virtual sky - 8th issue

Publisher: International Virtual Aviation Organisation

Editors: Vybhava SrinivasanMarco MeerkerkRaymond van der Ploeg

Layout, Design and Translation: Julien Jourdel, Maxime Esnau, Dennis Steinfort, Mikael Gerner, Breno Ferreira, Ugo Cabrol.

Website: www.ivao.aero/publrelat/

General Mail: [email protected]

Logo and cover Design: Robert GottwaldMarco Meerkerk

Cover screenshots by: Georges Gabet Disclaimer: Any information,suggestions or illustrations published inthis magazine are exclusively for usewith computer flight simulation.All views expressed in this magazine arethe views of the respective authors.The publisher does not accept anyresponsibility for those views.

CopyrightNone of the information in thismagazine may be reproduced in anyform without prior permission from the pu-blisher.

Editorial

IVAO Virtual SkyOctober 2010

Marco MeerkerkIVAO Magazine Team Manager

[email protected]

DDear readers,

Firstly of we would like to apologize for the delayed release of your magazine. In the past few months we have spent considerable time internally restructuring the magazine team, which of course has de-layed this editions release by considerable time but we sincerely hope will result in timely subsequent editions and a more improved content. More about the newly formed team in this magazine.

In this edition we have brought together interesting Aviation related articles, one of which is an Article on “Ashcloud” which was caused by the Vulcano Eruption in Iceland. Also, we have reviews of Flight Si-mulator add-on software and also an interesting article on Airspaces. We hope you will enjoy the articles.

We are delighted to announce, Virtual Sky will now be available in French and Portuguese in addition to English. This has now become possible due to new additions to the magazine team.

I am sure you will enjoy this edition and looking forward to seeing you with the release of our next edition.

Have fun and take care,

Marco MeerkerkIVAO Magazine Team ManagerEditor of Virtual Sky

Virtual sky - October 2010

Marco Meerkerk, Magazine Team Manager…Hello all, I’m Marco Meerkerk 21 years old and part of Virtual Sky’ team since October 2008. First as Designer and Content Writer, but since July 2009 Edi-tor and Magazine Team Manager.

Since 1988 I live in a small town called Sliedrecht , South-Holland, the Ne-therlands. Currently in one of my finals years to become Computer Science Engineer. Besides studing I’m also a part-time salesman in a reputable com-puter store. I have held several IVAO staff functions in the past. I began my career at the ATC operations department as coordinator in the Netherlands Division. In 2008 I became part of the Senior Staff as Public Relations Advi-sor. My current jobs are Magazine Team Manager, Assistant Network Mana-ger and Netherlands Division Membership Coordinator.

Together with the team I hope to bring you numerous editions of our Magazine and hope you will enjoy the magazines as much as I do.

Raymond van der Ploeg, Magazine Team Assistant Manager…My name is Raymond van der Ploeg currently 28 years young and living in Holland together with my girlfriend Samantha.

In real life I’m a sales manager at an electronic store, besides IVAO and Flight Simulator my hobbies are traveling, reading, etc. I’m a member of IVAO since May 2005. Till that date I did have some experiences with various flight simulators.

At this moment I’m also ACEO of transavia.com virtual and flying an average of 3 hours per day.

Since 2006 I have been involved as events staff in the Netherlands Division.Beside the Division pursuits I’m now also active in the PR division of IVAO and responsible for the main design and also scenery reviews for the Virtual Sky magazine.

The magazine team added new staffmembers to enable publishing the magazine in multiple languages and more content. Let us get to know

more about us.



Maxime Esnau, Magazine Team Advisor Content Writer 1…My name is Maxime Esnau, I am 18 years old, living in Marrakech (GMMX) and a student of science. Since 2007, I am a private pilot with more than fifty hours on Cessna 152 and Cessna 172. In the future, would like to become a commercial pilot. I am a IVAO member since early 2008 with the French Division. I joined the Public Relations Department in July 2009 as Magazine Team Advisor Content Writer.

Julien Jourdel, Magazine Team Advisor Designer 1...My name is Julien, I’m 24 years old. I live in St Savin (LFDC) France. I’m in IVAO Since 2008, I’m a Canadian member and working as a steward in a French company. IVAO is my passion besides work and also spend my time in BB, I am joining the Magazine Team as designer, hoping that you will like it ;)

Dennis Steinfort, Magazine Team Advisor Content Writer 2… My name is Dennis Steinfort, 39 years old and proud father of ten year old twin girls. I am married to Lizette who originates from Curacao, the Nether-lands Antilles.

I joined IVAO in January 2003 where I started out as Controller. I gained a lot of experience by training, being online a lot and help from the Dutch staff members back then. During the year 2003 I started my virtual life as pilot also. I controlled and flew a lot during the first two years resulting in a IVAO burn out late 2004 which became worse because of the political issues that were current in that period between the Dutch division staff and HQ. I was inactive for more than a year.

However when joining a community as great as IVAO you have to realize one does this for life! So the IVAO itch turned on me and I became active again to just control and fly at proper moments without being a daily part of IVAO.

Now a few years later again IVAO is again a part of my daily life. In the last years I wanted to do my thing for IVAO. This became clear to the Dutch division staff and they asked me to join as Assistant Membership Coordinator (MAC) in 2008. Soon it became clear that the MC was leaving the staff and I made the switch to MC. A year I got the chance to become Event Assistant Coordinator leaving the MC position to a new staff member (Erwin Zeeuw). In this new position I joined Raymond van der Ploeg as EC in organizing events. The last few months I made the switch to EC with Raymond who now is NL-EAC.

Now I joined the Magazine Team as MTAC2, where I am expected to write content for the Magazine. I am sure I am able to deliver interesting articles about IVAO, the Flight Sim community and some parts related to aviation in general.


