|
|
Post by okami on Jun 29, 2010 17:21:16 GMT -5
Hi all, Well, you'll all be wondering: "why a new topic?" Well... this is a new "round the world" flight, but unlike the previous one, it's shorter, faster, and has a whole lot less legs - or variation, actually. (Just to put things straight: I completed my other round the world journey a week ago, but still need to post the last dozen or more flights...) This journey will be made up out of 2 separate flights, all circa 1958/1959. They are the following: - Air France 192, a Lockheed "Super G" (L-1049G Super Constellation) following the Silk Route from Paris to Tokyo; - And Air France 271, a Lockheed "Starliner" linking Tokyo and Paris via the Pole. All flights are flown at real-time speed. Here's a shot of the Air France Super G running up its engines at Paris/Orly airport, just prior to take-off...  Next post: the first leg, Paris/Orly to Rome/Ciampino. |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Jun 30, 2010 6:01:24 GMT -5
So, it's a Monday sometime in June 1959, and at 1450 local time, Air France 192 requests permission to taxi onto the active. She is carrying 85 passengers and 11 crew, and is fuelled up for her first leg into Ciampino, namely with 17200 lbs of fuel. At 1456 local time, Orly tower gives us their permission to take off from runway 26.  As we turn towards the South, Orly Control tells us to look out for Flight 662, an Air France Viscount which performs the daily flight from Orly to Genève Cointrain, and which was cleared to take off directly after us.  Soon we are climbing out over the department Seine-Marne. Our first fix puts us on a direct course to Dijon.  As we pass Dijon, we can see the Jura - these are outcrops of the Alps. The lake in the distance is Lake Neufchatel, on Swiss territory.  And about a quarter of an hour later, we are over Lake Geneva, just about halfway between Geneva and Lausanne. Over the radio we can hear our friends of Flight 662 being asked to commence their approach into Geneva.  And that puts us squarely over the Alps. We're already in Italy by now, heading towards the Pisa beacon.  Now, the Alps are quite a thing to be in (I'm speaking from personal experience), but it takes surprisingly little time to actually cross them - in a Super Constellation, at least.  This puts us somewhere between Turin and Milan (to be more precise, we're passing overhead the North-Italian towns of Ivrea, Casale Monferrato and Tortona). Not that it's likely any of our passengers will be going here: they're more likely to have taken the daily Air France Constellation (Flight 650) to Milan, which will have landed there about half an hour ago (1620 local time).  Not long after that, we pass over the Pisa VOR. Most passengers will be looking out of their windows to look at the leaning tower, but as we're passing almost right over it, it'll unfortunately be impossible to spot it, especially from this altitude...  About 65 miles from Rome, Air France 192 begins to descend and manoeuvre for its approach into Ciampino. Right here, we're passing Lake Bolsepa.  As we descend into Ciampino, a thunderstorm is raging, giving us some treacherous crosswinds and reduced visibility. The low approach allows for some stunning sights, though, such as the St Peter's Basilica (in the picture, just above and in front of the Connie)  Finally we arrive at Ciampino airport. Touchdown is at 1719 local time, a full 21 minutes ahead of schedule. Allowing for taxying, our passengers start to deplane at 1725 local time. A handful will stay here, but most will remain on this flight. During this leg, we've burned off 8143 lbs of fuel, leaving us with 9057 lbs in our tanks. Our next leg will be taking us from Rome/Ciampino into Tel Aviv/Lod. Hope you'll join us!  |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Jul 2, 2010 15:29:33 GMT -5
So... Leg 2, part 1. Little over an hour after we've landed at Rome Ciampino airport, Flight 192 once again requests permission to taxi onto the active. After our stop here, we still have 82 passengers aboard; we've also been refuelled so our total fuel for this leg is 25043 lbs.  At a little over 18:34 local time, our flight engineer pushes the throttles forward to full power, and at 18:34:35 our Super G leaves the runway.  The thunderstorms of one and a half hours earlier have dissolved, but the sky's still a bit hazy and moist as we climb out of Rome, in the direction of the Bari beacon. As a consequence, we experience a little turbulence as we start to pass over the hills East of Rome.  Soon we start to encounter the Appenine mountain range, which stretches throughout the entire length of the Italian peninsula. On our right side, we pass Monte Cassino and its abbey, which by now (1959) is in the final phases of its restauration. (It was reconsacrated in 1964).  As we pass Bari, we run right into more thunderstorms. Luckily, we manage to manoeuvre clear of some mighty threatening clouds...  Weaving Italy and the thunderstorms behind us, we reach the Greek coast after about 20 minutes. We enter Greek airspace over the Strait of Otranto. In front of us we can see the island of Othonoi, with behind it the island of Kerkira or Corfu.  As we near the Kerkira beacon, evening is starting to fall.  In the fading light, we turn for our next beacon, which will take us all the way over Greece.  And about half an hour later, we pass just north of Athens.  To be continued in part 2... |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Oct 9, 2010 7:07:25 GMT -5
