Two Flights, Two Different Extremes

After following along on an earlier RyanAir group flight, I decided to hop onto VATSIM with the intent of practicing my ATC skills in Europe.  I set up a flight from Munich, Germany (EDDM) to Liverpool, England (LGGP) via Thomson Airways flight # 165.  Unfortunately, as soon as I loaded up the 737-800 the controllers at Munich and the surrounding airspace went off-line.  So, I departed the runway and had an uneventful and uncontrolled flight to Liverpool.  The weather was cold and snowy at Munich so I was able to utilize the new de-icers offered in GSX.  I am also using PrecipitFX for added environment effects so it was entertaining to watch the de-icers do their work.  I was hoping at least London Control would stay on-line for the flight but it was not meant to be.  But, I would soon have my share of entertaining ATC....only this time, in China :-)

Later in the evening, I loaded up my 777/F in the Aerologic (German Cargo) livery and planned my route from VHHH (Hong Kong) to ZBAA (Beijing).  I flew as flight # LDL 165 and I mentioned in an earlier blog that I have flown out of Hong Kong twice in real life and I have also flown into Beijing twice.  In fact, I have flown into Beijing, Xi'an, Hefei, Guangzhou, and out of Hong Kong.  I located some freeware scenery for various China Airports and they are fairly good for being free.  The terminals at ZBAA are very recognizable and underwent a huge transformation for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  I have two young daughters from China which is why my wife and I have made our way through various airports and cities throughout China.  So, flying into and around virtual China is special for me and allows me to experience the perspective from the front of a tube liner :-)

I departed Hong Kong via 25L and flew the SID while climbing to FL330.  The views during the climbout were breathtaking and I spent quite some time looking out the window while locating recognizable land marks.  When in China in 2010 and 2013, we drove from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and entering Hong Kong provided some beautiful views of the harbor while crossing some large bridges.  It was nice to see the same from the virtual world and Taxi2Gate's VHHH scenery made it that much better.

I continued to FL330 and while en route, Beijing Center went on-line as did Beijing approach, tower and ground.  Wow, this was going to be fun.....and interesting.  I didn't know what to expect and I quickly realized heights were given in meters and not in feet.  Luckily, the PMDG 777 has a "meters" button so that part wasn't too bad.  But, the center controller had a very thick accent along with a crappy microphone.  I felt bad but ended up requesting instructions via chat and things worked out.  I continued my descent and thankfully, the approach and tower controllers had much better microphones and I was able to understand their instructions.  Another US based pilot, American Airlines # 187, arrived into the airspace at the same time from KORD so we had near simultaneous approaches into Beijing.  The weather was nice with some reduced visibility (if you've ever been to China or plan on going...expect reduced visibility at all times) and I kicked off the autopilot and touched down nicely on RWY 01.  Anyway, enjoy the screenshots.............

Add-ons used:

UKscenery2000 EGGP
PMDG 737-800 NGX
PMDG 777-200LR/F
Taxi2Gate VHHH
FSX China Freeware Scenery ZBAA

Orbx Global w/ Vector
Orbx FTX England
Orbx OpenLC Europe

Flight Environment
PrecipitFX w/ 777 Immersion
Active Sky Next
GSX

This is what happens when you try to take a screen shot while turning onto the active runway :-)