Mikael Gerner, Magazine Team Advisor Content Writer 3…My name is Mikael Gerner, and I am one of the new content writers in the Virtual Sky magazine. I have been an IVAO member since 2007, and a staff member since 15 months. I am 18 years old and live in a city just a few miles south of Gothenburg in Sweden. I am studying social science in a upper secondary school, from which I will graduate in about 10 months. I am not sure what to do after school; at this stage I am looking around to see if there is any good courses in physics and technology that I can study in order to challenge myself and see whether the pilot profession (with all its physics and technology) is something for me or if I should choose to work within the community, maybe with law.

My passion for aviation started when I discovered the Microsoft Flight Simulator, and I was very lucky when I found IVAO, even though it was quite hard to get started. I have loved the IVAO spirit since then, and I hope that I will be fortunate enough to have time for this hobby as long as possible. This writer position really gives me a chance for personal development and also possibilities to contribute to the community.

If you have any questions or if you just would like to take a flight sometime (which I would love to), just send an e-mail and I would be happy to get in contact with you.

Breno Ferreira, Magazine Team Advisor Translator 1…My name is Breno Ferreira and let me tell something about myself.

I’m from Brasilia, Brazil. In real life I am a lawyer. Have just graduated. My objective is to become a judge. But, since I have to practice law for three years before I can apply to take the test, I am studying and practicing law.My favorites hobbies are swimming and rowing.

I’ve joined IVAO at 2007, but I use the Flight Simulator since the early 90s.

Nowadays I am BR-TC and now I present myself to you guys as MTAT1 (Portuguese).

Ugo Cabrol, Magazine Team Advisor Translator 2...My name is Ugo Cabrol, and I am a French student. I’m 17 years old since this month, and I am living in the south of the France (Montpellier). This year, I passed my “Scientific Baccalauréat” (French equivalent of the A-Level), and I will attend a scientific preparation class in September (known here as “Maths Sup”). I’m going to move with my girlfriend Célia (285544... Yes, she is also an IVAO’s member) in our flat in September.

My dream is to become a commercial pilot for Air France. For the time being, I am flying general aviation planes (Cessna 152, Robin DR400, MS Rallye 100ST) at Narbonne airfield (LFNN). I did some language trips in England, in the United States and in Canada, and I am very interested in learning languages (especially English !).

That’s why I found exciting to take part in the translation of the Virtual Sky, for the French edition.



Personally, this year’s air show has been the best and, with high ‘G’ manoeuvres, great aerobatic stunts and stunning formations, probably the best Danish Air Show ever.

The air show was scheduled for Sunday June 6th, but the IVAO-DK crew was at the air base two days before. Everything was ready Friday evening. This meant we (the crew) had a whole day for spotting and watching the pilots practise. Saturday went by as like a breeze and, after getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning, we were tired and ready for bed at 10 Saturday night.

The day of the air show finally came and at 8 o’clock in the morning everything was prepared and we were ready to promote IVAO. Due to the initial internet problems, we didn’t have the ATC clients up and run-ning, but the two computers running FS certainly made up for it. There were no less than 7-8 people at our stand at any given time. Once we got the internet working and the ATC clients running, people slowly took interest in the blue screens with small dots and labels. After our virtual air traffic controllers had convinced the onlookers that they weren’t watching their screensaver but actually controlling, people were amazed. Never had they seen anything of the like. Our stand was surrounded by interested people until late in the after-noon. Once the air show had finished and people had left, we started packing up and left the base a few hours later. The stand had attracted an unimaginable amount of people surprising us a great deal. Never in a million years had we thought this many people would be interested. The air show was a great success and we are already looking forward to setting up a stand at next year’s air show.

People couldn’t get enoughAbout 80.000 people were expected, but the Air force estimated around 130.000, but the police corrected them and estimated 150.000. Actually there were a traffic jam with up to 30 Km cues on the roads to the air show, included the motorway.

A great thanks to the IVAO team that spent three days at the stand! From the Danish staff:- Michael Folkmann – DK-MC/DK-SO (Leader and organisator)- Kasper Petersen – DK-EC (Supporter)- And our division members that was on the team:- Rudy Lyngvig (Supporter)- Torben Funch (Network responsible) Also a great thanks to everyone from the division that came to support IVAO!

Written by: Kasper Petersen, Rudy Lyngvig


It hasn’t been unnoticed that the last few months were very

quiet in the West-Eastern airspace

A S H C LO U D S

All this because of the recent eruption of the Iceland’s volcano called Eyjafjallajokull. Many companies suffered because of this eruption, my company as well. In the following story I will tell you some more about my own experiences with the ash-cloud, the closing of the Dutch airspace and the surrounding countries as well.

It all started at Thursday the 15th of April, at around 0600Z there was an peacefully sunset at airport Teuge (EHTE). At that moment there wasn’t any cloud at the sky because of an high pressure area above the British Islands. All the planes from the fleet went airborne at around 0700Z to fly. During the briefing, reading ‘Weather and Notams’, I was triggered because of the ash-cloud out of Iceland and the Northwestern stream together with an jet-stream above Iceland. Not much later the first messages reached me that the Scottish and Scandinavian FIR were threatened with closure of their airspaces.

The departure of one of our IFR planes with destination Billund was delayed by ATC. In the end the plane did get a slot time. Not much later around 0930Z I received, at that time as dispatcher, a telephone call from the LVNL (Air Traffic Control the Netherlands). They told me that the surrounding FIR’s did close because of the coming ash-cloud there was also a possibility that the plane (type: General Aviation) to Billund could not return back to Holland.



