Flight of the month: April 2003

By Hans Linde

With my first contribution I will take you on a trip to my backyard, as Ron has done in January. The flight consists of two legs with different planes, a warm up (semi-) VFR-sightseeing flight over my house and a second leg to Berlin, the capital of Germany and my place of birth.

Scenery add-ons, recommended by your Sightseeing Consultant

I recommend to pop up the event with some addons. Most of the task will work without them, but with less fun, I assume. Mesh is senseless at this part of the world, the terrain mainly is FLAT. Download the April FOTM addon pack.

Scenery file "Hannover and surroundings" with airports EDVM, EDDV and ETNW

This file isn´t online anywhere else. It´s part of a freeware VFR-Germany project for FS2000 which unfortunately passed away a few months ago. The scenery will work fine in FS2002. Somewhere in the scenery lies a hidden frame rate eater, you will see frame rates differ depending on the course (and view direction). No fatal error either. Turn off autogen in order to keep it from messing up the scenery. Don´t fly during winter. No winter textures.

Scenery file "my house"

This is my first little scenery, brand new, especially made for you. It places my house at the right location in the south of Hannover.

Scenery of Berlin-Tempelhof Airport (EDDI)

  by Jan Bleiss

This scenery is for FS2000, unfortunately the author went to the commercial section and until today there is no FS2002 freeware addon for EDDI as far as I know. This scenery is no. 1 eye candy and it will generally work with FS2002. Bugs: diverting coordinates to the default 2k2-location which means grass taxiing AI traffic und wheel bumping on unhardened surfaces. If you use 2k2, turn AI off or use my AFCAD-file “eddi_afcd.txt” from "eddi_fix.zip".  It roughly fixes start-up position and AI-traffic problems, but is far from being perfect. The file “eddi_fix.zip” also contains a scenery fix which flattens and hardens surfaces for use in 2k2. This makes the scenery (almost) 2k2-compatible. To install follow the readme1st.

OPTIONAL (not part of the pack):

  Scenery files for Berlin

Download files from Flightsim.com

blnvfr2.zip FS2002 Scenery Berlin

blnvfr2m.zip FS2002 Scenery Berlin - Fix (contains missing textures)

by Dirk Schoenbach

This is for FS2002 only.

Leg 1: VFR-flight EDVM-ETNW (former EDNW)

Hildesheim-Wunstorf (25 nm)

Maps/Infos:

EDVM http://www.flugplatz-hildesheim.de/anflug.htm

ETNW http://www.kondruss.com/mad/DE_W.HTM

(scroll down to "Wunstorf", click jpg.)

Hildesheim (www.hildesheim.de) is a small town with many old buildings from the middle age and a history which can be traced back to the times of the Roman Empire. It is located app. 15 miles south-southeast of the City of Hannover (500 000 inhab.), the capital of the Federal State of Lower Saxony, the place where I live and work. (www.hannover.de, don´t miss the Hannover slide show and the fotos of the EXPO 2000 event on the homepage of my former collegue Frank, http://www.fboller.de/fotos/hannover/index.html , http://www.fboller.de/expo2000/index.html )

The airfield is located north of the town. It has been upgraded with a tarmac runway a few years ago. The reason for us to depart from here is that my agencies headquarters are located directly opposite the main airport building. When I´m here about twice a month to listen to our big boss´ voice, I can watch the GA-traffic of the airstrip through the huge window of the main meeting room. You can imagine it´s hard to keep my president suspecting that I´m not always listening the way I should.

Our destiny will be Wunstorf (ETNW), a military airfield in the west of Hannover which hosts a pilots training camp and a fleet of C-160 "Transall" cargo planes of the German Air Forces ("Luftwaffe"). In reality we wouldn´t be allowed to land here without an urgent emergency, but in virtual reality we can. We must, because we have a mission waiting for us there. This has to do with german history and one of the most tremendous and unbelievable efforts ever undertaken in the history of aviation, as you will see. But let´s take one step at a time.

The startup file “edvm_start” will correctly place the default Skyhawk at a parking lot at EDVM. If you run the addon scenery in 2k2, I recommend to use it, otherwise you have to slew the plane to a correct place because of 2k-2k2 coordinate shift. Change the plane if you want. Myself I flew with Carenados Cessna 152, a nice little plane you can download as freeware from the www.carenado.com website. I like it because this probably would be the plane to fly if I ever could achieve enough time and money to go for a PPL license at Hildesheim. (pic01)

Flight

After startup procedures we ask for VFR-clearance northbound. Set the ADF to 419 kHz for the Wunstorf-NDB (WUN)

After takeoff from 07 eastbound we climb for one minute and turn left to a heading of app. 315, following the B6-road and the A7-highway northbound, speed app. 90 knots. About four minutes after takeoff we´re passing the small town Sarstedt. Turn to 330 and after another two minutes you can see some huge gray buildings and a red-white coloured aerial mast appearing in front of you. These are the premises of the Hannover fair. (pic02)

Descent to app. 300 feet and fly towards the mast. Leave it close to the left when passing and turn to 310. You should head directly towards my house in the suburb "Hannover-Mittelfeld". If you can´t see it, circle on the north side of the fair premises until you can identify it. I live in the northern part of the duplex house. Take a screenshot, wiggle your wings, I will wave back when I´m at home. (pic03, pic04. Exact location N52 19,95 E 09 47,58)

Climb up again when finished and head directly towards WUN, HDG 310. Hannover downtown should on be your right side. After a few minutes you will realize a lake at the horizon in front of you. This is the "Sea of Steinhude" (It´s really called "sea", not "lake"), ETNW lying at the south beach of the lake. Shortly before you reach the NDB, turn left into final to RWY 27.

