Bosphorus

When I downloaded the new LROP 2009 and took a look at it by flying around in the Robinson, I loved it, I had to fly there. The guys at RSDT have done an excellent job, the older version was very good too but this one is magnificent! Thank you guys for your contribution to this hobby.

I'm not really a scenery guru but I have a lot of respect for people who do freeware sceneries for FS. It's one hell of a job you folks do to improve the simming experience!

I'm not much of an FS9-FSX debater either, I enjoy FS9, others FSX, that's fine. That said, FS9 has an enormous amount of add-ons, freeware and payware, it's one big advantage over the newer FS.

Anyway, this review covers my latest flight from my home city of Istanbul, hence the title, to Bucharest. The 320NM flight route was planned as the following:

LTBA ERTAS UN617 MAKOL UL602 KOMAN M977 OBUGA LROP

TK 1443 serves this Istanbul - Bucharest everday of the week with a 738 except for Saturdays, on which an A320 is operated.

I loaded my flight with 139 passengers and cargo of 7700lbs. This totaled to a ZFW of 124000lbs, add in the 12000lbs of fuel and you have the GW.

Weather in Istanbul was a beautiful summer day with calm winds, clear skies and 30C. A Perfect day to hit the pool actually.

Boarding at gate 219


A while ago, it was possible to listen to the tower and approach frequencies on Liveatc. I don't know why but the feed is no longer there. It's a shame really because I enjoyed listening to the different accents of pilots from all over Europe and Asia. The net was exceptionnally interesting to listen on stormy days with controllers and pilots constantly asking about cells, visibility and wind.

By the way, for the record, initial altitude clearance here at LTBA is 9000 feet and then 16000 feet.

I worked on my afcad file for LTBA so I could get realistic runway usage. When the winds are from the South, runway 18L is used for take-off and landing, 18R for take-off and runway 24 is landing only.

Ready to go rwy 18L, a Gulf Air 320 is taxing to the active on the left. I wasn't aware that this airline served Istanbul


I had planned an ERTAS 1T departure, however, right after take-off I bypassed waypoint ERTAS and executed a Direct-to to waypoint Makol. This is a real procedure at LTBA. As you might know, Direct-to's are common in real life so I like to simulate them in FS from time to time.

Direct Makol, climbing over the city of Istanbul


Cruise flight at 30000 feet was uneventful with a mild headwind and no clouds. They started to build up just before the top of descent and it was bumpy all the way down, I even had a hard time slowing down below 10000 feet.

The STAR was Obuga1E with a landing on 08L, just as I had planned. As much I like playing around with the FMC, I hate it when FS assigns you to another runway and you have to start all over again while you have to keep an eye on the speed and altitude. No co-pilots in FS!

Bumpy approach into Henri Coanda airport


The approach phase is undoubtably my favorite, there is lots of work to do and you have to monitor the speed and altitude, as well as other aircraft. It must be pretty stressful in real life.

Turning to intercept the localizer for runway 08L


Luckily no interceptor AI in the vicinity, you can't see it but there is one on the approach to the same runway, the Tarom A319 was about 5 miles behind me and landed as I vacated the runway. Perfect timing!

Short final, time to go manual


My landing was quite good, no floating (not this time!) followed by a smooth touchdown. The 738 has a high Vref attitude so I went for autobrakes 1 and used reversers too.

Gate A12, this scenery has great apron features! You can activate them via the NAV2 frequency


I hope you enjoyed this review. Thanks for viewing.