Rik's FOTM

 

Regular visitor's to this website will recall that one of the founding members of this group was Rik Vyverman of Belgium. Rik is a real world pilot & when he was offered a job with Thomas Cook Airlines in Belgium, he had to resign from Toomuchfs.com to concentrate on his flying career.

We have been in regular contact with 'Wolfboy' & he recently completed his conversion to the Airbus A320. So he has offered a 'Guest' Flight of the Month for all you would be 'jet jockeys' to see how you compare to the real thing!

This is a long flight that approaches the endurance limit of the A320 in a maximum payload configuration. It will take approx. 5 hours to complete, & you'll be quite heavy.

The challenge will be to fly the route as prescribed with YOU deciding how much fuel to take on the flight so that you arrive at Brussels with 2000 to 2200kg (4380 to 4850lbs) of fuel remaining in your tanks!!

 

THE PLANE

I naturally suggest you fly with a Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium A320 livery. They are all available at Flightsim.com: OO-TCI, -J, -H, -F, -B & -C. Three aircraft in our fleet are CFM-56 powered (27.5Klbs thrust rating), with the other 3 being IAE-V2500 powered (25Klbs thrust rating - 27.5Klbs when using thrust bump).

There are several air files available from Flightsim.com. Testing by Peter Stark suggests that the Airbus320-200-CFM-56-5B4.air file (pra32092.zip) is quite realistic in performance terms.

 

THE ROUTE

You'll be flying from Hurghada (Egypt) to Brussels (Belgium). The flight plan will take you on the following route:

 

HEGN RWY34 - direct SHM - A411 - CVO - A1 - SOKAL - UL607 - TANSA -

UN138 - KRK - UL995 - BRD - UL612 - UVOKA - UL612 - CHI - UZ906 - BZO -

UL12 - KPT - UL608 - RIDSU - T881 - ROLIS - T880 - LENDO - UT880 -

BATTY - BATTY1A - EBBR RWY25L.

You can download the relevant flightplan from the links below:

FS Navigator

FS2002/FS9

(Note: The route is a close approximation of the actual route due to

some waypoint limitations in FS2002/FS9. If you use an FMC with an up

to date AIROC, you can fly the exact route.)

Total Distance: 2073nm

Alternate to EBBR: EBOS, 87nm

Cruise Speed: 450kts TAS or MACH 0.78

 

WEATHER

  • Use Real Weather or the following:

  • HEGN/HRG/HURGHADA: Wind 350°/26 knots, ceiling & visibility OK, Temp 36°C, QNH 1003.

  • EBBR/BRU/BRUSSELS: Wind 010°/3 knots, 4000m visibility, 18°C, QNH 1007.

  • The weather in Hurghada is quite warm, but fortunately the runway is about 4km long so you shouldn't have too much trouble.

 

You can normally expect an average headwind component of 16

knots for this journey.

Limitations: At UVOKA, you can climb to FL380. At RASOK you should descend

to FL240.

 

WEIGHTS

Zero Fuel Weight: 58070 kg (128,033 lbs)

Payload: 14050 kg (30.975 lbs)

Max. Takeoff Weight: 77000 kg (169,750 lbs)

Max. Fuel: 19050 kg (42,000 lbs)

 

THE FUEL!!

You will need to allow for the following:

• Entire trip HEGN-EBBR

• 5% of the trip fuel for contingency reasons

• Fuel to get to your alternate (EBOS) if required

• Fuel to hold overhead your alternate for 30 minutes

SOME HINTS!

1. Add 200kg (440 lbs) fuel for your taxi.

2. The A320 consumes appx. 40kg (88lbs) fuel per minute in cruise.

3. If you have an FMC (Wilco's A320 PIC or Phoenix Simulations A320)

Good Luck!!

Rik Vyverman, Brussels

(Aided & abetted by Peter Stark, wizard@toomuchfs.com)

December 2004