Airways April 2010 - British Airways Virtual

© Allan Norris 

© John Barnes 

38 - FSLabs’ Concorde X 

Reviews 

38 - FSLab’s Concorde X 

The recently released Concorde X from Flight 

Sim Labs has been causing a flutter amongst 

simmers. Christopher Elliott reviews the new 

add-on. 

and a huge rock next to the 

approach path. Brian T Richards 

reports on one of the world’s most 

unique airports. 

Features 

14 - Gibraltar: The Rock and 

The Airport 

Airways Magazine is pleased to introduce this 

fascinating article about Gibraltar airport 

which has a road stretching across the runway 

26 - Exchange Tour with 

the USAF 

Chapter five of Ollie Alderson’s 

historic memoirs talks of flying the 

C-5A Galaxy and the C-141 

Starlifter with the United States Air 

Force. 

Regulars 

4 - Editors Welcome 

4 - Readers’ Letters 

9 - News 

33, 36, 37, 41 - Competitions

The Team 

Editor: Christopher Elliott 

Contributors: Brian T Richards, Ollie Alderson, Celestyn 

Chmielewski, Christopher Elliott 

Designer: Christopher Elliott 

Editorial Contact 

Email: airway@bavirtual.co.uk 

Website: www.bavirtual.co.uk\about\press 

BAV Directors 

CEO: Paul Smith 

HR: Tim Brown 

Online Flying: Florian Harms 

Technical: Adam Parnell and Alan Hunter 

Training: John Barnes 

Consultants: Rob Parker, Stephen Ellis and Graham Young 

Submissions 

Airways Magazine will happily accept and review for 

publication all letters, photographs, screenshots, articles, or 

other contributions. However, we do not guarantee 

publication. 

Welcome to this 

Special edition of 

Airways Magazine! 

This month, BAV 

celebrates 10 years 

of existence and to mark the 

occasion, Airways has some special 

treats in store... 

Aviation consultant and 

photographer Brian T Richards 

writes in Airways about Gibraltar’s 

airport. Part 5 of Ollie Aldersons’ 

memoirs are featured, and lots, lots 

more... 

The competition winners have been 

announced and, as always, if you 

are one of the lucky winners then 

please contact me via the forum 

and we can get your prize to you as 

soon as possible. 

Special thanks this month must go 

to Corsair, Airspotters.com and 

UK2000 Scenery for supporting 

BAV and Airways Magazine with 

some fantastic and generous prizes. 

Also, our sincere thanks to Brian T 

Richards for donating his article for 

our pleasure and to all of the 

contributors this month. Without 

you, there is no magazine! 

Next issue, there may be some very 

special things going on, so, until 

then hope to see you at the GCM 

for a pint and a great weekend...all 

the best, 

Christopher Elliott, Editor 

Airways Magazine is unable to return any submissions sent to 

us and we will not be responsible for their loss. We will try 

and respond as soon as possible. Anything sent to us will be 

assumed suitable for publication unless we are notified 

otherwise. 

Copyright 

The entire contents of Airways Magazine is ©2009 - 2010 

and no part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form 

or stored on a retrieval system without prior permission of the 

publisher, BAV Publications. 

BAV Publications takes considerable care and attention to 

ensure the accuracy of the information published in Airways 

Magazine; however, we cannot be held liable for any loss or 

damage resulting either directly or indirectly from any error or 

omission. 

We are pleased to recognise all trademark and copyright 

holders and try to where possible. If we make a mistake or 

omission, let us know and we will correct it in the next bimonthly 

issue of Airways Magazine. 

Legal 

Airways Magazine is produced for British Airways Virtual and 

is completely independent. 

The thoughts, views and opinions expressed herein are not 

necessarily the thoughts, views and opinions of Airways 

Magazine or British Airways Virtual, it’s Directors, Managers 

or Pilots. 

Airways Magazine is produced free of charge for the members 

of British Airways Virtual, and all articles are freely submitted. 

The Editor of Airways Magazine reserves the right to change 

articles for clarity provided that it does not alter their 

meaning. 

Airways Magazine is no official medium of British Airways 

PLC and any or all logos used herein are the property of their 

respective owners. © All Rights Reserved. 

Any and all aviation advice, guidance, information, tips and 

techniques contained herein are for the exclusive use of 

Virtual Pilots within the environment of Microsoft Flight 

Simulator and as such are not to be used or attempted in a 

real world aviation environment under any circumstances 

Continued from Feb 

issue: 

...In the beginning of 

April 2009, just before 

British Airways Virtual 

finally announced their 

opening time, I 

purchased the 

excellent Level-D 767- 

300, which I thought 

was a fantastic add-on; 

but, I had to focus on 

my GCSEs and I did 

not fly much... 

British Airways 

Virtual Mk III 

When British Airways 

Virtual opened again, 

the new website 

looked fantastic! It 

looked the same as the 

real BA website! I 

thought, for one 

minute, what is 

happening to BAV 

ACARS and OPS? 


created new software 

for us to use, which is 

great to use and I have 

never had a problem 

with it! Sadly, just 

after British Airways 

Virtual opened, I had 

to mark myself onleave 

until 11 th June 

2009 as I was sitting 

my GCSE exams! I left 


temporarily, and I soon 

found that Lee James 

was organising the 

second Overnighters 

flight to Africa, again I 

couldn't attend! More 

Overnighter flights 

coming soon! I took 

my exams which 

started on 19 th May 

2009, RE exam to kick 

off! Been studying 

GCSEs and shortly 

after I finally 

completed my exams, I 

can now fly again! 

After 11 th June 2009, I 

attempted to fly to St. 

Petersburg’s with the 

brand new Pegasus! 

Again, you guessed it! 

First flight with British 

Airways Virtual Mk III 

and I discovered 

problems; I didn't have 

the latest FSUICP 

version installed! I 

decided to fly anyway, 

which was a silly 

mistake to make! 

The latest FSUIPC 

version is now installed 

and I flew to Denmark 

instead! After my 

arrival at Denmark, I 

made a couple of 

attempts to make a 

return trip back to 

Heathrow, which failed 

two or three times! 

Fourth attempt and I 

found the fault. I fixed 

that and arrived at

Heathrow NOT safely as someone 

shot my engine over London and 

declaring an emergency I made it 

back to Heathrow okay. After my 

return flight back to Heathrow, I 

took the Level-D 767-300ER for a 

trip to Chicago and back; but, on my 

way to Chicago over the Atlantic, 

Pegasus froze and my flight was lost! 

When I was preparing my descend 

into Chicago, my computer froze and 

sadly I had to do return the flight 

back to Heathrow on an overnight 

flight. I built up my hours to reach 

50 hours to become Senior First 

Officer and have been flying lots of 

flights lately! Just one day before I 

left for Asia and stayed there for 

three weeks, I was promoted to 

Senior First Officer and earned my 

50 bonus points! I shut down my PC 

and left it for three weeks hoping I 

wouldn't become inactive! After my 

long three weeks summer holiday, I 

returned back to England and 

finished my first flight since I became 

Senior First Officer - my first visit to 

South America in my PMDG 747- 

400 and back. There have been 

some bad landings in South 

America! I decided to do a Cityflyer 

flight to Zurich and back into 

London City - hard landing. I 

decided to practise landings at EGLC 

until I could land properly. 

I then returned to school for my A- 

Levels. But before I returned back 

to school, Lee James announced the 

third Overnighters flight to Tokyo, 

and guess what? I attended this 

event! But I made a mistake 

requesting a later slot, which was 

1445z and my Dad wanted me to 

arrive at Tokyo around 

midnight...doh! I went hunting for 

earlier slots and I became nervous as 

the event was approaching. Lucky 

someone else was looking for a later 

slot and I offered mine, but he 

declined and someone had to give 

up his slot due to personal reasons 

and someone agreed to take his slot 

so I took his slot which was 1335z. I 

was happy as I could attend the 

overnighters event after all! 

On 3 rd October 2009, I prepared for 

my flight for overnighter event and I 

left a little late but that’s not a 

problem! I flow all the way to Tokyo, 

night came, and I stayed awake 

without my eyes closing. Sun rise 

and my passengers are having their 

breakfast as we left Russia and flew 

over the sea on our way to Tokyo 

and I began my descent to the 

airport with fantastic ATC provided 

by Japan! I landed without going 

around as some people had to go 

around and funnily enough I heard a 

pilot on APP freq just before I switch 

to TWR freq announcing he ran out 

of fuel. I switched over to TWR freq 

and heard nothing further. I landed, 

taxied to the gate and I stayed in 

Tokyo for two weeks as I returned 

back home and promoted to 

Captain. I, then attended another 

"Cross the Pond" taking me back to 

Europe from Canada; however, I 

forget to start my Pegasus as BAV 

put up a fly-in number for Cross the 

Pond. I did some European flights, 

however in November 2009, there 

are problem which I experienced but 

it took me 2 or 3 weeks to solve this 

problem! December 2009 saw my 

birthday as I received my birthday 

bonus points, 50 points and my first 

anniversary was the 14 th December 

2009. Two days later, on 16 th 

December, which was my 4 th 

anniversary of being a member of 

VATSIM. 

I really enjoyed my time here but 

November 2009 was not a good 

time for me and I am looking 

forward to my second BAV year! 

