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Briefing Package for Flight: LDPL - Pula to LGKR - Corfu Kerkira
Weather setting: Historic Weather from the 18th of October at 15:00 UTC
Scenery available: ORBX Pula and FlyTampa Corfu
Aircraft used for Flightplanning: FSLabs A319 with IAE engines
Flightplan was made with: www.simbrief.com
Takeoff Performance was made with: http://wabpro.cz/A320/
Loadsheet was made with: http://wabpro.cz/A320/
Navigational Charts: https://www.navigraph.com/Charts
For Flightsimulation use only!
After performing the preliminary cockpit preperations, you will need to look at your briefing
package and decide on the amount of fuel you want to order. For that we look at the
Operational Flightplan:
Here we can see that the Flighttime is 1 hour 15 Minutes.
The flight is planned at FL350, with a Cost Index of 19.
Average Wind Component is plus 14 kts, i.e. tailwind.
Estimated Zero Fuel Weight is 56.8 tons, estimated Takeoff Weight approximately 63.4 tons.
The weather report shows fair weather at Departure, Destination and Alternate airports:
Departure out of Pula will be from Runway 09. The Approach into Corfu-Kerkira will be a RNAV
or VOR Approach to Runway 35. If the wind should freshen up from the south, then there
could be a Circling Approach to Runway 17.
The alternate Thessaloniki has good weather, favoring an ILS Approach to Runway 16.
The Significant Weather Chart shows only a small area with moderate icing between FL 100
and 190.
The Wind Chart shows wind is more from a northerly direction, providing a little tailwind
towards Corfu:
The Vertical Profile Chart shows the tropopause level being up around FL 390.
That brings us to the decision of the Blockfuel:
The Tripfuel stands at 3106 kg. In case of a required circling approach, another 600 kg of Extra
fuel is added. Including the Contingency, Alternate, Final Reserve and Taxi Fuel, we get a
Blockfuel value of 6752 kg.
The LDPL - Pula airport is a small airport with a single runway, 2946 m in length. Higher terrain
is only found towards the east and northeast:
There is one main parallel taxiway and several runway entry/exit taxiways. However if Runway
27 is used for departure, you can either depart out of intersection E (2491 m available) or
backtrack for full runway length.
The apron is fairly small. Usually spot number 3 is available to use.
NADP 2 is used at LDPL. In case of a return, an CAT 1 ILS is available for Runway 27 and a
RNAV Approach for Runway 09.
Depending on the Runway in use, the departure procedure (LOS4G or LOS4H) is either very
straight forward (Runway 09) or has a tight right turn after takeoff (Runway 27).
The departure from Runway 27 is more scenic since it goes over the city of Pula.
Once all cockpit preparations have been completed, you get the following Loadsheet:
Through the ACARS system you receive the following printout:
At first this seems somewhat confusing, but I have highlighted the import pieces of
information.
LOAD (Payload) is 16.1 tons
Zerof Fuel Weight (ZFW) is 56.7 tons
Takeoff Fuel (TOF) is 6.6 tons
Takeoff Weight (TOW) is 63.3 tons
Landing Weight (LW) is 60.2 tons
Zero Fuel Weight Center of Gravity (ZFCG) is 29.3 %
Takeoff Center of Gravity (TOCG) is 28.3 %
Trim Setting (TRIM) is UP 0.6 units
Below that you have some information regarding the number of crew on board (2 cockpit and
3 cabin)
Then you have the load vaues of the cargo compartments 1, 4 and 5.
SI means Seat Index and shows the number of passengers in the cabin sections A, B and C.
Last but not least you do the Takeoff Performance Calculations and receive the following info
per ACARS:
These values are entered into the MCDU and crosschecked.
After that you are ready for the Before Start Items and Checklist.
We will skip the complete procedures until we do our approach preperations for LGKR – Corfu.
Of course you don’t forget to do all the cruise items like fuel checks and system monitoring ;-)
Let us have a look at the area around LGKR:
Please be aware that the picture is not orientated to the north!
The island has some high terrain, especially to the north of the airport, but also to the
southwest. The airport and the city are on the eastern part of the island.
The Flightplan states that we will arrive via TIGRA waypoint. Since our approach for Runway 35
starts at waypoint BEDEX, we use the STAR “TIGRA 2R”:
Should the weather be good enough to spot the airport while enroute to BEDEX, you can try a
visual approach pattern. That will mean flying towards the airport and do the following pattern
at a pattern altitude of 1600 feet:
f no visual contact can be established and maintained, continue on the STAR to BEDEX and fly
the VOR Y Runway 35:
Or the RNAV Approach to Runway 35:
One last thing to calculate is the landing distance.
The required landing distance for the A319 at 61 tons landing weight is:
Autobrake Low = 2073 m
Autobrake Medium = 1445 m
Maximum Manual = 1145 m
The Landing distances available to taxiway C is 1420 m, to taxiway B it is 2020 m.
So choose your autbrake setting wisely.
Remember though that using Autobrake medium might cause brake temperatures to get to
400°C. Also there is a 3 minute cooldown limit before you can shut down the engines. So when
you leave via C with hot brakes, you might not be saving any time compared to leaving via
taxiway B with cooler brakes.
© Blackbox711
For Flightsimulation use only!