another record with deliveries up for the 16th year in a row.
Last year's 747 net orders increased the backlog to 7,577 aircraft, an industry record.

 

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Bombardier Launches New 50-Seater Aircraft

• The CRJ550 is a new aircraft type based on the CRJ700 platform, within Bombardier’s successful CRJ family
• This aircraft model is the first triple-class 50-seat aircraft in the world
  
   The CRJ550 is a new CRJ Series aircraft model, with a new type certificate based on the CRJ700. United Airlines is the launch customer of this new model with orders for 50 aircraft.
  “The new CRJ550 model is the only solution in North America that can replace the existing fleet of ageing 50-seaters, a market of over 700 aircraft, said Fred Cromer, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. The CRJ550 will feature a self-serve beverage and snack station and more overall legroom per seat than any other 50-seat aircraft flown by any U.S. carrier, in addition to all the benefits for which the CRJ Series aircraft are known.
   

ATR

ATR delivers its 1,500th aircraft

ATR on November 29 celebrated its 1,500th aircraft delivery with the entire ATR employee community

The ATR 72-600 (JA06JC) was delivered to Japan Air Commuter at the end of October. This represents the latest in a year of milestones for the market-leading regional aircraft manufacturer, after the delivery of the 1,000th ATR 72 in July and the 500th ATR -600 Series in August. Since its first delivery, over 30 years ago, ATR has become the leader in regional aviation

Since 2010, 75% of turboprop sales have been ATRs and the company currently has the largest market share of all regional aircraft. Nearly 500 50-seat ATR 42s and over 1,000 72-seat ATR 72s have been delivered to more than 200 operators in 100 countries. The company’s first aircraft programme, the ATR 42, was launched with the first delivery to French regional operator Air Littoral. ATR subsequently launched a larger version of the aircraft, the ATR 72, which was first delivered to Finnair. Since their respective launches, the ATR 42 and 72 have evolved with important improvements. The latest and most modern version of the aircraft, the -600 series, was launched in 2009, with the first delivery to Royal Air Maroc in 2011..

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14 JAN 2019   Boeing 707-3J9C   Saha Air  EP-CPP    C/n: 21128/917  First flight: 1976
Total: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 16       Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)

A Boeing 707-300 cargo plane, operated for the Iranian Air Force, has crashed near Karaj, Iran, in adverse weather conditions. According to first reports the plane carried 16 persons with 15 fatalities accounted for. One occupant survived the crash. The plane was destroyed.
The aircraft was transporting meat from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Payam International Airport, Iran. Instead of landing on runway 30 at Payam Airport, the aircraft landed on runway 31L at Fat'h Airport. The aircraft went off the runway, smashed through an airport wall and came to rest in a residential area near the airport. A fire broke out.

The runways of the airports of Payam at Fat'h are almost in line. The thresholds of runways 30 and 31L are 10 km apart. The Fat'h runway has a length of 1300 m while the Payam runway is 3659 m long.
Payam Airport offers VOR/DME, NDB/DME and NDB approaches to runway 30.

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21 JAN 2019   Piper PA-46-310P Malibu     Southern Aircraft Consultancy INC Trustee   N264DB   C/n: 46-8408037  First flight:  ?
Total: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2       Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)