Overnighters #3 event was a brilliant 

time for me in my first BAV year as I 

enjoyed it the most! Thank to Lee 

James for organising this wonderful 

overnighter event! 

Here's to my second BAV year! 

Celestyn Chmielewski 

Kingston Upon Thames, UK 

UK2000 Star 

Readers’ Letter 

As we haven’t received any new 

readers’ letters this issue, the 

decision has been taken to award 

this to a generous contributor to 

Airways Magazine. 

Please join us in congratulating Mr 

Ollie Alderson for his series of 

articles, which have been featured 

regularly in Airways Magazine. 

Ollie, there is a UK2000 Scenery 

download of your choice waiting for 

you as a small token of our 

appreciation! 

Many thanks, 

Chris, Ed.

Special Guest 

for GCM 

Event Organiser, Lee 

James, has announced that 

Peter Burkill, Captain on 

doomed flight BA038, 

which crashed at Heathrow 

airport, will be a special 

guest at this years 10th 

anniversary celebrations on 

22 - 23 May 2010. 

Signed copies of his book, 

‘Thirty Seconds to Impact,’ 

will be available to buy, at 

the GCM, for £9.99. 

Tickets for the GCM are still 

available for £35 each. 

Further details can be found 

on BAV’s forum. 

Email Lee James on bavgcm@bavirtual.co.uk 

for 

details on how to book 

today. 

Strike Action 

costs BA £40 - 

£45 million! 

In March 2010 traffic, 

measured in Revenue 

Passenger Kilometres, fell 

by 11.4 per cent on March 

2009. Passenger capacity, 

measured in Available Seat 

Kilometres, was down 13.7 

per cent. This resulted in a 

passenger load factor 

increase of 2.0 points versus 

last year, to 74.7 per cent. 

Traffic comprised a 7.2 per 

cent decrease in premium 

traffic and a 12.2 per cent 

decrease in non-premium 

traffic. 

Both traffic and capacity 

were affected by the strike 

action by cabin crew 

represented by the Unite 

union. Planned winter 

capacity reductions account 

for half of the decline in 

capacity for the month, with 

half due to the strikes. As 

outlined previously, over the 

first strike weekend the 

airline operated 78 per cent 

of its longhaul programme 

and 50 per cent of 

shorthaul; for the second 

strike weekend these figures 

rose to 83 per cent and 67 

per cent respectively. For 

the seven days of strikes 

the airline operated 79 per 

cent of longhaul flights and 

58 per cent of shorthaul. 

Cargo, measured in Cargo 

Tonne Kilometres, rose by 

6.4 per cent; volumes were 

helped by the additional 

capacity available during the 

strike periods. 

oneworld 

CEOs mark 

alliance's 

breakthrough 

year 

Chief Executives from 

oneworld's member airlines 

gathered on 8th April 2010 

for their first Governing 

Board of what is turning out 

to be a breakthrough year 

for the alliance. 

It was the first time they had 

convened since: 

• Japan Airlines reaffirmed 

its membership of the 

grouping in February and 

then filed for anti-trust 

immunity with American 

Airlines to deepen their cooperation 

across the 

Pacific - and the first 

oneworld Governing Board 

meeting attended by JAL's 

new President Masaru 

Onishi since his 

appointment on 1 February. 

• India's leading carrier and 

only five-star airline 

Kingfisher Airlines signed a 

memorandum of 

understanding as its first 

step towards joining 

oneworld. 

• The US Department of 

Transportation gave 

tentative approval in 

February to the application 

by oneworld's transatlantic 

partners American Airlines, 

British Airways, Iberia, 

Finnair and Royal Jordanian 

for anti-trust immunity 

across the Atlantic - and the 

European Commission 

began market testing of 

proposed remedies in a key 

step towards approval of the 

proposed transatlantic joint 

business agreement 

between American, BA and 

Iberia. 

It is also the first oneworld 

Governing Board meeting in 

a year that will see Russia's 

leading domestic carrier S7 

Airlines join the alliance. 


Chairman Gerard Arpey, 

Chairman and Chief 

Executive of American 

Airlines, said: "This time 12 

months ago, oneworld was 

celebrating its 10th 

anniversary. Since then, 

oneworld has taken a series 

of significant steps towards 

establishing itself firmly as 

the world's premier global 

airline alliance. 

”We added one more 

leading airline, Mexicana, in 

November and look forward 

to welcoming on board 

Russia's S7 Airlines later 

this year with India's 

Kingfisher Airlines to follow 

next year.

"Not only does our line-up 

of members include the 

finest airline brands in the 

world, our collection of 

networks delivers the best 

coverage in the markets 

that matter most 

throughout the Americas, 

Europe, Asia and Australia. 

We believe our focus on 

the quality, rather than 

quantity, of members has 

been the right approach." 

"Meantime, we have been 

able to welcome Japan 

Airlines' reaffirmation to 

oneworld. It is very good 

to have Masaru Onishi 

among us. We respect 

JAL's alliance review was 

an important decision for 

the airline and the 

government of Japan. We 

believe they made the right 

choice for JAL's many 

stakeholders, for Japan's 

national interests and for 

consumers." 

Mr Arpey noted that this 

year had seen the biggest 

progress in oneworld's 

history in deepening links 

between its member 

airlines: "We expect our 

applications for anti-trust 

immunity across the 

Atlantic and Pacific to be 

approved soon, levelling 

the alliance playing field 

between North America 

and Europe and ensuring 

that alliance competition 

remains robust between 

North America and Asia. 

Both initiatives will enable 

oneworld to offer our 

customers even better 

services and benefits." 

oneworld had taken 

significant strides in many 

other areas too, 

completing its biggest yet 

airport co-location project, 

bringing all on-line airlines 

from across all five 

passenger terminals into 

just two at its biggest 

European hub, London 

Heathrow, and increasing 

its lead in offering the 

widest range of alliance 

consumer fares. 

Mr Arpey concluded: "For 

us, the key aim of all this 

activity is simple -to 

establish oneworld further 

firmly as the premier 

airline alliance, delivering 

to both our customers and 

member airlines services 

and benefits beyond the 

reach of any individual 

airline and making it easier 

and more rewarding to 

reach more places more 

easily on a quality network 

of the best brands in the 

business." 

Significant progress 

in expanding cooperation 

with Japan 

Airlines 

Considerable progress has 

been made in expanding 

co-operation between JAL 

and its oneworld partners 

since the airline reaffirmed 

its membership of the 

alliance, following a review 

of its alliance strategy 

conducted as part of its 

overall restructuring 

programme, on 9 February 

this year. 

Three days later it applied 

with American Airlines to 

the US Department for 

Transportation for antitrust 

immunity for a joint 

business agreement 

between North America 

and Asia, and notified 

Japan's Ministry of Land, 

Infrastructure and Tourism 

of their transaction. By 

working more closely 

together, the two airlines 

will be able to provide 

more seamless links for 

connecting passengers, 

expand customer choice 

by offering new routes and 

supporting existing routes 

that would not be 

economically viable for the 

airlines individually. This 

will enable them to 

improve efficiency, find 

opportunities to lower 

costs and have greater 

ability to invest in 

products, services and 

fleets. 

American Airlines has also 

taken steps to serve Tokyo 

Haneda, which is JAL's 

main domestic hub. 

American applied in 

February for slots to serve 

the airport from Los 

Angeles and New York JFK 

with flights that would also 

carry the JL code, subject 

to regulatory approvals. 

British Airways and JAL 

are expanding their codesharing 

agreement 

significantly, more than 

doubling the number of 

European destinations 

served by flights operated 

by the UK airline with the 

JL prefix. Nine routes 

were added last week with 

another four to follow later 

this month, taking to 23 

the number of cities in 

Europe served by these 

joint services. 

Meantime, preparations 

are moving ahead for the 

transfer this November of 

British Airways operations 

at Tokyo Narita into 

Terminal 2, alongside 

those of JAL and all other 

on-line oneworld partners. 

Other oneworld member 

airlines are also expanding 

code-sharing with JAL. Its 

JL code has recently been 

added to flights by 

Mexicana to its Mexico 

City hub and on more 

routes served by Qantas 

subsidiary Jetstar. 

At London Heathrow, 

oneworld's biggest 

European hub, JAL and all 

other oneworld on-line 

partners, along with some 

BA services, have recently 

consolidated operations in 

Terminal 3. JAL has just 

started sharing BA's 

lounges for premium 

customers there. Plans are 

being developed to enable 

JAL to share its oneworld 

partners' lounges at more 

airports worldwide. 


Chairman, American 

Airlines Chairman and 

Chief Executive Gerard 

Arpey, said: "Japan Airlines 

is a highly valued member 

of oneworld and we are all 

committed to supporting 

JAL in its restructuring to 

create an even stronger 

partnership for the benefit 

of all our stakeholders. 

The rapid progress we 

have achieved so far is 

testimony to that 

commitment." 

Japan Airlines President 

Masaru Onishi said: "We 

analysed our alliance 

strategy in great detail 

before reaffirming our 

oneworld membership. 

oneworld is clearly the 

alliance of best quality, 

with excellent airline 

partners, extensive global 

coverage and best overall 

alliance proposition. The 

progress we have made 

with our oneworld partners 

since then, and our 

meeting today, has

confirmed we made the 

right decision. 