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DSBut what was the real danger of flying? Flying through the ash-cloud could cause, with jet engines and other turbine-driven engines, an ‘compressor stall’. In short this means that there will be an turbulent layer of air that will be pressed through the compressor and the compressor will stall eventually. This will result that the engine will lose all the power. In comparison to Desert dust, Vulcanic ash is a lot more tacky and stick on the fan-blades. In combination with high temperatures within an engine this will result in glass formation in liquid shape. This can be catastrophic for the engine with fatal result. Besides this the sticky combination will also block the fuel nozzles with an flame-out as result. If you though this was really all? You are deffinately wrong. The planes will be sandblasted as well. Due to this fact, pilots (and passengers as well) won’t be able to look outside anymore.

At that moment I stopped the operation for this aircraft. Around 1100Z I was renamed into ‘crisis manager’ to monitor the whole case. From 0900Z the whole Northwestern sector was out and after that also two other sectors were downgraded from 50% capacity to 0%. At 1700Z they made the decision to close the whole Amsterdam FIR for all civil air traffic.

Ricardo just finished his study to become commercial pilot. At this moment he is searching for a job in the cockpit. Till that time Ricardo is real-life dispatcher at Stella Aviation Academy in Holland.

Not the best circumstances for pilots ;-)

Regards, Ricardo Burggraeve


It has been a long time ago since I went to Schip-hol for the first time in Real Life, not to fly on my own, just to catch up with my uncle which has been on holiday in the United States with a friend. I was only 6, maybe 7 years old, and that was just the moment in my life I got addicted to Aviation. I started my virtual aviation career with FS98 back in 1999 or so. Was ill grounded at home, and my mom bought me the ‘98 version. At that time, it was really a state of the art piece of software. You could fly from anywhere, to anywhere in the world, ‘just magnificent’. At the moment of this review I’m 21 years old, and still addicted to aviation!

In the meantime we have Flight Simulator X, and a lot of things have been changed in the period I’m Home Pilot. The ‘eye catcher’ are the graphics, but under the hood a lot of things has been changed. In comparison with years ago a lot more is possible these days. Bút... I’m a man which stays with good working stuff, my slogan therefore is: ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t even try to fix it!’. Therefore I stayed with FS9 (Flight Simulator 2004) and it’s amazing add-ons which are available today. Ok, enough talk about myself, let’s come to business. This review is about the new Schiphol (EHAM) scenery, published by Aerosoft.

About Schiphol ‘the real thing’Before I start with the review, I would like to tell you something about the real Schiphol. Many of you might know the bare basics, but for the ones who doesn’t, a brief history about the biggest hub of the Western Europe.

Schiphol (also known as: Schiphol Airport, Am-sterdam Airport or Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, ICAO: EHAM, IATA: AMS) is the biggest airport in the Netherlands, and even the biggest Hub for transatlantic flights in the western part of Europe. Schiphol is located 10 kilometers southwest of the city Amsterdam. Schiphol is the base of several Netherlands Airlines: KLM, Martinair, ArkeFly, transavia.com and Amsterdam Airlines. Schiphol is now a civil airport, but it hasn’t been like that since its existence.



In April 1916 the Dutch minister of War approved the purchase for some land for a new Military airbase. In August of the same year the 16,5 hectare was prepared to serve as an airfield, four wooden sheds were built to shelter the visiting planes. On September 19th the first three planes from the LVA (Dutch Aviation Authorities) landed on Schiphol, which meant the airfield was officially opened. By the end of World War I, the surface of the first big Netherlands field has raised to 76 (seventy-six) hectare.

After World War II, Schiphol was really a mess. After a refurbishment in 1946, KLM was the first European Airline which dares the operate a direct scheduled flight between Amsterdam and New York. In 1950, Jan Dellaert (former Schiphol veteran) worked on a new concept plan for Schiphol with a central station and runways which were conflicting, keeping in mind planes were able to depart and land with winds from all directions. In the late 60’s, Amsterdam grew to a Main port, a junction for train, air and highways. This all due to the fact that flying gets more and more affordable for ‘the normal people’. By 1975 almost 8 million passen-gers a year were travelling via Schiphol. Almost 40% of all passengers are using Schiphol as an Transit hub, and due to the fact that the field has state of

the art freight facilities Schiphol is a perfect place for distribution companies. Due to all this, the Airport-City (as it is called) gives place for over 50.000 employees.

ATC Service is provided by Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland, short: LVNL), which is stationed at Schiphol East. So..., enough history lets go to the scenery!

Scenery informationThe scenery itself is an cooperation between Aerosoft and DreamFactoryStudio, a scenery which some of of have been waiting for. Many of us, especially the frequent Schiphol flyers have had a nice scenery for a while, Cloud 9 Schiphol. Unfortunately this scenery missed some things which has been changed in real life. It was a pity that FSCloud9 Italy announced that they won’t support Schiphol any longer, with other words: ‘No updates’. It was really time some developer dared to provide the Virtual Aviation world a new scenery, Aerosoft and DreamFactoryStudio were the ‘dare devils’ in this case, and to be honest it’s a success!

FindingsDuring the release the scenery did have some minor faults, but despite that it was really a wonderful piece of art. About the faults: they could be very annoying, but Ladies and Gentlemen ‘the testing starts the moment the software is released’! Few examples: missing taxi signs at certain places, skit marks are the same at every gate, gates are a mess when choosing a gate from the ‘Go to Airport’ menu (no structure) and the B-pier which is not up-to-date. More of this in the following forum topic: http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=32572. After the release of the update by Aerosoft and DreamFactoryStudios, some of these faults were resolved, but there are still a couple of things which are not the same as in real life and as it should be. A simple example of this are the taxi signs on the Q-taxiways which still indicates as S-taxiway (the name the track has 2 to 3 years ago).


