A Flight Simulator Odyssey

by Charles Gulick

Take Off For London

Chart: Southern UK
Title: RDY HEATHROW 10
Ground Coordinates:
   Aircraft: N18661, E13651
   Tower: N18661.132, E13651.136
Altitude:
   Aircraft: 0
   Tower: 83
Heading: 097
Time: Daylight

This scenario has you lined up for takeoff on Runway 10 Left at London's Heathrow Airport. The field is on the west-ern outskirts of the city, and the runway heading points you straight toward the heart of things. You may want to use Heathrow as a general home airport in the area, particularly inasmuch as it has a fuel station, pilot shop, and the only ILS facility in the Southern United Kingdom simulation (10L is the ILS runway). Also, you're all set to go immediately. Taxiing around Heathrow is rather difficult, and not all that cosmetic due to its big black ramp areas--indeed, I find them rather depressing.

Heathrow is the airport of arrival for most visitors to London. Besides airline buses and taxicabs, a station of the Underground, or Tube, connects the airport with the center of the city.

Use this scenario to fly a left-hand pattern around Heathrow, and familiarize yourself with its layout, and particularly its size. Runway 10 Left is so long you'll be airborne in a little more than a tenth of its length; you'll think you're flying along a highway.

In the next group of scenarios we'll take closeup views of the major sightseeing attractions in London itself.

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