"We at Japan Airlines are 

excited at the prospects of 

further developing our 

relationships with our 

oneworld partners. We 

also firmly believe that 

being part of oneworld can 

strongly support JAL at a 

time when we are striving 

towards the revival of our 

business, which we are 

determined to achieve." 

Financial 

Impact of 

Icelandic 

Volcano Ash 

The air transport 

industry is experiencing 

major disruption of 

services following the 

Iceland volcanic eruption. 

IATA’s initial and 

conservative estimate of 

the financial impact on 

airlines is in excess of 

US$200 million per day in 

lost revenues. In addition 

to lost revenues, airlines 

will incur added costs for 

re-routing of aircraft, care 

for stranded passengers 

and stranded aircraft at 

various ports. 

IATA has set up its crisis 

center in Montreal and is 

closely coordinating with 

Eurocontrol and European 

air navigation service 

Providers. 

A330-200 

Freighter 

receives Type 

Certification 

from EASA 

Aircraft's payload 

capability of 70 tonnes is 

one tonne greater than 

expected. 

The A330-200F was 

granted Type Certification 

on 9 April 2010 by the 

European Aviation Safety 

Agency (EASA) following a 

successful 200-hour flighttest 

campaign. The trials 

were performed by two 

aircraft, covering both 

engine types on offer: the 

Pratt and Whitney 

PW4000 and the Rolls- 

Royce Trent 700. 

This dedicated freighter 

aircraft, which is a 

derivative of the A330- 

200 passenger model, has 

been certified through an 

amendment to the existing 

A330-200 EASA Type 

Certificate granted to 

Airbus in 1998. This EASA 

award will be followed by 

Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) Type 

Certification. 

Speaking at the signing 

ceremony in Toulouse, 

Christian Favre, A330/340 

Chief Engineer said: "After 

a very smooth and 

successful flight test 

campaign we have reached 

certification in line with 

our planning. Moreover, 

thanks to some design 

optimisation, the aircraft's 

payload capability of 70 

tonnes is one tonne more 

than first expected." 

He added: "With the 

freighter market already 

showing signs of recovery, 

rising by 20 per cent so far 

this year, we now have a 

great new aircraft to offer 

customers," he concluded. 

The A330-200F features 

an optimised fuselage 

cross-section, offering 

flexibility to carry a wide 

variety of pallet and 

container sizes. The 

aircraft offers 30 per cent 

more volume than any 

freighter in its class, and is 

based on the proven and 

technologically-advanced 

A330 platform, for which 

Airbus has over 1,000 

orders and already more 

than 650 aircraft in 

service. 

Over 3,400 freighters will 

be needed in the next 20 

years to cater for a 5.2 

percent average annual 

growth rate. This will 

include around 1,600 midsized 

freighters, of which 

the A330-200F will play 

an important role. 

Boeing 

Launches 787 

GoldCare 

Service With 

TUI Travel 

PLC 

The Boeing Company 

on 13 April 2010 

announced that TUI Travel 

PLC, the world's leading 

leisure travel company, is 

the launch customer for 

GoldCare. 

The agreement to support 

the airline's Boeing 787 

Dreamliner fleet covers 13 

airplanes currently on 

order by TUI. The 787s 

will be operated by 

Thomson Airways, Tuifly 

Nordic, Jetairfly and 

Arkefly. The GoldCare 

contract is for a period of 

12 years from the delivery 

date of each airplane. 

Boeing will provide TUI 

Travel with GoldCare 

Enterprise, which 

encompasses the full 

portfolio of available 

GoldCare services. 

GoldCare is Boeing's 

lifecycle solution that 

provides maintenance, 

engineering and material 

management as a multiyear 

service managed by 

Boeing. GoldCare is made

possible through Boeing's 

advanced e-enabling 

Technologies. 

"We are thrilled to be the 

launch customer for this 

service," said Fraser 

Ellacott, director of 

Engineering, TUI Travel 

PLC (Thomson Airways). 

"We have developed this 

exciting concept with 

Boeing and are confident 

that this service will 

optimize the efficiency of 

our airlines' operations, 

reduce complexity, provide 

value to our stakeholders 

and allow us to continue to 

provide outstanding 

service for our customers." 

Support using GoldCare 

Enterprise will allow the 

airline group to focus on 

its passengers, knowing 

that its airplane assets 

achieve maximum 

utilization and are 

maintained to the highest 

standards by Boeing 

through its GoldCare 

partners. 

"As the launch customer 

for GoldCare, TUI Travel 

demonstrates the desire 

for and benefits of this 

program," said Bob Avery, 

vice president, Fleet 

Management for 

Commercial Aviation 

Services, Commercial 

Airplanes. "GoldCare will 

boost airplane reliability, 

reduce cost and improve 

efficiency throughout the 

lifecycle of the airplane. 

"TUI Travel is a strong 

development partner on 

this program and we look 

forward to our continued 

partnership as TUI Travel's 

787s enter service." 

To deliver GoldCare, 

Boeing leads a global team 

performing comprehensive 

material management, 

engineering and 

maintenance services at a 

predictable cost based on 

flight hours. GoldCare 

provides airlines with 24/7 

operations center support 

using the latest technology 

to turn airplane operating 

data into diagnostic 

information that enhances 

efficiency and maximizes 

airplane availability. 

The GoldCare team also 

includes GE Aviation, 

Hamilton Sundstrand, 

Honeywell, Moog Inc., 

Panasonic and Rockwell 

Collins. These original 

equipment manufacturers 

will support the material, 

repair and overhaul needs 

for the systems they 

provide on the 787. 

Intel Shares 

Vision for the 

Future 

At its developer 

conference on 13 April 

2010, Intel Corporation 

demonstrated how the 

company is providing a 

foundation on which to 

build common hardware, 

software and ecosystem 

solutions to make 

computing experiences 

and devices work together 

seamlessly and easier to 

use. The Intel Developer 

Forum kicked off with a 

keynote by David (Dadi) 

Perlmutter, executive vice 

president and co-general 

manager, Intel 

Architecture Group (IAG), 

who shared Intel's vision to 

make it possible for 

technology users to realize 

the potential for a common 

connected computing 

experience. 

"With an additional 1 

billion connected 

computing users by 2015 

and with more types of 

devices there is value in 

providing a common 

experience between the 

devices," said Perlmutter. 

"Intel architecture delivers 

the right combination of 

performance and power 

that provides the 

foundation across all 

computing devices creating 

a virtual continuum of 

computing to enable this 

common user experience." 

On the high end of the 

computing spectrum, 

Perlmutter noted that Intel 

culminated the transition 

to the company's awardwinning 

Intel 

microarchitecture chip 

design, codenamed 

"Nehalem," with the recent 

launch of the Intel® 

Xeon® processor 7500 

series. In less than 90 days, 

Intel has introduced allnew 

2010 PC, laptop and 

server processors that 

increase energy efficiency 

and computing speed, and 

include a multitude of new 

features that make 

computers more 

intelligent, flexible and 

reliable. 

Perlmutter also discussed 

updates on next 

generation Intel® Core 

processors using the Intel 

microarchitecture 

codenamed "Sandy 

Bridge," which are targeted 

to be in production in late 

2010. "Sandy Bridge" is 

built on Intel's second 

generation Hi-K 32 

nanometer (nm) process 

technology. These 

processors will be the first 

to support Intel® 

Advanced Vector 

Extension (Intel® AVX) 

instructions. Intel AVX 

accelerates the trends 

toward floating point 

intensive computation in 

general purpose 

applications like image, 

video, and audio 

processing, as well as 

engineering applications, 

including 3D modeling and 

analysis, scientific 

simulation, and financial 

analytics. "Sandy Bridge" 

will also continue support 

for the Intel® AES New 

Instructions (Intel® AES- 

NI), seven software 

instructions that accelerate 

data encryption and 

decryption. "Sandy Bridge" 

will also feature Intel's 

sixth-generation graphics 

core and will include 

acceleration for floating 

point, video, and processor 

intensive software most 

often found in media 

applications. 

Perlmutter also touched on 

how Intel is enabling a new 

kind of experience on 

television he called "Smart 

TV", where the Internet will 

be seamlessly integrated 

with broadcast TV, 

personalized content, and 

search capability. At the 

center of this new 

innovation is Intel's 

consumer electronics (CE) 

system-on chip (SoC), the 

Intel® Atom processor

CE4100, which offers raw 

CPU performance, worldclass 

HD video and audio 

decode, and advanced 

graphics. The goal is to 

bring personal content, 

favorite websites and social 

networks to the TV in a 

new way. The CE4100 is 

designed for CE devices 

such as Blu-ray Disc 

players, set-top boxes and 

digital TVs, which can 

deliver the "Smart TV" 

experience. 

The Intel® AtomTM 

processor uses a versatile 

low power design giving it 

broad potential for a range 

of new market segment 

opportunities, from 

handhelds and netbooks to 

consumer electronic 

devices and embedded 

applications. The Intel 

Atom processor core has 

similar characteristics 

around ultra-low power, 

low cost, and small size, 

which can then be 

productized into SoCs for 

a range of segments based 

on targeted usages and 

I/O requirements. 

