KHLN to CYBL

Well I'm continuing my journey from Aspen over to the West cost. Yesterday I took the CJ1 out for a spin in FSX. I was having problems with FS9 and the throttles so I had too fly something. FSX is okay, but there are still too many problems with it. It's too bad because it could really surpass FS9

First I flew from KASE to KGTF (Great Falls International, Montana). This was an intresting landing. The wind was 27kts gusting to 38kts. Wow, that was hard to stay lined up! My palms were sweating on that approach.

Then I left Great falls made it to 18 000 feet and had to make an emergency landing at the closest airport. That was KHLN (Helena Regional Airport, Montana). My cabin pressure alarm was going off.

After I was all patched up, I left there and continued to CYBL (Cambell River, BC). I'm almost there now. The mountains look amazing from 36000 feet.

CYYZ - KASE

Well after a lot of long flights, I decided to do a fun flight to Aspen. I pulled out the Eaglesoft Citation X for a go. Wow, it's been a while. I'm so use to flying the heavies it's can be quite overwhelming at first. I had ATC for departure which is great, but at the same time, not so good. I'm trying to get everything in the FMC to work and fly with the parameters that atc have set for me. I was suppose to climb to 7000 feet, but I could not get the Alt. to set to 7000 feet.

I finally have it figure out and I'm now on course to Aspen following the FMC flight plan. Landing there should be interesting to say the least. The toughest part about flying these birds in a computer is; your the only one at the controls. This can make it difficult sometimes trying to fly and change settings at the same time. I guess that's the thrill of it.

I'd better go and check to make sure I'm still following the course. Right now I'm at fl400 cruising at mach .88.

CYVR to CYYZ

Christmas is finally over and things have settled down now. I had a wonderful Christmas this year.

Today I'm doing a flight I normally fly. It's been a few days since I've been at the control's of this heavy. The weather leaving Vancouver was wet snow and rain, but the departure was not bad at all. The passengers are a little nervous in this kind of weather. I'm running FS passengers so it gives me a passenger Satisfaction reading. This is a great little program to run if you are flying pax. You really have to watch what your doing and not fly like your in a fighter jet. If you do you will be docked points when the flight is done.

I'm at cruise level now, there is about 3 hours 21 min till I land in CYYZ. I believe there is snow or rain there too. The winds look calm right now but I could be a fun approach in. Today's aircraft is the Boeing 777-300 from PSS. I do enjoy fling this bird.

CYYZ - KLAX

Not a very long flight today, about 4 hours or so. I'm in my PMDG 744 flying for Virtual Air Canada. They don't fly the 744 anymore, but it is flight sim. Today we are going to get our real Christmas Tree, so I will be busy putting that up tonight. I'm really excited now. Santa comes in 5 days.

In the next few days we will be busy getting ready, Last minute shopping to do etc. I think Sunday we will be leaving to go to Jason's Parents hours for a couple of days. Oh and tomorrow night in my Dad's Christmas eve dinner. This diner reminds me of the song from the veggie tales, eight polish Christmas. "It's pretty much just Meat".

PANC - KSDF The Santa Run UPS400

Merry Christmas!

Well it's almost Christmas now. This is the annual Santa run that UPSVAC does every year. We help Santa with his toys by making runs to and from PANC (Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska).

Oh in case your wondering, yes I'm flying as UPS400 with an Air Canada Paint. Jason just re installed the PMDG but has not installed the 744F or Freighter version yet. So I decided to take the passenger version anyways. I love this paint scheme, it's too bad that Air Canada doesn't fly the 744 anymore. This is my Favourite of all planes to fly. I was really happy when Air Canada did get the new Boeing 777.

From the flight deck as I climb up to Fl330. It was a beautiful morning in Alaska. 10:30am there and the sun was just rising.

The flight was only 5 1/2 hours long, childs play!

Very smooth landing in SDF, right on the numbers. It's been a while since I've been in the Queen, but it's like riding a bike. This is by far, my Favorite aircraft too fly.

If you look in the Left see you can see me there (look close).

KSDF to KSAT

This will be the first time I'm going to KSAT. KSAT is San Antonio International Airport in Texas. It's a short flight, 2 hours or so (840nm). I will be departing from KSDF the main Hub for UPS. Cruise will be at fl320

Back in Toronto

Touchdown in Toronto again. The winds were a little Strong coming in, but that was the least of my problems. As I was flying the STAR in (standard Terminal Arrival), my auto pilot starting acting up. This was around 20 000 to 18 000 feet, for some strange reason I was diving to the ground. I was on much too steep of an angle. Thank goodness, cargo don't complain too much. I felt like a dive bomber. I think what's programmed into the FMC is wrong in terms of trying to reach proper crossing Altitudes. This caused the aircraft to dive down too much to make it's requested altitude.