The pilot of Piper PA-46-310P Malibu N264DB flew the aircraft and a passenger from Cardiff Airport, U.K. to Nantes Airport, France, on 19 January 2019 with a return flight scheduled for 21 January 2019. The pilot arrived at the airport in Nantes at 12:46 hrs on 21 January to refuel and prepare the aircraft for the flight. At 18:36 hrs the passenger, professional footballer Emiliano Sala, arrived at airport security, and the aircraft taxied out for departure at 19:06 hrs.
The pilot’s planned route would take the aircraft on an almost direct track from Nantes to Cardiff, flying overhead Guernsey en route. The Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight plan indicated a cruise altitude of 6,000 ft amsl and a distance of 265 nm.
The aircraft took off from runway 03 at Nantes Airport at 19:15 hrs, and the pilot asked ATC for clearance to climb to 5,500 ft. The climb was approved by Nantes Approach Control and the flight plan was activated.
The aircraft flew on its planned route towards Cardiff until it was approximately 13 nm south of Guernsey when the pilot requested and was given a descent to remain in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). The last radio contact with the aircraft was with Jersey Radar at 20:12 hrs, when the pilot asked for a further descent. The aircraft’s last recorded secondary radar point was at 20:16:34 hrs, although two further primary returns were recorded after this. The wreckage of N264DB was subsequently found on the seabed about 30 metres from the position of the last secondary radar point recorded by the radar at Guernsey. Both occupants had suffered fatal injuries.

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04 FEB 2019   Boeing 737-300    Tarco Airlines   registration unknown 
Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 91  Aircraft damage: None

Sudan Airways flight 103 was en route from Cairo, Egypt to Khartoum, Sudan, when a passenger attempted to enter the flight deck with the aim of hijacking the flight. He was overpowered by crew members and the flight was able to continue to Sudan.
The man was among a number of passengers being deported from Egypt back to Sudan.

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06 FEB 2019   Airbus A330-243    Thomas Cook, opf Condor   G-TCCF  C/n: 248  First flight:  1998
Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 337  Aircraft damage: None

An Airbus 330-200 aircraft operated by Thomas Cook Airlines, was conducting Condor Airlines flight CFG116 from Frankfurt/Rhein-Main (EDDF), Germany to Cancún Intl (MMUN), Mexico. During cruise flight, liquid was inadvertently spilled onto the number 1 Audio Control Panel (ACP), causing all lights on the unit to illuminate. Initially, the number 1 ACP, then the number 2 ACP became hot, and began to emit a burnt electrical odour. At approximate position 56°03'N/031°11'W, smoke started to come out from the number 1 ACP. The flight crew donned their oxygen masks, initiated a diversion to Shannon Intl (EINN), Ireland, and sent a MAYDAY message using ACARS. The flight crew jettisoned fuel in order to achieve maximum landing weight, and the aircraft landed at EINN without further incident. 1 passenger and 4 crew members were attended to by paramedics and sent to local medical facilities for a precautionary assessment before being released.

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08 FEB 2019   Convair C-131B Samaritan     Conquest Air Cargo   N145GT   C/n: 256  First flight:  1955
Total: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2       Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)

Flightnumber:QAI504 Narrative: Conquest Air Cargo flight 504, a Convair C-131B Samaritan cargo plane, ditched into the Atlantic Ocean off Miami, Florida, USA. One persone was rescued, by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. The Coast Guard conducted maritime and aerial searches for the missing pilot for approximately 21 hours and in an area of 364 square nautical miles. The search was then suspended. The aircraft departed Nassau, Bahamas at 11:13 hours local time on a cargo flight to Opa-Locka Airport, Florida, USA and climbed to the en route altitude of 4300 feet. At 12:03 hours, at a distance of 95 km from Opa-Locka, the aircraft began to lose altitude. The aircraft continued to lose height until it hit the sea about 12:15, 21 km off shore and 37 km from Opa-Locka. Photos from the scene suggest the aircraft broke up after it hit the sea, The left hand wing separated from the fuselage. Conquest Air Cargo reported to local media that the pilot declared an emergency and attempted a water landing.

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09 FEB 2019   Embraer ERJ-190AR (ERJ-190-100 IGW)    Kenya Airways   5Y-FFF  C/n: 19000594  First flight:  2013
Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0  Aircraft damage: None

A Kenya Airways Embraer ERJ-190AR (5Y-KYR) was being serviced on the apron at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya. Chocks were placed at the wheels. As the engine were powered, the aircraft jumped the chocks. It collided with another parked Kenya Airways Embraer ERJ-190AR (5Y-FFF). Both aircraft suffered serious damage.

