Omaha to Denver - Finally Home

Today's flight is the last leg on my round-the-world westbound trip! I'm heading from Omaha to Centennial airport, in the southeast Denver metropolitan area. I got started late, so this will be entirely a night flight, with some cold moist weather expected in the Denver area. Here are some things to do in the Denver area.

It wasn't trivial getting everything started this evening, with the cockpit so dark, I couldn't find the switches. I discovered the "Aviation Flashlight" option on the X-Plane View menu, and it saved the day, by gently highlighting everything around the mouse cursor in a dim red glow, not unlike the red-lens flashlight that I would really use, when flying at night. With that help, I found the BAT 1 and 2 switches, the avionics sprang to life, I found the engine start switch, brought the generators online, turned on the exterior lights, and life was good.

Taxiing out to runway 32L at night was much easier than in real life, with X-Plane painting my assigned taxi route in yellow.

Cleared for takeoff on Omaha's runway 32L.

Wheels and flaps up, and climbing above the runway.

Climbing out over the city of Omaha, Nebraska, and up into the very dark night sky.

Climbing through 15,700 feet, and leaving Omaha behind. The enroute portion was a routine night flight at 26,000 feet, with nothing much to report. I could see the lights of the larger towns I was passing, and the occasional airport.

Descending through 11,300 feet towards Centennial airport, at first being vectored by ATC for the ILS 35R approach, which suddenly was switched to an ILS 17L approach, as the real-world weather got updated with opposite direction winds. I dimmed the instrument lights, to make it easier to see outside, but there wasn't much to see, besides a few stars, since a low layer of clouds had formed below me.

After a few vectors, the simulated ATC folks had me intercepting the final approach course to runway 17L. There is no ILS 17 approach at Centennial, so to go with the flow, and accommodate the simulator's clearance, I pulled up the GPS 17L approach, which worked even better, as it gave me the option to get a few feet lower at the missed approach point. The missed approached wasn't necessary, as I broke out of the overcast at around 6,600 feet, which is about 500 feet above the airport. You might notice in the debug data block to the upper left, that I had turned on the deicing equipment, when I started picking up ice during the descent through the clouds. I also had to turn off the strobe lights, as they were reflecting madly off the clouds, making it difficult to concentrate on the approach.

On the ramp at Centennial airport, parked in front of the Jet Center, and The Perfect Landing restaurant. It was a little too late for their delicious dinners, though, so I just left the aircraft there, and headed on home! Good night to all! Looking forward to getting into my nice warm comfortable bed!