I kicked off Auto and hand flew the WTRLO2 arrival in. For the most part I was able to maintain a nice profile in, the only real challenge was trying to turn to final a little early and talk to ATC. The approach Controller who was on likes to give you really short finals. This is great if your in a hurry to get down. Anyway as I was turning the nose likes to pitch up so I started gaining altitude. This could be a PSS thing or just me, who knows.

Well I managed to make the turn to final but the winds were pushing me a bit. I think I was too heavy for the landing because my touch down speed was 150 kts in a 757. That's quick. It was a balancing act trying to slow down and deploy flaps without ripping them off. If I slow down too much for flaps, I stall.

I made the rwy and touch down nice and smooth even with all that was going on. Then I taxied over to the Vista terminal while I watched British Airways 777 depart on the rwy I just landed on.

On the other side of the airport another aircraft was landing rwy24R. I didn't catch what type it was, but I believe it was a small plane.

Parked and shut down for the night all snug at the Vista Terminal in Toronto.

Remember: Take-offs is optional, Landings are Mandatory.

UPS400 to CYYZ

A new day, a new flight. I decided today I would fly some cargo flights. I'm in a Boeing 757-200 taking off out of KDEN (Denver) and going to CYYZ (Toronto). I think there is some light snow in Toronto.

The 757 was really heavy on take off, I took almost all of rwy35L to lift off. It's at it's max weight! The flight is not a very long one, only 2 - 3 hours. Total distance is 1184nm, I'm cruising now at fl330. It looks like I will stay at that alt for the flight.

I kinda like doing this Blogging while flying, It's a nice way to track my journey. Allot of people would think this is a waste of time flying (not flight simmers), but I've learned so much about the world by doing this. I find it really fascinating as I fly in European airspace and talk to ATC who is from there. I feel like I'm really visiting there.

Here is a picture from the flight deck as I taxi out. I fly with 2 22inch monitors and the screen stretched out between them. It's incredible the perspective and sensation you get flying this way. This picture is a little squished to show you what I see, as the displays are not that far away from me.

Landing in bad weather WJA703

I must say, that was a scary landing. The weather in Toronto is bad so I had to use Auto-Land. I don't usually like to auto land the aircraft unless the weather dictates. Well in this case it did. I was cleared for the ILS6L CatII approach into YYZ. As I descended closer to the ground I watch out my window, all I could see was my reflection back. I think I must have checked all the settings 10 times on final to ensure that everything was set up correctly.

1000 feet agl, still no ground or airport in sight. Check everything again! I'm on the GS (glide slope) and I have the LOC (localize).

500 feet agl, again nothing outside the window but snow, and lots off it. Usually you can see the rwy lights, but nothing

400 feet agl auto pilot calls out. Nothing. Everything checks out for a auto-land. Flare and Roll out set. At this point I'm really hoping I didn't forget anything and there is actually a rwy underneath me.

100 feet agl, there it is!!!! I'm too close now, so I will let auto pilot land.

50 feet, 40 feet, 20 feet 10 feet, touchdown, I reach for the reverse thrust. Brakes are engaged. Now I have to try and keep it on the rwy. I slide a little to the left because of the wind and snow.

80 kts. Reverse off, Tower calls, "West Jet 703 exit next left when able. Call ground on 121.65"

"Ground West Jet 703 is clear of rwy6L, looking to taxi to terminal 3 please".

Wooow, what a landing.

CYYG - CYYZ

I'm on another flight finally. I took yesterday off, mostly because I was still kind of tired, but also to just play around and figure out what was causing the CTD. Now that I think I've fixed it, I'm taking advantage of the weather we have here in Southern Ontario. We could see up to 30cm of snow (12inches I believe). That's a lot of snow for one day.

Today, I'm in a Boeing 737-700 with wingletts. It's only a 786nm flight, so 2 hours.

CYYZ (Toronto) weather:

SPECI CYTZ 161742Z AUTO 02007G20KT 5/8SM -SN OVC001 OVC086 M06/M08 A2927

Flight Rule:
LIFR (CYTZ)
Wind Speed:
4.9 mph / 7.9 km/h / 2.2 m/s
Wind Dir:
20° (NNE)
Ceiling:
100 ft / 30 m

Looks like auto land down to the rwy. Should be fun!

