Madeira - Lisbon

By Emanuele D'Arrigo / EHM1077
 
Madeira airport - 2120 zulu time
 
I'm just back from work and looking forward for this online event. Madeira - Lisboa Intl, LPMA-LPPT. About an hour and 20 minutes will estimate FSnavigator, my favorite flight planning software.

The airspace is manned all the way. Approach is available at Madeira and it will take care of my take off and STAR. I love STARs and SIDs. They seem complex at first, but they aren't really. They are very logical and once that logic is understood, they are extremely enjoyable.

I'll be then handed-off to Lisboa Center, for the high-altitude flight (at FL310) and I expect to be landing at Lisboa International under the watch of Lisboa Approach.

I lose some time downloading Madeira scenery and mesh, to quickly dismiss them. Apparently I didn't install the mesh correctly while the airport scenery itself is simply too heavy even for my GF4. Maybe it's my CPU: 1Ghz isn't much anymore.

Still, the default scenery, the one available with Flight Simulator, is amazing. A high cliff on the right side of runway 23 must be scary for any pilot, not to mention the passengers!

I ask a few questions to Approach. I'm puzzled about his choice for the active runway. I say that according to the wind it should be 05. I was wrong but as usual Controllers are very patient and he explained me that his latest METAR reported winds from 220 at 12 knots. The active runway is 23, and ServInfo was showing me the METAR of a nearby island, Porto Santo.

I'm cleared for take off. Approach advise me to turn to heading 140 as soon as I'm off the ground to avoid high obstacles nearby. I then get vectored to the intersection DEGUN with the request to contact Approach again 5 miles inbound, for the handoff to Lisboa Center.

The weather is beautiful and the A320 is very smooth to control. Madeira is a wonderful island, make me want to go and have a vacation there.

EHM1150 was taking-off with the Dash8 shortly after I connected to IVAO. I always take my time to prepare the flight plan with all its details, and now he is quite on his way, about two third of the route, but with the trusted autopilot on and only a few headings correction to do to compensate for the wind direction there is time for a chat, using Squawkbox ".msg" feature to send private messages to other pilots.

Together with the delights navigation and interaction with ATC, that's another of the aspects I love of flying online. In real life pilots do not quite chat with each other, but in the virtual world, using this private messaging feature (never chat in the ATC or unicom frequency!) you get to chat with people from all over the globe. Mostly they are from the area I fly in, and during EHM events I tend to chat with EHM fellow pilots, but it's also nice to simply say "Good evening, TAP938, have a nice flight!" to any plane that enters my visual range. Sometime that's enough to start a chat with somebody living in another nation or continent and make a new friend, eventually talking of things that go beyond the virtual world and into real life.

EHM1150 lands at Lisboa Intl, and talks with me all the way there. Not much interaction with Lisboa Center: I'm following the upper route UN975 within a mile of its centerline, crabbing only a few degrees to compensate for a light crosswind.

I cross path with about 3 others planes, flying in the opposite direction to Madeira. Eventually it gets late, and both Lisboa Center and Lisboa Approach disconnect. Bummer. My fault. I should have prepared the flight plan and tested the sceneries few days in advance. Before disconnecting centers contact one by one each flight in his airspace, making sure they understood that they all have to resume their own navigation. I thank the controller for the service as I always do when they close the position or they simply hand me off to somebody else. I mean: they are having fun, sure, but the do a great service and they are always very nice and patient. To thank them is the minimum a pilot can do.

I eventually pass the intersection NARTA, I wait a few more minutes and begin my descent, about 1200 feet per minute, to be at 6000ft reaching ESP VOR, for the ESP7A STAR. The red bridge of Lisboa becomes visible and shortly afterward I see the runway, far away. I slow the plane in the meantime. From the 450 knots at cruise altitude I go to 430, 400, 350 and at 10000ft I set the autopilot to speed hold of 250 as required for all flights under that altitude.

Over ESP VOR, at 6000ft, I reduce the speed, to 210 knots and then even further to 180. I begin extending the flaps, 1 notch, 2 notch. Down to 165, full flaps, 150 knots. I keep the plane at that speed.

EHM1150 is silent and I appreciate that, he follows my approach with TCAS and ServInfo. This is not the moment to chat.

I'm at 3000ft, 6 miles inbound for runway 3 of Lisboa Intl. I follow CP NDB, where in situation of heavy traffic I would hold waiting for the ATC to clear me to intercept the localizer. There is not much traffic, I therefore turn on final, descending at about 800 feet per minute.

The secret of a good approach, as a real pilot told me, is to slow down to a comfortable minimum above stall speed, well before the final leg.

For a plane as big as the A320, 150 knots is comfortable and at that speed a good landing is certainly possible. The runway is getting bigger and bigger. I use the VASI lights to guide my descent. The weather is fine and there is no need to use the ILS although I have the frequencies set for it, just in case. I'm a bit too low, but a bit of throttle solve the problem. As with all not exactly small planes, the A320 isn't immediately responsive. But with some experience any pilot can learn to manage the small delay and compensate for it.

I'm very close to the threshold. Again, I'm a bit low. But again, a little more throttle put me back on the glide path and in a few seconds I'm over the runway, well centered. A few more seconds and I'm at flare altitude. I pull the joystick gently and the nose slowly raise. As I keep the engines at the same thrust setting during the maneuver, the increased drag causes the plane to settle nicely on the runway. First I hear the back tires scratching on the asphalt, then the nose slowly lower itself and the nose wheel touch too. I see EHM1150 parked on the apron rushing past my right window.

The airspeed drops while I applies the reverse thrust. At 60 knots I disengage the reverse thrust and I applies the brakes to slow down to 10 knots, a good speed to turn right into the first taxiway.

I park next to EHM1150 and I have a few more words with him while I shutdown and I finally disconnect. It has been another wonderful online event and I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

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