Eastern Europe

How much has it been since FSX came out? 3-4 years...? Yet we still see plenty of FS9 shots in the Screen Shot forums on Avsim and flightsim.com. FS9 is getting better everyday despite its old age thanks to dedicated and very talented guys (and gals?) like Mateusz from MK Studios. Their recent EPWA scenery is just stunning. These folks just published an updated version which takes care of the minor bugs of the previous versions. On a side note, there are other beautiful Polish sceneries, such as Gdansk or Poznan. Both of them payware quality.

And then how can ISD be forgotten with their wonderful Milan and Rome airports...? (as well as others)

A big thank you goes to those indivdual developpers who've contributed freely to FS9 with their invaluable work.

My last flight was from Warsaw to Kiew, both airports being excellent freeware gems. The UKBB is slightly older but is top quality. I highly recommend it if you're flying around in those skies.

Route

Flight Air Italy 827, callsign "8WJ" was operated by the 757-200, a type commonly used by this airline, which incidentally features in a great WAR episode.

The preflight didn't take long as the route was fairly short, only a hair over 400NM. I always set my arrival route and runway in the FMC depending on the forecasts, which do frequently change enroute.

By a Polish spotter


Warsaw was having a pleasant summer day this Saturday evening, mild winds from the southwest and 21C, CAVOK conditions.

Starting number 1


Traffic wasn't as much as I anticipated at Okecie. Maybe I hadn't set my flight at a peak hour.

Lovely scenery by MK Studios


Unless you already know, there are 2 runways at EPWA. They're intersecting runways so it's may not be wise to use them simultaneously considering how well AI interacts. Plus, you can't set an arrival and departure runway separately since operations change according to the wind directions. In this case you can use 2 different afcad files or just keep all runway open for both operations. I usually go for the former but in Warsaw's case I chose to keep all runways open.

Being closer to runway 11 I was cleared to that one for take-off. I asked for runway 15 with a longer taxi to take a better look at the scenery as it was at the other end of the airport. I have to say it, Mateusz, you've done an awesome job!

Lining up


Take-off was smooth and easy for today's light configured 757, rotation speed was around 140 KIAS. I climbed on the Maria 1D departure which is basically staight ahead from runway 15 to waypoint Maria.

I noticed somthing I hadn't before in this aircraft. At start-up the instrument needles were illuminated in red and stayed that way untill the generators kicked in. Either this is intentionnally done for situational awareness, which is cool on the part of PSS, or it was some sort of a bug. I can't be sure but I loved it. I have to pay more attention next time.

Maria 1D departure


Enroute weather was calm, despite mild turbulence at cruise altitude. The visbility was good with no clouds and I could make out the cities below.

Weather check for arrival


Calm or variable winds are very tricky in FS as far as arrivals are planned. In the above shot the Active Radar is showing easterly winds at UKBB. However, a few minutes later I was cleared to 36R and had to change the entries in FMC. The metar was indicating winds 343 at 8 with clouds 4000 broken and 19C at the time of my landing.

After the CH NDB I flew directly to the TR NBD and then intercepted the ILS for runway 36R. The stock ATC let's you fly the TR NDB transition by the way.

The charts instruct you to be at 1800 feet prior to localizer intercept which produced a close ground view which can be seen below.

Intercepting the localizer


The winds were constantly shifting on final, adding some challenge to the sluggish feel of the 757. Flying the glidepath manually was a real joy.

Final for the ILS 36R


If this isn't the best part of the flight, I don't know what is. Those approach lights are breathtaking.

"Landing!"


My touchdown was a bit firm, due to the variable winds. Of note, I forgot to arm the spoilers as I was too busy trying to capture screen shots!

Entering the terminal area


The taxi back to the stand was long and boring, not much traffic and this is an airport I've flown to and from in FS several times.

Block time for this flight was 1 hour and 20 minutes.

At UKBB


I definitely have to do at least one more flight to or from the lovely EPWA. I made some tweaking with the runways so I want to see if they work as intended. A flight to Warsaw can certainly be expected.

Thanks for viewing