While taxiing to the parking lot passing all the Transalls (pic05), you realize another plane waiting at ETNW: an oldtimer Douglas C-54 Skymaster named "Spirit of Freedom". (pic06) Well, I guess, it´s impossible to surprise you guys and you´ve been knowing all the time where this plot will lead you:

Leg 2: IFR-flight ETNW-EDDI: "Candy Bomber" to Berlin

Wunstorf  -  Berlin-Tempelhof

In memory of the Berlin Airlift, 1948/1949

Historical Background

Read the whole story here: http://www.billvons.com/bal/part1.htm

Personal Background

Both of my parents were born and raised in the western part of Berlin and still live there until today. In 1948 they were teenagers. Even now, more than fifty years later, you hear the emotion in their voices when they talk about their memories of that time. They probably were too old to run for the candy parachutes but they tell how the continuing noise of the engines above was a sweet lullaby every evening. A few years earlier, in the bomb nights of WWII, this noise had meant fear, death and destruction. Now it meant survival. It meant they still were part of the free world. When weather circumstances forced a pause, every man and woman in West-Berlin raised their eyes towards the sky and fearful hoped for the moment to hear the song continue.

Without "Operation Vittles" I wouldn´t have grown up in a free and democratic country. When I was a kid in the sixties I often stood at the Tempelhof airfield fence at the place where the kids stood about eighteen years ago to welcome "Uncle Wiggly Wings". (Long, long ago for the mind of a seven year old boy.) I watched the last Pan-Am DC-7 coming down the same glideslope as their C-54 sisters, before the jet age also dawned in Germany, the old props were sent to retirement and the 727 arrived.

Some people think that it´s not reasonable to evaluate the events in such a romantic way. They say that the allies saved West-Berlin not for the sake of humanity or democracy but for the sake of global political strategy at the beginning of an era which later would be called the "cold war". They say that the allies would have sacrificed West-Berlin within days, cold hearted, if it would have served their own interests. I think I´m not the one to reason about that. Perhaps there were some polititians thinking in such categories. But people like captain Halverson and his fellow airmen, I´m convinced the majority of them dedicated their efforts to an idea, the idea of freedom and humanity. The brain of a cold-hearted strategist wouldn´t be able to come up with candy-parachutes for hungry children. This is something which lies beyond the horizon of his mind.

Fact is, after the airlift the term "occupying powers" ("Besatzungsmaechte") meaning the western allies USA, Britain and France, was a term never again used in West-Berlin and West-Germany. From these days until they left as friends after the german reunion in 1990, when The Wall ( www.dieberlinermauer.de ) came down and the last totalitary regime vanished from german soil since 1933, the allies were referred to as the "protecting powers" ("Schutzmaechte").

Plane

Well, I´m afraid you´re beginning to think that this damned flight task involves more reading than flying. Here´s the plane I recommend (if you don´t already have it):

Douglas C-54 Skymaster

http://members.lycos.co.uk/Berlin_flightsim/down071.html (2k2 only)

You´ll need the "Spirit"-livery too. Maybe Tony will also have the Club´s version finished when you´re reading this. (ed. note: it is ready :-))

If you feel more comfortable with a DC-3/C-47, fine.

Interesting: Classic flight tips http://www.calclassic.com/tips.htm

Flight

In the real airlift this flight never took place in this way. Wunstorf then was a british RAF-airfield and the british C-47 were directed to Berlin-Gatow. The american Skymasters came from Frankfurt EDDW through the southern corridor with destination EDDI. The middle corridor which we will fly eastbound towards Berlin was dedicated only to the westbound traffic back to the homebases. Shortest way out! (View the original traffic pattern at http://www.billvons.com/bal/bal_routes_lg.gif )

This doesn´t matter because the flight will take place in the year 2003. I didn´t manage to organize a time machine for you. We´re going to take the "Spirit of Freedom" (or any other plane you choose) out of Wunstorf to Berlin-Tempelhof for a virtual flight show taking place next week. But for the sake of fun and challenge we decide to limit ourselves to the navigation aids of the years of 48/49 which will mean only NDB-navigation is allowed. Exception: ILS-approach at EDDI. It´s a pity but I´m afraid GCA-approach (ground controlled approach) isn´t implemented in the sim. So we don´t have any radar controllers "talking us down" which was the standard procedure in that days, allowing a traffic density up to 20 planes per hour. (3 minutes distance). The only way to simulate this in the sim is a hand-flown ILS-approach. So hands off the AP and chase the needles. Imagine you hear the voice of the radar controller reporting: "left and above centerline, left and above, left of centerline, left of centerline, on centerline, on centerline . . . ")

You can fly any time of the day and (nearly) any weather you want. The limit for approach is a ceiling of 400 feet AGL and a visibility of 1 nm at the field. Below this limits you can´t land and you´re ordered back to homebase. (Headquarters order: Court-martial and reduce to co-pilot anyone who brakes the rule. Hello Bill! Can you hear me, Bill? J )

NOTAM: Despite of the weather you´ve got only ONE shot to bring her down at EDDI. Missed approach procedure is: going back! In 1948 you would have had a bunch of birds coming from behind, like pearls on a necklace, with a distance of three minutes all the way back to homebase. No time and no airspace for circling and a second attempt.