In short:* Testing machine:Intel Core2Quad Q9550 at 3,5Ghz4GB MemoryNVidia GTX280 graphics card* Developer: Aerosoft* Website: http://www.aerosoft.com* Price: € 24.95 / $ 33,16 USD* * System requirements:Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 with Update 9.1Windows 7, Vista or XP SP2Pentium IV 2,6 GHz or higher2 GB RAM3D Graphics card with 256 MB (512 MB recommended)

Download-Size: 90 MBInstallations-Size: 300 MB* Pros:- 95% is up-to-date scenery in comparison to Real Life;- Details are really cool;- Moving traffic on surrounding highways.* Cons:- Minor faults, but small ones overall;- No seasonal textures.* Score: 8/10 (The scenery is really good, pending minor improvements.After a final Update this one will be a 11 out of 10 for sure!)

Reviewed by Marco Meerkerk(IVAO Staff)

Enough of the ‘cons’, let’s move on to the positive thing after all this list is way longer in my opinion. The fear of most Flight Simulator users these days is the ‘FPS’ rate (frame per second rate). The frame rate which this scenery produces is great. During the test phase I held 40FPS without any problems with PMDG and Real Environment X and high settings (for my PC setup see the end of this review). The frames overall were the same as Cloud 9 did produce on my machine, but be aware of the fact that this may differ at your system. As a perfectionist I love the details which have been added like the names on the Hangers and Cargo

terminals. Advertisement poles which are placed at the square in front of the main terminal are part of the scenery as well. Next to all this the new holding points on the runway 18C/36C have been added as well, a very positive thing for the Schiphol Controllers at IVAO since there have been some discussions on the frequencies about the W3/W5 crossing thing...

This scenery, in comparison to Cloud 9 does look more realistic. The ‘fancy colors’ which Cloud 9 has, are looking real in this scenery. The last thing is kinda hard to imagine maybe, but you will see the difference and you probably know at the first glims what I mean.

A cool tool the developers included is AES light. This tool allows you to turn on traffic (like trucks and service cars) on the airfield as well as the surrounding highways. For low performance machines this could be a frame booster if you turn the traffic of. The traffic is well modelled and simulated.

There are few things that might annoy you, and maybe not (I’m part of the last group of persons). Aerosoft opened a topic on their forums with a so called ‘Wish list’. For the last and final faults they may release an update soon in my opinion. At this moment for people who are in doubt buying this add-on, I can only say that it’s really worth your money. This scenery is available for both FS9 and FSX, at the web shop on Aerosoft’ website.



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By Mikael Gerner; Alan Carter is a well-known pilot who has been flying for over 30 years. During his time as a pilot, he has been flying many different aircraft

types in many different parts of the world. He was featured on a famous DVD, and is a consultant for Virtual Aviation. He is also writing a book about his

career. I have been happy enough to get a deep interview with Alan when he gave me the answers on most questions I ever wanted to ask him.

Mikael: Hi Alan, and thank you for participating! Let’s start right away with the first question. How come that you became a pilot?

Alan: Hi Mikael and the rest of IVAO, thank you for contacting me. So, here is a short introduc-tion to my flight career. My father was always very keen on aviation and through him I developed my interest. I had been studying for my PPL whilst at school, paid for by both myself working part time and my parents. After high school I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to study at Oxford Avi-ation in Kidlington, by my parents.

Mikael: So, now when you are done and have been flying for a long time, are there any specific things that you would like to men-tion as the best/worst things with your profession?

Alan: Best, is the feeling after each and every flight of getting the job done. Then going through in my mind how I could have done it bet-

ter. I do this self-critique after each and every flight even after almost 30 years.Worst, is the fatigue through both long-haul operations and multi-ple time changes; or when flying short-haul the long days at unsoci-able hours.

Mikael: You have been flying many different types and have operated routes all over the globe. Have you got any favorite aircraft and destination?

Alan: My favorite aircraft to ope-rate was the Boeing 747-400, but my favorite to fly was the DC10. I choose the B747 as the operation was very varied. I flew the pas-senger, combi, freighter and the extended range freighter all vari-ants requiring different methods of operation. Whereas I choose the DC10 because it was a real pilots aircraft, you felt involved with how it was behaving all the time, there was only the most basic of auto-mation meaning you always had to fly it. With complete glass cockpit

aircraft, sometimes they can be flying you and you are just an ob-server, which requires a different form of discipline from the pilot to regain his control over it. My favorite destination, easy, Anchorage Alaska, because there were always challenges involved in operating from this airport with the mountains and the weather. The city always felt as if it was living on the edge, always the threat of something about to hap-pen, maybe it was the pioneering history or the remoteness the numerous earthquakes and sheer beauty of the place.

“I am very luc-ky to do what I do.....”


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Mikael: Is there any time of your career that you remember extra well?

Alan: In Dan Air, I loved flying the Bae748 turboprop around the Shetland Islands always a chal-lenge, always exciting. Flying the B727 out of Berlin’s historic Tegel airport before the wall came down, requiring you to enter and exit via closely monitored corridors. A sense of experiencing history as it happened.In Virgin Atlantic shortly after I qualified as a B747-200 Captain I flew into Boston as ‘the perfect storm’ developed. This means a Nor’easter weather pattern deve-loping, when bitterly cold air from Canada meets a weather system from the south and the subse-quent result was some of the worst weather I had ever operated into. With the associated hurricane force winds, but we managed to land safely and the story of this flight warrants a complete chapter of a book. As an aside there were several accidents at airports on the north eastern seaboard.Flying for Korean Airlines on their B747-400 fleet was a privilege, operating all over the world to countries I would never have visi-ted otherwise. Operating Tsunami relief flights with them just days after the tragic devastation occur-red will always stay in my mind.I also have fond memories of flying in Eritrea on the B737-800 for NASAIR whilst subcontracted out from an Italian airline NEOS. Flying around Africa and seeing places from on high such as Darfur and landing in Chad and the Su-dan. Witnessing the daily struggle of these people made you realize that we are very lucky and really should have nothing to complain about.

