Globe Cargo

"Hi Everyone, Let's swap stories with each other about our Polar flight experiences. Anything fun, interesting, or something the rest of us can learn from is welcome here. I'll go first <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> On PO181, HNL/SYD, last month I was fighting stronger than forecast winds enroute. Coming into the SYD area I checked the METAR and it showed thunderstorms! I didn't have enough fuel to divert nor hold for the thunderstorm to pass. I had just enough to make a couple approach attempts and taxi to the gate with just a little left in the tanks. I began the approach through heavy rain and moderate turbulence. I knew I had to do this approach right the first time so I wouldn't have to explain to Ralph why we lost a plane <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> Through very poor visibility I shot the approach right down to 250 ft minimums before sighting the approach lights where I continued the approach to a rather hard landing. Here is my log file from that flight...check out the METAR!! <a href='http://www.globecargo.org/fsacars/logs/ ... 093000.txt' target='_blank'>PO81, HNL/SYD</a> Lessons learned...take more fuel and actually check the forecast weather for the destination before departure. Had I done that, I may have seen forecast thunderstorms and planned my flight accordingly with an expectation to divert to an alternate. Another thing I did as a result of this flight was to install the RealityXP Wx500 weather radar into my plane. If I had radar onboard this flight I may have seen well in advance the thunderstorms that were awaiting my arrival and I could have found a nearby airport to land, refuel, and wait out the storms. Nevertheless, the approach was fun though <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> Let's keep these stories going! Justin"

"A copy of the e-mail I sent Jure should do the trick pretty nicely I think <!--emo&:ph34r:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <!--emo&:P-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]<!--endemo--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hi, I just completed my first flight for Polar Air, and I have encountered two problems that lead to approximately 2,5 hours flighttime missing from my logbook: The first one was when I was over Scotland and inadvertently shut down FSAcars when trying to change my callsign from ""5Y"" to ""PAC605"". I did save the ACARS file, which I attached with this message. When I started FSAcars up again it proceeded to generate an entirely new log file, so this accounts for approximately 1 hour flighttime missing from PAC605. Secondly, when approaching Hudson Bay I was starting to get a little anxious about my fuel situation, having about 36000lbs left for just over 2 hour flighttime to Chicago. This was due to me not taking into account the jetstream when crossing the Atlantic, so I ended up flying into headwinds of over 130 knots without the necessary extra fuel so I decided to make an unscheduled tech stop at CYVO to take on extra fuel. A wise choice, because when I landed at CYVO I had just about 17000lbs left. In CYVO I took on 63000lbs of fuel. Naturally, FSAcars ended the flight when I put on the parking brakes on YVO's tiny apron to refuel and didn't log the 1 hour and 23 minutes spent flying to my destination KORD. The real flight times which I wrote on a piece of paper are as follows (all times local): EHAM Off chocks: 00:00 EHAM Takeoff: 00:09 CYVO Landing: 00:18 CYVO Takeoff: 00:26 KORD Landing: 00:49 KORD On chocks: 00:54 Total airtime: 07:32 I hope this will allow you to perhaps amend my logbook, since I don't know how I can do this myself. <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> Regards, Yannic Cathalina // #1139<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Lessons learned indeed <!--emo&:rolleyes:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> Right now I am enroute EBLG-OMDB as PO420... as I flew through Varna Control in Bulgaria I was greeted by a very friendly IVAO controller with whom I ended up chatting until I was deep into Turkish airspace.... at the end I'm representing Polar Air Cargo at a small IVAO flyin in Bulgaria this weekend these guys invited me to <!--emo&:lol:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"

"Great reports, guys! Justin, I also installed RealityXP radar and I am glad I did. There seem to be a regular t-storm area close to where Yannic is right now. The (in)famous Atlas run LIRF-OMDB always provides for excitement. It starts with that boring always-the-same-winds take-off, always-follow-the-same-SID, but soon things get exciting. I remember dodging the Cb's at 35,000 feet. Weather radar was of great help when I tried to pick my way through the monsters. Landing in always hot Dubai afterwards is like coming to another world. There's another flight that usually gets interesting. The ""cigar run"" <!--emo&:D-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> to Cuba... almost everybody who flew down there complained about shortage of fuel. On top of that I had an engine flameout on my return trip, decided to go back and what began as a dreamy evening on take-off turned into a stormy night with strong cross winds on landing. The approach to MUCU isn't the nicest one to begin with and on that night I had my hands full and then some. Yannic, will you take the B-742 to the fly-in? That will be quite a sight! Enjoy! <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"

