June 9, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
After a relaxing few days along the eastern coast of Australia, our tour departs Cairns headed west for Broome, Australia. Our tourists will spend a few days in this Australian coastal city doing a little pearl hunting and seeing many of the other sights around the area. The excitement is high and the morale of the passengers is very good. Our flight today will be an equipment transfer for TigerAir. TigerAir is one of Australia’s low-cost airlines and in addition to shuttling our tourists from Cairns to Broome, we’re also assisting TigerAir by moving this Boeing 737-800 over to Broome. While this flight leg is not the longest we’ll experience during our tour, it’s one of the longest we’ll complete in the 737. As will be the case in each of these tour updates, I’ll post an updated route map showing our progress. The blue icons are yet to be visited and the magenta icons are those destinations we can check off the list. Finally, in addition to the screenshots telling our flying journey, I hope you are also enjoying learning a little something about the cities, countries, airports and airlines along our journey. I certainly am.
An updated version of our tour map showing Cairns as visited.
History of City
Broome is a coastal, pearling (as in pearl hunting) and tourist town in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. According to the 2016 census, Broome has a population of 16,000 but grows to over 45,000 in the peak tourist season.
History of Country
As for Australia, officially named the “Commonwealth of Australia” which is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area. Neighboring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor. Our tour will actually visit both Indonesia in just a few legs and PNG towards the end as we make our way back to Sydney.
History of Airport
The Broome airport is a regional hub of the northwestern part of Western Australia and is the 20th busiest airport in Australia. It also has just one runway measuring 7,769 feet (2,368 meters) in length and is one of the reasons we’re once again flying a Boeing 737.
Like Cairns, the Broom airport is a payware add-on airport from Orbx.
History of Airline
Today we are flying for Tiger Airways. TigerAir is an Australian low-cost airline which began operations in 2007. While TigerAir does operate out of Cairns, it does not fly to Broome. I was rather limited due to runway length so I chose to fly the 737-800 once again for this flight and was also limited in the choice of airline livery I could locate on the internet. Just as a point of reference, there are no real-world flights which operate direct between Cairns and Broome. Passengers wishing to fly between these destinations in the real world would most likely connect through major hubs in either Sydney, Perth or Melbourne.
Tigerair currently owns 4 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet. But will be replacing the 14 Airbus A320 aircraft with Boeing 737-800 in the future.
If you fly Tigerair in real life, you can enjoy their Tigerbites which is their own brand of airline food and Tigertainment which is their onboard wireless entertainment system which utilizes a “Bring your own device” concept. Then once connected to their Tigertainment system you can enjoy a variety of complimentary videos and music.
But as I mentioned on the first video of this tour series, my goal is to add as much variety in the aircraft type and also airline brand as possible.
Flight Briefing
QFA1066
YBCS – YBRM
Planned Fuel – 14,000kg
Planned Altitude – 34,000
Distance – 1542.4nm
Flight Time – 3 hrs 55 mins
Route: NONUM1 NONUM J64 AS T11 BRM
Flight Journal
It’s June 4th and our holiday travelers have thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Cairns. We have an early afternoon departure of Cairns and should arrive in Broome in plenty of time for dinner. As you can see from the map above, our route will take us southwest to Alice Springs, then northwest to Broome. As previously mentioned, we flying a TigerAir Boeing 737-800 and once catering has finished we’ll be ready to button up the doors and push back from the gate.
Push and engine start complete. The marshalling team from Cairns have been top-notch and first class all the way.
With Cairns being a relatively small airport, the taxi out to runway 15 was short and we’ve been given our take-off clearance.
An awesome view as our TigerAir 738 turns to join the departure out of Cairns.
Wing views are always my favorite. Cairns airport in the background.
Once again the immersion effect from FSFX Packages is well worth the cost.
During our previous flight from Sydney to Cairns, the ground vegetation was just as it appears here (lush and green) but will soon change.
As we headed west, the ground textures changed to a more desert and baron look.
Another wing shot as we’re descending. Speed brakes are up to slow us as we near 10,000 and our 250kts speed restrictions.
Making our final turn to line up for the visual for runway 10 at Broome.
Runway 10 is just visible in the haze. No ILS at YBRM.