“Flying for Korean Airlines on their

B747-400 fleet was a privelege”Mikael: Seems that you have

many happy memories! Are there any examples for any not so happy memories, any emergency or distress for example?

Alan: I have had technical issues with aircraft. For example losing a hydraulic system on a Virgin Atlantic B747-200 on touchdown at Tokyo and losing all steering systems, requiring us to be towed off of the runway and so closed the airport for a while. I had an engine seize on the B747-400 departing from Seoul South Korea to London. After shutting down the engine, jettisoning fuel and avoi-

ding both North Korean and Chi-nese airspace, we safely carried out a three engine auto-land back into Seoul.I have had nu-merous in-flight diversions for medical reasons, my most memo-rable occurred when I had to divert into Gan-der Newfound-land on a flight from New York to London on a Virgin Atlantic 747-400. This was because a male pas-

October 19th 2000: Alan Carter in the captains seat in the flight recorded by ITVV productions. As third co-pilot on this flight John Cullom, Unfortu-nately John is passed away some years ago.

senger was diagnosed as ha-ving a severe heart attack. Added to this, due to the technical status of the aircraft (no APU) it became a very difficult day and resulted in a second diversion into Shannon Ireland, again a tale for another time or another chapter.

Mikael: You are involved in some-thing called Virtual Aviation. Can you please tell the readers what it is? Alan: Virtual Aviation is a fabulous company which offers flights in air-line simulators for both qualified pi-lots and the regular public. I find it thoroughly enjoyable to put people into the captains seat of a B737 or B747 who have never flown before

Mikael: Let’s talk a bit about your public sides. You are not just a re-gular airline captain as you have also been involved in a quite famous DVD? Alan: Ha Ha, yes. At the time I was a captain on the B747 at Virgin Atlantic. Nick Grindley, the boss of ITVV, posted a message on PPRUNE asking if anyone would be able to organize a flight which could be made into a video of how a modern airliner was operated. I volunteered and fortu-nately Virgin Atlantic agreed too.Note: The Virgin Atlantic 747 DVD is available for purchase on www.itvv.com.Mikael: I have also understood that you are quite active on Facebook. Your account is filled with videos, photos and stories. How come? You also have 3000 friends, is any aviation enthusi-asts free to add you?

Alan: I am very lucky to do what I do, and there are many people out there who are interested in aviation and everything which happens around it. The operation,

and have them carry out take-offs and landings at airports around the world. I consider myself to be very fortunate to have the oppor-tunity to do this and would recom-mend the experience to anyone and everyone.


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lifestyle, how the aircraft fly and where we fly to. I just wanted to share my experiences through the medium of video and photos. I also offer advice when I can and when asked, drawing on my 30 years of experience in this fabulous indus-try to formulate an answer. I al-ways answer everyone who takes the time to send me a question, in a small way giving back a little from the huge amount I have taken from my career to date. Anyone who is interested in aviation is free to join my page, where we all try and help each other.

Mikael: Doesn’t it ever get boring to just deal with paperwork and press switches and turning on but-tons? Alan: I would be lying if I said no. Of course there is a lot of routine paperwork and a strict framework within which we ope-rate, but every day is different. The weather is always changing, different airports to operate into, and technical issues affecting the aircraft. You have to always stay one step ahead and plan for every eventuality. When you see a pilot sitting in his seat staring out of the window at the fabulous views that we are lucky to see, often he is

Mikael: That was all the questions I had. Thanks a lot for the inter-view. It was nice to talking to a man who really knows how it is up there!

Alan: Thank you Mikael, welcome back if you have more questions!

not daydreaming but planning. I always plan for ‘what if’ whether it is a technical failure, bad weather or medical emergency, so that when it happens for real there is already a plan in place. This is what keeps the job from being mundane as there is far more to operating an airliner than just pressing buttons.

Recently Alan Carter started his own company called SIMUFLY LTD. Alan explains: “SIMUFLY LTD is a company which offers bespoke simulator training and flight experiences on Airbus and Boeing simulators, at airline approved trai-ning centres located near to London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports. SIMUFLY utilises full flight, full motion simulators

with excellent visual systems”. For flightsim pilots I hope the following itinerary might be of interest. 1. Meet at Alteon or OAA flight training centre near to London’s Gatwick airport. A dedicated crew briefing room with cockpit mockup (cardboard bomber), wireless internet and available for our sole use throughout the day. After introductions and coffee, a structured question and answer session, hosted by myself, on topics requested by the flightsim pilots. Comparing actual piloting techniques, procedures and S.O.Ps to those in the flightsim world. (Approx 1 hour)2. Lunch and informal discussions. (Approx 30 minutes)3. Flight simulator briefing tailored for each individual, with a run through of the S.O.Ps to be used in the simulator. (Approx 1 hour)4. Flight simulator session. 20 minutes each as Captain (plus 5 minutes each to get comfortable) then 20 minutes as co-pilot and 20 minutes as observer on the jumpseat; on a Boeing 737-800NG. So each individual will be in the simulator for 75 minutes. These sessions will be tailored for each individual, with requests taken for which airports to fly from and to and what scenarios to complete based on weather and aircraft system failures as required by each individual flightsim pilot. (Approx 4 hours)5. Coffee and de-brief. (Approx 30 minutes)All charts to be used for each airport plus copies of checklists to be used by each flightsim pilot tailored to their requests will be sent in advance along with a copy of the S.O.Ps to be used. This is to entail self briefing and practice prior to arriving in the simulator itself, to maximise the experience. Lunch will be provided and included in the price.Hotel accomodation next to the training centre can be organised by SIMUFLY at the rate charged by the hotel on the day, paid by each individual. The day is expected to last from 1000 until 1700, exact timings to be confirmed. The package is for a maximum of 9 flightsim pilots to ensure individual attention and a team of three in the simulator at any one time.



