As you all know, I like to release a visual diary of my test flights of newly introduced aircraft. The actual test flight I did for the MD-82 was very uneventful so I decided to fly another flight today. I'm glad I did. While long, I quite enjoyed flight 2360 from Hong Kong to Jakarta. There were so many sights that I ended up taking over 60 screenshots! However, I've narrowed those down to 20 by only including those critical to the journey. Typically, I prefer to post these using the attachment method instead of hosting the shots on my own server, but because of the number of shots, it'll be much easier if I link to them on my own site.
We'll start out the shots, today, with me taxiing at VHHH Hong Kong. As you can see, I haven't installed traffic on this system yet. :)
After a long taxi, I receive clearance from the tower to takeoff on runway 7 right.
The requisite takeoff shot. ;)
Looking back...
And here we can see some of Hong Kong beside VHHH.
And one final look at Hong Kong through the clouds.
After a reasonably short time over the water, we hit the coast of Vietnam. Figuratively, of course. :)
A good chunk of this flight is spent over the lowland farms of Vietnam. Things pick up again as we head south. Here we have an eye-full of the sprawling metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City.
A short time later we fly over the southern tip of Vietnam, heading back over the ocean.
At first this shot may seem to only show ocean. However, in the far distance you can make out the coastline of the Malay Peninsula, right around the Thailand-Kuala Lumpur border.
As I was despairing that we were too far from the mainland to get a good view, this island, named Tioman, sprung, er... sprought, um... sprouted, no... POPPED into view.
And just before leaving the Malay Peninsula behind, we get a brief but impressive view of the city of Johor Baharu. It was so big I had to ignore my usual rule and break out the ol' wide-angle lens!
After a bit more ocean, we finally reach Indonesia. The coast of mainland Sumatra is present in the background.
After saying goodbye to Sumatra we fly just a very short time over the Java Sea before catching sight of our destination, the Indonesian island of Java.
After descent and as we are lining up on approach, we enter some low visibility skies, preventing us from getting a good view of the urban center of Jakarta.
Fortunately, it cleared up quickly. Here we are on final into WIII. Don't ask me why I'm not yet configured to land, okay? :)
I wanted to get one shot of the panel I used on this flight. It is available from Mitch's Panel Shop. It is a decent panel but you must be sure to edit your aircraft.cfg as per my instructions in one of my followups to my MD-82 update announcement.
And here we have the ever-popular touchdown!
I just love thrust reversers, don't you? You hardly need them to stop this aircraft in time, but I've got 'em, and I'm gonna use 'em! 'Kay?
And here we are all snug at the gate. :D
I hope you all enjoyed the journey!
Webpage and all images are Copyright © 2004-2005 Gregory S. Gursky. All rights reserved.