Firstly I realize that it has been a very..very..very long time since I’ve posted anything. Working a lot, studying a lot, and just flat having nothing to post does that to you. Those that have been following may recall from some of my initial posts that I’ve been receiving training to bring my real life flying back up to license level. A little while ago I had my first solo in 7 years which was basically a few circuits in the traffic pattern for confidence building on your own. Today however after a few more weeks of navigation and related training I had my first solo flight away from the airfield, navigating through a flight plan all on my own. There is not much more to go now before it’s all over and I’m free to fly on my own.

I took some photos of my recent flight and wanted to attach some – complete difference between flight simulator and real life! Enjoy!

           

Hello again!!

It’s been a long time now since I last posted. It’s been pretty busy for me the last month what with moving back home, work and other things too. Been hard finding time to post – but thanks to the long weekend I have just that: free time! Now as you can see from the title of this post there is good news and there is bad news. Now for me the good news is actually awesome news – i’ve once again started my flight training so that I can get on the road to a commercial pilots license. This is going to be taking up a lot of time with studying and flying as well as money invested – but the end result will be fantastic. It’s a means to an end!

On the flip side is the bad news – this will mean that I don’t have much time for my virtual flying in terms of the VA. I have done some small training flights but have only done one VA flight in the last few weeks. I am definitely going to try to keep everything going as I enjoy(ed) both my Around the World flying as well as the Virtual Airline. Then again I enjoy flying in all aspects so go figure hehe… I will also try to get some pictures of the real-life flying up next time I go so you all know what I’m up too.

Talk again soon!

Apologies for the delay in writing I have had a lot going on in the last few weeks and have only just had time to slow down and sort things out. I have however found times on occasion to do my flying and have now been promoted to a level where I can fly the aircraft I have been waiting for: the Boeing 737-800. This aircraft is a favorite with a lot of airlines around the world for mid-range flights and is great to fly. As I have mentioned previously it is extremely realistic and took me pretty much the whole flight to learn where everything was and for my flight leaving out of Vancouver had to get out through a massive storm. Needless to say I had my hands full! Here are some pictures for you:

    

What a great aircraft! I hope to be able to do many flights with it and may even use it indefinitely – will have to see what happens.

On a side note now that I am back home in the UK I am looking at seriously getting into my real-life flying career to become a commercial pilot. With this comes a lot of work to get to that point. That being said I would like to put out a general request if anyone has any advice or help in any way, shape or form (as long as it’s positive) please let me know and I would be happy to listen. I look forward to any responses.

But for now it’s time to settle back in and enjoy the new aircraft!

After moving on from the King Air I’ve been getting used to the jet of the Embraer 170 as well as the higher speeds/cruising altitudes. 25,000 ft and 290 knots is quite different from 35,000ft and 450 knots. I’ve also had to learn some more procedures with arrivals and departures as well as when to drop from cruising altitude hehe. But at the moment I’m just waiting till I can get promoted and get moved into the awesome Boeing 737-800 that I have waiting. The plane is extremely realistic, and will be awesome to fly. And the great part is that I’m getting really close to flying it – I’ll wait to post any pictures until I actually fly it – although I do have some pictures of the E170 as well as a good picture of Mt Ranier in Washington state.

     

More to come soon – not long now till I get promoted again!!

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend, and had fun devouring their easter eggs!

Today I finished what will potentially be my last flight with the King Air B200 – was a very long flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Los Angeles international. Overall about 1100 nautical miles and over 4 hours flight time. But it was a pretty good flight and nice landing just as the sun rose over the horizon. So farewell to the B200 – it’s an awesome aircraft, and a pleasure to fly. Hopefully I will be able to fly it again in the future or even in real life!!

  

You can also see the Embraer 170 parked at the terminal awaiting its flight with me. I have been doing a lot of flying over the Easter weekend though so it will be a couple of days before I step back into the captain’s seat. But when I do I will be flying up to Vancouver, British Columbia which will be about a 3 hour flight.

And one last note – for those that wish to they can track me online on a Google Maps kind of thing known as ACARS. The link is http://alliance-airways.net/acars/googleAcarsMap.php and I will also be putting it in the side-bar. Feel free to take a look, and if I’m not on there’s probably at least someone from Alliance flying.

Again hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

Hey all! I’ve been having a lot of fun this past week or so flying the King Air B200 around the eastern seaboard of the US. This has led to my promotion to a full airline transport pilot. Although I still can’t fly the big guns yet like the Boeing 737 I have been allowed access to the Embraer 170 which is a baby version of the Boeing 737. This has increased my route range from 1100 to 2100 nautical miles. There is one catch though – I need to get to Los Angeles to pick up the one that I will be commanding. Currently in Dallas, Texas while on my way to LA there is a 1070 nm flight ahead of me – this basically means that I will only be able to take a half-full plane to full tank on fuel so that I can make it all the way. But I can’t wait to get onto that jet…albeit a small one hehe. Here’s a picture of it:

Embraer 170

Hey all! Over the weekend I obtained enough hours to be promoted to a commercial pilot. This opened up a slew of new aircraft as well as some scenery upgrades which I’ll be able to show you in a picture of Boston’s main airport. Of all the new aircraft that were opened up to me I felt that the most appropriate jump was from the C208 Caravan to a King Air B200 which is similar to the Beech Baron that I have been flying for my around the world flights. The major difference however is that with the B200 it is more powerful and also pressurized meaning that I could fly higher (around 25-29,000 ft). The great thing about this is that flying higher you get a much wider view of the ground going past beneath you, albeit much faster, and get to see much more too!