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23 FEB 2019   Boeing 767-375ER (BCF) (WL) Amazon Prime Air     N1217A    C/n: 25865/430   First flight: 1992
Total: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3  Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)

Atlas Air flight 5Y3591, a Boeing 767-300 operated for Amazon Prime Air, was destroyed in an accident at Trinity Bay, near Anahuac, Texas, USA. All three crew members were killed. The aircraft departed Miami International Airport, Florida at 16:33 UTC (11:33 hours local time) on a cargo flight to Houston-George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Texas, USA. The cruising altitude of FL400 was reached after 20 minutes. Descent towards Houston was commenced at 18:07 UTC. About 18:37 UTC (12:37 local time) the aircraft entered a rapid rate of descent and impacted the water of Trinity Bay, approximately 60 km ESE of the destination airport.

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10 MAR 2019   Boeing 737 MAX 8   Ethiopian Airlines     ET-AVJ    C/n: 62450/7243   First flight: 2018-10-30 (4 months)
Total: Fatalities: 157 / Occupants: 157   Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa-Bole Airport, Ethiopia. There were no survivors among the 157 occupants. The aircraft took off from runway 07R at Bole Airport at 05:38 UTC (08:38 local time). The airline reports that contact was lost at 08:44 local time. In a press conference the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines stated that the pilot reported difficulties with the aircraft to ATC. He was given clearance to return to the airport.
Weather at the time of the accident was fine with a visibility of 10+ km, few clouds at 2500 feet.
Several countries/airlines have grounded the Boeing 737 MAX as a safety precaution in the wake of the fatal accident involving Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, the second loss of the type after the crash of Lion Air flight 610: all operators in China and Indonesia and Cayman Airways; Comair; Ethiopian Airlines; and Royal Air Maroc.

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17 MAR 2019   Boeing 747-281F(SCD)    Fars Air Qeshm   EP-FAB  C/n: 25171/886  First flight: Nov 1991
Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0  Aircraft damage: Unknown

Sole airworthy Boeing 747-281B of Fars Air Qeshm (EP-FAB) was damaged after cargo handling workers of Doha International Airport, Qatar mistakenly unloaded the cargo from the nose of airplane first last night.
 

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 frequency range is used by COM1 in (commercial) aviation ?
   118 - 137 MHz
   118 - 136 MHz
   108 - 137 MHz
   110 - 130 MHz

2> What does VHF stand for ?
   Vertical High Frequency
   Very High Frequency
   Very High Flight
   Vertical Horizontal Frequencies

3> How can you verify a radio beacon using the radios ?
   Its unique three letter code
   Its unique transponder code
   Its unique morse code
   Selecting the same beacon on both NAV1 and NAV2

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Flightsim News

QW Updates 787 Package

Greetings 787 Drivers!
We are excited to announce that Version 1.1.3 of our Ultimate 787 Collection is now available!
In an effort to continuously improve our 787, we have invested a lot of time into making this product much more stable, more realistic, more comprehensive  and more refined. In short we have made this product much more FUN to fly.
Leading the long list of fixes are significant stability improvements that eliminate random CTDs (crash-to-desktop) some users were experiencing. This was largely enabled by the automatic crash detection module we introduced with our previous update. Thank you to everyone who submitted reports!
The Flight Dynamics have been further refined for highly accurate fuel flow and climb performance. Further changes address issues related to Panelstate loading, the Autopilot, the Flight Management System, Displays and many more. The full changelog can be found at the end of this press release.

