This was a night flight from Athens to Maldives. After loading passengers and cargo we started engines 3 and 2 prior to pushback. As concorde does not have an APU inboard engines are started using air from the ground cart before leaving the gate:
Afterwards pushback begun. Engines 4 and 1 were started using crossbleed air from 3 and 2:
We taxied to runway 03R and departed:
70 seconds after takeoff reheats were switched off due to noice considerations. We climbed to FL290 and at a speed of M0.96 we re-engaged the reheats in pairs to break the sound barrier. First the inboard engines:
followed shortly by the outboard:
Our rate of climb incresed to 6000fpm:
and after a few seconds we were travelling faster than sound:
Approximatelly 12 minutes later we were flying twice the speed of sound at 50000ft:
From this point onwards the concorde entered into cruise climb mode. It would continue climb slowly towards 60000ft with engines at full power for the rest of the flight maintaining M2.00. Unlike other aircraft concorde does not cruise at a fixed flight level. Instead, after reaching FL500 at M2.00, it enters MAX CLIMB and MAX CRUISE mode adjusting the pitch continuously to maintain between M2.00 and M2.02 while the engines provide full power. As fuel is burned and weight reduced it climbs slowly to FL600. Since there is no other commercial flying at this altitude this is an acceptable practice.
Entering the cockpit during the night flight one could first see the lighted flight engineer's panel:
followed by the rest of the flightdeck:
After 3 hours and 30 minutes we arrived at Maldives into moderate rain. We landed and switched off the inboard engines and taxied to the apron:
OAL1014 VRMM to LGAV on 25/10/2012 aboard Olympic Air Virtual Concorde SX-DCN
Two days later we were flying back to Athens. After take off we were leaving Maldives behind:
After our initial climb:
we reached the acceleration point for our flight. Reheats on:
and shortly after breaking the sound barrier we were travelling at M1.20:
and M2.00 a few minutes later:
A short visit to the passenger cabin:
and back to the cockpit:
Overflying Das Island of U.A.E. at 56000ft:
and seeing Qatar on our left side a few minutes later:
Overflying Jordanian airspace at 59000ft:
Soon we were flying over Larnaca that was covered with thunderstorms at 60000ft (unfortunatelly the lightnings could not be captured, but the view was spectacular):
At EVENO we entered Greek airspace and started our decceleration and descent. A few moments later we were near Naxos island:
Prior to reaching 10000ft we reduced our speed to 245kts. Upon reaching that speed we lowered the visor and nose to 5 degrees:
Our approach was VARIX2C towards 03R. After KEA we turned left heading 265 and 27nm from KEA we turned right to intercept ILS Z 03R:
We descended to 3200ft and after capturing the localizer we maintained altitude until capturing the glideslope:
Final approach to runway 03R:
After landing we vacated the runway:
And turned into taxiway C. Due to the location of the nose wheel signifucantly behind the pilots' viewpoint turning this aircraft during taxi can feel weird sometimes:
We were back at our homebase:
We hope you enjoyed flying with us. Flying the concorde can be quite challenging but it is a unique experience that rewards the pilot. Dare to try it and you will become addicted to it!
For more information you can contact Olympic Supersonic at supersonic@oav.gr