Who has never dreamed of leaving his job to go to the Pacific Islands? Well since the last few months, Aerosoft make this dream a possibility with Tahiti X via the way of FSX. Co-

vering an area of two and a half million square kilometers, this beautiful scene consists of fourteen islands and nine highly detailed airports.

In 1521, the history of French Polynesia really began with the discovery of Puka Puka by

Magellan, thus the Europeans explored gradually the territory. It was only in 1767 that John Byron, a British, discovered Tahiti. It was in 1840 that this

territory becomes a French community. Located in the southern Pacific Ocean, at six thousand kilometers of Australia, French Polynesia is a group of five

archipelagos composed of one hundred and eighteen islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Gambier Island, the Austral Islands, Marquesas Islands, and finally

The Society Islands, which was developed by Aerosoft. It was James Cook in 1769, who named all the islands around Tahiti to "the Society Islands" in honor of the

Royal Society of London, which had financed his trip. The archipelago includes 14 islands including Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea which are the main. To travel between these

islands, many airports are present on most of the islands, but there is one international airport, one of Faa'a used as a platform connecting to Air Tahiti Nui and Air Tahiti.

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Bora Bora is a volcanic island of French Polynesia located at two hundred and fifty kilometers from Tahiti (forty five minutes of flight), there emerged from the water thirteen million years, the volcano has gradually pushed for now bordered by a coral reef. Bora Bora is equipped with the second airport in Polynesia in terms of passengers. The airport is surrounded of Palms that will seduce a large number of people with NDB approach runway 11 and these departures standard really complex. Whether you’re on the runway or on the parking, different points of view are nice to look at, for example the car park many vehicles that are waiting you to visit the island. Also, the characters were represented and they are animated to make the scene more real! Moreover, a significant number of packages and fuel canister can be present on the tarmac, they expect you to go to a nearby island. Around the firehouse, no less than seven club aircrafts to do a short local flight with you like pilot. Once you will take off, you will see several ports but also beautiful villas.

Huahine Island is certainly the wildest and secret islands in the Society by its lush surroundings and its rich history in myths and legends. Located at thirty minutes by plane from Tahiti, Huahine is composed of two islands, Huahine Nui and Iti Huanine which are separated by a narrow channel. Be careful at take-off, many animated birds fly over the airport! The approach to runway 07 is very nice because near the threshold,

Nicknamed the island prohibited, Maiao has two brackish lakes: Rotoiti Lake (North) and Rotorahi Lake (East), and a relief of minor hills. With no airport, you can only fly over this small island.

Maupihaa and Manue are atolls, a type of coral island, a small area and has only about twenty people each. As Maiao, you can only fly over to his atolls. With no tourism infrastructure, nor store, there are only two solutions for the visit: to get there by boat.

Located just at forty kilometers from Bora Bora, Maupiti, its former name was Maurua, is also one of the most beautiful islands of the South Seas. This island is surrounded by white sand beaches. This

Bora Bora :

Maiao:

Manuae & Maupihaa:

Huahine:

around the trailer, there is a campfire that makes the smoker. On this small civil airport, a recently terminal, you will wait at the finish, with a service vehicle for your luggage to go down the plane. Some passengers are already waiting with their luggage for your next departure.

Maupiti:

island has the privilege of having a small airfield with a NDB approach runway 08, however, the reception is limited because the runway is only nine hundred and thirty five meters long. Always surrounded by palm trees, many ports are present with many boats to access every corner of the islands. Before leaving, you can take a turn in the maintenance hangar in order to leave the airport safely. In the meantime why not take a turn with the piper that is on the left of the building?

Mehetia is a volcanic island, formerly occupied permanently, access is currently regulated and is now uninhabited. This island is private, however, the over flight of the island is allowed.

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Moorea, formerly called Aimeho, is emerged from the water there are three million years, has the shape of a trident with two gorgeous bays. Air Moorea provides forty daily flights between Moorea airport and Faa’a International Airport for a period of 7 minutes. Since 2003, you can bring your ATR 72, parked near the terminal to drop off passengers, many buses and cars waiting to reach you to the hotel. During your stop, take one of three aircraft located next to the tower to a local flight or visual pattern. Attentions to noise of your motor, some houses are close to the airport.

Moorea:

Motu One is very difficult to access, only a few very specific boats can access. The atoll is also an important breeding site for green turtles come to nest on beaches in autumn.

Motu One:

Located between Huahine and Bora Bora, the economy is based on the export of vanilla and pineapple. The island is also known by the Marae royal of Taputapuatea. This island has an airport but also of an aerodrome which is also now abandoned.Let’s start with Airfield Motu Nao Nao, is vast Sandy Island covered with coconut trees and vegetation, located south of Raiatea. It is a former owner who built it, but today the island is uninhabited. Yet Aerosoft has shown that aerodrome as it should, with a small house, near a boat and finally a

Raiatea:

This island is located at five kilometers from Raiatea, access possible only by boat or by helicopter from his neighboring islands.

