From Gothenberg to Bodo in the Boeing 737-900 with MyAir

I took part in an online multi-player flight with MyAir last night - a group I have been a member of for some years now - who operate air traffic control services during group flights on their Discord server. I thought it might be fun to write up a few notes about the flight (don’t hold me to doing this for every flight!).

Last night Geoff and Rory operated as ATC - leapfrogging Discord voice channels from ground to tower, departures, sectors, approach, and tower as the group progressed through the flight.

About 10 pilots took part - departing ESGG Landvetter at Gothenberg at 8pm UTC.

I will admit to being a bit nervous using the Boeing 737-900, having only flown it twice - once to record the cold-and-dark start-up video, and again to record an end-to-end flight.

Pre-flight went well - with the SID and STAR dictated by the flight planners, and published on Discord. The group were split between two different SIDS, allowing for faster departures (they tend to obey typical separation rules). I used the automatic routing in LittleNavMap to figure out the airways for me - resulting in the following:

ESGG/21 SULI3J NEGIL DCT XENTA DCT REGMA L997 ELVOM M125 LILBA Z320 GIGNI Z125 SOMUB Z103 NIGEX BNN BNN1C ENBO/07

Given the flight travels in an easterly direction, we all flew odd flight levels (“east is odd”) - I went for FL350.

Departure was uneventful - although I was mindful of rotation in the B739 - taking care to wait for the aircraft to have a positive climb rate before rotating beyond five degrees. Initial clearance was given for 16,000ft on the STAR. After engaging autopilot at 3,000ft, I went and did some reading. The POH for the 737 series seems to state a rotation rate, rather than a specific limit to the initial angle of attack based on aircraft model. Anything up to three degrees a second is fine, apparently.

The climb-out and cruise went without issue - no warnings, no TCAS alerts, and great conversation en-route among the group.

Arrival at Bodo was somewhat more eventful. Our original arrival should have been a challenging offset approach in a snow-storm into runway 25 at Bodo (in the dark), with very low visibility. The wind changed en-route, necessitating a change of STAR, and runway - as you can see in the flight plan, we ended up on runway 07, and although that meant no offset, it was still dark, cold, snowing, and with low visibility. Tower shared their view of the airfield on Discord - about 200 yards visibility, although it did extend to about 500 yards later in the evening.

Approach was absolutely on the numbers - arriving in the feathers at 2500ft, 160 knots, with flaps extended. I flew the approach under manual control - I usually do - with thoughts of making 200ft a decision height. In the event the runway lights appeared in front of me at about 500ft.

Landing went smoothly - although not quite as well as I might have liked. The touchdown rate flattered to deceive. I brought the plane in at 50 fpm - which would of course have been dangerous in such adverse conditions. It pays to plant the tires on the runway in difficult conditions - not skate across the surface.

After taxiing in and parking, I always find it interesting to sit and watch others coming in - working out what they are doing, how they are doing it, and taking lessons where I can. Almost everybody landed well - especially given the conditions (although I understand several turned the weather off! no fun!).

So yes. Another flight in the B739 in the books!

If you get the chance to join MyAir for a flight in the near future, it really is great fun. Think of it as a more relaxed, social version of VATSIM.