As the mobile Internet 

continues to spiral and 

touch more devices, 

Perlmutter cited the 

industry opportunity for a 

new generation of 

handhelds including tablets 

and smartphones. He 

detailed how Moore's Law, 

along with a combination 

of architecture, design and 

manufacturing process 

techniques, will help to 

move Intel architecture to 

dramatically lower power 

envelopes. At the same 

time Intel architecture 

maintains the high 

performance for the everevolving 

Internet, media 

rich applications and 

multitasking capabilities 

on-the-go. 

Perlmutter discussed Intel's 

forthcoming "Moorestown" 

platform, which is on track 

for introduction during the 

first half of this year. He 

stated that Intel has 

repartitioned its platform 

architecture and 

implemented a number of 

innovative techniques, 

such as next generation 

OS power management 

and distributed power 

gating, to achieve the 

improved performance and 

major reductions in idle 

and active power 

envelopes. To reinforce his 

point, he demonstrated up 

to 50 times platform idle 

power reduction, and up to 

10 times power reduction 

in audio playback 

compared to Intel's firstgeneration 

"Menlow" 

platform. 

Also, Perlmutter disclosed 

that Intel is working with 

PC manufacturers 

Tongfang* and Hanvon* to 

introduce the new 

convertible classmate PC 

design that combines 

aesthetics with ruggedness, 

full PC functionality with 

enhanced e-reading 

capabilities and improved 

performance with energy 

efficiency. The flexible 

design of the new 

convertible classmate PC 

works and moves the way 

students do. The tablet 

touch screen form factor 

also adds additional 

functionality for students. 

Development of these new 

features was based on 

extensive ethnographic 

research with students and 

teachers. 

James: Unlocking 

the Future with 

Intel 

In the day's second 

keynote, Renee James, 

senior vice president and 

general manager of the 

Software and Services 

Group at Intel, continued 

to highlight Intel's vision 

for a seamless cross-device 

experience for phones, 

cars and the home, 

providing consumers with 

more consistency and 

accessibility to their 

information. James 

emphasized how a unified 

operating environment 

running across a common 

compute architecture can 

give developers broader 

reach and easier access to 

end users, in any market 

segment. 

James also touched upon 

how cloud computing is 

the connective tissue 

between compute 

platforms, inviting Dr. Jiren 

Liu, chairman and CEO of 

Neusoft Corporation 

onstage. Dr. Liu 

demonstrated how systems 

built around Intel® Cloud 

Builder reference 

architecture can enable 

new solutions, linking 

front-end client devices to 

back-end remote 

diagnostics in the health 

care environment to 

deliver service never 

before possible. 

"Technology has changed 

the way we interact with 

our world and Intel is 

putting the building blocks 

in place, from the cloud to 

the smallest of devices, to 

deliver a truly immersive 

computing experience to 

consumers wherever they 

are," said James. "Together 

with developers and our 

partners, as well as a highlyintegrated 

combination of 

hardware and software, Intel 

believes we can help bring the 

best possible products to 

market with the broadest 

distribution." 

Building on the recent Intel 

and Nokia* news to merge the 

Moblin* and Maemo* open 

source projects into the 

MeeGo* Linux-based 

software platform, James 

highlighted the broad 

endorsement of MeeGo 

across the industry. MeeGo is 

hosted by the Linux 

Foundation as a fully open 

source project and is available 

to original equipment 

manufacturers, operating 

system vendors, network 

operators and others, 

targeting a wide range of 

devices, including nextgeneration 

smartphones, 

netbooks, tablets, 

mediaphones, connected TVs 

and in-vehicle infotainment 

systems. 

In addition, James announced 

ISVs and developers in China 

can now take advantage of 

the Intel Atom Developer 

Program and submit 

applications for distribution 

through the Intel AppUpSM 

Center beta. James also 

highlighted the recent 

expansion of the Intel AppUp 

center beta for both MeeGo 

and Microsoft Windows* in 

the United States, Canada and 

27 European countries. This 

growth gives Chinese 

application developers in the 

Intel Atom Developer 

Program the opportunity to 

reach consumers in one of the 

top markets for Intel Atom 

processor-based devices 

worldwide, as well as now 

complete sales transactions in 

USD, Euros or Pounds (GBP).

The Rock and the road crossing the runway 

seen from the north © Brian T Richards 

© Brian T Richards 

Gibraltar, ‘the Cradle of 

History’, universally known as ‘The 

Rock,’ is one of the two ‘Pillars of 

Hercules,’ guarding the entrance to 

the western Mediterranean. Located 

at the very tip of southern Spain, the 

territory was ceded to Great Britain 

under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. 

Today, Gibraltar offers a little slice of 

Britain on mainland Europe, relying 

upon tourism, the financial services 

industry and offshore gaming for its 

livelihood. Whilst the overwhelming 

majority of the 30,000 strong 

population has expressed a clear 

desire to retain the links with Britain, 

Spain continues to press its claim to 

full sovereignty over the Rock. This 

territorial dispute, which culminated 

in the complete closure of the land 

frontier by Spain from 1969 to 

1985, remains the defining factor in 

civil and military air operations from 

Gibraltar. 

North Front airport (GIB/LXGB), 

located just 1km from the city, gives 

a whole new meaning to the concept 

of convenient downtown terminals. 

Indeed, the only road from the 

territory to the frontier crosses the 

runway and quite obviously has to 

be closed during each aircraft 

movement! The airport is built on an 

isthmus of land between The Rock 

The exterior of the current terminal (soon to be replaced) 

and the international frontier. 

Located on the site of Gibraltar’s 

racecourse, the field received its first 

tarmac surface in 1939. The runway 

was extended to its current length of 

6,000ft in 1942 by extending west 

into the Bay of Algeciras using stone 

blasted from tunnels within The 

Rock. The singular reason for the 

construction of the airfield was 

strategic. The Rock’s prime location 

made it a vital military base during 

World War II, a role that continued 

throughout the Cold War. In 1947 

the airfield was converted to joint 

military and civilian use, with the 

RAF retaining responsibility for most 

. 

day to day operations including 

ATC. 

The runway (09/27) poses unique 

challenges to pilots and offers airline 


Approaching the runway by car

passengers more than a few thrills. 

Gibraltar’s topography causes 

unpredictable and often extreme air 

currents as the prevailing wind hits 

The Rock. In winter particularly, 

flights are frequently diverted to 

Málaga when strong winds close the 

airport, with hapless passengers 

having to make the journey to 

Gibraltar by coach. The runway 

extended into the sea proves a 

magnet for seabirds added to the 

constant risk from high masted 

commercial and private shipping. In 

addition, the presence of the road 

creates serious security and logistical 

concerns. From the passenger’s 

point of view, landings can often be 

the closest one can get to the feeling 

of arriving on the deck of an aircraft 

carrier! From 1967 pilots were 

restricted from over-flying Spanish 

territory whilst operating into the 

airport. In practical terms this meant 

that aircraft landing from the west 

needed to approach the Rock from 

the south and undertake a 90 degree 

turn to line up with the runway. 

Departures to the west had to make 

the same sharp manoeuvre. Whilst 

affording spectacular views of The 

Rock and close encounters with 

huge oil tankers waiting in the bay to 

disgorge their cargoes, this 

restriction made for some 

‘interesting’ crosswind approaches! 

Following a tripartite agreement 

between the Gibraltar, the UK and 

Spain in 2006, this restriction was to 

an extent eased for commercial 

operators although approaches to 

The Rock retain the potential to 

provide white knuckle excitement. 

Until its purchase by easyJet became 

effective in 2008, the dominant force 

in airline operations to Gibraltar was 

GB Airways. Latterly the largest 

franchisee for British Airways, GB 

Airways could trace its beginning to 

short-lived operations as Gibraltar 

Airways in 1931 using 6-seat 

Saunders-Roe A21 Windhover flying 

boats to Tangier in Morocco. This 

46 mile segment was the world’s 

shortest intercontinental scheduled 

flight and remained in the timetable 

until the late 1990s. Formed as an 

offshoot of the Gibraltar based MH 

Bland Group of companies, Gibraltar 

Airways operated as agent for 

BOAC until it began its own fixed 

wing operations as Gibair in 1947 

using Dragon Rapide aircraft on four 

daily feeder services to Morocco. 

These lifeline operations continued 

throughout the closure of the 

frontier with Spain and utilised 

classic equipment such as the DC3 

(most notably G-AMFV from 1963- 

1970) and Viscount (G-BBVH from 

1970 to 1988). The last aircraft 

dedicated to these routes and based 

in Gibraltar was a BN Trislander (G- 

OCTA). With its departure from the 

fleet in 1991, Gibair became an 

exclusively B737 operator. The 10 

minute flight to Tangier by Boeing 

737 was reduced to just two weekly 

weekend flights as a continuation of 

a service from London Gatwick and 

finally ceased in the late ‘90s. From 

1946 to 1975, BEA was responsible 

for maintaining the link to London 

using, in succession, Vickers Viking, 

Viscount, Vanguard, Comet 4 and 

Trident aircraft. Initial flights 

operated from Northolt via stops in 

Bordeaux and Madrid. 

In 1975 Gibair commenced its own 

thrice weekly flights to London 

Heathrow using Tridents leased from 

BEA. In 1979 these were replaced 

by Boeing 737-200s leased this time 

from Britannia Airways with flights 

switching to London Gatwick. In the 

same year the airline’s name was 

changed to GB Airways to better 

reflect the wider nature of its 

services and to link its operation in 

the minds of the travelling public to 

the UK rather than Gibraltar. 

