My Life as a virtual pilot

Back to the "Beech"

2010-11-29T17:46:00.000-08:00

So I have been in jets for months now and I decided it was time for a change. I jumped into a Continental express Beechcraft 1900D and headed out from Nassau for FT. Lauderdale and South Beach :) One Mooney landed just before I departed and there was no weather to worry about at all. Had some traffic following me in at KFLL but it was way back and was not a factor. I am gonna be flying out of Naha on Okinawa here soon so keep an eye out!

Happy Holidays!

2010-11-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

I have been doing a bit of flying outside the US in the last couple of months. I flew to Tokyo in a 747-200 for the now defunct Flying Tiger lines and then on to Okinawa in a JAL express 734. Just a bit ago I flew USAir 734 from Charlotte Douglas to Nassau in the Bahamas. Quite fun and I plan on staying around Japan and China for a bit and also gonna try to do some island hopping too. By the way I hope you have a very Merry Cristmas and a Happy New Year!!

Stormy Stormy Stormy

2010-10-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

Flew Southwest flight741 from Norfolk to Chicago. Severe thunderstorm warning covering all of the metropolitan area of Chicago. I threaded the needle down through the storms and lined up for an RNAV approach to 22L. So I come in over the stadium and downtown and start looking for runway lights. 15 miles out no lights. 10 miles no lights. 5 miles and descending no lights, still. About 3 miles out the clouds part and I see the runway come into view (Thank God!) Heavy crosswind as I come down to the tarmac. I slide her down to the asphalt and start slowing down. I turn off at the end of the runway and taxi back to the gates on the other side of the airport. I breathe a sigh of relief as I shut down the plane.

Takin it easy.

2010-10-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well readers, I have been taking it easy from flightsim. It is fall and the fish are moving up in the shallows and actively feeding so I have been wetting my line as much as possible. I caught a 5.5 pound bass the other day and a few small ones the day after that. I will be in the skies soon so stay tuned and we will be haulin frieght again shortly.

Another runway challenge done.

2010-10-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Flyvirtuals runway challenge for Oct. was a good one! Tioman airport in Palau. Really nice sweeping turn and quick descent to get in there. Berjaya Air flies a dash 7 in there and that is IT! So I am in my dash 7 and I have leave from Kuala Lumpur and head east to Palau island. WAY too many CBs(thunderstorms) around me on my way over. I climbed out to FL200 and then started my descent immediately. Heavy ICING conditions all the way down to about 8000 feet. Coming in the island was obscured by clouds for miles finally once I drop down to about 3000 feet AGL I see the island and the clouds cleared. Coming into the final turn I hit a hrad crosswind from the north coming over the rear corner of the A/C. I get the old turboprop lined up and get her down on the deck with no real problems. Time to head fro the pilots lounge for a hot cup of Joe and a bagel.

Back to the grind

2010-09-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

OK so I flew a Southwest flight on my Birthday from San Antonio to El Paso. Had to scrub the first flight. Number 1 engine shut down at 500 feet off the end of the runway due to a bird strike. I shut down and called an emergency and circled around. I made the approach and threw the rudder to the right to counteract the thrust of the number 2 motor and descended in. Got it on the first try and slowed to a stop at the end of the runway and then turned off and taxied back to the gate where I shut down the remaining motor. After we switched planes I tried it again and this time the flight was worry free. IFR conditions on the landing but no bad wind to contend with.

It's my birthday!

2010-09-26T01:55:00.001-07:00

I'm gonna take tomorrow and the next day off because I will be aging a year. I can hear it now...

Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday dear a**hole!
Happy Birthday to me.
And many mooooooorrrrreeeee!

So long sun hello rain!

2010-09-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Left the sunny beaches of Princess Julians this morning for a textbook jaunt up to Newark, NJ in a Continental 737. The weather was bauetiful as we left and of course it was overcast and dreary when I got into KEWR. I di have the opportunity to fly over the new sunskyjets KPHL I just installed and even at 10000 feet it looked awesome! That is all for now. Until next time so long!

Midway bites me in the derriere...

2010-09-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

Southwest flight this morning left Buffalo and unbeknownst to me there was a fairly large storm cell residing over Chicago. Flight was uneventful landing was a kiss touchdown. I parked at B16 and commenced to service the airplane. This morning I was heading off to Norfolk after a quick turnaround here in CHI. Passengers loaded, Fueled, Jetway retracted, away we go. I get out to the taxi way and hold short at 22L. I call for takeoff and roll onto the runway we start our roll and watch the speed indicator. 60 70 80 knots- callout 120 V1 122 Rotate! Up we go into the sky and I watch the altitude tape and as it starts to roll downward I throw the gear handle up. Transition lights go red and NOTHING HAPPENS! I cycle the gear handle again and still nothing.; The FO informs me that the gear isn't working. Thank you Captain Obvious!. I squawk 7700 and call out emergency circle to land 22L The runway is clear and we line up. I float her down and ease onto the runway. Soon as the wheels hit the deck I have to get hard on the brakes and reverse thrust due to the high speed because the plane was heavy with extra fuel. Finally come to a stop at the threshold on the other end of the runway and we roll off to the left where we were greeted by fire trucks. After all the pax deplane we jump onto the slide and hit the ramp where the follow me truck takes the aircrew to the terminal. I hitch a ride to the hotel and here I am in Lovely Chi-town for the night. Oh well we'll try it again tomorrow!

Feelin hot hot hot!

2010-09-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well I flew a Flydubai last night from Kathmandu(vnkt) to Dubai Int.(omdb) I found a brand new paint for the PMDG 737-800 from FlyDubai so I decided to give it a try. I left Kathmandu under some really foggy conditions and climbed out through the clouds to an obscured ground and heavy tail winds. About halfway through the trip I had to descend to about FL280 because of the pressure. For some reason my 800 did not want to maintain 350 but stopped acting up around 280(thank you FSpax). I continued on and made a beautiful approach from over the gulf onto 12L. Have I ever mentioned that Flytampa went way beyond the call of duty when they made OMDB???

Never enough play time...

2010-09-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

I try to stay on top of things and I try to balance but i can never find enough time to do what I want and please my family. I flew my actual first real world flight in a Cessna 172 SP and that was fun but of course money is getting in the way of school. Oh well roll with the punches right? I did take a DHC 6 to LUKLA this month and I have been riding the orange bellies around quite a bit. One big change though I have left joinava,org. Not because of anything bad I just wanted to be part of something a little different so I joined skynet virtual www.snvirtual.net many of my friends are on there and my buddy Shawn is the hub manager in KPHX where I fly out of. Good times. I am going to wrap it up for now but I will be back dear reader, hasta la-vista

HO HUM lots of hot weather.

2010-07-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

It has been really hot here and I have been flying ALOT! I just flew a hairum Scarum ride into Anda in Northern Norway at Sandane in a Dash 8 100 that required some real concentration. Mountains on both sides and a river below with only a couple of miles visibility. I managed to get her down though. Mostly been tooling around in a southwest jet this last month just because that is what I am most familiar with. I plan on getting some heavy metal moved around the planet soon since it is too hot to do anything else. Until next time, take care!

Man this is harder than I thought!

2010-07-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

It seems that it is really hard to keep up a blog. Of course in my defense I have been moving over this last month. I am however, back in the saddle and not only do I have internet I just got FIOS! 35 megs per second is quite nice! I promise dear readers I haven't forgot about you.

American Eagle flt # 3620 KORF- KMIA

2010-05-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

As a CAT III pilot for American I am only qualified on a select few aircraft. Two of my favorites being the Embraer ERJ 145LR and the Boeing 737-823. On this occasion I am manning up an ERJ for a 2 hour flight to Miami. Loading up the manifest says 50 Pax. and 800 pounds of cargo. Quite heavy for the little plane but we can manage I am sure. Once we get the bags and everybody aboard the stewards close the doors and I start the engine start checklist. Engines 1 and 2 fire no problem. We push and taxi out to runway 5 in Norfolk for an easy climb out of the Atlantic. I turn onto the runway and come up to 40% on the power. Oil pressure is good rpms stabilizing and synced N1 synced release the brakes and we begin to roll. at about 100 knots the tiny jet's nose lifts and we start to leave the runway. I lift the gear and we turn to the south to make our way to MIA. The clouds are broken at about 20K as we climb through and then clear out the farther south we go until we get right over the Ormond beach VOR. Things are starting to thicken a bit and I see that Miami approach is no online and we will have ATC into the airport. I contact MIA app and he vectors me around the airport to the south for an ils approach to runway 09. No biggie. I line up on the radial and follow the approach path as the glideslope indicators lowers itself onto the zero degree mark on the screen. I press the approach button on the autopilot and the little jet plane glides onto rwy 09 where I exit left and taxi to the terminal. Another flight another 20 bucks...

Some family time and a virtual vacation...

2010-05-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting my duties a little here over the last few weeks because I have taken a little time to spend with my family I have still been flying(not much) but I just haven't really sat down and wrote about it. I promise dear reader that I will not leave you in the dark and I will bring you along with me from now on.

EasyJet (Flyvirtual) EHAM to LEPA 5-15-2010

2010-05-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hooked up with my buddies Monnie, Younes, and Brighton for a flight from Amsterdam to Palma De Mallorca. Started taxi after loading up and was having problems with my mic. Once I got into the air euro west wanted me to contact him but he had issues and just dissapeared from radar. I was first in line, Brighton was behind me but then he dropped out. Monnie and then Younes were bringing up the rear in MD11s ( I was in a 737-700). Barcelona radar was on and picked me up and vectored me around a nasty storm and I made the ILS for 24L on the lores 1P star. Monnie came in behind me and Younes dissapeared off into cyberspace somewhere lol.

American Flt #2193 KSNA-MZBZ

2010-05-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

American 738 again. Headed out from John Wayne and turned south. My flight plan turned me back east after I got over Mexico and took me in Houston centers airspace. I was fixing the wife some lunch and Houston had to call me twice before I answered then 5 MINs. later he signed off WTF? Oh well I guess he wanted to make sure I was there I guess. I also talked to my good buddy Mark SWA7106 some of the way and I talked to my boss at SWVA Mike SWA5001 the rest of the way down there. It was a long flight so of course the wife was upset after hour number 3 but I got her down and had no problems. I know my string of good luck is going to run out sooner or later and I am going to have a major failure so I am keeping an eye out.

American Airlines flt #539 KDFW-KSNA

2010-05-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

Boeing 737 from Dallas to Santa Ana John Wayne Int. very uneventful flight. No ATC, no weather, no problems. Heading out for Belize shortly.

SWA flt #983 KPBI-KISP

2010-05-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Loading up at KPBI in my SWA 737-700. I check the weather and it is overcast with showers around Palm Beach and clear about 20 miles to the north. I call for clearance and I taxi out to the raunway for takeoff winds are 040 @ 5 MPH so that is not too bad. I choose runway 10 for takeoff and I creep onto the tarmac. I hear the attendants call over the intercom that we are cleared for takeoff. I come up to 40% N1 on the throttles gauges seems ok so I roll em over to take off power and release the brakes and away we go. I roll down the runway and liftoff about 125 knots. We climb out and get about 20 miles out and everything calms down. No atc all the way to KISP so I climb and cruise at 37000. After I start my descent to KISP I pick runway 24 for landing. I take the loves2 arrivel and turn in on final. I pick up the ILS and drop the old girl onto the runway. Another one bites the dust.

KBWI to KPBI SWA flt #171

2010-05-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

So I took my SWA 737-7H4 and loaded up at gate B13 in Baltimore. BWI grd was on so I called for clearance and he gave me the terpz1 departure and rwy 28 for departure. I taxied to rwy 28 where I switched over to Patomac Departure who cleared me for takeoff. After I got up and PD gave me radar contact he wanted to know if I wanted to fly FL360 as traffic was reporting turbulence so I chenged my plan to 380. He cleared me to 380 and I began to climb. after about 2 mins he called me back and told me 380 was bumpy to so I changed the plan again and requested FL400. I climbed up to 400 and it was really bumpy through 392. Also Air Force one was checking out to New York center as we climbed. After that it was uneventful until I descended into miami airspace. Center was on so I checked in and he gave me vectors for rwy 10. I wanted to come in from the east over the water so I asked for 28R and he vectored me around. I called the field in sight and descended over the threshhold of the runway and made a very bumpy landing onto the runway. First flight is done and in the books of this adventure.

Introduction and mission statement

2010-05-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hello girls and guys. My name is Chris. I am a disabled veteran from Virginia Beach and welcome to my blog. I was in the Navy for 10 years as an Aviation Ordnanceman but my love for flying started way before that as a child. I have always dreamed of flying and being a pilot. When I got hurt and I couldn't walk much anymore, I realized that my dreams of being an aviator were slipping away. Now I have turned to Microsoft flight simulator for my travels as a pilot. I am going to take you on a journey as I travel through my three different virtual airlines and my trials and tribulations as I fly for them. These airlines are www.flyvirtual.org a cargo alliance that flies many different companies, www.joinava.org (American virtual airlines) where I am a CAT 3 pilot who has just started, and my crown jewel www.virtualswa.com (Virtual Southwest) where I am the assistant hub manager for SWVAs Orlando hub. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I enjoy making it, so come along and fly with me as I take to the skies from right here at my computer!