The Day After

It's finally over. I'm a little sad now, I'm guess the "High" of it all has worn off. This was a lot of fun planning and making this journey. Mind you, I wasn't that way at 5:30 am watching old TV shows while Jason was all snug in his bed, sound asleep. At that time I was thinking I was crazy. Funny thing, I almost fell asleep in the chair. I closed my eyes for a moment, then suddenly woke up 2 min later. I scared myself, it felt like I was out for longer. I think I was actually sleeping for a moment.

Here's the Flight on Vatsim

http://www.vataware.com/flight.cfm?id=514493

Thanks for your support everyone.

It was great when I was landing in Toronto, there was 4 or 5 other Air Canada planes on the ground. I also had full atc. On approach there was a plane, I think and airbus 340, but not too sure who was cleared for departure just before me. From my perspective, there didn't look like he had a whole lot of time before I would be on top of him. Once he was cleared, he got on the rwy and rolled right away, which was nice to see. I had my hand on the throttle for a go around. Then I was clear to land, he was no more than 700feet agl, when I touched down at the other end. Felt like real traffic! It's aways much more exciting when there is lots of traffic around. Oh one cute stat: My ETA at Toronto was originally 21:05. By the time I touched down and taxied to the gate, time was - 21:05....

How's that for bringing them in on time!

Other stats:

Block Time: 18.2

Flight time: 17.9

Take off Weight: 737,911 lbs

Taxi Weight: 737,999 lbs

Dep IAS: 193kts

Arr IAS: 139kts

Landing Weight: 453,028 lbs

Fuel Out: 352989 lbs

Block Fuel: 286586 lbs

Distance: 8394nm

Vertical Speed: -431 ft/min

I didn't fall asleep right away last night, I was tired but I think I was over tired by that point.

Turns out I didn't fly today. I kind of took the day off. I did find what was causing my CTD. It was some Ontario Farmland scenery that was causing it. I don't know if it was just conflicting with other scenery, but when I put the scenery in, boom CTD.

PS. Sorry about all the spelling and grammar errors. English was never my strong subject, especially staying up all night and trying to type an account of it. I should have it spell check more often. lol

YSSY-CYYZ 18 Hour Flight

Touch down

17 hours 55 min and I'm home!!!! I had a very smooth landing, It was very neat to see so many other Air Canada planes on the ground, there was one right in front that took off in front of me. I must have been no more than 700feet agl (above ground level) when I touched down.

I will post all the stats from the flight tomorrow and do up a slide show, but for now I think I'm just going to go and rest. I have a nice cup of herbal tea steeping now.

Oh, one cute stat, ETA at Toronto was 21:05, I pulled up to the gate and shut off the engines at 21:05. Funny, I'm tired but in a small strange way I'm on a bit of a high from the flight. Charged up that I was able to do this. Not a lot of people would even attempt it.

Thanks for following along in my journey from Sydney Australia to Toronto Canada.

In The Jet Stream

Wow, looks like I'm in the Jet Stream from that storm. I have a ground speed of 600!

I have 625nm to go and I'm on Chicago airspace right now.

I found this cute Christmas poem I would like to share. I'm not sure who wrote it but it's very cute.

A Christmas Poem

Twas the night before Christmas, and out on the ramp,

Not an airplane was stirring, not even a Champ.

The aircraft were fastened to tiedowns with care,

In hopes that come morning, they all would be there.

The fuel trucks were nestled, all snug in their spots,

With gusts from two-forty at 39 knots.

I slumped at the fuel desk, now finally caught up,

And settled down comfortably, resting my butt.

When the radio lit up with noise and with chatter,

I turned up the scanner to see what was the matter.

A voice clearly heard over static and snow,

Called for clearance to land at the airport below.

He barked his transmission so lively and quick,

I'd have sworn that the call sign he used was "St. Nick".

I ran to the panel to turn up the lights,

The better to welcome this magical flight.

He called his position, no room for denial,"St. Nicholas One, turnin' left onto final."

And what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a Rutan-built sleigh, with eight Rotax Reindeer!

With vectors to final, down the glideslope he came,

As he passed all fixes, he called them by name:"Now Ringo! Now Tolga! Now Trini and Bacun!On Comet! On Cupid!" What pills was he takin'?

While controllers were sittin', and scratchin' their head,

They phoned to my office, and I heard it with dread,

The message they left was both urgent and dour:"When Santa pulls in, have him please call the tower."

He landed like silk, with the sled runners sparking,

Then I heard "Left at Charlie," and "Taxi to parking."

He slowed to a taxi, turned off of three-ohAnd stopped on the ramp with a "Ho, ho-ho-ho..."

He stepped out of the sleigh, but before he could talk,

I ran out to meet him with my best set of chocks.

His red helmet and goggles were covered with frostAnd his beard was all blackened from Reindeer exhaust.