Tetiaroa is a private atoll, famous for being the property of Marlon Brando, it is possible to visit the atoll, and a small airfield was built. You will be not the only visitor of the island because a Cessna 172 is already there. A few tents and huts are on the beach before leaving the island.

Tahaa:

Tetiaroa:

Tupai is a small atoll which is mythical island that could conceal a treasure left by pirates. Some constructions are present with a port and some aircraft.

Tupai:

Douglas DC-3. If you want to spend the night on this island, many tents are made available.Uturoa airport is very well equipped as it has a terminal and a large parking for several ATR, but also a maintenance hangar with animated characters. Many trucks and cars are present and many villas. Around the island, multiple ports have been well represented, ferries can be seen.

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Tahiti is the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia. It’s also Tahiti lies the highest peak of the territory: Mount Orohena, which culminates at two thousand two hundred forty-one meters. It is also on this island that is the international airport: Faa’a. Faa’a have some privileges compared to other surrounding airports is to have an ILS approach, in bad weather, Polynesia will not be out of touch. North of the runway, you will find the heliport but also with some sheds, near several fire trucks. In the south, another shed to store military, medical equipment... Besides, the terminal as realistic as truth with many animations. And finally, the general aviation parking, with some general aircraft.

Tahiti:

Conclusion:Aerosoft has done a great job in creating an installer, it installs the scenery effortlessly. As soon as I install the scenery it seem Aerosoft designers had done a wonderful job in bringing alive the intricacies of these beautiful airports. The quality of the water and the realism of the surrounding environment is immersive.

Finally, the quality of the scenery is exceptional to do VFR flight, water quality is incredible, immersive surroundings. In each flight, you will discover some new things, a statue, a hotel and many other things. Airports in French Polynesia are also interesting for the specificity of standard procedures and NDB appro-aches. Again, Aerosoft, surprises us in the beauty of its sceneries.

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In short:* Developer: Aerosoft* Website: http://www.aerosoft.com* Price: € 17,95 / $ 19,18 USD * System requirements:Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX SP2 (or Acceleration)Windows XP/Vista (fully updated)2.0 GHz processor (Intel Core 2 Duo highly recommended)2 GB RAM internal memory 256 MB graphic card (512 MB highly recommended)Download-Size: 200 MBInstallations-Size: 240 MB

* Pros:- Does not ask a lot of resources- Quality of landscapes and animations* Cons:- FS2004 version not available* Score: 9.5/10

Reviewed by Maxime Esnau(IVAO Staff)

I need more airspace!Reduced Vertical Separation Minima and what’s behind it

February 2010 by Tim Wiegmann

If you compare the infinity of the sky above us with the relatively low cubature of an aircraft, you could come to the conclusion, that the European airspace offers an amazingly high amount of space for everyone intending to use it. However, this conclusion is based on a fundamental error: the cubature of an aircraft is a lot higher than one would originally expect it. After all, aircraft operating under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) are not allowed to fly as closely to each other as they want – instead, they are required to maintain either lateral or vertical separation.

This separation is usually 5 nm in the lateral axis (under good radar coverage, as it is often found in approach control sectors, 3 nm are sometimes possible) and 1000 ft in the vertical axis. Since no other aircraft is allowed to operate within the separation area, it can be considered as “lost airspace” for other traffic. The actual cubature of each and every aircraft flying in the skies above us can therefore be estimated at around 10.26 cubic kilometres. That’s not exactly little, and it shows that airspace is, in fact, a finite and precious resource. ;-)

Not too long ago, ...

... different rules were in place for vertical separation. The separation minima used to be 1000 ft up to FL 280 and 2000 ft from FL 290 onwards. This means that above FL 290, twice the amount of spacing was necessary. Why was that?

To find out about the reasons, one should have a basic grasp of how altitude measurement on board an aircraft works. Altitude is measured with the help of the barometric pressure. To cut a long story short, an altimeter does nothing else than determining a difference between the current barometric pressure and a reference value. Usually, the pressure at sea level is used for this reference.

As a matter of fact, the altitude displayed on your altimeter is affected by the pressure around you. Barometers, however, like basically any other mechanical instrument, have certain margins of error. A deviation in measured pressure results in a deviation in indicated altitude. This makes the aircraft fly at a wrong level.

A special problem to be considered is that the barometric pressure decreases with increasing altitude. A certain, constant error will therefore result in a much greater deviation at FL 380 than it does at 3000 ft. This was the reason for the 2000 ft separation above FL 290.


Altitude revolutions

Around the year 2000, aviation authorities all over the world recognised that with the technical progress, the 2000 ft separation had become increasingly unnecessary. By this time, most altimeters were so precise that the extended amount of separation was in fact too cautious. Aircraft were able to hold their level so exactly that they were no threat any more to another aircraft flying 1000 ft below or above them. A new idea had been developed, introduced in Europe in January 2002:

Reduced Vertical Separation Minima

RVSM stands for a decrease in vertical separation from 2000 ft to 1000 ft in the airspace from FL 290 up to FL 410. The advantages are obvious: RVSM provides six new flight levels, resulting in a better flow of traffic and allowing pilots to fly more closely to their optimum level. Both of this saves time,

The borders of the airspace covered by European RVSM (EUR RVSM) can be found in this PDF document. EUR RVSM is displayed in green. Yellow areas employ RVSM as well, but under different regulatory circumstances. White areas have conventional separation, which means that 2000 ft of spacing need to be maintained above FL 290.Of course, the exact same thing happens in the green and yellow areas, if you leave the RVSM airspace at its top! After FL 410 comes FL 430 (and for the purpose of the semicircular cruising system, this counts as an even flight level).

