Maiden Flight

Hello fellow simmers and aviation enthusiasts,

Welcome to my Flight Simulation blog!

Here I will regularly post my FS9 flights in detail with a few screen shots. You will be able to find all sorts of information of my trips, such as weather, loads, arrivals/departures and many more...

Please feel free to comment so I can improve on the content of this space.

Before I commence on my flight review I would like to thank my good friend and fellow simmer, Al, for inspiring me on starting this blog. Without his encouragement and contribution I wouldn't have done it. Naturally, this first trip report is dedicated to him.

Al is an experienced and dedicated simmer who has an excellent blog himself. If you love this hobby and you already aren't aware of his blog you should be ashamed of yourself!

Ok then,

My first flight, SWR 25 (fictional) is from Rome Fiumicino Italy (LIRF) to Geneva Cointrin Switzerland (LSGG). The airport sceneries involved are respectively ISD and Dreamfactory. ISD's airports are excellent freeware material. The aircraft is the PSS A330-200pw.

Flight distance was roughly 400NM with the SID and STAR included at a cruise altitude of 35000 feet. The PSS fuel planner suggests higher altitudes for these short hops but I find it useless to ascend that high. In the perfect world of flight sim fuel is free so you don't have to care about economy anyway.

The flight plan was
LIRF GILIO UM729 ELB UL50 BANKO LSGG
Take-off from runway 16R following a Gilio 5C departure and a Banko 1N Rnav arrival to land on runway 05.

ZFW was around 330K lbs with a fuel load of 25K lbs, far from the limits of this powerful Airbus. One of the things I don't like about heavy aircraft is that they pack a punch and on light take-offs it's extremely difficult to control the speed. I should try a higher flex temperature the next time.

The weather in Rome was quite pleasant, a nice 26C with 6 miles visibilty, the wind, 105/13. Few clouds at 3000 feet and scattered at 6000.

I took a look at the LSGG metar and planned a runway 05 arrival since the winds forecasted were 072/10. This has to be confirmed later on approach to Geneva once the ATIS is received.

Pushed back from the stand and ready for taxi


Note the fuel on board. I forgot to set the correct fuel amount and wondered why in the hell my V-speeds were so high. Luckily I noticed it at this point and reloaded the planned amount of 25K lbs.

You can also see the incoming aircraft on the ND landing on 16L.

BTW, Air Canada 891 departed just before me, I would have caught up with it but I had to sort out the excessive fuel issue in the MCDU so I couldn't get a shot of the 767.

Passing 10000 feet, signs and lights off, time for a smoked salmon sandwich and a Pellegrino to wash it down...


Cruise flight at 35000 feet with a mild headwind was uneventful. The flight took me over the west coast of Italy and the Alps. Just prior to the TOD there were thunder storms to my left but no problems for me.

Default FS ATC was spot on with the ILS 05 Indis transition approach. Despite it's limits I don't think it's that bad.

The PSS A340 Pro handles VNAV descents quite well so I easily captured the G/S which is quite a difficult task at LSGG since it starts at a high 7000 feet right after the base turn.

Due to xwind my approach was a little messy, look at the angle. I'm obviously still a novice on this type...My VREF was 145 knots in case you're curious.
Also, note the PAPI-G/S discrepancy, a well-known FS problem. You can't fix it for the Dreamfactory

Geneva either (at least I can't) since the PAPIs are embedded someplace in the scenery itself.


The landing was bad too, I floated a bit but the runway here is 12000 feet so no sweat.

Taxing to the gate, these guys are kindly waiting for me, the TAP 321 is bound for Lisbon and the AFR 318 to Paris Charles-de-Gaulle.


Thanks for viewing and please comment!