My sort of around the world tour

[brownbox]

ok, heres the second leg.

But first, some shots of my stay in Hong Kong:
Heres the sunrise from a hill with trees on it


Hong Kong city at night. Huge buildings there


On top of a building, overlooking old Hong Kong airport


Taking some photos at Tsing Ma Bridge


I was asked to do a bungy jump, so I did. Heres the view from the top. Can see the airport. Its a loooooooong way up.....


I jumped! Its so fast!




Anyway, at the airport... Weather was hot, and foggy.

Hers the plane im going to be going on

Another shot of the plane

I was lucky enough to get a nice seat at the window by the wing

During pushback, I managed to catch this aircraft taking off

Managed to get through all the taxiways... somehow

This plane was about to land right on top of me!

Cleared for takeoff, another plane was already coming

Taking off, got a wonderful shot of the airport

The nasty weather took its toll. Even with nearly full flaps, I only just made it before I ran out of runway. The takeoff was really nasty

Into the cloud.

Climbing to cruis altitude

Still climbing. The clouds are slowly decreasing

Cruising




A couple of hours, and some snacks later, we saw a nice sunset


Over the ocean, the suns nearly set.

Now, into a moon-less night

I couldnt work out how to turn the tail light off, so it stayed on

Flying over tokyo at night. I was glad to see a populated place

Decent into Tokyo

A nice easy approach. Lets see if I muck it up

And Im down

After what seemed like miles of taxiing, I saw this Jal 747 taking off

Parked

Well look at that, Im at terminal 1


Thats the lot of them, leave some comments. Next time, we're off to India!
Enjoy

[ardypilot]

Loved the tourist like first screenshots, great perspective!

[brownbox]

Thanks Trolly. I thought Id go for something different, because I reckon just having straight planes after planes after planes gets a little boring

[ZK-Brock]

Lol, nice takeoff attitude there BB

Good shots as well

[G-HEVN]

Nice atmospheric opening shot, but

a hill with trees on it

you make it sound so romantic!!!

Liked the bungee sequence, but was expecting an "upside down" one from the bottom....

[brownbox]

ok ok, maybe I couldve atleast found the name of the hill. But hey, atleast I got the name of the bridge

Liked the bungee sequence, but was expecting an "upside down" one from the bottom

OFCOURSE! I completely forgot that when you bungy jump, youre upside down. Oh well, next time

[brownbox]

Well, you will be pleased to know that after a long holiday, captain brownbox has taken to the skies again, and I am currently in the sky over China somewhere, shooting pics for my third leg, tokyo-dehli. Unfortunately, air indias 747 , had a spot of bother with the engines not starting (no idea what happened, but they just wouldnt go, no matter how much I tried....) So, I have scrapped them, and managed to get a seat on an aaancient as Indian airlines 737-200. I will tell you now, it will be an..."interesting" flight.....

[brownbox]

Well, its finally here. Leg 3 of my trip!
Tokyo Narita Intl-Indira Ghandi Intl New Delhi
0540-1130
Indian Airlines 737-200

On arriving to the airport in tokyo, I was greeted by hot, muggy, humid weather. fortunately, the sun was yet to rise, so the temperature was a cool, 33'c. The wasnt a cloud in the sky
As I began the long walk to my plane from the terminal, I was shocked by the age of the plane I would be travelling on... the air india 747 sounded good right about now, but I was stuck with this


As I ascended the stairs, I was greeted by a hostess, which made me slightly at ease about the trip ahead...until I saw the state of the plane close up... good to see the indian flag is proudly displayed


Pushback. I was surprised the plane still moved, dispite its age


Got a nice view of the airport.. too bad I had a seat at the back


Cleared for takeoff. The plane made a huge racket at full throttle, yet it stayed intact


And we're off. The plane took the whole runway to get off the ground, with flapps at 15

As you can see, they allowed me to move about the plane, to take photos during takeoff


Climbing to cruising altitude, we passed back over tokyo


At 6.30, the sun rise was looking nice


As daylight arrived, and breakfast was served, we were flying over mountains which seemed to go on for ever



And out over the sea. In the daylight, we see the plane in its full glory...


A shot of the wear and tear on the tail


The only sign of land we saw for ages was a island


Once again, our trusty photographer got some snaps of the plane, this time from his fishing boat!


