Career Flight 3: 27-2-2005

[EHM-1587 Tom]

This might be my fastest turnaround doing anything, ever. I'd signed up at EuroHarmony earlier this morning after absolutely falling in love with the website and attention to detail. The fleet also caught my eye as I love small turboprops.

As a disclaimer, I have a very lacklustre system. It runs FS moderately well, but scenery visuals lack. I, of course, love my screenshots, and I hope you kind folks at EuroHarmony can see my screenshots for the work put into making them interesting, NOT the money I spent on a computer.

Anyway, welcome to Tom McClellan's EHM Career in Screenshots. I'm Tom, your host. Pilot ID EHM-1587. This is my picture log of my EuroHarmony career. So, like every other story before it, we start from the beginning...

CAREER FLIGHT: 1
Date: 24-2-2005
Flight Number: 1154
Depart: Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM) - 9:22
Arrive: Eindhoven AB (EHEH) - 10:07
Aircraft: Dornier 228-100
Cruise Alt: FL150
Passengers: 12
Time Compression: None


Sitting on the tarmac, going through my checklists. The weather out was not the best for flying, although it suited my tastes. "European weather," noted my co-pilot. "Get used to it," he said with a chuckle.


Several minutes later after a long taxi out to runway six, our Do228 had gently lifted from the ground.


Tooling around with the Autopilot while moving to intercept the first Navaid.


We were completely surrounded by cloudy murk all the way up to FL150... I was worried that we'd have to cruise in that boring Zero Visibility.


It was only a short, very Class 1 cruise until we were ready to come start descent towards EHEH.


And thus the descent began...


Turning right towards Eindhoven now, we would be able to just cruise right in. Luckily, the weather was a lot clearer on the way down.


Staring out at the city of Eindhoven before beginning the final descent and approach.


Lining up with the runway as we shed even more altitude.


For some reason, I could hear Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice in my head as we came in rather high and hot. "Use the force," he said to me as I dropped the last notch of flaps.


Nearly there, beginning to pull back on the yoke for flare...


Real squeaker of a landing -- no smoke! One woman told me it was much better than when she'd flown into Schiphol. "That one was a double bouncer," she said.


After shutting down the engines, going through the final checklist and seeing the passengers off, I walked off into the terminal for a well deserved coffee break.


(I know, I left the flaps down. Silly me. :%)

[EHM-1358 Tim]

Wow! Very nice shots!

Welcome to EHM aswel!

[EHM-1343 Jonathan]

Nice shots and welcome, but what is happening to your graphics!

[EHM-1506 Emre]

Welcome aboard Tom! Very good shots. It is so sad to have problems with your graphics. Anything we can do?

PS:Guys, I started my European Capitals Tour... Flown 9 legs.

Cheers.

Emre

[EHM-1566 Jesper]

Welcome! ::P:):]

[EHM-1199 Philip]

Welcome and what a way to start - a completely documented flight. Nice shots and don't worry about the PC - I haven't met a single person who is satisfied with their PCs flight sim capabilities.

[EHM-1358 Tim]

Originally posted by Plymyphil
I haven't met a single person who is satisfied with their PCs flight sim capabilities.

Im one....:%;D

[EHM-1199 Philip]

I bet with a bit of thought your flight sim experience is still not quite there Tim and probably due to financial reasons.

Me - my P4 3.2 is great but 'cos of my 17"TFT screen I can't have the VR headset I'd love. Then there is the little matter of the CHPRO rudder pedals and flight stick I really should have.

The headset I use is not quite up to the mark for online communication and better would be appreciated.

The graphics card needs a ramp up and it would be great to have a few extra gig on the 160 I have so I could have all scenery installed. While I'm on the scenery plane thing - a lot of the freeware stuff is great but a run of a few hundred quids worth of paid scenery would be better.

Oh and now I've gone for a TFT screen and have to miss out on the VR headset maybe I should start putting money by for a multi monitor setup - my graphics card is capable of it and yet I still only have the one screen.

See - no matter how good the experience, I'll always yearn for a better PC for flight sim until the day I have my pilots license and my own light aircraft - mind, I'll probably be yearning after John Travolta's boeing then so I guess I'll never be quite satisfied.:%

IN fact, all the desires I had for better harware when I was running Microsoft FS 4 on my 386DX40 with 4Mb ram are still there - life's tough eh?

[EHM-1358 Tim]

Yeah! I really need a new PSU, all my USB ports and my GFX card are sucking all the power out of it. And a two screen pc would be nice!

[EHM-1343 Jonathan]

Considering my computer, i am completley satisfied! Apart Online flying! Ah mabey i'm not 100% satisfied!:P

[EHM-1587 Tom]

I'd like to thank you all for the kind words and welcome. Seeing as I'm home ill (heheh) I'll be doing the return flight to Schiphol later today.

