RTW Retro Flight #121 Budapest to Berlin . . . . . 1962

[nmlw]

Deutsche Lufthansa flight DH-617 is an Ilyushin IL-14P on a flight from Budapest to Berlin Schonefeld (DDR), (EGRF – EDDB). We have 450 gallons of fuel on board for the 370 nm flight of about 2 hours. Fair weather with a slight chance of rain is forecast. We will be cruising at an altitude of 8,000 feet.

Thanks to:
Aircraft: Ilyushin IL-14P. The model and original textures are by Jens B. Kristensen. The 1959 Deutsche Lufthansa paint is from European liveries v2 by Mike Stevens.
Propliner AI & Traffic: CalClassic & FS Aviator - Tom Gibson, Mike Stevens, Jason Krogmann, Manuel Jagmann, Bill Towers, Nikko Yaginuma, Richard Wright, Frederick Coleman, Dave Jones, Paul Haak, Marty Lochmiller, Ake Lindberg, Harland Sandberg, Richard Wright and Gary Harper. At www.calclassic.com
Scenery and Add-ons: MS FS2004 v9.1and MS Windows 7 Professional and:
- Budapest Ferihegy Airport 1961 is by Juan Martinez C. At www.mediafire.com/file/2qdtwidjgo1i1k9/LHBP_Ferihegy_1961.zip
- Berlin Schonefeld Airport is from the East Germany 1963 scenery package by Mike Stevens. At www.calclassic.com
- The 1962 Deutsche Lufthansa timetable is from www.timetableimages.com
- Rwy12 and EZ Static Object and Scenery Libraries at www.flightsim.com.
- FS2004 Classic Scenery Libraries v4a by Wolfgang Gersch at www.flightsim.com
- REX FS9 w/Overdrive & SP5.
- Flight One Ground Environment Pro II
- FS Genesis UT Europe.



1. Deutsche Lufthansa Timetable 1 April – 31 October, 1962.


2. Passengers loaded, cockpit checks completed and engines started.


3. Taxiing to runway 31L for departure.


4. Takeoff and retracting the gear.


5. Turning on course for Berlin.


6. Climbing through 2,500 feet over the Danube north of Budapest.


7. Cruising at 8,000 feet 30nm from Ferihegy near Esztergom, Hungary.


8. Now over Czechoslovakia near the town of Topoľčany the cloud cover is becoming heavier.


9. About 135nm from Budapest we run into some moderate rain.


10. As we break out of the rain the cloud cover is starting to thin out.


11. The town of Trutnov not far from the Polish border is off to the right.


12. Approaching the Polish border about 8nm east of the city of Karpacz we see the Karkonosze mountain range.


13. Now in Polish air space about 10nm southeast of Jelenia Góra.


14. Passing over the cities of Görlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland. Görlitz is on the left bank of the Lusatian Neisse River and Zgorzelec is on the right bank.


15. We are about twelve nm northwest of Cottbus near the small municipality of Straupitz.


16. About 20 nm from Berlin near the small town of Märkisch Buchholz we begin our initial descent.


17. Five nm from Berlin Schönefeld having been assigned runway 7R we begin to line up our approach with flaps 20 and gear down.


18. Descending through 2,000 feet we have been cleared to land.


19. Lined up on short final.


20. Touchdown.


21. Turning off the runway and heading to parking.


22. Parked, systems powered down and passengers disembarked. Thanks for flying Deutsche Lufthansa.

[Fran65]

A very beautiful report as always!

[Tom/CalClassic]

Nice not having to worry about those pesky Berlin Corridors...

[Dennis the menace]

Nice flight!

I like the panel on the IL-14, whosever's it is.  I'm still using the modified Jens panel.  Where did you find this panel at?

I've had this chart for some years now, and use it for flying over and through East Germany.  I wish I had them for all the East Bloc countries.  There was a north-south corridor they allowed SAS and a few other airlines to use.  Did you know that other than the airlines of the four allies being allowed to fly in the three Berlin corridors, only one other airline was allowed to do so?  That was LOT.  LOT used the Berlin corridors on its flights from Schoenefeld to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London. The Soviets demanded that the allies allow LOT to fly the corridors, and when the allies later on asked the Soviets for them to agree to let other airlines fly them, the Soviets refused.

The green line is the inner German border.  The red lines are the Berlin corridors.  The blue line is the north south corridor.  The other minor airways are black lines, used for internal Lufthansa/Interflug routes.  You can see, for Lufthansa to fly from Schoenefeld to Dresden, the flew east to Furstenwalde, then south to Boxberg, then west to Dresden.

This map shows the actual agreed upon boundaries of the Soviet Zone of Occupation of Germany, what was to become the GDR.  However the Soviets unilaterally ceeded the eastern part to Poland.  But this shows the actual post war boundary.

Hope all of you are keeping cool today, its 114 right now in Phoenix on my back patio, so I'm hiding out inside with my dogs in front of a fan with the air conditioner on.  I see Europe is having a heat wave.

Mike

[nmlw]

Mike, I'm not positive but I might have got the panel from avsimrus.com. All the documentation is in Russian. but it uses the model, air file and some of the gauges by JBK. I have a less comprehensive Berlin Corridors map and guide than the one you have. However, it did note that LOT had permission to use a corridor for regular scheduled service from Warsaw to London and Paris via Schonefeld to the south of East Berlin.

[Dennis the menace]

I would suggest that anyone who flys in this area download the airways chart of East Germany.  I can't remember where I got it from, but I've used it countless times.  That North South corridor is what SAS used to fly to Prague and the Balkans.  Its how all those East Bloc airlines flew to Berlin and then to Copenhagen, or from Copenhagen to Berlin and Prague or wherever.  They fly to either Hermsdorf or Trent, then straight up/down and when they get to Furstenwalde, they cut over to Schoenefeld.

I have that exact same chart, but without the corridors and the inner German boundary highlighted.  I highlighted them to make it easier for me to see.  Here is the un-highlighted version should anyone prefer it.

Mike

[Bjoern]

Here's a list with frequencies ("Streckenfunkfeuer" ~ Civilian NDB): www.mil-airfields.de/de-rpt/ddr-funkfeuer-ndb-nva-interflug.htm

Some of these NDBs also still exist as VORTACs.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drehfunkfeuer#Liste_der_VORs_in_Deutschland

[Tom/CalClassic]

Manfred Meyer(emmemm) sent this diagram of the DDR airspace in 1962. Thanks! He notes that there wasn't a single VOR in the DDR in 1962.



Enjoy,

[Bjoern]

RSBN (corresponding to the western VORTAC) wasn't a thing until the 70s and stations on the territory of the GDR were exclusively military (in the 80s).

See here: www.mil-airfields.de/de-rpt/ddr-funkfeuer-rsbn-de.htm

[nmlw]

Lots of good information here. Thanks