Leg 2
Edinburgh to Keflavik 7th December 2002
It's 12.20 p.m and I'm taking off from Edinburgh
airport. I should really have set off a little earlier as I was hoping to land
in Keflavik, Iceland in daylight but the length of the shadows doesn't bode
well.
I received an enquiry in the avsim forum about fuel
consumption, and having fitted a new "realistic dynamics" aircraft.cfg
and airfile before this flight, I haven't a clue so I'll keep my eye on it and
cruise at 12,000 feet, being the altitude used by the questioner.
I did a small detour over Edinburgh City to get a
screenshot of the city centre and castle. There's a lot of water on this leg so
I thought I'd try get some decent screenshots before I left the U.K.
The weather was broken cloud with a slight wind and
lots of turbulence, particularly at low level.
I reached cruise altitude and surveyed the beauty of
the Scottish highlands as I travelled North West towards my destination.
Then came the long trip over the sea. Nothing but ocean
and clouds for a solid 3 hours. The clouds thickened up providing almost enough
interest to keep me awake at one point!
Eventually, the Icelandic coastline appeared and I
started my descent in the midst of a very pretty sunset. I received an approach
pattern for runway 11 from A.T.C. which I got right this time! There was a fair
bit of traffic about, more than I expected really, and I was number 3 for
landing. About 300 metres from the runway threshold A.T.C. piped up with
instructions for me to go around. Even with hindsight, I've still no idea why,
but I complied and abandoned a pretty good looking approach (if a little fast)
and went around as instructed. I received a very early instruction that my
takeoff clearance had been granted which caught me a little unawares. I executed
a swift 180 and headed back in with very little distance to lose altitude
in, but I didn't want to miss my slot a second time.
This is where it all went wrong. As I crossed the
runway threshold, A.T.C. instructed me to go around again. Thinking:
"Enough is enough" as I looked at the clear runway ahead, I decided to
land anyway. Unfortunately, I should have listened to them. In my frantic
scrabbling to get a decent view for an external screenshot of my landing, I hit
the runway far too hard, resulting in my nosewheel undercarriage collapsing.
"Oh good..." I thought. (Read your own
version of this in there). However, my settings are for FS2002 to reset the sim
upon a crash, and it didn't. In fact A.T.C. carried on issuing me with
instructions to taxi to parking oblivious of my plight. I presume this was
because I ended up off the runway and wasn't obstructing their traffic so they
didn't care.. lol.
At this point, I felt it reasonable to assume that this
wasn't a situation that would have resulted in my demise - just a large repair
bill. So for the next leg, I'll be starting in the parking area at Keflavik with
a note about not taking screenshots of landings till my wheels are firmly on the
ground, stuck on my windschield!!
As far as fuel consumption goes, I had 42 gallons left
in my tanks out of an original 142, making it an easy calculation that I
averaged 7.50 gallons per nautical mile over the flight allowing for the short
detour over Edinburgh city.
The next leg is (provisionally) to Nuuk in Greenland.
I've undertaken to visit the most Northern and Southerly airports modelled in
FS2002. Alert in Canada is the most Northern, and I need to assess the distance
from Greenland to see if I can make it in one flight from there. This may
require me to take a short hop further North in Iceland - I'm really not sure
yet. Either way, I'm hoping to get the 3rd leg done later today , repair crew
allowing :).
Screenshots
1) Edinburgh airport in daylight. Forth bridges in
the background.
2) Takeoff past the main terminal - those shadows are looking a bit
long...
3) Passing over Princess Street Edinburgh with the castle below.
4) The Firth of Forth with the Railway bridge on the left and the Forth bridge on the right.
5) Cruise altitude - clouds, Lochs and the Highlands.
6) Scotland in all it's beauty.
7) Heading towards the Scottish North West coastline.
8) Last bit of the U.K. I'll see for a loooong time.
9) Half way and I'm glad I'm not under that lot!
10) Lots of ......err.....`interesting` clouds.
11) I think I'm still awake but it's hard to tell...
12) Sunset and looking like a night landing after all.
13) The Icelandic coastline finally appears in the distance.
14) Descending over a highway as the sun bids farewell.
15) If A.T.C. had left me to it, it would have been fine....maybe...
16) Going around.
17) Speed better, height worse and fiddling for an external shot of the landing...
18)....and here it is :(
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