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Bluegrass Airlines, December 2010

Qantas Empire Airways First Constellation Flights

December 1st-5th  1947 Sydney-London

qea connie.jpg

FS9 L-749 Lockheed Constellation by Manfred Jahn and the 749 Project

avsim.com filename lockheed749.zip (37mb)

QEA texture by Marcels Ritzema avsim.com filename vheab.zip

 

On December 1st 1947 Qantas Empire Airways inaugurated direct service from Sydney, Australia to London, England.

Enroute stops were Darwin (refuel), Singapore (overnight), Calcutta (refuel), Karachi (overnight), Cairo (overnight), and Castel Benito (refuel)    Over the years the names have changed a bit in spelling and Castel Benito is now Tripoli.

 

Flight Simulator  Overview

Click on Departure Code for a Flight Plan

City

Code

Schedule

GMT

Distance

Start Fuel

Sydney

YSSY

22:30

12:30

 

25978#

Darwin

YPDN

6:10

 

1845

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darwin

YPDN

8:30

0:30

 

26513#

Singapore

WSSS

15:30

 

1883

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Singapore

WSSS

8:00

2:00

 

25428#

Kolkata

VECC

13:30

 

1806

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kolkata

VECC

15:30

10:30

 

18740#

Karachi

OPKC

21:35

 

1331

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karachi

OPKC

8:00

4:00

 

28061#

Cairo

HECA

15:00

 

1993

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cairo

HECA

0:30

22:30

 

15389#

Tripoli

HLLT

4:30

 

1093

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tripoli

HLLT

6:15

4:15

 

17797#

London

EGKK

12:00

 

1264

 

The start fuel amount is based on flying using the medium cruise power setting of 140 bmep and 2,000 rpm.  The connie is a complex aircraft and you will need to check the kneepad flight reference often.  For fuel management, after leveling off at 14,500' I would use the two tanks with the most fuel until tanks 1-2-3-4 were all even, then switch to tanks 1-2-3-4  I didn't need to use tanks 2A or 3A on these flights, but I left 100# in each of them.

In the FS9 Aircraft Fuel and Payload section  the tanks are mislabelled.

Tank 1 is labelled "External 1"

Tank 2 is labelled "Center 2"

Tank 2a is labelled "Left"

Tank 3 is labelled "Center 3"

Tank 3A is labelled "Right"

Tank 4 is labelled "External 2"

The local time in Tripoli is GMT+2, but  on one occasion it was showing the same as GMT.

On my first attempt to fly from Tripoli to London, I had the hydraulic system fail and couldn't raise the gear or flaps.  By the time I figured out how to correct the problem, I did not have enough fuel to complete the trip so I started over.  Tip: Right Click on the kneeboard icon. then click on the hydraulic integrity %.

Check out this video "Qantas - The Longest Hop" 

 

This feature uses information supplied by Brian Wilson of the Bluegrass Australian Division who along with Andrew Goddard and Allan Lowson are working on a "Qantas Around the World" event.