RAF C-17 ZZ172 taxying to the terminal after arrival in 

Gibraltar 09 September 2007 

© Brian T Richards


Monarch A320 G-OZBK 


easyJet A319 G-EZIR arriving in Gibraltar from 

London Gatwick 19 September 2009 


Iberia A319 EC-JXJ 

Subsequent Boeing 737s were 

leased from Air Europe and 

British Airways. In order to 

expand its operations and route 

network, in 1989 the airline 

transferred its administrative and 

operational base to London 

Gatwick. In 1995 the airline 

added Boeing 737-400s, became 

a British Airways franchise 

operator, painted its fleet in BA 

colours and offered the in-flight 

product of the national carrier. In 

May 2000, the airline received its 

first A320 and at the time of its 

sale to easyJet, the airline boasted 

an all Airbus fleet of 10 A320s 

and 6 A321s. As a franchisee, GB 

Airways operated British Airways 

services from both Gatwick and 

Manchester. These flights served 

points throughout the 

Mediterranean, the Canary 

Islands and North Africa whilst 

maintaining the historical link to 

from London to Gibraltar. 

In 2008, Gibraltar airport saw 

1,972 civilian movements and a 

total of 371,000 passengers, of 

whom 361,500 were flying to or 

from the UK. By no stretch of the 

imagination could current 

operations at Gibraltar airport be 

described as frenetic. It is quite 

common for the ramp to be 

completely empty for large 

portions of the day. For the 

summer of 2010 there are just 41 

weekly scheduled services. In the 

1980s regular charter flights were 

operated by Air Europe among 

others but such services are now 

rare and seem limited to those 

transporting ship crews or 

occasional cruise ship 

passengers. Executive 

movements are increasing and 

can be quite frequent during 

major golf tournaments at the 

nearby Valderrama course in 

Spain. In 2008 local businessmen 

founded GibJets, a Gibraltar 

based corporate charter service 

in co-operation with an 

established Málaga based 

operator. The airport also 

occasionally witnesses aircraft on 


delivery staging through for fuel or 

for completion of ownership 

paperwork. Early in 2005, the 

arrival from Brazil of two LOT 

Embraer EMB-170 aircraft was a 

case in point. The days of frequent 

military movements are long gone 

and only occasional visits are now 

paid by UK, Moroccan and NATO 

transport aircraft along with 

periodic exercises by combat 

types. 

A very significant number of airline 

passengers using Gibraltar airport 

are actually travelling from or to 

destinations in southern Spain. To 

tourists and residents of the 

western Costa del Sol and Costa 

de la Luz, Gibraltar is far more 

convenient than Málaga or Jerez de 

la Frontera. 

It was argued during the 1980s and 

1990s by both politicians and 

tourism authorities that Gibraltar 

airport could satisfy a significant 

market for flights to other 

destinations in wider Europe and 

British Airways A319 G-EUPG arriving 

British Airways A319 G-EUPC arriving 

© Brian T Richards


Ándalus Líneas Aéreas EMB-145 EC-KXQ arriving in Gibraltar from Madrid 

particularly within the 

Iberian Peninsula. In order 

to achieve this goal it was 

argued that an agreement 

would need to be reached 

with Spain to allow such 

services and that the airport 

infrastructure would need to 

be updated. Madrid had 

been an intermediate stop 

on flights to London 

operated by BEA from the 

late 1940s and indeed 

strangely the Spanish capital 

continued to be served by 

BEA (and later British 

Airways) from The Rock 

until 1979, ten years after 

the land frontier had been 

closed. In 1986 an 

agreement was drafted 

which would allow Spain to 

share the use of the airport 

and participate in the control 

of local airspace. The 

proposal was deeply 

unpopular and was never 

implemented. For the next 

twenty years Spanish 

operating restrictions were 

to cause major headaches 

“ 

The proposal 

was deeply 

unpopular 

and was 

never 

implemented 

” 

for airlines flying to 

Gibraltar. For example, in 

the event of poor visibility 

in Gibraltar aircraft 

diverting to Málaga were 

forbidden from flying 

direct to The Rock when 

conditions improved. They 

would have had to return 

to the UK from Málaga or 

would have required an 

additional landing in 

Tangier before setting 

down in Gibraltar. 

The sovereignty dispute 

over Gibraltar raises 

formidable passions on 

both sides of the argument 

(and indeed the frontier) 

and it is for this reason 

that the negotiations 

started in 1986 finally 

came to fruition twenty 

years later. On September 

18 2006, as part of a 

tripartite agreement signed 

in Córdoba, the 

governments of Gibraltar, 

the UK and Spain decided 

to put the sovereignty 

issue to one side and to 

implement improved crossborder 

relations through a 

number of practical 

measures. The most notable 

of these was Spain’s 

agreement to lift its 

objections to the operation 

of commercial flights 

between Gibraltar and EU 

airports. At the same time 

operational rules limiting 

access over Spanish airspace 

were also relaxed. Under a 

complex logistical solution 

which used Geneva airport 

as a model, it was agreed 

that passengers travelling to 

The Rock’s airport from 

Madrid or other Spanish 

destinations to Spain would 

not have to clear customs 

and immigration controls in 

Gibraltar and would be 

treated as arriving within the 

Schengen area. As an 

interim measure, a bus 

connection for these 

passengers was provided to 

the bus terminus in La Línea 

de la Concepción on the 

Spanish side of the frontier.

A British Airways A319 crossing the road! 

demand for its withdrawal. The GB 

Airways operation on the route was 

even less enduring, with flights 

operating between 01 May and 30 

September 2007. 

Iberia A319 on final approach 

On Saturday 16 December 2006, 

Iberia Airbus A319 EC-JXJ ‘Ciudad 

de Baeza’ touched down in Gibraltar 

after operating the airline’s historic 

inaugural flight from Madrid Barajas. 

This practical demonstration of the 

agreement reached in Córdoba made 

headlines around the world, many 

provided by the journalists who 

made up the majority of the first 

flight’s passenger load. The aircraft 

and dignitaries from the UK and 

Spain were greeted by Gibraltar’s 

Chief Minister and huge crowds of 

onlookers and international media. 

Just fifteen minutes before the arrival 

of the Iberia flight, a GB Airways 

A320 departed on a commemorative 

service to the Spanish capital. This 

initial excitement and hope was to 

be relatively short-lived however. 

Iberia started operations with a daily 

lunchtime A319 flight from Madrid. 

Sadly, this was reduced to just two 

weekly flights from late October 

2007 and the service ceased 

altogether at the end of September 

2008. The airline cited lack of 

A British Airways A319 departs for London Gatwick 

With an agreement with Spain in 

place, Gibraltar’s government 

announced in May 2007 that the 

airport’s terminal would be replaced 

along with the construction of a new 

road tunnel at the eastern end of the 

runway. It had long been argued that 

the airport’s existing terminal and 

infrastructure were inadequate for 

planned traffic increases and to 

attract new operators to Gibraltar. 

The current terminal offers a small 

number of check-in desks, two gates 

and a single baggage carousel. The 

departure area can seem full to 

bursting when two flights are 

scheduled at the same time. The 

new two storey terminal, due to

will enable the airport to 

handle up to one million 

passengers per annum. In 

addition to offering four 

departure gates and three 

baggage carousels, the 

terminal will have an area 

four times that of the current 

building and will also boast a 

new multi-storey car park for 

220 vehicles. To satisfy the 

requirements of the Córdoba 

agreement, the terminal has 

also been designed to 

‘straddle’ the new roads with 

construction being made up 

to the frontier fence allowing 

direct access for Schengen 

passengers travelling on 

flights to points in Spain. The 

new road tunnel will speed 

the flow of traffic to and from 

the frontier as it will no longer 

be subjected to closures 

during runway use. 

Pedestrians however will 

continue to enjoy the unusual 

views as they cross the 

runway (in between aircraft 

movements!) 

Current Operators 

British Airways 

With the purchase of 

franchisee GB Airways by 

easyJet in 2008, British 

Airways announced that it 

would start its own service in 

competition with the 

expanding low cost carrier. 

The airline currently operates 

a daily flight from London 

Heathrow (T3) using A319 

equipment. With the start of 

the summer schedule the 

flight now leaves Gibraltar at 

“ 

The new 

road 

tunnel will 

speed the 

flow of 

traffic 

“ 

The traffic crossing the runway 

lunchtime allowing 

connections through 

London. 

EasyJet 

The enduring link with 

London Gatwick is 

maintained by easyJet who 

offer a single daily flight on 

the route. For several months 

after the GB Airways 

takeover, that airline’s A320s 

operated to Gibraltar in 

variations of hybrid BA 

colours with requisite orange 

accents. Now, the airline’s 

flights are operated by the 

low cost carrier’s evergrowing 

fleet of A319s. 

Monarch 

The Luton based airline has 

operated flights to Gibraltar 

since 1997 and currently 

schedules ten weekly flights, 

three from Manchester with 

the remainder from its home 

base. Services are almost 

exclusively operated by 

A320s with the occasional 

Boeing 757 appearing to add 

variety. The A321, although 

a growing part of the 

Monarch fleet, cannot 

operate out of Gibraltar 

without payload restrictions. 