Leg 2 part 2...  Once past the city of Athens and the beacon at Tenegra Air Base, we tune in to the next beacon on our path, namely that at the island of Rhodos. This soon puts us over the Aegean.  Once past Rhodos, we start following the Turkish coast, en-route to the island nation of Cyprus. En route, the flight experiences some turbulence. Ever so now and then, a break in the clouds allows us a glimpse of the many towns and villages dotted along the Turkish coast.  But the clouds seem to get only denser as we go along. As we approach Cyprus itself, they seem to shield the entire island from our vision. And suddenly, through another break in the clouds, we see the island itself. We make landfall near Paphos, and tune in for the next beacon at Akrotiri AB.  As we pass the Akrotiri beacon, ATC begins to direct us towards Israeli airspace, and instructs us to commence our descent. We're about half an hour outbound of Lodd, when the co-pilots spots a set of lights to our starboard side. It is a BOAC Britannia, Speedbird 304, on its way from Heathrow to Teheran. The copilot notifies the captain of this, as it looks the two will cross paths.  It turns out the two aircraft cross one another with sufficient clearing, however this leads to another question: how far is the Speedbird ahead of us? The engineer quickly checks the tanks, and reassures the crew: there's still more than enough fuel in the tanks, so any go-around shouldn't be a problem.  Sure enough, as Flight 192 is on its final approach, Lodd tower calls out a go-around. The Britannia hasn't cleared the runway yet. The crew retracts gear and flaps, and and commences a right-hand turn for a new approach. This takes them via Tiqwa to Jerusalem, where the crew reconfigures the aircraft for their second attempt.  Uploaded with ImageShack.usLining up for runway 30, the crew concentrates for the approach. It's a bit of a challenging approach, as just off the runway there are some large hangars. The Connie clears them with height to spare, and moments later its wheels touch down on the runway. It is half past midnight.  Ground control directs the Constellation to gate 7. The apron is quite crowded, with Alitalia, Sabena, BEA, BOAC and El Al aircraft parked near the terminal. Looking at the tanks, the engineer notices there are still 8076 lbs in the tanks, which means the engines have burnt off nearly 17000 lbs of fuel during the 5-hour flight. The next leg will take us from Tel Aviv to Teheran... |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Oct 9, 2010 7:07:53 GMT -5
By now it is Tuesday, and at half past one in the morning, Air France 192 requests Lodd Tower for clearance to its next stop at Teheran, Iran. With its four engines turning, the Super G taxies past the other aircraft parked up at the Lodd terminal.  Minutes later, at 01:34:08, the Super G takes off. Its four engines at full throttle, the aircraft graciously leaves the ground and heads into the dark skies above. Initiating a right-hand turn, the Super Connie soon cruises high in the skies over the city of Jeruzalem...  Soon the Constellation reaches its cruising height, and it crosses the Palestinian-Jordanian border. Way off in the distance behind us, the contours of the Dead Sea are visible in the light of the moon.  Not long after that, we also pass the Jordanian capital of Amman and head into the Jordanian deserts. The next few hours, we fly high over the deserts. From Jordan, we head into Iraqi airspace...  About an hour later, the sun begins to rise at the horizon. We're now approaching Mesopotamia, the heartlands of Iraq. To our right we can see the city of Karbala.  About ten minutes later, we are over the city of Baghdad itself. As we pass high over it, we see the lights of another airliner below us. It is Scandinavian 843, a brand-new Caravelle flying the Copenhagen-Teheran route.  With Baghdad behind us, we head out into Iranian airspace. In front of us are the Kabir Kuh and the city of Kermanshah.  To be continued in part 2... |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Oct 9, 2010 7:08:14 GMT -5
Leg 3 part 2. Dawn turns into day, as Flight 192 starts to cross the Zagros Mountains. The Connie is now approximately somewhere between Kermanshah and Hamadan, about an hour outbound of Teheran.  The light steadily improves, and for the first time during the leg the crew and passengers can truly appreciate the beauty of the landscape that is passing underneath them  After about twenty minutes, we leave the city of Hamadan to our left. With this, we leave the mountainous terrain behind us. Below us are some outcrops, which separate the Zagros from the Kavir Desert.  Now we're just north of Qom, about 60 miles outbound of Teheran. ATC starts giving us instructions on our descent into Mehrabad, advising us on a 29 Left approach.  About a quarter of an hour before landing, Teheran comes into view. As the Constellation begins to prepare itself for its approach descent, a new voice is heard on the approach frequency: Scandinavian 843. The Caravelle Jet is about ten minutes behind us - something which astonishes the crew to no end as we saw it landing at Baghdad earlier on.  The approach takes us over the city. Undoubtedly some of the passengers are looking out of the windows at all the houses.  And so we touch down at the airport. It is 06:40 in the morning, about 3 1/2 hours after we've taken off out of Tel Aviv. The flight has arrived somewhat early, but this only allows us more time to prepare our next leg, namely to Karachi. Of the 24602 lbs of fuel we tanked in Tel Aviv, we burned 12687, so we still have 11915 lbs left in our tanks. This is not sufficient to get into Karachi, so we'll need to tank about 10000 lbs here in Teheran.  Next time: leg 4 from Teheran to Karachi... |
|