Take a look at some of the pictures of this wonderful aircraft.

        

Quite a nice aircraft eh? Or at least I think so. I also have a CRJ 100 which is a small business/commercial jet which I may start using for some longer haul flights. I’ll have to see how I progress.

Also on the certification front I’m waiting for a response back regarding my VFR test as to when I can take it. Will keep you all posted!

Hello All,

I have been busily flying this week, and this weekend I aimed to finish the VFR pre certification tests. I just completed the 3rd pre-test and have now applied to conduct the Certification exam with the main instructor. This will basically involve a visually navigated flight from one to another with the instructor providing the air traffic control. I am confident that I will be able to pass this exam and move on to the much harder IFR pre certification tests. More news to follow on that one!

I also wanted to show what aircraft I had been flying for Alliance Airways. Initially I was doing mountain scenic flights in California with the C172, but have moved up to longer cargo based flights now. The aircraft below is a Cessna Caravan 208 and I am based out of Toronto, Canada.

On a side note I was conducting a flight today from Ottawa/Carp airport to Toronto, coming in to land at Toronto there was a fairly heft thunderstorm to the north of the airport. Thankfully it was far enough out that I just clipped the southern part on my way in, only got the mass rain and a little bit of turbulence. I also learned how accurate X-Planes physics are when it comes to wet runways….

More news to come on the Virtual Airline!

My apologies for the lack of writing over the last few days. I have been pretty busy with work and in my off time have been flying for the new Virtual Airline: Alliance Airways. I had a feeling that it might happen and although it has I have not given up on my round the world flying.

The main reason I’ve been flying for them so much is that I have been doing a Pilot Certification for online flying through VATSIM the online ATC. This involves all aspects of radio communication and also advanced instrument procedures. This will really help once I get to that point in commercial licensing.

Once I’m through with that I should be able to get back into my world flights and even use them for hours in the airline. Either way I’m enjoying being flying, and even more interacting with other people who enjoy flying. I will aim to keep updated and post as much as I can, and also try to upload some pictures of the planes that I fly and also where I fly.

I will be back going around the world before you know it!

I have now started my exodus through Africa! Last night I took off from Gibraltar leaving Europe for a very long time and passing over the strait to enter Africa and start heading south to the Cape. Even in this short time in Africa I had several different terrains and views – the north Atlas mountains, the plains on the Atlantic coast, the Western Sahara desert and finally the southern Atlas mountains. Take a look at the route:

Gibraltar to Guelmin, Morocco

It was quite cloudy leaving Gibraltar today, and also quite windy. But I still managed to have a good look at the Rock of Gibraltar before I left and headed out down to Africa. To be honest it really is quite a sight. After takeoff to the east I turned to the south pretty much immediately alongside the rock and then once clear intercepting my VOR down to African airspace.

          

I had now left European airspace, and that meant that my journey had well and truly begun properly entering a new area, and a new continent. It would be quite a while until I saw Europe again.

        

As you can see (albeit very cloudy) my first sight upon entering Africa was the Atlas mountains which is a large range covering the far northwest. I wasn’t over the range for long but I would be back over it later in this flight. After that I flew over several large lakes on my way down to the Western Sahara including one with a very odd name: Barrage 9 Avril 1947.

           

It was then time to head over the Western Sahara on a direct route down to Guelmim. I had a double-check at the gauges at this point just to make sure everything was running fine. Landing in the middle of a desert is not the ideal thing to do. Thankfully everything looked fine so I plowed on through.

     

I found myself heading back over the Atlas mountains – although this part was much higher than the mountains flown over earlier. It also got to be quite bumpy – reminded me a lot of when I tried to head out of Marseille and there was a lot of high winds and turbulence. This was the same although being this high (18,000 ft) and with pretty much no airports nearby I had to press on, and I was only about 20 minutes from Guelmim.

  

Sadly you can’t see how bumpy it was from the pictures, but it was quite bumpy. But not long after heading over the mountain range I had Goulimine field in sight and was heading down to come in for landing.

  

It was very tricky getting the aircraft down on the ground but I managed and tied down before the winds blew it away. I’m now keeping an eye on the weather to see when I can head out on the next Segment. I should be able to tomorrow but will have to keep checking on the winds. Hopefully the lower amount of pictures and detail wasn’t a problem – as I mentioned earlier I want to slimline it while on these very long segments to keep downtime to a minimum.

Onto Dakhla!!

Total distance travelled: 505 nautical miles