Flying to "The Rock" (LFPG-LXGB)

Today's flight took place from Charles de Gaulle Airport down to a small airfield located at the end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean.  Otherwise known as "Gibraltar."  The interesting fact about Gibraltar's airfield is that a main street travels across the single runway and traffic is controlled via dropped gates and signal lights during aircraft landings.  With a little help from Aerosoft, I was able to experience this with Sim Wing's rendition of the airfield and surrounding terrain/scenery.  

Aerosoft also released their much anticipated "big brother" to the Airbus A318/A319 in the shape of the Airbus A320/A321.  The aircraft installed without a hitch and I was parked at Gate D16 at Charles de Gaulle airport, ready for my first test flight.  Granted, going from one Airbus to another isn't very exciting since the interior and systems are the same.  The real difference comes in flight dynamics and size so I was excited to see the difference.  We pushed back from the gate and began our taxi to 08L.  While taxiing from the gate, I observed an Emirates Airbus A380 on approach to 08L.  Wow, what a large jet, even in the sim world :-)

We were cleared for take-off and the A321 quickly accelerated and we departed 08L via the AGOP4H departure.  ATC was handled via Pro-ATC X which worked great (until the end) and after a few minutes, we were cleared to our cruise altitude of 36,000 feet.  While climbing to our TOC, one thing became very obvious: The A321 is a dog in the climb.  I remember reading a complaint about the climb performance of the A321 on Aerosoft's forum and one response indicated the A321 is a poor climber in the real world as well.  I haven't done much research on the matter but it was certainly confirmed on this flight.  

Unfortunately, I missed my TOD point due to real life and even though the "pause at TOD" was set in the configuration options, I found my jet 8 miles past my TOD.  It is also possible that the sim was paused as described but unfortunately, my cat was lying across my keyboard when I returned to the sim.  Perhaps an inadvertent paw unpaused the sim?  Either way, I had to get down quickly and my passengers were not too pleased with my descent.  I contacted ATC and requested my descent which I was granted.  The Pro-ATC controllers handed me off as expected but unfortunately, after reaching an altitude of 5,500 feet per the instructions, I never heard from ATC again.  I continued with my approach and hand flew the jet onto RWY 27.  The passengers were quickly deboarded and plenty of grumbles were heard as they exited the jet.  Hey, we landed on time, right :-)  A few shots of the flight: