🇱🇰 995th fly-in: Bandaranaike Int'l, Colombo, Sri Lanka (VCBI)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

 

Quote

Next Sunday, February 4th is Independence Day over in Sri Lanka, which gives us a great excuse to finally get away from the ice and snow for a while in favor of Colombo, Sri Lanka and Bandaranaike International Airport (VCBI). Almost all international air traffic to Sri Lanka comes through VCBI, with the city's older secondary airport of Ratmalana (VCCC) nowadays mainly reserved for domestic traffic. In addition to these two airports in the capital city of Colombo (both represented by freeware scenery by @FSLK) various other authors have created add-ons for other Sri Lankan airports: VCRI Mattala by @filachudobik (pay-what-you-want donationware), VCCT Trincomalee by @paulmort, and VCCJ Jaffna by @LuftHANSa 755.

Have a nice trip - සුභ ගමනක් වෙවා / இனிய பயணம் தொடரட்டும்

 

 

New pilots are always welcome, just read the guide on how to get started and remember to listen in on Teamspeak!

[Fatherofsam]

I've got a soluition/fix for the TeamSpeak 3 PTT from Flight controls on MAC. I discovered that you can have more than one mouse attached to the Mac. That you can use a button on a second mouse as PTT in TeamSpeak. So I used a microswitch from a Chrismas card and a bit of solder on my bluetooth mouse button 3(wheel press, which I don't used for xplane). Hey presto, tested. Now to use some velcro and a longer twin wire and I'll have the PTT on my yokes or joysticks, or wherever.

I hope this is useful.

Edited February 2 by Fatherofsam

[ManofMac]

Interesting, @Fatherofsam.

Can't make it this week, I'm currently fighting a reluctant connector inside an iPhone 8.  It belongs to the Lady Wife, which means it is Priority ONE.

Perhaps next week.  Meanwhile, Happy Fly-In

[Quintao]

That's a cyborg mouse @Fatherofsam! Your sound was loud and clear on the fly-in today.

I started my fly-in at Chennai VOMM this morning aboard the N77 King Air 350. 

Taxied to RWY 07 going by many airport scenery features, a great place we visited previously.

Crossed RWY 07 at the place they were doing some side work repairs.

Went by the colorful tower and main terminal.

Airport tour complete, lined up, and take off from RWY 07.

Circled around the field gaining altitude and followed the coastline flying south.

About an hour later I was on the downwind leg for RWY 04 at VCBI.

Flew the extended downwind, planning to join the ILS-04 to give @CHASMAN2014 enough time to clear the runway.

Since visibility was good, and conditions were perfect, ended up doing a visual approach into RWY 04. Chas can be seen clearing the runway and Raheel was holding short, both on Emirates liveries.

Cleared the runway at 'C'harlie, and Raheel took off promptly.

Taxied following Chas and parked by his side.

@F5Chaser landed a few minutes later.

Managed to get a group picture with Chas, Raheel, Chaser, @MerlinEng, and @ostkamp.

Here is a picture with the flight profile and all who were connected once I landed, including @Kumiankka and @Vega66 who had landed earlier and were visiting other regional airports.

Below is the route taken, planned with Navigraph, including departing, arrival, and approach procedures.

Looking forward to the fly-in next weekend (maybe it will be at a place where Carnaval is celebrated like Venice, Rio, New Orleans, given the date)!

[CHASMAN2014]

Hello to all.

I started at Bangalore, India (VOBL) in the B737-800 with the Emirates Air livery.

Departed runway 9 for the trip south to Colombo, Sri Lanka and Bandaranaike International Airport (VCBI):

Landed runway 04 at Colombo, Sri Lanka and Bandaranaike International Airport (VCBI):

Taxied to parking and watched @Quintao land in the Super King Air 350:

Next watch @F5Chaser in the B763 make a smooth landing on runway 04:

@F5Chaser parked at the stand:

Next was @Raheel in the B777:

Followed by @ostkamp in thr E55P:

Thank you @Kumiankka for yet another fun destination.  See you all next week.

Chasman2014

[F5Chaser]

Hello everyone!

I started out in Bengaluru at HAL airport with a Boeing 767 this week.

There was just barely enough room for this plane on the north ramp. Across the runway @gp4tom was setting up in a Citation Longitude.

A few minutes before I was ready to taxi, @CHASMAN2014 flew right overhead in his Emirates 737.

The sun set shortly after takeoff with clear and ice-free skies all the way to Colombo.

I came in slightly high on the approach but managed to recover it before short final. The landing was much better than last week with a 150 fpm descent!

Parked next to Chas and @Quintao on the apron. Raheel took off in an Emirates 777 I think shortly afterwards and then @ostkamp and @MerlinEng arrived. I got antimicrox setup after the flight and hope to try that out next time.

Clever setup for PTT @Fatherofsam ! And the best part is it doesn't require any programming.

See you all next week!

[Vega66]

Hi, everyone

 

Started from VOML Mangalore on a Spicejet Dash8.

Great weather for flight today around India, clear skies, no fog, no snow, just perfect. 

 

All aboard and all clearances obtained, departed eastbound.

Uneventful flight, leading to a direct ILS approach. The Dash8 performed flawlessly.

Landed at Bandaranaike shortly after @Kumiankka's A330 on a nice SriLankan livery. This time the CSL rendered it perfectly.

 

Changed to a Robinson R22 to a short ride towards Colombo Rathmalana. However, shortly after take off, the sim started to display some twilight effects over the water.

 

That made me return to Bandaranaike for a full sim restart. Managed to greet  @Raheel in a nice Emirates B777 and land at the ramp, not far from him.

After a full restart that took almost 15 minutes, took off again, this time with no weird effects. Followed briefly @Big-IN and @ostkamp arriving at Bandaranaike.

Finally headed to Rathmalana. The scenery has some great details around Colombo city. At the docks spotted some cargo loaders, suitable for a fly under.

Over Colombo.

Landed at Rathmalana and changed to a Bell 412. to head towards Mattala

Struggled hard with this one, as the collective blocked multiple times as I tried to engage the autopilot and stabilize the heading.  

 

After a bunch of long turns over Rathmalana, finally managed to stabilize and engage the navigation with the correct altitude and speed, cruising towards Mattala

With all the workload and the already late schedule, failed to grab some pictures at Mattala. Very nice airport, though.

Final switch to a Skyhawk, to perform the last leg of the day, to reach for China Bay.

Another outstanding scenery at China Bay, with lots of details of the surroundings. Unfortunately, no time left, so I expedite the parking and called it a day.

Looking forward to join next week.

 

[Kumiankka]

Great suggestion about the Carnival @Quintao, as it happens Rio is already scheduled for another fly-in during our big 20th anniversary tour later this year, but I have been looking for an excuse for us to revisit Venice and this might be just the occasion 🙂

That's also quite the glitch you found @Vega66, I haven't seen anything that bad since X-Plane 8!

 

Started out from the Maldives in an older Airbus A330-300 model which had a Sri Lankan livery available. Luckily in this old model the startup didn't take too long, so I was quickly underway.

 

As soon as I did get enroute, the problems started cropping up - starting with the landing gear doors staying open.

 

The ILS approach into Bandaranaike seemed to go smoothly enough at first...

 

...but the quirks of the legacy flight model showed up on final, resulting in a stall and a very hard landing.

 

Getting the landing gear inspected while @Vega66 arrives in his Dash 8

 

The SpiceJet livery showed up correctly on my end too, although I had forgotten to re-check the Swift client's altitude fix checkbox after installing it on the M3 Mac. Hopefully next week will have fewer submerged planes!

 

Still on real time, I switched to another legacy model, the Michael Wilson L-1011, and started planning a quick flight to Mattala Rajapaksa.

 

This must have been @CHASMAN2014 judging from the Emirates paint

 

 

Lining up

 

@Vega66 returned to the airport in his helo just as I took off

 

Setting course for Mattala...

 

...and arriving in almost complete darkness

 

Luckily this landing went a lot smoother than the previous one

 

Taxiing to the gate

 

Continuing a tour of the island from Mattala, this time in the default XP12 King Air C90 (time of day set forward to morning)

 

Taking off from VCRI, I quickly discovered an annoying issue with the new King Air: the trim wheel wouldn't respond to any button or panel commands, I had to constantly click around in the virtual cockpit to adjust it instead.

 

Eventually I got the plane stabilized enough to take some screenshots too.

 

Approaching the next stop of the mini-tour in Batticaloa

 

Runway in sight...

 

...and landing

 

Continuing in the XP12 default Cessna, now setting course for Trincomalee's China Bay Airport

 

Taking in the sights provided by Ortho4XP (although if you look closely you can see discoloration caused by the low quality orthos available here)

 

Arriving in Trincomalee...

 

...and entering the pattern

 

Base

 

And short final

 

Some construction works on the taxiways

 

Continuing on to Jaffna next in the good old Evenblade

 

More Ortho4XP views enroute

 

My first try at landing ended in a go-around here, with the Evenblade's already too high idle thrust even worse now in XP12, enough to make slowing down to land practically impossible.

 

It took something like three or four attempts before I finally made it...

 

...and the trick was to kill the engines just over the runway! Guess this is another plane that will take some tweaking in Plane-Maker before I fly it again!

 

Still not done with these legacy planes and their glitches, I picked an old MD-80 freighter for the return trip to Colombo, since it had a nice local livery available.

 

Lifting off from Jaffna, so far so good
 

In fact my flight in the MD-80 turned out relatively glitch-free on the part of the aircraft, only the scenery suffered from a few strange lines in the ground/water where the ortho tile ended.

 

Starting the descent into Colombo

 

Passing Bandaranaike Int'l, where @ostkamp had just arrived

 

My course to the smaller Ratmalana Airport took me past the Colombo city center this time

 

Turning final...

