Khartoum to Amman

This will be my last flight for this month of July. It seems I have managed a flight every 3 days. I could have done better, actually, considering that I'm currently unemployed and have a rather "calm" social life. Still, considering the number of flights, July apparently has been a good month between our 2 blogs with Al.

Before I get on with the details, I want to say that I discovered Vroute. Knowing my taste, Al suggested I give it a try and just like all the other stuff he occasionally recommends to me, Vroute proved to be an excellent tool for realistic planning. I especially loved the flight card feature as you can export it to pdf format, print it and fill in many details during the flight like departures, arrivals, runways, fuel at waypoints, etc...

The Vroute database, however, seems to be concentrated around Europe and didn't have a plan for this route so I submitted one myself. Again, cool feature on the possibility of submitting. Here it is:

MRW UA727 NUBAR A727 LXR A145 ASRAB R650 NWB W733 METSA R652 QTR

Total block time for UPS 702 on this 1050NM route was 2 hours and 39 minutes.

The winds at Khartoum airport were 260/13 with CAVOK conditions so runway 18 was in use. This suited me fine since I was parked really close to it. My take-off weight was 197K lbs, 32K of it consisting of fuel. Once airborne I flew the ALP2 SID to the north to join the UA727 airway at the MRW VOR.

"Rotate!" Take-off rwy 18

Take-off is a real pleasure in the 757 as it's very powerful and reaches the rotation speed easily. Too bad the PSS doesn't have callouts as I have to do them myself...

As I was relatively light I went for derated thrust (TO1).

Climbing over Khartoum


No turbulence here, no returns on the wx radar either. The mild tailwind which appeared at around 20000 feet stayed with me all the way to Amman.

I flew along the Nile upto Egypt, over the holiday resorts of Hurgada and Sharm El Sheikh, crossed the northern tip of the Red Sea and entered Jordan.

Cruising at FL380


Nothing to report for cruise flight, I heard no AI on the net as I don't have any which belong to this region. Traffic and ATC chatter increased once I reached Egypt with lots of EgyptAir and Jordanian.

The Vroute flight card, has spaces (among others for different purposes) where you can note down the fuel at each waypoint. Some might think this is pointless but I personally loved it. It adds to the feel of "playing pilot"

The good old FS ATC started my descent just a couple of miles before my vertical profile and continued correctly with the futher descent instructions.

Weather forecast for OJAI made me plan for a landing on 26L via the OTR2W arrival. FS agreed and cleared me to the ILS approach for 26L around 60 miles out.

On the QTR2W STAR, note the published approach for the ILS 26L on the ND


I wanted to test the HOLD caracteristics of the PSS but never had the opportunity because holds are boring in FS as in real life. I got to try it out here for the ILS 26L approach, though. The aircraft had no problem intercepting and flying it, another plus for this add-on.

I exited the hold and intercepted the localizer for a long 15NM or so final. Luckily, no AI near me. 2 Jordanian flights landed about 10 minutes before me.

Winds at OJAI were 253/13 with visibility 5NM and 32C.

Final approach 26L


You can see in the above shot thay my thrust mode is set to G/A. This time I set it manually by pressing the TOGA thrust mode button just above the flap indicator.

My landing was perfect, a real greaser without any floating, thanks mostly to a steady headwind. After a short taxi I shut down at cargo stand 2.

Offloading at cargo stand 2


I doubt UPS flies this route or even in this region for that matter. In my perfect world of Flight Sim every company and type can fly anywhere regardless of slots, politics, conflicts, load factors, etc...

I like to fly real routes but I would find it to be extremely restraining if I had to stick only to them.

Also, both sceneries here are default and may look somewhat bland. As my interests are mainly centered around the aircraft and SID/STAR procedures, I don't mind it. Hopefully, the new ADE9 program will contribute to the improving of stock airports.

I have no idea where I'll be flying next...

Thanks for viewing