Finally, over the himalayas


Beginning our decent into Dehli. The old bird almost looks good


As I began getting lower, and closer to Indira Ghandi Intl, the cloud began to thicken, and the turbulence was amazing


"Cabin crew please prepare for landing"... My heart had settled down now, and I was looking forward to this uneventful journey to be over. Then the noises started... and then there was nothing. Just the sound of air whizzing past the cabin


Both engines, all instruments had stopped. Along with all that, I was greeted with cloud.... lots and lots and lots of cloud


Fill in the blanks yourself for this picture


And we're down.... well, whatever you would call it


I found out something... when sliding along on the planes belly, the breaks dont go so well.....


A shot from the tower


I came to a stop, surprisingly still on the runway. As the plane sat there, silently smoldering, I said to myself, this would make a nice picture


Thats the lot guys. Next time, we're off to cape town. See you then.

[ardypilot]

Wow, Congratulations on making it down in once piece- lowered your gear a little late there didn't you?

Are the last pictures photoshop edits or can that really be done in the sim? The last shot reminds me of the BA777 sitting on the grass at Heathrow!

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Mar 9 2008, 02:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The last shot reminds me of the BA777 sitting on the grass at Heathrow!

THAT WAS EXACTLY MY THOUGHT ! for safety ALWAYS BET ON BOEING

[brownbox]

just to let you know, there was no photoshoping/editing in any of my photos.

@Trolly
I wasnt expecting the runway to come up that quickly. ATC said there was still 2 miles left

[kiwibarguy]

I'm loving your screenshots brownbox lol

[Kelburn]

Great trip looking foward to more pics

[brownbox]

well here we go again guys. Leg 3 of my journey, going from Delhi to Cape Town Intl with a fuel stop at Ivato Intl, Madagascar in a 1980's Air India A310-300.

**

After the crash landing with the double engine failure on the Indian Airlines 737, I had a 9 month stay in hospital... hence my tour being delayed for so long

The weather at Indira Ghandi Intl was typical indian winter morning weather. Near freezing temperatures, and fog....lots of fog. Fortunately, the fog had not quite set in yet, so the planes were still running.
This is the bird that i was going on today, parked up at the gate.

An emirates a340 pushing back


As I walked from the jetway to the aircraft, as usual at delhi airport, someone left the door of the jetway open, giving a nice view of the planes wing


I haggled with the check in staff and got a seat at the front. Great wing view


The takeoff was pretty uneventful. The traffic was low, as they put me onto the smaller runway usually used for domestic flights. So, no pictures of the departure.
Flying east over delhi, there was a bit of cloud


Banking to the right


This time banking left. Airport in upper left corner


Hey guys...


The wonders of walk&follow


Beautiful sunrise over the indian ocean






After breakfast, I got some pictures outside the plane



The guys at delhi certainly scrubbed the plane up nicely. Soooo shiny!


Madagascar bought with it more clouds....


Which then cleared away, revealing beautiful beaches and farm land



Ivato Intl ATC sent me on a very long approach (80 something miles from the airport)




The airport was really weird. On final approach, the landing gear nearly hits a ridge, and the airport is in a 20m deep hole

Notice the banks surrounding the runway. The runway was fairly short. Some speed was gained getting down the drop to the runway, so it was reverse thrust and spoilers


At the refueling ramp, I saw this other plane. By the looks of it, the textures were missing


They let me out and walked me around the plane, after I said I was a newspaper photographer




Turning around at the end of the runway


Another meal later, we started our decent into Cape Town



ATC was crazy. They told me to go from 17000ft to 2000ft and maintain that. With about 20 miles to the airport, I had to do what Air India does best (Ive only ever seen air india do this, and ive been on a lot of planes and a lot of airlines), which is put the spoilers up and the throttle to idle. It was a fairly steep decent



Gear down


Wing view


The airport in the distance. The weather here was foggy, but not quite as bad as india


Almost there


A strong crosswind blew the whole thing sideways


I got there in the end though (albeit, half way down the runway


And we are parked. Heres some AI shots

[Ian Warren]

I do like the livery and suits the A310 , the cheat lines and detail it is one 'f's the Airbus Industries type,s folllowing the 300 B4 series that had charcater . Great Screens BB

[Michael]

Do the aircrew let you fly next to the plane often??

These are some great shots and a more interesting read

[brownbox]

QUOTE (Michael @ Jan 30 2009, 12:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do the aircrew let you fly next to the plane often??

Of course!

Cheers guys.

[Kelburn]

what aircraft is that? Wingviews?

[brownbox]

http://www.hnac.org/cms_prod/index.php?id=8,0,0,1,0,0

Wingviews from using walk & follow in virtual cockpit view