 

...and landing with surprisingly few hassles

 

I had originally planned on flying the Mil Mi-8 back to Bandaranaike, but couldn't get it to load in XP12 at all. As a backup option I ended up picking the MD-500, which I knew to be at least flyable since I flew it just a couple of days ago while working on my own home town photo scenery.

 

Taking in the sights of the city center at a lower altitude

 

Vega tipped me off about a great bridge challenge opportunity... or crane challenge, rather!

 

Looking for the next stupid idea

 

Found it - this football stadium looked like a nice landing spot

 

Unfortunately I didn't exactly nail the landing this time!

 

Continuing to Bandaranaike after some instant repairs

 

Following some canals... a preview of next week, perhaps?

 

Back above VCBI

 

Not my most precise landing but at this point I'll take it!

[ostkamp]

Hi,

thanks for all the colorful great images 🙂

I really wanted to use a Beechcraft King Air 350 or Cessna Caravao 208 for today´s trips, but as it turned out FS-Economy had no such aircraft available within more than 1000 nm around Sri Lanka, and the remaining very few aircraft available on the island were not of use for me.

So I was looking for my usual business jets and found a Cessna Citation X at the Indian Trivandrum Intl. airport  (VOTH, see link for details). I used it for all my flights at the fly-in. Fortunately there have been a lot of passengers available for regular short range flights, so I still could earn some money despite of the renting and fuel costs (table to be read from bottom to top).

All flights for pilot ostkamp
Date                From To   Aircraft Type              Duration Distance Earnings 
2024/02/04 19:19:03 VCCT VCCJ D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:36     100     $1,207.42
2024/02/04 18:22:39 VCBI VCCT D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:35     113     $3,139.68
2024/02/04 17:39:07 VC0B VCBI D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:43     101       $948.16
2024/02/04 15:13:21 VCBI VC0B D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:34     100     $5,276.10
2024/02/04 14:35:19 VCCG VCBI D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:34     104     $2,842.46
2024/02/04 13:58:21 VCBI VCCG D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:30     105     $3,915.91
2024/02/04 13:21:51 VCCC VCBI D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:19      21     $1,483.80
2024/02/04 12:58:52 VOTV VCCC D-CIXL   Cessna Citation X 00:52     203     $1,145.91

Getting ready for boarding the first passengers for a flight to Ratmalana Airport (VCCC) a bit to the South of the original destination. As most of the time I had replaced the Citation X with a Phenom 300.

The airport was located near the coast.

On my way already on descent with spoilers deployed to VCCC in Sri Lanka.

Runway slowly became visible through the haze. Otherwise it was nice weather and I had turned back the clock in order to not have to fly in upcoming darkness.

On final.

While there were no large airport passenger terminals here, I found some helicopter hangers at the end of runway 04.

I got briefly parked here to exchange passengers and refuel the aircraft. I have always to keep in mind that the Phenom 300 takes only 806 gal while the real Citation X requires double as much. If I refuel more than fits into the aircraft, the rest of fuel gets lost and you do not get your money back.

Departing again with a full view of the airport on my way to current destination Colombo Bandareike International (VCBI) for the first time that day.

Had to arrive from sea side to get in on runway 04 via ILS.

First time other pilots became visible.

While I was taxiing to terminal @Vega66 passed for a flyby or landing.

@Big-IN aka Dino5 arrived just immediately after me.

Again refueling now and taking new passengers.

Departing here for Ampara airport (VCCG) on the other side of the island. @Big-IN had a break until later.

Amapara in sight.

I then had a return flight to Bandaraneike in order to exchanges passengers and refuel again.

Taxiing for flight to VC0B, in XP12 this is known as Vavuniya  airport (VC13)

@Big-IN had already departed in a Helicopter and we met each other again at VC13. Here I stopped for a longer break and @Big-IN logged off.

Later after the break I rejoined and did the return flight from VC13 to VCBI.

refueled and exchanged passengers again this time boarding for China Bay (VCCT) and later Palaly airport (VCCJ).

The image below shows me on final to VCCT. Where I refueled again and also picked some passengers for a return flight to VCBI via VCCJ (not fully carried out due to running out of time).

Finally I reached VCCJ in the far North of the island.

Here I called it a day since I had already reached 19:55h at home, time to logoff and get something to eat.

Thanks to all who provided great city and environmental screenshots. 😀

Hope to see you next time in Venice! 🙂

 

 

 

Edited February 5 by ostkamp

[Fatherofsam]

I set up at Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji (VABB) with the A319 Indian Airlines livery.

After departure I had to sort out my new PTT button. So let the FMC and AP do their job. Problem solved after removing the yellow cap on the switch which didn't quite reach the micro switch.

I managed to get a few nice pics at cruise height.

However, 5nm short of TOD I had to leave to support my wife who's got a nasty cold.

I reloaded from the same situation in the evening and continued for a smooth landing. OK so it was an autoland.

Careful inspection of the pedals will reveal that I inadvertantly turned the pedals. Not too disasterous though.