Still just a tad high on final according to the PAPI lights which show three white, one red.
There we go, red on white…we’re alright!
One final shot of our TigerAir B738 all parked up and secure at Broome Airport. Our tourists will spend a few days here exploring and pearl hunting. In a few days we’ll depart Australia and head northwest to Indonesia. Due to the short runway at Broome, once again we’ll be flying the Boeing 737. But this will soon change.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Tiger Airways livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
Orbx Broome Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our next flight will depart Broome, Australia for Jakarta, Indonesia. As previously mentioned, due to the short runway in Broome, our flight to Jakarta will once again be in a Boeing 737. However, once we reach Jakarta…our next two legs will feature the Boeing Triple Seven (777) and the Boeing Dreamliner.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!
Jerry
June 6, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Back in the day, long before the GBS YouTube channel…I would blog about my flight sim adventures. It’s really why I started this blog site over 10 years ago. As I began planning the WorldFlight 2018 GBS Tour, I spent a few days kicking around whether I would record any of these flights for YouTube, stream on YT and/or Twitch or just blog about them. I decided to return to my roots of just simply blogging about these adventures. I know as a civilization we’ve somewhat moved away from reading about things. But I figure there may still be a few folks who frequent my blog from years ago that might enjoy this. So with out further adieu, let’s begin.
Just to familiarize yourself with our tour map. I’ll be posting an updated image of this map as we complete the legs of the tour.
I made my way from Denver, Colorado to Sydney, Australia and allowed myself some time to rest from the jetlag of a long, cross the pacific flight. I’ve been hired to operate a world tour, shuttling lucky passengers who have all gathered in Sydney on a luxurious 46 leg, 25+ country world tour. Money appears to be absolutely no object to these people as they certainly seem to have no cares in the world. For the sake of sheer adventure, we will be changing aircraft frequently as we make our way around the globe. Thankfully, as their captain…I’m qualified to operate a variety of Boeing and Airbus aircraft. I’ve partnered with many global airlines to utilize their aircraft for the tour. Funnily enough, they welcome this as we’ll be moving aircraft from one airport to the other on their behalf.
Leg 1 of our world tour kicks off on an early, rainy fall morning in Sydney. Our tour group is a mishmash of all nationalities which is all part of the plan. Think of it as a self-guided tour group. Meaning we have passengers who are familiar with our tour stops and they will spend time sharing information with each other along the tour. Pretty cool concept if you ask me. Plus what better way to check out all the wonderful aspects of these cities, the food, the nightlife etc.
History of City
Cairns was founded in 1876 and named after William Wellington Cairns, Governor of Queensland from 1875 to 1877. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River Goldfield. Cairns is located on the east coast of far north Queensland. The city is the 5th most populous in Queensland and ranks 14th overall in Australia. Cairns is a popular tourist destination because of its tropical climate and access to the Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
History of Country
As for Australia, officially named the “Commonwealth of Australia” which is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area. Neighboring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor. Our tour will actually visit both Indonesia in just a few legs and PNG towards the end as we make our way back to Sydney.
History of Airport
The Cairns airport is an international classification airport. Its early history goes back to 1928 when a pilot named Tom McDonald started flying his de Havilland Gipsy Moth off a sand ridge near the present airport. He could only land and take off between high tides. During one emergency, Tom was forced to take off from beer barrels.
Today, the airport has direct flights to 18 international and 30 domestic destinations and many general aviation flights including a number of helicopter operators. Flights are operated to all major Australian cities and tourist destinations, regional communities in Far North Queensland and a number of international destinations in the Asia-Pac region with connections all over the world.
The Cairns airport has one runway measuring 10,354 feet (3,156 meters) in length. The airport you’ll see is a payware add-on airport by Orbx.
History of Airline
Today we are flying for Qantas. Qantas is the flag carrier of Australia and its largest airline by fleet size, international flights and international destinations. It is the third oldest airline in the world, after KLM and Avianca. Qantas was founded in November 1920, it began international passenger flights in May 1935. The name Qantas is actually an acronym for its original name of “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. Qantas is nicknamed “The Flying Kangaroo”.
The aircraft we’re flying today is the Boeing 737-800. Qantas currently has 70 of these aircraft in service today which clearly makes it their workhorse aircraft.