His breath smelled like peppermint, gone slightly stale,

And he puffed on a pipe, but he didn't inhale.His cheeks were all rosy and jiggled like jelly,

His boots were as black as a cropduster's belly.

He was chubby and plump, in his suit of bright red,

And he asked me to "fill it, with hundred low-lead."

He came dashing in from the snow-covered pump,

I knew he was anxious for drainin' the sump.

I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work,

And I filled up the sleigh, but I spilled like a jerk.

He came out of the restroom, and sighed in relief,

Then he picked up a phone for a Flight Service brief.

And I thought as he silently scribed in his log,

These reindeer could land in an eighth-mile fog.

He completed his pre-flight, from the front to the rear,

Then he put on his headset, and I heard him yell, "Clear!"

And laying a finger on his push-to-talk,

He called up the tower for clearance and squawk.

"Take taxiway Charlie, the southbound direction,

Turn right three-two-zero at pilot's discretion

"He sped down the runway, the best of the best,

"Your traffic's a Boeing, inbound from the west.

"Then I heard him proclaim, as he climbed thru the night,

"Merry Christmas to all! I have traffic in sight."

LAND HO!!!!

Or is that Land HA! To be politically correct. Right... it's LAND HO!!!!





1902nm to go as I approach KLAX. I'm just about to go Feet Dry in a couple of minutes. It's been a long flight up till now. Looks like I will be close to landing on schedule. Time now is 5pm Toronto time.

The weather in Toronto doesn't look to be too promising. Wind gust up too 28kts. I might be using my alt.


There is a huge storm moving in this way and we could end up with record snow falls in my area (outside of Toronto). Even my Alt. airport looks like the weather could be bad. I think I might just get in under the wire before the bad weather: METAR CYYZ 142100Z 32015G24KT 15SM BKN031 M03/M09 A3026 RMK SC6 SLP256

Flight Rule:
VFR (CYYZ)
Wind Speed:
17 mph / 28 km/h / 7.7 m/s
Wind Dir:
320° (NW)
Ceiling:
3100 ft / 944 m



not bad yet, but looks like I'll be riding the auto pilot in longer than I would like too.


At this time I would like to remind anyone who is reading this (I hope it's not just me) of why I'm doing this flight. I can't loose track of the true meaning and cause for this flight. This flight is for The Hospital for Sick Children

http://www.sickkids.ca/

http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/donate/


Don't forget to donate to this wonderful organization. If you do please post so I can thank you. Feel free to comment with your thoughts. (plus if you do it means I'm not in hear all alone)lol


Not long now!

I'm 1138nm out now and I'm starting to work on my arrival. I'm really tire, so I have to triple check all my entries into the FMC. If the weather stays, I will arrive on 33R (at least I believe they are active right now).
METAR CYYZ 142300Z 32015KT 15SM FEW035 M05/M12 A3035 RMK SC1 SLP285

Back in the Chair

Well I've gotten some much needed sleep. 4 hours should be plenty. I haven't stayed up all night in I don't know how long. I really don't miss doing that!

I'm chugging along at fl350, with only 3020nm to go! I should be hitting the West Coast of the USA very soon. I think I'm out of things to say right now. I must be still a little sleepy.

I wounder how real flight crews manage. I know the really long flights they have relief crew, but do they get a good sleep? What about the flights that have just the two pilots. It's one thing to be tired, but be tired and land a beast like this with every ones lives depending on it.

Looks like I'm way ahead of schedule. I think I will be landing in Toronto around 19:10 EST.

Opps...

I think I was still asleep. ETA in Toronto is now 20:40 Toronto time EST. I am half hour ahead of schedule. weeeeee

Relief crew has taken over

Hey all,
Kittie's relief crew has taken over for the next 5 hours or so to allow her to get some much needed sleep. When I woke up this morning, I told her to go to bed....she was asleep, literally, in 10 seconds flat. She's chugging along about 2.5 hours south of Hawaii right now, while the passengers all have a rather annoying song going on in the back that we can hear. Goes something like "This is the flight that never ends...."

Cruise

6884nm to go, I just stepped to fl310 were I will be at for some time. I'm really tired right now so I'm finding updating this is hard. Although I think it is keeping me awake.

I've been airborne now for almost 4 hours, hard to believe I still have 12 hours to go. I'm sure I will have to take a small nap sometime.

I've got a nice little tail wind right now, my fuel burn has gone up to 20.6 at CYYZ. I'm a little more comfortable with that figure. There sure is a lot of water around.

Update:

I just stepped up to fl330 now. I've increased the speed to mach .834. I will have lots of fuel. I can't believe I survived staying up all night. Around 5am was the toughest. Once I got past that it's not so bad as long as I keep moving.