Ándalus Líneas Aéreas 

Currently the only Spanish 

carrier to operate services 

from Gibraltar, the Málaga 

based airline began flights 

to Madrid using Embraer 

EMB-145 aircraft on 30 

April 2009. After initially 

offering twelve weekly 

rotations on the route, the 

airline substantially reduced 

its timetable citing lack of 

demand. The airline also 

briefly commenced flights 

to Barcelona in July 2009 

before again cancelling the 

route in September of that 

year again complaining of 

inadequate loads. At the 

time of writing (late March 

2010) the airline’s future in 

Gibraltar is in doubt as its 

flights to Madrid (and 

reinstated services to 

Barcelona) are currently 

suspended due to ‘technical 

and operational reasons.’ 

Needless to say, this move 

has attracted much local 

press speculation and 

developments are awaited 

with interest. 

Stop Press – Local press 

on 11 April 2010 reported 

that Ándalus had 

indefinitely suspended 

flights from Gibraltar to 

both Madrid and 

Barcelona. 

The Police coordinating the traffic with the arrival of a British Airways Airbus 

For much of early 2007, 

much publicity surrounded 

the proposed launch of low 

cost flights by a local 

airline, Fly Gibraltar. The 

company announced 

detailed plans to start 

flights using Boeing 737- 

300s leased from Astraeus 

Airlines to points in the UK 

and Ireland. Unfortunately,

this operation faltered due to problems of securing 

investment for the project. With the substantial 

investment involved in the construction of a much larger 

new terminal, there is political pressure on Gibraltar’s 

government to justify expenditure by attracting new 

operators to the airport. For many years, high landing 

charges in Gibraltar were cited as a disincentive for 

airlines to start new routes. These charges have been 

revised and it is understood that a number of carriers 

remain in discussion with the government over possible 

services. 

For reasons of geography, weather and politics, 

commercial aviation in Gibraltar is presented with a 

unique operating environment. Historical and current 

airline operations reflect Gibraltar’s ties to Britain and 

relations with Spain. Recent years have seen concrete 

agreements which have allowed operations to develop. 

2010/11 will see the opening of a new airport terminal 

and substantially improved infrastructure. As was shown 

in 2006, the eyes of the world can be easily focused on 

The Rock. With continuing claims of sovereignty by 

Spain having been put aside but not forgotten, it is clear 

that those eyes will continue to return to Gibraltar and 

its airport over the years to come 

Brian T Richards is a freelance aviation consultant, writer and photographer splitting his time between 

Gibraltar and Málaga. For further information and samples of his work check out his website at 

www.briantrichards.com.

My exchange tour with the 

USAF was confirmed and I had to 

make some rapid family decisions 

that mainly revolved around our 

three children; to cut a long story 

short, my elder daughter stayed 

behind while the rest of us climbed 

on board a VC-10 of No 10 

Squadron at Brize Norton bound for 

Washington-Dulles. I cast a critical 

eye over the cabin service and had to 

admit that it was not too bad. The 

Exchange Scheme had been in 

existence for some time and I was 

the most recent of a long line of 

pilots who had been temporarily 

“exchanged” with somebody from 

another friendly air force. The idea 

was that this programme would be 

mutually beneficial to both parties, 

socially and professionally. I have 

had to re-write this part of my 

history as earlier attempts sounded 

excessively grumpy and critical, 

whereas, I must record that I met 

unfailing hospitality and friendship 

during three most enjoyable years in 

California; I also learned a great deal 

about big jet operation and hope 

that what follows will be a balanced 

account of my time with the United 

States Air Force. 

We spent a few days in Washington 

DC while I was briefed by the 

embassy on financial matters and my 

diplomatic position while serving 

with the USAF. We took a 

commercial flight to San Francisco 

and found our way up Interstate-80 

to Travis Air Force Base. After a 

short stay in Visiting Officer’s 

Quarters we moved into a 

comfortable base house and 

negotiated the purchase of furniture 

using the funds that the embassy had 

showered upon me. I was subjected 

to my first USAF medical inspection 

and suffered the indignity of the 

“fickle finger” that I had, fortunately, 

been warned to expect. I obviously 

also needed a car, I bought one that 

seemed to me to be entirely suitable 

but was told by the wife of the USAF 

major, who was looking after our 

immediate needs, that the colour 

was totally wrong. The reason for 

this escaped me at the time; back it 

went and eventually a beige Dodge 

Dart complete with air conditioning 

and power steering was approved as 

being suitably restrained and racially 

acceptable. Then, feeling far from 

settled, I was whisked off to Altus for 

C5 conversion leaving my loved 

ones to sort out the domestic 

arrangements. 

Altus is in Oklahoma and does not 

feature in travel brochures, not 

surprising, as apart from the fact that 

apparently “the grass is as high as an 

elephant’s eye” I doubt if many 

people have much knowledge of the 

state. I imagine that the citizens of 

Altus believe that Oklahoma is a 

splendid place to live; I do not share 

No.10 Squadron VC-10

USAF C-5A Galaxy 

Lots of space inside the C-5A 

their enthusiasm. To say that I did 

not enjoy my time at Altus would be 

an understatement and I will not 

pretend otherwise. The base existed 

for one purpose only, the mass 

production of C-141 and C-5A 

pilots. The first phase of the course 

was devoted to ground school, 

mainly in the hands of disenchanted 

flight engineers. As we neared the 

end of ground school I suddenly 

realised that nobody had mentioned 

the airframe de-icing system, I asked 

why not and was startled to learn 

that the C-5A did not have one; 

“stranger and stranger” as Alice 

would have said. Off I went to the 

flight simulator complete with a fouraxis 

motion system and, for that 

time, a state of the art visual 

attachment. I launched myself 

skywards quickly discovering that I 

had no idea what the speed or 

altitude was; the C5 had vertical 

tapes, an innovation that I had never 

met previously. I surprised the 

instructor by calling for a “Time 

Out” while I gathered my wits, then 

tried again, this time I managed to 

keep things pointing in more or less 

the right direction. I experienced the 

USAF idea of flying instruction for 

the first time; this consisted mainly 

of a tick chasing exercise. Everything 

was self-briefed and there was no 

real de-brief; provided one had 

achieved the necessary events you 

simply went on to the next exercise. 

My first flight in the aircraft was on 

20 May 1975 I was airborne in C5-A 

tail number 80021 with Captain 

Chan as the instructor and again the 

differences in instruction came as a 

surprise, I cannot recall Capt Chan 

ever touching the controls or 

offering a word of advice, he simply 

recorded more and more ticks. My 

first impressions of the aircraft were 

entirely as you would expect; I was 

impressed by the sheer size of 

everything. It was a very easy aircraft 

to fly and landing was 

straightforward once you became 

accustomed to the distance between 

yourself and the concrete. I never 

flew above 3,000 feet or faster than 

210 knots at Altus as the conversion 

was entirely aimed at teaching 

takeoff and landing. I flew seven 

sorties, there was no Final Handling 

Check; when your instructor decided 

you were ready he signed you off. 

At this point Altus pretty much lost 

interest and it was left to the 

individual to find transport back to 

one’s home base. As I was a stranger 

to the system I felt very isolated but 

made my way to “Transportation” 

and eventually hitched a ride back to 

Travis on a C-141. You would be 

correct in thinking that I was not 

impressed with the USAF at this 

stage of my tour, things were to 

improve rapidly and I soon 

discovered the joys of being a “Brit” 

at large with the USAF. 

I was always aware that the C5 was 

not a popular aircraft with congress 

due to cost over-runs and the fact 

that it had been designed to meet a 

very demanding specification that it 

had no hope of achieving; as an 

example, the aircraft was supposed 

to be able to takeoff and land at 

maximum weight from an 

unprepared strip; I believe it 

achieved this miracle once! 

San Francisco, USA 

C-5 swallowing cargo 

C-5A taking off

USAF C-141 Starlifter 

KC-135 Tanker 

While I was at Altus the 

USAF had been busy 

evacuating the last remnants 

of the American military 

presence in Vietnam, you may 

recall seeing the harrowing 

news footage on television 

and recall the awful accident 

that happened when the rear 

F-5 

doors of a C5 came adrift 

after takeoff from Saigon. 

Most of the passengers, 

mainly children, were simply 

sitting on the cargo floor and 

were sucked out of the 

aircraft. As the doors left the 

aircraft they destroyed the 

lines to three of the four 

hydraulic systems, all 

elevator, vertical stabiliser 

and rudder power was lost 

and only one of the four 

ailerons remained powered. 

Faced with this catastrophe 

the two young pilots 

managed to retain a degree 

of control in pitch with power 

changes and pointed the 

aircraft back towards Saigon, 

however, the aircraft crashed 

before reaching the airfield. 

The flight deck broke away 

from the rest of the airframe 

and amazingly the flight crew 

survived the crash without a 

scratch, both pilots were, 

quite rightly, awarded the Air 

Force Cross. The result of this 

accident was that the rear 

doors were de-activated and 

the C5, for the rest of my 

tour, was only flown when 

absolutely necessary with a 

view to carrying outsize cargo. 

I was contacted by the British 

air attaché who asked if I 

would like him to arrange a 

transfer to the C-141. The 

thought of another session at 

Altus filled me with horror, I 

turned down his offer and, as 

things transpired, this was the 

“ 

The 

aircraft 

crashed 

before 

reaching 

the 

airfield 

“ 

C-5A Galaxy Cockpit 

best decision I ever made in my 

life. 