"<!--QuoteBegin-Jure+Nov 19 2004, 09:14 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jure @ Nov 19 2004, 09:14 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--> [...] Yannic, will you take the B-742 to the fly-in? That will be quite a sight! Enjoy!  <!--emo&:)-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> [right][snapback]2174[/snapback][/right] <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Naturally! <!--emo&:lol:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> Wel'll be going from LBSF (Sofia) to LOWW (Vienna) saturday night (20/11) at 1800GMT... I already dug up the flightplan on their forum: LBSF DCT OKANA UL863 RAVAK UL617 NEPOS UN739 BEO UM749 BEGLA DCT LOWW It's being held by a tiny Bulgarian VA based on Balkan Holidays who fly the A320 and TU154... the gentleman I had the pleasure of speaking to yesterday afternoon is BGH005, Stoyan Gregoriev. <!--emo&^_^-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <a href='http://bhair.bgspotters.net/index.htm' target='_blank'>http://bhair.bgspotters.net/index.htm</a> If you guys can make it you're welcome to come along and make some eastern european friends! <!--emo&:lol:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"

<a href='http://forum.bgspotters.net/viewtopic.p ... highlight=' target='_blank'>http://forum.bgspotters.net/viewtopic.p ... hlight=</a> Any takers? I think it would be great to have more VPAC jumbos there! <!--emo&^_^-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->

"On my tour of Eastern Europe I took my beloved N924FT from Kiev (from UKKM, Antonov airport!) to Vilnius.... I must say flying under Lithuanian ATC and among Lithuanian pilots on IVAO is a sobering experience to say the least <!--emo&:rolleyes:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <!--emo&:closedeyes:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/closedeyes.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> The Polish on the other hand were great... The flight was supposed to go to Stansted, but when the Baltics lit up on servinfo I couldn't resist... ""Warsaw control, PAC420 request divert to Vilnius, standby for flightplan"" ""PAC420 never mind cleared direct VABER report ready for descent"" <!--emo&:lol:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"

"Hi Everybody, Well for the first time I encountered engine flameout, not one or two, all 4 engine flameouts. Just after reaching cruise altitude (FL370) I was setting cruise thrust manually, sudduenly the engines went silent. Within seconds Flight Pursur rushed in to ask what happened. Was doing PO420 EBLG-OMDB, under Frankfurt Center and near Vienna. It was a great experience. Really loved it. Now a days waitng for incorrect landing operations. F/O Hashim Jabbar Memon P# 1127 PS: What is IVAO? Is it some kind of online ATC which directs us in different airspaces."

"<!--QuoteBegin-hjmemon+Nov 30 2004, 07:00 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hjmemon @ Nov 30 2004, 07:00 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hi Everybody, Well for the first time I encountered engine flameout, not one or two, all 4 engine flameouts. Just after reaching cruise altitude (FL370) I was setting cruise thrust manually, sudduenly the engines went silent. Within seconds Flight Pursur rushed in to ask what happened. Was doing PO420 EBLG-OMDB, under Frankfurt Center and near Vienna. It was a great experience. Really loved it. Now a days waitng for incorrect landing operations. F/O Hashim Jabbar Memon P# 1127 PS: What is IVAO? Is it some kind of online ATC which directs us in different airspaces. [right][snapback]2323[/snapback][/right] <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Yeap, with voice and everything. And some stuff to brighten up your TCAS as well <!--emo&:P-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]<!--endemo--> <a href='http://www.ivao.org' target='_blank'>http://www.ivao.org</a> <!--emo&^_^-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"

"<!--QuoteBegin-hjmemon+Nov 30 2004, 01:00 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hjmemon @ Nov 30 2004, 01:00 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->PS: What is IVAO? Is it some kind of online ATC which directs us in different airspaces. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> There is also VATSIM and Flight Project International for online flying: <a href='http://www.vatsim.net' target='_blank'>http://www.vatsim.net</a> <a href='http://www.flightproject.net' target='_blank'>http://www.flightproject.net</a> There are many more, but those three are the most notable."