The flight today is an actual real-world flight which Qantas operates between Sydney and Cairns in the Boeing 737-800.
Flight Briefing
QFA1066
YSSY – YBCS
Planned Fuel – 11110kg
Planned Altitude – 36,000
Distance – 1062
Flight Time – 2 hrs 55 mins
Route: DEENA7 RIC H76 NBR H105 HACHI Q165 VOMPA Q499 FISHY TOTY4W
Flight Journal
It’s June 2nd, it’s early, it’s wet and it’s cool in Sydney this morning. The ground crew is busy getting our Boeing 737-800 ready to go. Our tour group will soon be arriving by bus. The Sydney airport have granted us permission to board from the tarmac.
Our excited travelers have arrived and boarded the aircraft. Along with luggage and extra cargo, we’ve been granted permission to push, start and taxi to the active runway.
Line up and wait for 16R
Rotate
Note the visual immersion effects around the fan and across the wing as we climb out via the DEENA7 STAR.
Above the clouds as we climb to FL360 (36,000 feet).
Simply beautiful
Time to descend via the TOTY4W arrival.
Making our right turn to join the runway 15 approach.
Gear down, flaps 40
Runway in sight
First leg is in the books. Our tour passengers and their baggage are being offloaded to enjoy their brief say in Cairns, Australia.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Qantas livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our tourists will spend a little time visiting the sites around Cairns and we’ll be departing soon for Broome.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!
Jerry
June 2, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
The organizers of WorldFlight, have prepared the 2018 version of their world tour to raise money for various charities around the world. Each November, teams from around the globe participate in this annual week long event. Many of these same teams, stream their flights on Twitch & YouTube from one of many full-sized flight simulators around the world which have been setup.
Over my 35+ year history with computer based flight simulation, I’ve circumnavigated the globe many times and in many different aircraft. In 2010, I embarked on an “Around the World” journey in a single engine Mooney Bravo which consisted of 75 individual flight legs, spread out over approx. 45 days. The total trip mileage was 35,816 nm and consisted of 201.5 flight hours. If you are interested, you can view my trip log here.
I’ve flown the Worldflight tour (on my own) many times. Last year (2017) I completed it in the PMDG Boeing 737-800. As it was just a “for fun” flight, I didn’t keep a flight log but it was a lot of fun just the same. For 2018, I’m going to attempt to do a better job with keeping a flight log, showcasing on my blog site. Just like the old days!
As it would be impossible for a single pilot to fly the complete route, during the actual even timeline…I’m planning to start my journey in early to mid June. The general purpose of doing this is to help raise awareness for the official event in November and expose as many of my viewers to this awesome charity event.
Unlike last year where I used the same aircraft type to complete the tour, this year I’ll use a variety of aircraft from my virtual hangar including both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The Boeing types will include 737, 747, 777 and 787. Airbus will be a A319, A320 and A321 variants. In addition, you can expect to see a variety of airline liveries throughout the journey. As the tour begins in Sydney, Australia…I’ll kick the tour off with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia.
In some (perhaps most) instances, the two airports which make up each leg may not have real-world flights connecting them to each other. In cases like this, I’ll use my own imagination to determine what airline would make the most sense to operate and which aircraft type. A lot of the decisions driving this will be the availability of aircraft liveries. But I’ll strive to do my best to keep a variety throughout the journey.
The same applies for airport scenery. While I own a lot of different airport sceneries, I don’t own all the airports we’ll be visiting during this tour. If I can find quality freeware airports that won’t break my sim or cause issues, I’ll consider using them. But in some cases, default scenery will just have to be used.
The 2018 WorldFlight Tour begins in Sydney, Australia and travels a westerly direction (see map below). This tour will consist of 46 legs, covering an approx. 36,153 nm while visiting over 25 different countries.
I’m really not sure how long it will take me to complete this tour. Perhaps I’ll try to wrap the last few flight legs around the same time as the actual event is taking place. It might be fun to fly the last leg or two on VATSIM at the same time the actual event is taking place. But only time will tell if this will be possible. You can follow along with my progress visiting my blog site and the 2018 WorldFlight Page I’ve setup.
Thanks for reading and bon voyage.
Jerry
