Leg 19 - VQPR-VVTS
Departed: 07:55z (RWY 15)
Arrived: 11:34z (RWY 25R)
Weather: Scattered clouds at 5,000ft on departure; scattered clouds at 3,000ft on arrival
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Route: VQPR N0447F370 DCT BOGOP DCT GGT W53 KKU DCT KL DCT MDY DCT CMA A464 BKK R468 SAPEN SAPEN2M VVTS
Approach: ILS-Y 25R (TSH transition)
Remarks:
- Our destination for this flight (VVTS) isn’t one of the handcrafted airports, but is a necessary stopover on our way to Sydney, Australia; as far as I’m aware, there’s no plane capable of taking off from VQPR that would have had the range to travel the full distance to Sydney non-stop!
- I had to have a couple of attempts at departure for this one…1st attempt, I used the excellent new A320neo performance calculator (SimSmart), but didn’t consider the rapidly rising terrain on take-off, so my CONF 1+F Vspeeds used up far too much of the runway, with painful consequences… I corrected this on my 2nd attempt, but then was a little too trusting of the ATC I was using (Pilot2ATC) and got directed into a mountainside. On my final (successful!) attempt, I did the sensible thing and ignored ATC instructions and flew the departure visually, tracking the valley until I was at sufficient altitude to regain my course.
- The arrival was relatively uneventful, although I’m convinced ATC switched runways on my as I was on final approach, so I ended up landing on 25R instead of the originally planned 25L…
Ready for the challenging visual departure from Paro…
Finally out of the mountain valleys and on our way
Beautiful view of the Himalayan range over the wing
Crusing over Myanmar
Turning eastwards as we cross over Bangkok
Sunset in Vietnam
Parked up at Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Distance completed: 16,750nm Distance remaining: 29,841nm