Before we go into start-up procedure, let´s take a look at the flight plan:

ETNW - BRU – DBR – EDDI   (145,8 nm)

ETNW-BRU (Braunschweig) 43,5 nm, HDG 101 degrees (BRU NDB 427 kHz)

BRU-DBR (Helmholtz) 98,8 nm, HDG 084 degrees (DBR NDB 347 kHz)

DBR-EDDI 3,5 nm (ILS RWY 09R 109,70 MHz)

You can´t use the MU (Magdeburg) NDB. It was on the enemys grounds in 1948.

Fly the plane fully loaded. It´s full of flour and wheat.

After engine startup taxi to RWY 09. After takeoff fly straight ahead HDG 101. Tune in 427 kHz for BRU and wait until you receive the beacon app. when passing EDDV on the left side of the plane. Climb to assigned cruise level of 6000 feet. Maintain an airspeed of 170 knots to Berlin. After passing BRU turn to HDG 084 from. You will now enter east german airspace in a few minutes. After some 40 nm you will loose BRU and have to fly about 20 nm (7 minutes) without navaids before catching DBR ahead. Watch out to hold your course. Leaving the allied corridor would have resulted in a hassle with a bunch of MIGs appearing on both of your wingtips. Watch speed and time to calculate begin of descent and app. arrival time. As soon as you catch the ILS for RWY 09R, directly follow the ILS down. Don´t use the AP once you´re on the localizer.

If you miss the approach, climb and go back to Wunstorf at 7000 feet.

If this is too easy:

Wait for winds from the west and fly the RWY 27 departure at ETNW and a procedure turn over DIP (Planter, 327 kHz) to circle into the 27L approach (ILS 109.50) at EDDI. Plan your descent to cross over DIP at 2000 feet. If you come down at 27L, watch out the houses! Dangerous approach. (pic07, pic08)

IMPORTANT NOTAM:

If you decide to use the Bleiss EDDI addon, be aware of the following:

Because of 2k/2k2 coordinate shift of the airport the DBR and DIP NDB aren´t aligned correctly to the 09R/27L runway. So you CAN NOT fly a correct NDB-approach.

Leg 3 (optional): EDDI - Brandenburg Gate - EDDT

This is an optional chopper flight. You don´t have to do it if you don´t like it and you don´t have to report it. Just take one or two screenshots if you fly. Any more heli pilots out there besides Bill?

US-secretary of state Donald Rumsfeld  is visiting Berlin to celebrate the german-american friendship. After he landed at EDDI, you have to take him to the Brandenburg Gate in the center of the city where he will attend a ceremonial act with chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and  foreign affairs minister Joschka Fischer.

Fly any chopper you want. I recommend Dirk Fassbenders AS532 Cougar in "Luftwaffe"-livery. Dirk is a real Cougar-pilot and belongs to the Luftwaffe-Heli staff in Berlin. They operate three Cougars for VIP-transport. (pic09)

(www.dirkfassbender.de Download the helicopter from www.flightsim.com )

Turn north after takeoff. Land directly on the east side of the Brandenburg Gate.

( http://www.ralle-rohrbeck.de/Brandenburger-Tor-2.jpg )  It´s located app. one mile west of the tall TV-Tower in Berlin downtown. (pic10) After dropping your guest, fly to Berlin-Tegel homebase (EDDT).

NOTAM: The Cougar is a FS2000-plane. In FS2002 there´s a gear retraction bug. Retracting and lowering the gear will only work while being in the pause-mode.

The Brandenburg Gate is part of the standard scenery. You can find it without installing any addon scenery.

A little on the side:

If you liked the airlift plot, go to Bill von Sennets airlift page and take a look at his historical sceneries. (http://www.billvons.com/bal/scenery/) He also offers original airlift flight plans.

Make some more VFR-trips in the Hannover scenery area and discover the airstrips of Verden (EDWV), Rinteln (EDVR) or Nienburg (EDXI).

Another possibility is an airline flight from EDDI back to Hannover-Langenhagen (EDDV) Take Rick Pipers British European Airways Vickers Viscount.
(pic11, http://www.btinternet.com/~rick.piper/) When I was a kid I could identify the characteristic whistle of the turboprop engines without even looking out of the window.

Next time it´s my turn for a FOTM I promise there will be less text to read. You might have realized that the theme I covered had to do with a lot of personal memories.

Have fun, fellows.  

Download Scenery and Instructions  (4mb)

Download scenery patch