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During the cold, hard swedish winter, many swedes seeks refuge at warmer destinations, such as the Canary Island Tenerife. Todays flight is a charter flight between GCTS-ESGG with the carrier Hapag Lloyd, painted in the TUI livery. TUI is one of Europe's largest Holiday companies.
We will be departing Tenerife early in the morning, around 6am. Lots of passengers are expected, ZFW at 249.500lbs (113.000kgs) with a block (fuel) off 30 metric tonnes. The weather will not be a problem along our route, we will be flying with a tailwind, so the flighttime will be reduced by some 25 minutes. Initial cruize altitude will be at FL330, but expect a step-climb to FL350 when we have burnt more fuel.
Overhead panel just after power up using the exterior power source, looks like a christmas tree, eh
wrapping up the IRS alignment procedure. The actual alignment takes about 10 mins. Our A310 is equipped with 3 laser gyros aswell as 3 accelerometers, to keep track of pitch, yaw and roll angles/rates and longitude -latitude acceleration.
Received our taxi clearance, going through our engine start-up procedure
The traffic is not dense at all this morning, we got our take-off clearance already on the taxi way. Here, the aircraft is thundering down the runway, still some 40 knots away from rotation speed.
Making a right turn to join our airway at FL250
Same turn, different angle
Will we have any fuel left, I sincerely hope so, although computers aren't always reliable!
Now this little bugger is flying on the same airway, 5000ft below me. You think he can see me waving?
Some exterior shots
The IRS is not only showing the coordinates, it can also give me the current track and groundspeed
leaving the northern coast of Spain, heading towards France
Below us is one of Europe's most busy airport. Hub of KLM, Transavia etc: Schiphol Airport (EHAM)
Finally, the western coast of Sweden is seen in the horizon, almost home! The wind at ESGG is 221/9 so as expected, ATC told us the active runway is ILS21, the recomended STAR is already insterted. Ah, the joy with one runway-airports
Final approach, nice and easy there, skipper!
Same kind of shot, but from the inside this time. The WX conditions allowed me to fly the approach manually, witht he aid of the flight director. Our VAPP is 137kts, landing with full slats/flaps today.
Touching down on a slushy runway
Vacating the runway, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to cold Sweden
Shutting down the aircraft while PAX are leaving the workhorse, A310. Hope to see you soon!
19 pictures, not bad eh?
Hope you liked it!
I had to hold back on image quality, saves some space on the servers...
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