On-Line Flight this Weekend (6/2/07)

Since I'm going to be leaving in about a week for a couple of weeks in Norway, Finland and Russia, I thought it might be a good idea to try a few flights around the fiords on the Norwegian coast. One of the things my wife and I are going to be doing is taking a boat up the Norwegian coast from Bergen, up over the North Cape to Kirkenes. That's a bit too far for a weekend group flight, so let's do the first half or so of the journey. We could leave Bergen (Flesland/ENBR) and fly up to Alesund (Vigra/ENAL) and, after landing there to embark/disembark passengers, continue up to Trondheim (Vaernes/ENVA). I think that a regional jet might be about right for this trip; I plan on using the CRJ-700. If the weather cooperates and we don't fly too high, the passengers should get a pretty good view of the Norwegian Fiords off the right wing.

I've had a look a the add-on scenery avaiable for FS9 and FSX. Unfortunately, since the latitude is too high for SRTM topography, the pickings seem to be pretty slim. For FS9, there is swednorw.zip by Arve Eriksson, available on both Flightsim.com and Avsim.com. I've tried it out; it produces some pretty dramatic (and unrealistic) scenery and is more or less unusable for the inland airports, although acceptable for Bergen, Alesund and Trondheim. On balance, I would probably avoid it. However, there is an excellent package for the Norwegian airports, including the three we will be visiting. It is norap06.zip at Flightsim.com. I strongly recommend it; it adds some really nice touches to the airport scenery. So far I haven't found anything worthy of mention for FSX, but I'll let you know if I discover something. The default FSX scenery is pretty good.

You can find some (not all) charts for these airports at www.cenor.org/pages/procedures_nor.html. Nav aids are kinda sparse in the Norse country (you betcha, they're navigators) so bring your GPS and the seat of your pants.

Anybody want to volunteer to do ATC?

I'm negotiable on day and time. For openers, let's say Saturday, 2 June, 1415z show time, 1430z go time (as Jerry would say).

Mike
SPA48
Fltcptn Mike Daugherty
IAD Hub Manager

No plans this weekend for me, so I'll be here for this flight. I'll probably fly an A319. Either day is also fine for me.

Well, since I don't detect a groundswell of support for Sunday, we'll make it Saturday as indicated above. We'll meet up at Bergen (ENBR) at 1415Z.

The URL I posted above for charts will only get you military charts, fine for making a circling approach in a NATO F-16, if that's what you are planning. Otherwise, you will need the Eurocontrol charts. You can navigate to those from the World Charts link on the Pilot's Office page. This site is free, but it does require that you register. After you have done so, you will be given the choice of a basic or advanced download. I first opted for the advanced, but that requires a Java Suite that may take some time to acquire, so I took the shortcut and got the basic download. After that, you choose Norway as the "authority", "charts" and AD. Then you get 13 pages of instrument procedures for Norwegian airports. I discovered that the ILS/VOR and NDB IAPs have code numbers that start with 5. So, for example, the Vigra ILS approach for Rwy 25 is AD 2 ENAL 5-3 and the Vaernes ILS IAP for Rwy 9 is AD 2 ENVA 5-1. The visuals start with 6, the SIDS and STARS with 4, the ground obstacle charts with 3 - you get the idea. OR - you could just go with whatever FSNavigator or the Garmin 500 offers.

I had a shot at the Rwy 9 ILS at ENVA this evening in the FSX stock CRJ-700 with the sliders set to "difficult". It was, the thing bounces around in response to the slightest touch from the joystick and I'm afraid we have several SPA passengers who may not be back. Oh well, "any landing you walk away from..."

See you Saturday morning.

Mike

OK, we'll stall around until you get there.

Mike