I was assigned to the 22nd 

Military Airlift Squadron part of 

the 60th Military Airlift Wing 

and the 22nd Air Force; the 

squadron commander was a 

southern gentleman of the 

“Gone with the Wind” school 

named Colonel Charles Geer. 

Travis was a huge base and, 

with four C-5 and four C-141 

squadrons plus a squadron of 

KC-135 tankers, quite outside 

my experience. My immediate 

position was as a co-pilot and 

my first squadron trip was on 2 

July 1975 with Major Bill 

Thalberg who subsequently 

became a very good friend of 

mine, the route was, Travis – 

Honolulu – Guam – Honolulu – 

Davis Mothan – Travis. The 

USAF operated very much as 

we had done in Transport 

Command; that is, “Leg and Leg 

about” in other words the pilots 

flew alternate sectors; the 

difference being that the USAF 

had the operating pilot in the

IMU Unit 

Loading a C-5 Galaxy 

This sensible approach appealed to 

me and I subsequently tried, without 

success, to get the RAF to adopt the 

idea. The C5 apart from its size was 

quite a complex aircraft and I 

worked hard to master the systems, I 

can still tell you exactly what 

happens when you pull a fire handle 

– the fuel is cut off, the igniters are 

de-energised, the generator and 

hydraulic pumps are turned off, the 

thrust reverses are de-activated and 

the air supply from the engine is 

isolated – not bad memory cells for a 

74 year old! 

The main problem that I found was 

that it was almost impossible to 

maintain any sort of flying practice, 

as I have already explained, the C-5 

was only allowed to fly when 

necessary and this extended to 

individual proficiency and currency. 

All that was required for a pilot was 

to achieve what was known as “two 

and two”. This meant that you only 

had to fly two takeoffs and two 

landings in any one month to 

maintain currency. Early in my time I 

found myself scheduled for a local 

training sortie but was surprised to 

find more pilots than seemed 

reasonable to me climbing on board 

the aircraft. Initially I found myself 

sitting quite comfortably in the rest 

area behind the flight deck. 

Eventually I was summoned to the 

front and climbed into the left-hand 

seat, looked up and saw, to my 

surprise, the runway a couple of 

miles ahead – “Pilot’s Airplane” 

(USAF for “You have control”), we 

landed, rolled and climbed away. To 

my complete and undying surprise I 

was despatched back to the rest 

area. I had achieved a takeoff and 

landing and that was all that was 

required of me for the rest of that 

month. I asked to see Colonel Geer 

who was quite surprised to hear me 

lambasting the USAF and telling him 

that I would rather go non-current 

INS Unit 

than undergo that pantomime again. 

Another pointless exercise was the 

so called “Great Whale Hunt” 

necessary to achieve an Over Water 

Mission, this time the aircraft was 

packed full of crews and flown out, 

from memory, to 140°West. The 

aircraft crossed this line on the 

earth’s surface, crews were swapped, 

the aircraft reversed course and 

crossed the line, again and again, 

until all were suitably qualified! 

Perhaps because of my stated 

aversion to this nonsense and to 

placate my sensibilities I flew for a 

very short time as co-pilot before 

being packed off back to Altus, in 

Honolulu AFB

The normal pattern at the end of a 

crew duty day was to enter crew rest 

of fourteen hours; if you were quick 

this just about gave you time to 

shower, change and dash for the 

nearest bar before the dreaded “Ten 

Hours Bottle to Throttle” rule cut off 

any further refreshment. The captain 

could elect for either a six-hour or 

twelve-hour period after crew rest 

when his crew would be “legal for 

alert”. During this period the crew 

could be alerted and had one hour to 

report for duty. The crew could then 

be “kept on the hook” for six hours 

before being released back to crew 

rest. I quickly became aware of the 

fact that the operations officers were 

well versed in playing these rules to 

the hilt and would frequently alert a 

crew just in case “something” 

popped up from the system. Apart 

from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the 

experience of flying the C5, a rather 

slow bird at Mach 0.74 but with a 

tremendous load carrying capability; 

I once carried eight F-5s with their 

wings neatly stowed alongside the 

fuselage from McLellan to 

Alconbury, re-fuelling from a KC- 

135 somewhere off the coast of 

Canada. It was my misfortune that 

this mission was loaded with 

gentlemen of the press; I still have a 

copy of an article detailing what now 

sound like my banal observations as 

we approached Alconbury. An even 

bigger problem arose when one of 

the reporters wrote an article with a 

lurid account of how I had treated 

them all to a “good old English beer” 

in Cambridge during crew rest, I was 

later summoned to the Wing 

Commander who asked me to 

explain how we had managed this 

with out breaking the “Bottle to 

Throttle” rule. I fear that I got away 

with an awful lot because I was a 

Brit. 

This is no place to voice my opinion 

of American politics, however, I did 

find that the individual could be 

insular and lacking in general 

knowledge. To highlight this I will 

briefly recount a particular story, the 

date was 7 Dec 1977 and I was 

flying C-5A 90011 from Yokota to 

Honolulu; the significance of this 

suddenly struck me and I expressed 

surprise that we should find 

ourselves flying an approach to 

Hickam AFB with Pearl Harbour 

clearly in view, at around eight 

o’clock in the morning, on such an 

auspicious date. To my amazement, 

not one of the crew appreciated the 

significance of the date and time. 

Roosevelt perhaps had a point - “A 

date that will live in Infamy”. 

Perhaps the most difficult part of the 

C-5 operation to master was the 

offloading sequence that required 

some fairly careful crew coordination 

to get the visor raised and 

the cargo safely off the aircraft. This 

was especially the case when using 

C-5A Galaxies at Altus AFB

the docking system that was installed 

at Travis, Frankfurt and Yokota. This 

required the aircraft to be taxied up 

to something that resembled a huge 

meccano set, the visor was raised 

and the cargo was connected to a 

winch. When all was ready the cargo, 

suitably connected from front to 

rear, was yanked out of the aircraft 

accompanied by what sounded like 

the end of the world as we sat 

watching this train vanish from 

beneath our feet. 

The other new feature that I 

encountered was the IMU (Inertial 

Measurement Unit), an early form of 

INS and operated purely by the 

navigator. Unfortunately the gyro 

units were housed in the forward 

nose section and, with the rear doors 

locked shut, this meant that the IMU 

could not be aligned until the cargo 

was loaded and the nose lowered. As 

MAC was besotted with the “On 

Time Departure” we were always 

battling with the cargo people to get 

a move on. The ultimate 

demonstration of all this was the 

infamous Travis send-off that was 

known as “The Fifteen Colonel 

Launch”. You could guarantee that 

whenever a delay looked possible 

the colonels would draw up in their 

blue staff cars, pointing towards the 

nose of the aircraft, clipboards 

poised, taking notes of any 

occurrence that they could use to 

defend the position of their 

particular unit. Towards the end of 

my tour the C5 was equipped with 

triple INS with the gyros in the 

electrics bay and the control heads 

located on the throttle pedestal; the 

navigators were all sacked and life 

became much easier. The landing 

gear was a miracle of engineering 

The huge nose of the C-5A 

Unloading a truck from a C-5A 

science, when it worked. The four 

main legs had six wheel bogies and 

this together with the four nose 

wheels, if my maths is correct, adds 

up to twenty-eight wheels. On 

retraction the main bogies were 

supposed to rotate through ninety 

degrees before retracting; sometimes 

they did, but not always and the 

retraction process was always 

something of a lottery. The main 

bogies could be steered on the 

ground using switches at the copilot’s 

station and this facility 

allowed the aircraft to be parked in 

some quite tight spots. The gear 

could also be offset in-flight to 

counteract drift on landing but, 

personally, I was happier using the 

system that I had been brought up 

with and continued to point the 

aircraft into wind, kicking it straight 

in the flare. 

I rapidly moved through the 

positions that were available to me 

at Travis, pilot instructor, then flight 

examiner and finally as one of the 

two wing staneval pilots. Staneval 

was commanded by a colonel, 

directly responsible to the Wing 

Commander for the Standardisation 

and Evaluation of all crews, hence – 

Staneval. One of the things that 

most impressed me with MAC was 

the level of standardisation that was 

demanded, checklists were 

meticulously observed and a wrong 

word resulted in the co-pilot 

repeating the challenge until he got 

the correct response. Procedures 

were also followed to the letter and 

this came as quite a surprise coming, 

as I did, from an air force that 

allowed a degree of individuality. 

The flip side of this was that I found 

that captains were quite incapable of 

making their own decisions when 

faced with a set of circumstances 

that seemed to me to be fairly 

straightforward. This was evidenced 

one day when I was administering a 

line check on a flight from Kadena to 

Taegu in Korea, we had a piece of kit 

called MADAR (malfunction analysis 

data and recording) and this 

chattered away from time to time 

telling the crew what was wrong with 

a particular system. On this occasion 

MADAR announced that we should 

shut down one of the engines 

because it was outside the vibration 

limits. To my amazement the captain 

gave control to the co-pilot and 

proceeded to climb out of his seat 

evidently believing that I would want 

to take over command of the

He was advised to do what 

MADAR had commanded but 

divert to Osan where better 

maintenance facilities were 

available. After landing the 

young captain expressed his 

appreciation for the confidence 

I had shown in him but pointed 

out that it was the first time that 

he had ever shut down an 

engine in anger or flown a 

diversion to an alternate 

airfield. 