Airborne

Autopilot is on now, so I have some time to chat (18hours to chat). hmmmm. Take off was nice and smooth. This bird is heavy!!! Just trying to go forward for taxi required a lot of throttle.

Once I was rolling down the rwy, I used the whole rwy16R - 11240 feet. Winds were from the side at 7kts. She is very slow to climb, I departed at 03:27am and I'm still climbing to initial cruise of fl270 25 min later.

Just settled in at cruise now Fl 270. I'll be at this level for some time until a step climb. Oh, I have a step climb very soon.

Looks like I will be settling in at fl290 for a while, I'm really gonna have to watch my fuel. It's estimating only 17.9 lbs of fuel in CYYZ (x1000).

A few little stats:

ZFW: 385012 lbs

TOW: 737.3 lbs

Fuel: 353318 lbs

246pax on board.

ETA in CYYZ 17 hours 5 min. So I should be landing in Toronto at 21:05 EST.

Update:

It's almost 6am, I'm watching an old favorite on TV right now. Magnum PI. It's really hard to stay awake. It think this is the worst part of the night. I hope I catch a second wind soon.

Pre-Flight Time

It's 2:25 am, and I'm tired already. Kinda wish I had a chance to get a little sleep befor departure.

Time to fire up APU and get everything going. I think I'm departing on rwy16 which is really close to my terminal. This will help save on fuel. So far it looks like I will be departing with 352 000 lbs of fuel and landing with 24 000 pounds of fuel. This is pleanty, but I'm not sure about the winds yet.

Okay the flight plan is in and now it's time to do the pre-flight planning
Coffee: check
Pizza Pops: check
inflight movie: check

The flight plan is:
SID NOBAR A579 NN B581 FICKY DCT SXC DCT TRM J134 PKE J96 GCK DCT HYS DCT PWE J192 IOW DCT OBK J94 ECK YWT STAR

Total Distance: 8459nm
My Altertnate is: KCLE

I hope I can stay awake for this.

Just hours before take off and Jason had to re install the 777. I hope that was the problem. The sim would CTD just around 10 000 feet into CYYZ. I'm doing another small test flight to see if I can decend into Toronto.

So much for getting a little sleep before the flight....

UPDATE:
Well my test was sucsesful. I will now start to get ready for the flight

YSSY-CYYZ charity flight

Well tonight is the big flight. For those that don't know I am planning on flying non stop from YSSY (Sydney Australia to CYYZ Toronto Canada about 8500nm) using Flight Simulator 9. The flight will be on vatsim as an online flight. I will post my flight number soon. During the flight I will try and post some screen shots. Departure will be around 3:30am EST. and landing in CYYZ around 9:30pm EST.

I'm just doing some testing now to make sure Flight Sim won't crash. I was doing a flight from KDEN to CYYZ (close to the route I would be entering YYZ from) and flight sim CTD. Not sure why so I have disabled all scenery except ultimate terrains and yyz scenery. Too bad because flight sim has been running really nice up to now. I did a 15 hour flight and 14 hour flight in the last 2 weeks

It doesn't look like I will be doing allot of fund raising on this flight but I plan on doing this flight again next year with lots of prep work done. This time it was too spur of them moment to try and arrange anything. I mean really who would donate money to someone they don't know and trust the charity will get the money.

I will post the charity and ask people to donate directly the charity this time. My goal is to raise money for The Sick Kids Foundation in Toronto.
http://www.sickkids.ca/

For donation, you can donate directly to them at:

http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/donate/

For the flight I will be flying the PSS 777-200LR. The flight looks to be about 18 1/2 hours depending on winds. I will be receiving a real world flight plan from a friend tonight just like the big boys get. I will post all the details of the flight later in terms of distance etc.

Stay tuned for more later.

grrrr, I keep getting ctd now when coming into cyyz. I hope I can get this fixed. I may have to re install the 777. I think it has something to do with the magdec.blg or the fmc in the pss. There have been some issues.

UPDATE:

I'm only 6 hours away and I'm still trying to figure out why I get CTD on approach into CYYZ. The sim has been running great up to today. Go figure. I am doing another test with no Ultimate Terrain Can/USA in to see if that works. My only other thing to try is move the sim date to Dec 21 to use winter textures.

The Big Flight

Well it's only a couple of days before the big flight (YSSY-CYYZ). I'm really looking forward to this flight as it will be my longest online flight yet.

I figured the best way to document this trip was through blogging. I've never blogged yet so I hope it doesn't hurt! Anyway I have lots to do in preperation for the flight so I will see how this first post goes with the blog!

Huggs