A310 for the VA??

[Vc Ten]

For the first time we have a "study level" aircraft (hate that term but what else do you say) within the simulator. I think it falls with our "acceptance" range
As far as I can make out only used by 1 British operator Bcal, who bought 2, G BKWT and G BKWU
The option on the 3rd aircraft was never fulfilled.
I've found most of the routes flown, complete with flight no. and some from the 1984 timetable that probably were.
Happy to input the routes into FSA, if thoughts are positive towards the idea.
The inibuilds 310 is available in Xp as payware. I believe a version with different engines to the Msfs one.
Dale

[TSR2]

Go for it, sounds like a great idea.

[blanston12]

i just purchased a pair of A310-300's for us, as that is the variant in MSFS, but about five minutes later I read that British Caledonian used -200's instead of -300's, should I replace the two I got with -200's?

One is at LFBT/Tarbes France and the other is at KVCV/Victorville California

[Vc Ten]

HI Joe I think the 300 series will be fine
Yes Bcal only had the aircraft for a year Sold through a network of brokers to Libya
I found the routes on here :- http://www.philately.cyng.org.uk/SFB-BCAL10.html Lists most of them. There are one or 2 more, I found searching on pprune
I guess the African routes were taken over by the Dc10s and the European with the a320 when they were delivered. The route to Jersey was flown by viscount as a stop gap after the sale of the A310s
Dale

[blanston12]

Hi Dale, that page looks surprisingly useful. If we need some more diversity we could always add them to the routes for the A300.

[Vc Ten]

Yes we could. I've not checked to see if any of the routes I've found are used elsewhere
I will start entering the routes in a day or 2 now we have an fleet.
Won't be flying any home until the su11 update goes live. Hopefully it will restore the sims stability.
Lots of stutters with the A310 and the Fenix A320 However the 146 is just fine.
This Dc3 with the flightsim.to fix, (the duckworks one), makes it a much more pleasant aircraft
Dale

[blanston12]

Sounds good. I found a timetable on ebay, "British Caledonian Airways timetable 1985/03/31 North American edition", only $5, which should cover the time period we are talking about, should get it next week. I will let you know if there is anything useful in it.

[blanston12]

Hi Dale, I see you have been creating routes for the A310 and they look great. I spent some time working with John Payne (RAF_Quantum) creating routes in the early days I would add a word about how we have been creating the route numbers. If I remember correctly (and I have slept since them) for flights using classic British aircraft started with 'CBF' and aircraft with non British aircraft started with 'CNB', that was followed by either number or letter indicating the type of aircraft followed by a number for the flight, total of seven characters.

For training flights a 'T' was placed between the CBF/CNB prefix and the aircraft indicator

It may have been more complex than that as looking at the current flights it does not always fit, maybe some inconsistencies have crept in or maybe in some places two characters were used but I think that was the intent.

Not sure if you were finished but though I would mention it.

[Vc Ten]

Wasn't too sure what prefix to use. Stick with the normal CNB and find an unused block, or to use the actual Bcal BR prefix, preceded with C The flight numbers are realistic, but would have to change as here are already CNB flight nos the same. If that makes sense It's no problem either way.
The South American routes were gone before the introduction of the A310. I thought, and still might add them for diversity (the aircraft would have had the range). Plus the routes you should get from your timetable.
Dale

Edit
Yes, you're right Joe, they should be in 7 digit format. Changed them all to an unused block and added the RW flight no to the comments. Looks better now

[blanston12]

Looks good Dale. At some point we should document these naming conventions and possibly update the existing routes so they follow them. I may try to do that at some point.