Sure enough, the RVSM airspace is not open to just any random aircraft which happens to come along. If you intend to fly up there where the big boys are playing, the following prerequisites should be met:

-two primary altimeters operating independently from each other -an “altitude alerting system” – that’s the system responsible for the loud chimes if you leave or approach your cleared level ;-) -an autopilot with “altitude hold” function -a transponder connected to the altimeter and equipped with altitude transmission via mode Charlie


And on IVAO?

In aviation, lots and lots of things are regulated somewhere, but not all of these regulations make sense on IVAO. RVSM is one of the things we cannot adequately simulate on our network. Therefore, the following procedures can be recommended:

ATC: Where local procedures allow for it, RVSM can be applied. If you encounter an aircraft without RVSM capability, you consequently have to descend it below FL 280 (in European airspace). However, as this is quite a drastic measure with a reasonable potential for conflict, another alternative is suitable as well. If you take care that the aircraft keeps 2000 ft of spacing to other flights above FL 290, separation counts as guaranteed as well.

Pilots: Lean back and relax. ;-) Actually, all aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator should be able to stick to their assigned level within a 50 ft tolerance and are therefore RVSM compatible, even if their real-world counterparts are not. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable if you label e. g. your Concorde with a “W” in the flight plan.

Further reading

Eurocontrol (the European organisation for the safety of air traffic) has set up a dedicated website dealing with RVSM, which I greatly recommend to anyone interested.

No mercy is shown to aircraft that do not meet these requirements. If you lose one of your two altimeters enroute or fail to hold your level due to turbulence, you will need to leave the RVSM airspace again. There are even predefined phrases for this: “UNABLE RVSM DUE TO EQUIPMENT / TURBULENCE / ...”.

Legal matters

An aircraft’s RVSM capability is indicated in the ICAO flight plan (field 10). “W” stands for RVSM. If you do not include a “W” in the equipment list, you will be tagged with “NORVSM” on the controller’s radar screen. ;-)



Every issue in this section we will hunt down the hottest downloads available in the flight simulationcommunity. We also take this opportunity to salute these freeware developers, who devote their timeand efforts in creating some awesome add-ons,available to us for FREE.

Maxime Esnau

LFDN Rochefort-Saint Agnant, FranceFSX sceneryFilenames: 526LFDN_RochefortvFSX.zipAuthors: Alexandre Rémy (FR-SOAC)Source: http://www.simviation.com

This scene is very detailed, all buildings are represented, and you will see some statics planes. The airport has two clubs and the main task of the air base 721 is to provide the support and the support of the training school for officers of the Air Force. You’ll also have the right to a sound environment.

Perfect Water 1.0FS2004 environmentFilename: perfwat.zipAuthors: Davide ScottiSource: http://www.avsim.com

With this compilation, you can change the water texture to your simulator with over 110 textures collected to create a more realistic experience. De plus, you can upgrade day and night water textures and reflections, to change the appearance of sea at different depths, to improve the visual and movement of the waves in open sea and along the coast and to modify the coastline in every season.


LHSM v1.0 Sarmellek SceneryFSX & FS2004 sceneryFilenames: LHSM v1.0 FS9.exe / LHSM v1.0 FSX.exeAuthors: LHSimulationsSource: http://www.lhsimulations.hu

This scene is realistically available recently. Many buildings and different details have been represented.

Rio De Janeiro Package v9.0FS2004 sceneryFilenames: RioDeJaneiroV9.0.zipAuthors: Newton DrumondSource: http://www.simviation.com

It is the 9th version of Rio de Janeiro scenery for FS2004. The fotoreal area was expanded to approximately 1500Km2, and numerous landmarks included. New SBGL airport was included as well as improvements on SBRJ, SBJR, SBAF and SDIN. There is an improving overall performance and good performance to detail ratio.

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5FSX aircraftFilenames: 1Alpha_SE5a_FSX.zipAuthors: AlphasimSource: http://www.simviation.com

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. This addon included four textures with panel and gauge.

Mesa Verde National Park, Cortez (KCEZ), Colorado (CO)FSX & FS2004 sceneryFilenames: TEX_SouthWest_2010_LR.zipAuthors: Gottfried RazekSource: http://www.simviation.com

Mesa Verde National Park is famed for its numerous ruins of cliff dwellings built in the 12th century. Of course you won’t see the cliff dwellings from the air, because they are under the cliffs but you will see everything else like all roads, trails and facilities. The quality of the scenery is good.



If you have download tips for the ‘Freeware zone’, feel free to contact the Public Relations staff anytime or report your find on the IVAO forum.

F-86 SabreFS2004 aircraftFilenames: sabrejet_setup.exeAuthors: Kirk OlssonSource: http://www.flightsim.com/

The F-86 was an American military plane into service in 1947 and retired in the late 60s, quickly became known Sabre after its release.This device appears to be the best fighter in the USA. This addon is done in detail. The textures are an external quality and sharpness undeniable. Two versions are available, including a total of not less than 26 liveries. Very detailed and realistic, it includes a multitude of instruments edges.

Project Airbus A380FSX & FS2004 aircraftFilenames: variousAuthors: Project Airbus, Tom CollinsSource: http://www.avsim.com

Project Airbus A380, by Project Airbus. Highly detialed model, without pa-nel. Numerous liveries available by Project Airbus and by user edits. Witout a doubt one of the most detailed Airbusses around.

To get the files, just search on Avsim with the following string: ‘Project Airbus, Tom Collins’.

Lockheed C-141 StarlifterFS2004 aircraftFilenames: c141.zipAuthors: Peter Mercy, AlphasimSource: http://www.avsim.com

ALPHA Simulation C-141 freeware release. Updated 2D panel with some great looking freeware gauges available nowadays and included the complete aircraft model due to modifications Peter made.


virtual sky - 8th issue

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