Free Flight, Free Speech

Christmas night circling approach to Dubrovnik (LDDU)

Some about airport :
Dubrovnik Airport (Croatian: Zračna luka Dubrovnik; IATA: DBV, ICAO: LDDU), also referred to as Čilipi Airport (Croatian pronunciation: [tʃǐlipi]), is the international airport of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The airport is located approximately 15.5 km (9.5 mi) from Dubrovnik city centre, near Čilipi. It was the third-busiest airport in Croatia in 2017 after Zagreb Airport and Split Airport in terms of passenger throughput. It also has the country's longest runway, allowing it to accommodate heavy long-haul aircraft. The airport is a major destination for leisure flights during the European summer holiday season.



Yugoslav flag carrier Aeroput used a seaplane station in Dubrovnik to open the first routed linking the city. The first route was opened in 1936 linking Dubrovnik to national capital Belgrade via Sarajevo. Next year a route to Zagreb was inaugurated. But it was in 1938 that Dubrovnik saw a significant increase in air traffic, with the introduction by Aeroput of regular flights to Vienna, Brno and Prague with stops in Sarajevo and Zagreb, and also the introduction of a regular flight between Belgrade and Tirana with a stop in Dubrovnik. However, by early 1940s, with the World War II, Aeroput operations were suspended.

Dubrovnik Airport opened in 1962. The city was originally served by the Gruda Airfield which opened for commercial traffic in 1936 and was in use only during the summer months. The domestic airline Aeroput linked Dubrovnik with Belgrade (via Sarajevo) first in 1936, and a year later a route to Zagreb was opened.

During 1987, the busiest year in Yugoslav aviation, the airport handled 835,818 passengers on international flights and a further 586,742 on domestic services. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the airport surpassed the one-million-passenger mark in 2005. Today, Dubrovnik boasts the most modern passenger terminal in the country. A new terminal is being planned in place of the old airport building, constructed in 1962, which has now been demolished to make way for a new modern structure. The price tag of the project amounts to seventy million euros and is to be financed out of a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In May 2010 a new terminal opened stretching over 13,700 square metres. It has the capacity to handle two million passengers per year.

More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubrovnik_Airport

When ?
Saturday, December, 22th. 2018, 1600Z

Aircraft of the choice :
B737, A320 or similar size jet airliner
My choice - Concorde (https://github.com/BAWV12/Concorde/archive/master.zip), or 737-800YV

Route :
Depart LOWI - Innsbruck, rwy choice by weather conditions
Arrival LDDU - Dubrovnik
450 nm, FL300, M0.7



Approach :
We will use Circling approach to rwy 30 :



Scenery :
Standard terrasync scenery, LDDU is nice developed airport :



Innsbruck too :



Some advices :
For more challenge, use real time, winter textures for Christmas atmosphere
Prepare stopwatch, calculator and some mathematics skill

I upgraded my FG and found stupid contrails bug that forced me to update my Concorde. Please download new version.

Waiting for event :

After action report :
This event was bit hard for me, my old good notebook Dell Precision M4600 suddenly died some hours before action (RIP in the silicon heaven). Things went bad in Innsbruck, my framerate was 10 fps, I lowered all possible settings for smooth night flight. Son Adam (CSAADAM) rolled on runway as first and took off without clearance. He was immediately neglected by ATC ( OK, ATC has right, he is king and nobody can do any movement without his advice). Now (2010Z) Adam is writing 100 times short text Do not move without ATC clearance
I took off and was bit confused with advice turn left to ABSAM 313. I immediately roll the plane to left and started turn to heading 313 with engaged afterburners 10000 fps to avoid mountains. Successfully reached FL100. That number 313 is NDB frequency, but I did not find this navaid in database (I have nav db 2018/01). OK, nothing happen, after small mistake changed heading direct to RTT, then NANIT and continued on designed track POR-KVP-CV.



Show started near Dubrovnik, I was prepared stopwatch for circling approach, but F16 jockey declared low fuel emergency. My approach plan was screwed, I got new heading from ATC. F16 landed on fuel vapour, CSAADAM got clearance for circling approach and :



... successfully landed. I got new approach vector and lined up with runway. Landed without significant troubles with large vapour vortex over delta wings.



Some minutes later landed Air Canada's Triple Seven and parked near my Concorde :

.

Screenshots by CSAADAM.

Thank You all airmens for perfect event, see You again probably january, 19th. probably at SBGL-SBSP.

peaceful Joyful Holidays for all pilots and controllers, and sorry for V12 for unfinished flight to dubrovnik, trouble with internet.