Canary Island Hopping Vol.1: AEA 9143 – BCN to TFN
It’s flying time again! Today let’s kick it off with the first leg on our island hopping tour in the Canary Islands. After hanging out in Barcelona for a couple of days, it’s now time to leave for Tenerife North. TFN is a world famous airport, though in a tragic way: It’s home to the world’s deadliest air disaster in history, when in 1977 a Pan Am 747 and a KLM 747 collided in dense fog, killing 583 people.
Tenerife is one of the thirteen islands belonging to the Canary Islands. It is served by two airports, Tenerife North and Tenerife South, the latter we will visit later during our tour. Politically the islands belong to Spain, geographically they are part of the African continent.
Flight information for today: AEA 9143 will depart Barcelona at 4:05 pm CET.
The route will initially take us along the Spanish coast. We will then overfly Valencia, Cordoba, Sevilla and reach the Atlantic Ocean over Jerez de la Frontera. From there on it will be water-only, until we reach Tenerife. Take off will be on 07L, SID is LOTOS1M and in TFN we’re cleared to land on runway 30.
Today’s ride will be a Boeing 737-800. EC-HZS was built in late 2001, thus still having the old-style MCP.
Weather in Barcelona is rough. As you can see, there is a thunderstorm coming in from the Mediterranean, it’s raining and cloudy. Our initial climb will be one hell of a bumpy ride!
Parked at the new Terminal 1. BCN has a very nice location. The Mediterranean to the one side, the mountains to the other.
Boarding is completed, everything is set, and the jetway is disconnecting as we speak. Also the pushback-truck is arriving just now as you can see.
Pushback next to this ERJ, wearing special colors for the Primera Division, the highest Spanish soccer league.
Engines are running, we’re clear of ground equipment, and ready to taxi to the active. 07L in this case.
After a short taxi we’re lined up and cleared to go.
Prepare for an unpleasant ride! At least in the beginning…and that has nothing to do with my piloting skills.
I usually don’t like those front shots too much, but this one has something to it.
I can see the light! Clear skies ahead.
A lot of water on today’s flight. Also a nice little peninsula below.
Air Europa does not exactly have the most creative livery, but it’s okay.
As we’re closing in on Tenerife, the skies get cloudy again.
Here we go! Tenerife ahead. Very interesting (and dangerous) terrain also.
Still no runway in sight. But we coming in with ILS, so that’s not a problem.
I can’t wait to take a swim in that water later…
If you look really close you can see the PAPI through the clouds.
And finally the runway comes in sight.
The coast is below us now.
Closing in.
Short final.
And back at the terminal. The Iberia A340 is usually flying to Madrid. Seems they have a lot of cargo on that route…
Thanks for reading today’s report. During descent my FS decided to say sayonara with a CTD. “Ntdll.dll” was the cause of all evil, never had that one before. I was thrilled to reconfigure my 737 mid-air after restarting FS on a 4 hour flight, as you can imagine. Had my FS running without CTD’s for years now, I hope this remains an exception. I suspect me playing around with the approaches in the FMC to be the trigger…
Anyway, the next flight will be from Tenerife North to Santa Cruz de la Palma with Binter Canarias ATR72, so stay tuned.
Also make sure to check out Al’s newest excellent report about his flight from Miami to St. Maarten in his blog here.
That short final shot is nothing short of awesome!
HATE CTD’s, maybe the bermuda triangle of flight sim world? Many simmers have been lost to it…..
Thanks Al! Yea, the approach and final was great. Coming out of the clouds, with the island and the mountains ahead looked surreal. Almost reminded me of the TV show LOST, haha.
You’re right about the CTD’s. Maybe MS included this as a feature to give us a digital Bermuda Triangle. Can’t believe nobody ever thought of that, instead of complaining about it we should be thankful!
Anyway, I hope this was an exception.
Looking forward to your next flights btw.