Project "Around Africa"

[PaulC]

Hello All

Last year my Cadet Squadron flew around the world in our new flight simulator. Setting off from Leeds Bradford (our local airport) the cadets and staff flew around the globe in one weekend. We departed at 1900 on the Friday and returned to Leeds at 1730 on the Sunday. 30-some cadets were involved and planned the route, fuel and timings before flying them.
As we had some sponsorship from Jet2 through one of my Civilian Instructors who worked there, the model we flew was a 757-200 in Jet2 livery.

As OC I don't get to plan many of the activities for the Squadron, I'm too busy on admin and management, so, remembering that rank has it privileges, I've bagged this years Flight Sim weekend challenge for me!

I'm having my cadets visit every capital in Africa in one weekend flying..... Mr Maltby's 1-11.

We can get "back to basics" with VOR Nav, something they have to learn about anyway and the 1-11 as you know, is beautiful to hand fly.

Our hardware works well with it and it's ideal for our needs. There's just the right level of complexity in the systems. To challenge them without taking too long to teach.

I'm currently testing the routes so that there's no nasty surprises for them on the actual weekend and 1-11 training starts for them over the next few weeks. We're looking to complete the challenge in October.

Wish us luck!!

Paul

[TSR2]

Hi Paul,

That sounds like a great challenge for them. Which 1-11 are you planing to use? Just thinking the 510ED is a different beast. XX105 holds lots of records, or there's SYD

[PaulC]

Well...

The standard cockpit is a bit more "colourful" and I think is the slightly easier of the two to fly with. As a few of my cadets (and only a few, some are almost pro!) will need one of us sat behind them talking them through the whole thing, the easier to read, the better. Little things like the DME readouts are on the Nav instruments rather than on the glareshield, the HSI is a bit easier to read and the HDG/VOR-LOC switch is another thing to remember in the ED.

A 500 is what I was after, but my initial reading suggests that there were some standard 500s in BA Landor as BA acquired them through various mergers etc. I believe (but I'm often wrong ) that they operated out of Birmingham as a separate fleet as they needed a separate rating to the ED. Once I can confirm this, I think it'll be the BA Landor 500, just as a nod to national representation and all that!

Paul

[TSR2]

Garry is probably your man for identifying the 500's in BA, but I thought there were some 500 standards in Red Square too, but I'm probably wrong. I think the 510ED's were later

[PaulC]

In a change of aircraft, we're going for XX105, a bit more "military" than BA!

I've been flying the legs to check the route is ok and to grade the flight for necessary skill. The approach to Guinea on RWY 24 for example is a bit different. In poor weather, it was a circle to land off RWY 6 but there's a bit of a hill at the other end needing 1000fpm+ to get in.

In attempt to trim time and mileage to get the flights done in the allocated 48 hours, we won't be arriving back where we started.
The longest leg was Angola to Namibia at about 900nm.
So by starting in Namibia and finishing in Angola, we save some miles and time.

It's going to be tight, but hopefully when I've flown all the legs, I'll know we can do it. We're also visiting a dirt runway at one point to trim some miles off!

Paul

[TSR2]

Good choice

[Garry Russell]

Only the G-AVM's that were different (510)

The three later aircraft G-BGKE,F,G were standard One-Eleven 500 as were all the merger aquired fleet

The the 'GK's were in Negus and Negus at first as was the standard 500, G-BFWN, leased form Cyprus airways for about a year.

Super One-Eleven was a BEA Class name so technically only the 510's were called that although it did get applied to some others. The BA were always at the time at least referred to as Super One-Elevens and the others as 500's

A bit like BEA Dakotas were refitted and then called Pionairs, only converted BEA aircraft were Pionairs.

[TSR2]

ZH763 might be another option