During the spring of 1978 I was 

told that a VC-10 would be 

night stopping at Travis. The 

captain, an old boss of mine 

from Comet days now 

commanded the VC-10 OCU at 

Brize Norton. The inevitable 

barbecue was laid on for the 

crew and during the festivities I 

was taken aside and told that I 

would shortly be advised of a 

posting to No 10 squadron as a 

straight-in captain for a short 

tour before moving to the OCU 

as one of his instructors. 

Welcome as this news was, I 

knew enough to fear that this 

would not be a popular move as 

the RAF system depended 

heavily on pilots serving a tour 

of duty as co-pilot before 

moving to the left hand seat, 

regardless of experience or 

seniority. I could sense the 

mutterings among those forced 

to wait even longer for their 

command. Despite these 

forebodings I was naturally 

delighted to hear the news, I 

was forty-seven years old and 

“ 

It was the 

first time 

that he 

had ever 

shut down 

an engine 

in anger 

“ 

VC-10 at Brize Norton 

rapidly approaching pilot 

senility; little did I know that I 

would still be flying fifteen 

years later! I had flown over 

a thousand hours in the C5 

when my replacement 

arrived; we said our goodbyes 

to our many friends, 

promising to visit them in the 

years ahead, a promise that 

we have signally failed to 

keep. My final assessment 

was signed off in my 

logbook, the wording may 

sound a little over the top to 

British sensibilities but it is 

quite normal for Americans 

to indulge their peers in this 

manner 

Brize Norton Flightline

When Concorde was retiring 

from service, back in 2003, 

supporters flocked to Heathrow 

airport to watch the final three 

British Airways' Concordes land for 

the last time in a commercial 

capacity. Flown by well known 

Concorde Pilots including Capt. 

Mike Banister and Capt. Les Brodie, 

the end of the supersonic era closed 

with a few tears rather than by 

ceremonious applause. 

In 1969, Concorde 001 took to the 

Tragically, on 25 July 2000, Air 

France Concorde F-BTSC (flight 

AF4590) crashed shortly after takeoff 

following hitting a metal piece of 

a Continental aircraft left on the 

runway, causing a fuel tank to 

rupture killing 113 people. 

Concorde was grounded whilst an 

investigation was carried out and 

British Airways was forced to modify 

the aircraft with kevlar plating 

around the fuel tanks costing £17 

Million. Concorde returned to 

service in November 2001 - just two 

months after the terrorist attacks in 

New York. With operating costs 

rising, the economic down-turn and 

public trust in aviation remaining 

fragile, Concorde was destined to 

retire earlier than anticipated and the 

world lost its only supersonic 

airliner. 

remarkable? You can be sure it's not 

just about the looks. 

The External Model 

Lefteris Kalamaras (ex-PMDG) and 

his team at Flight Sim Labs have 

created an authentic looking aircraft 

with a variety of liveries available. 

Both old and new British Airways 

and Air France liveries can be 

selected from the Free Flight menu 

in FSX along with their own in-house 

livery, which adorns their adverts. 

However, there appears to be slight 

inaccuracies with the new BA livery, 

on the tail, but, in fact, this is not a 

fault. The tail liveries differed 

slightly on the real aircraft! The 

wings are modelled on the complex 

shape and the nose and visor areas 

are nothing less than perfect. The 

engines are placed 

skies for the first time marking one 

of the most brilliant engineering 

achievements of the 20th Century. 

Concorde would be able to fly 100 

people over 3,000nm, at 50,000ft 

and at Mach 2 in luxurious 

surroundings. Concorde was 

regarded in terms of aviation 

endeavour close to the efforts of 

producing the Space Shuttle, the 

SR-71A Blackbird and even the Jet 

engine itself. 

These days, 

Concorde sits 

in museums with 

other aviation royalty 

never to fly again; 

however, Flight Sim Labs 

have created, what appears to 

be, the most advanced 

simulation of Concorde 

ever produced for Microsoft 

Flight Simulator enabling 

Concorde to fly once more. What 

makes Concorde X truely

Realistic flight model 

G-BOAF ready for take-off KJFK 31L 

exactly as on the real aircraft and the 

after-burner effect seems to create 

the feeling of power, which looks 

awesome in dawn/dusk lighting 

producing the flame "tail". 

The Systems 

Moving into the cockpit is where 

Flight Sim Labs have excelled. Many 

of the systems have been modelled 

and work like you would expect 

from watching ITVV's Concorde 

DVD. During taxi the Reverse Air 

Shut Off test can be completed as 

your Virtual Flight Engineer manages 

the CG leaving the Pilot to 

concentrate on their side of the 

operation. Engine Four's 88% 

selection for take-off can be engaged 

and will hold for the first 50 - 60kts 

of the take-off run. Also, the Engine 

Schedule switch can be moved to 

Flyover, Normal and Approach 

during different phases of flight. In 

the air, the Virtual Flight Engineer 

will control the fuel, air conditioning 

and other functions, like shutting off 

the after-burners at M1.7! In the 

cruise, the AFCS will switch to Max 

Climb, Max Cruise mode and 

Concorde X will climb and descend 

to maintain M2.0 in various weather 

conditions - with the AT engaging 

and disengaging as needed. All of 

the instruments in front of both 

pilots work and each has an INS, 

courtesy of CIVA - even DME 

updating of the INS system is needed 

to maintain accuracy! 

The Flight Engineers' Panel is highly 

detailed. All of the Flight Engineers 

systems have been modeled except 

for the ground crews’ testing 

functions and the oxygen supply 

metrics. The fuel panel is there in its 

entirety and fuel can be moved 

around the tanks just like in the true 

aircraft. The Air Conditioning and 

Electrical panels are fully modelled 

and need to be understood when 

starting from a cold and dark 

situation. The Flight Engineers' 

panel highlights the complexity of 

Concorde X and will keep even the 

most seasoned Virtual Pilots on their 

toes! There is a lot to learn and 

understand, which makes for a 

challenging and engaging add-on. 

Flight Dynamics 

The flight dynamics are superb and 

show straight away on rotation. The 

aircraft is slow to pitch up at first, 

but gathers in speed until 13.5 

degrees nose up and the main 

undercarriage leaves the runway. 

The sense of speed is evident and 

240kts is achieved fast. With 

afterburners engaged, the pilot will 

need to pitch up to contain the 

acceleration and keep 250kts. After 

1 min and 20 secs, Concorde X is 

already at 3, 500 feet! Reducing the 

throttles and turning off the 

afterburner makes the aircraft more 

manageable as the AT and INS are 

engaged and the AFCS follows the 

route flawlessly. At 26,000 feet and 

over the Bristol Channel, Concorde 

X will accelerate with reheats quickly 

until around 43,000 feet when Mach 

2 is being chased without reheats 

giving a sense of uniqueness. Upon 

landing, the ground effect has been 

programmed well and a sharp pitch 

up motion is required by the pilot to 

land softly at 160 - 170kts. 

Value 

Along with Concorde X, a full colour 

manual is provided with the 

download along with flight plans for 

British Airways and Air France 

models. Pilots can print off the flight 

plans and follow what ADEU card is 

Heading toward the Atlantic Detailed Virtual Cockpit Flight Engineers’ Panel

G-BOAD leaving EGLL 27L Subsonic Climb to 26,000’ 

In Conclusion 

needed to be loaded into the INS 

for different flights and segments 

making the process easier to learn. 

Acceleration and Deceleration 

points are also highlighted to help 

Pilots and VOR frequencies are 

also noted for ease of operation. 

As part of the package, there are 

options available through FSX to 

adjust the fuel and loading as well 

as options to connect ground 

electrics and air, as well as an 

option to repair the aircraft. Other 

options include those for the 

Virtual Flight Engineer and 

miscellaneous options like Engine 

Damage and for AC Generator 

Phase. 

Over the Bristol Channel 

Transonic Climb 

Flight Sim Labs have created a 

model which is detailed and 

realistic. The sleek curves of 

Concorde are expertly 

modelled to allow the Pilot to 

experience the visual beauty 

of this most unique of all 

aircraft within FSX. 

All the systems are there for 

an immersive experience in 

operating Concorde X like the 

pro's. Along with the true-tolife 

sounds, in the VC the 

Virtual Pilot can have the 

experience of virtually "being 

RR Olympus Engines 

there." 

With realistic flight 

dynamics, learning to fly 

Concorde has never been as 

system rich or as enjoyable 

within MSFS. Even the 

novice can enjoy learning on 

this aircraft due to the 

helpful Virtual Flight 

Engineer. 

For the complexity and 

attention to detail shown on 

Concorde X, it really is good 

value for money and Flight 

Sim Labs have made a highend 

add-on as good as, if not 

slightly better than, anything 

else available today. 

Concorde X is a must for all 

Virtual Pilots 

Pilots have the option upon 

installation to choose between 4:3 

or widescreen (16:10) panels to be 

loaded. Also, there is an option for 

Hi or Lo-Res textures to be loaded 

into FSX. This allows users of 

high-end and medium spec systems 

to improve performance if needed.

Airways April 2010 - British Airways Virtual

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