[EHM-1587 Tom]

After the turnaround in Eindhoven, we were ready to head back to Schiphol at around ten. The weather clouds had thickened up at the weather reports noted scattered clouds and five mile visibility at ground level.

CAREER FLIGHT: 2
Date: 25-2-2005
Flight Number: 1155
Depart: Eindhoven AB (EHEH) - 10:22
Arrive: Amsterdamn Schiphol (EHAM) - 11:03
Aircraft: Dornier 228-100
Cruise Alt: FL160
Passengers: 13
Time Compression: None

Parked right next to the runway with all the passengers aboard and the engines started. Of course, it was the wrong end of the runway and a long taxi lay ahead.


After that long way out, we turned on to the runway and started the last pre-takeoff checks.


Before long, it was time to fly, fly away... :%


Turning around to head north.


Flying under the European sun...


Reaching the top of our climb and blessed with quite a view.


No time to rest though, time to turn northwards towards Amsterdam.


Now with cruise ahead of us, we're admiring the rivers...


Crossing our last waypoint and coming out of 14,000 for 10,000.


Right out of the blue...


...and into the grey. A low layer of haze greets us as we arrive back at Schiphol.


Finally taxiing in to my favourite parking spot at EHAM, another flight under my belt. Thanks for flying EuroHarmony. ^__^


Total Career Flight Time: 01:26 hrs

[EHM-1500 Jim]

Welcome Tom...although your graphics do suck (LOL) your excellent story and choice of shots make up for it ten times over. Great start and hope to see the rest of your long EHM career as well ! Jim

[EHM-1343 Jonathan]

yeah, very detailed account, wish i could be bothered to give such a detailed description. I just slap on a pic and then wait for commnets LOL

[EHM-1587 Tom]

First off, thanks for your kind words.

Flight Three of my EHM career... Now, as much as I love the B1900D as an aircraft, Mike Stone's models just never seem to 'agree' with me. I tried to do this flight with the Beech, but eventually started over in the Jetstream 41. Glad I did, too, the BAe is a nice aircraft. A little jumpy on approach though, still think I prefer the Dornier 228.

CAREER FLIGHT: 3
Date: 27-2-2005
Flight Number: 1152
Depart: Schiphol Int'l Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands (EHAM) - 07:06
Arrive: Eelde Airport, Groningen, Netherlands (EHGG) - 08:07
Aircraft: BAe Jetstream 41
Cruise Alt: FL160
Passengers: 24
Time Compression: None

I took a last sip from my Thermos mug of tea before spooling the engines for takeoff. I was still tired, 7 AM is early for me.


V1, VR - Rotate, and we were off the ground...


The Jetstream lurched away from Schiphol and towards a glowing horizon.


I set the autopilot, yawned, and peered out the window.


Sooner than later, the horizon was erupting with light. It was a pleasantly clear morning over Amsterdam, with a thin mist of morning air hovering over the city.


It was also probably quite cold out, I thought to myself, as the plane banked to the left.


Soon, there was nothing to bother us but the melodic roar of our turboprops.


The picture below was much more bleak. A thick blanket of fog and cloud hugged the ground. I also noticed we were behind schedule... That was when I noticed the flap lever that hadn't been pushed all the way to "Up." Co-pilot's gonna pay for that one... :]


We burst into a space between the clouds and I used the time to get my bearings. We were just about to enter the landing pattern towards Eelde.


And then we plunged into another layer of clouds. I peered at my instruments -- we were still a few NM out.


One final turn to get aligned and the landing gear were locked into position with a satisfying thump. Lined up to the glidescope, time to rock 'n' roll.


It was a textbook landing and quite good considering the turbulent winds I had to fight off on approach, caused by two high pressure systems converging and driving winds over Northern Europe. (Or so I assumed from my weather brief :])


Centerline between the gear.


Thankful to be safe on the ground, we taxiied over to the small terminal at Eelde and let the passengers off. Hopefully the weather would still be 'clear skies' when we returned to Schiphol. Thank you for flying with EuroHarmony, the Wings of Europe.

[EHM-1199 Philip]

Great shots again. I too don't favour the Beech. My preferred plane in this class is the Donier - in fact - it's my preferred plane in the next class too. (Fingers crossed it stays after the shake up!)

[EHM-1587 Tom]

Thanks, um... What should I refer to you by?

Just realised why my framerates weren't as good as usual... I'd forgotten to run End It All, which closes all background applications before starting FS. :%

[EHM-1500 Jim]

Nice shots again Tom...much better aircraft that one!