But as always this update does not only come with fixes but also some exciting new additions.
We are happy to introduce PBR (Physically Based Rendering) to our exterior models in Prepar3D v4.4. We highly encourage everyone to upgrade to the latest version of P3D to benefit from the improved visuals. PBR models will not be available for FSX and outdated versions of P3Dv4.
New in this version is also Remote CDU support for the Lower MFD and the Electronic Flight Bag.  This allows you to use any page on the lower display (most notably the CDU) on many different mobile devices such as an Android tablet or phone, iPhone, iPad, Amazon tablet, Windows Tablet or Windows phone.
For more information on Remote CDU, please visit www.flightsimapps.com

FreeMeshX Global 2.0

FreeMeshX is a global terrain mesh replacement for the stock terrain mesh and features LOD10 (38-m) coverage for almost the entire world. LOD10 is equal to the same terrain level of detail used for the USA in the stock scenery. The rest of the world varies from LOD6 to LOD9. FreeMeshX was created to bring the rest of the world up to the LOD10 standard as much as possible, although some regions of the world in the higher latitudes are still limited to LOD9 (76-m). Compiling the source data into LOD11 yields neglibible improvements and is mostly a waste of precious hard drive space.

FreeMeshX features LOD10 (38-m resolution) coverage for:

• North America (A separate LOD12 USA mesh is available for  beta testing)
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Australia and Oceania

A few regions are limited to LOD9 (76-m resolution):

• Antarctica
• Greenland
• Russian territories north of 60 N latitude

FreeMeshX was compiled using over 400 GB of raw terrain data. The final size of the product is 46 GB, making it one of the largest freeware projects ever for FS. It wouldn’t be in everyone’s best interests to download all 46 GB at once, so we are releasing the product the product into continental regions for a total of 7 regions total. Each continent contains a number of 10 deg x 10 deg titles, mosaicked from 1 deg x 1 deg tiles into a 2.5 GB file, and then compressed into a BGL file. Defragmentation is highly recommended for mechanical hard drives to ensure smooth and quick loading.

Largest improvements are found in regions that contained mainly the default LOD6 and LOD7 meshes. These included remote regions of Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Asia. Europe and Canada sees some improvement, but it’s LOD9 mesh is just a one level upgrade to LOD10. Subtle improvements for these previously LOD9 regions will be found mainly in the accuracy of the mesh and level of detail in mountain ranges.



http://ninetwopro.com/ - to download the files and check out news, updates, etc.
https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/24690/fsx-freemeshx-global-terrain-mesh-scenery-20/  - Alternative download. (slow)
How to install Freemesh X (all regions) on Prepar3D P3D V4 FSX Flight Simulator <<- Click here

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ORBX - TrueEarth Great Britain South - Official Video

https://orbxdirect.com/product/gbr-south   P3D V4.
:
Orbx recently released the hotly anticipated TrueEarth GB South for P3Dv4. This hot ticket region covers the south of England and Wales including popular areas such as London, Brighton, and Portsmouth. We also have hundreds of iconic UK landmarks from Tintagel to Cardiff City Stadium, from the Brighton Pier up to Buckingham Palace in London – all based on 2018 data.

TrueEarth Great Britain South for P3D only takes up 57 GB of disk space. It is far more compressed in file structure than XP11 because of the different sim data formats.

TrueEarth Great Britain South for Prepar3D version 4 is now available from OrbxDirect for AUD $54.95 (approx. USD $39.55 / €33.95 / £30.60)

P3D TWEAK & ADDON GUIDE 2019 - Prepar3D Addon Management & Settings [31.23]

In this video, I show you how to properly manage your addons using the add-on.xml method in Prepar3D. This means if you have to reinstall Prepar3D, you wont have to reinstall everything :)

 

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VFR Real Scenery NexGen 3D
Vol. 1: Southern England & South Wales

The first volume in Just Flight's new series of UK photographic scenery for P3D and FSX  is now on sale!

VFR Real Scenery NexGen 3D uses the very latest 25cm and 50cm aerial images at 1.2m ‘in sim’ resolution, rising to 60cm around airports, and combines these high-resolution photographic textures with accurately placed Autogen objects and additional custom scenery objects to give a true 3D feel to your VFR flights.

Features include multiple simulator support from a single installation, ultra-high 5m elevation mesh, optional custom night textures, compatibility with third party airport sceneries and water areas which are all fully landable. A Scenery Manager gives you full control over the scenery options and updates are automatically installed.
 

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