FSX Hurricane Landing Mission

Hurricane Landing. Your task is to fly an Airbus A320 from Munich to Hamburg during a heavy storm. Weather conditions are modelled to closely resemble those on March 1st 2008, when Lufthansa flight 044 almost crashed at Hamburg airport. By Robin Hutter.

INSTALLATION:
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1. Extract the contents of Emma.zip to a temporary directory. Be sure to have the "Use folder names" (or whatever this is called by your ZIP program) active to create the appropriate subdirectories.

2. Copy or move the files in the folder "A320-211 Project Airbus\effects" to your Effects folder ([FSX_root]\Effects)

2. Copy or move the folder "A320-211 Project Airbus" to your Airplanes folder ([FSX_root]\SimObjects\Airplanes\)

3. [Optional] Install the Groundhandling5 package (rcbgh-50.zip) available on www.flightsim.com or www.avsim.com. It is not necessary, but it surely adds a more realistic touch to your flying experience. - And it allows you to make pushback turns, which I can't using the standard Shift-P pushback.
The Airbus_A320 panel included in this archive already has the Groundhandling5 panel installed.

4. Move or copy the "Emma" directory to your [FSX_root]\Missions\Airline Pilot\ folder.

5. Move or copy the content of the "Rewards" folder to your FSX rewards folder [FSX_root]\Rewards.

6. Start FSX. From "Missions" choose "Hurricane landing" using the "Airline pilot" category and the "Advanced" level to narrow the list down, if it is too long.

Now I hope everything works and you have fun.

SOME (HOPEFULLY) HELPFUL REMARKS:
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Please note that the plane's chronograph is showing UTC (Z) time, i.e. you have to add one hour to get the Central European Time (CET) used by "normal people".

In this first phase of the mission the "glass panel" with the secondary ECAMs (Shift-8 with its sub-panels) is quite helpful.

When you receive ATIS information you will notice that in German ATC air pressure values are named "QNH" (instead of "altimeter") and measured in hPa (mbar). So use the appropriate switch to swap units.

If you are using the Groundhandling5 package, a turn angle of 60 degrees and a pushback distance of 0 will bring you to a suitable position to start taxiing.

For a realistic taxi experience, taxi at 15 knots while passing the gates and accelerate to 25 knots on the long taxiway parrallel to the runway. Decrease speed again on turns and approaching the runway. If things happen too fast (especially during the checklists), you may use the pause function pressing "P" to give you more time. You can also review past messages by pressing Shift-F10 and choosing the "Messages" tab.

During gate parking and/or taxi you will have time to set the values for the autopilot: Speed 240 knots (recommended as the wind gusts will easily make you overspeed), heading 260, initial altitude 10,000 feet. Please note that German airspace structure differs from the US structure and from what you might be used to from other FSX flights. In German airspace transition altitude is not 18,000 feet, but usually 5,000 feet. So 10,000 feet is actually FL100 and the standard pressure (1013 hPa) has to be set quite early.

A climb rate of 1800 fpm will bring you to your cruising altitude just about at your first major waypoint VOR ALB.

A word on the POIs: Most POIs are not really necessary for successful completion of the mission. However some of the POIs trigger important messages. So try not to miss them. Especially in the approach phase sticking to the controllers' orders should be sufficient to keep you inside the limits, but strong, variable winds and unpredictable speed and altitude of your aircraft may make some corrections necessary. Don't forget to take the strong crosswinds into account! Setting your heading exactly towards the POI will almost certainly make you miss it... If you use the mission pointer, passing a POI within 2 miles distance should be safe.

After passing FL100 you may accelerate. To save fuel it is recommended not to fly faster than 300 knots. But you can also choose to catch up a bit of the delay. - Your choice, captain...

Cruising at FL260 may be a bit boring to you. For those of you that need it: you can use the "r+" sequence to accelerate the simulation rate. ;) At turns a higher simulation rate may cause problems, so try to be no faster than 4x at sharper turns.

A hint for descending: The autothrottle on the A320 is reacting quite slowly, so you might consider switching speed control off on starting a new descent stage, set N1 to idle manually and then activate the SPD button again! Sometimes using the speed brakes will be necessary.

You can't set the autobrakes on the gear panel (Shift-6), but setting the speed brakes at ca. 40-50% will activate the autobrakes as well.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:
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I have tried to make the mission as close to reality as possible. For this reason it is very helpful if you make use of the additional material supplied. It contains airport charts, departure and arrival diagrams and other useful information.

Note that the A320 is class "D" for the LOC and/or ILS approach. Visibility was good enough on March 1st 2008 to have a CAT II ILS for the A320. So the decision height (DH = height over ground measured by the radar altimeter displayed in the HSI below 2500 feet) was 95 feet for the ILS approach on runway 23. In the localizer approach on runway 33, an obstacle clearing altitude (OCA = barometric altitude displayed on the altimeter to the right of the HSI and the analog altimeter) of 490 feet.

God bless,
Wolfgang <><