I generated my SimBrief plan about an hour before loading into the cockpit. The plan called for a standard RNAV departure out of Delhi, climbing via the IGARI1A SID before tracking southbound down airway L510. I chose to cruise at FL360, wanting to see how the fuel burn would look against the flight release at that altitude.
Flight Plan Summary
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Route | IGARI1A IGARI L510 BBB DCT NASIK |
| Cruise altitude | FL360 |
| Cruise speed | M0.78 |
| Planned fuel | 8,400 kg |
| ZFW | 58,200 kg |
| Alternate | VAPO - Pune |
Route
The full route string used for the flight plan: VIDP/27 IGARI1A IGARI L510 BBB DCT NASIK VABB/27
Pushback and taxi out of Delhi were completely smooth. Because I was flying offline, I decided to inject my own challenges on the arrival into Mumbai to make things interesting and keep my workload high.
Climb and Cruise
I hand-flew the initial climb up to FL100. I really like doing this to stay sharp on pitch and power coordination while cleaning up the flaps and slats. Once the autopilot took over and we leveled off at FL360, the cruise portion was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time monitoring the fuel logs. The numbers matched up incredibly well with the SimBrief paperwork; we were only off by about 60kg across the entire cruise segment.
Holding at VABB
To simulate a typical heavy traffic evening rush into Mumbai, I programmed a manual hold at the NASIK waypoint about 40 miles out. I forced myself to drop down to FL180 and enter a standard right-hand holding pattern.
Simulating heavy arrival constraints: held at NASIK as published, executed two full turns, and maintained flight level one eight zero before starting the arrival sequence.
I did two full loops in the pattern. Configuring the aircraft early and setting up the FMS properly before hitting the fix made a huge difference. It kept things calm in the cockpit, which made breaking out of the hold and intercepting the ILS for runway 27 feel incredibly structured.
The final approach was completely stable. I needed a tiny crosswind correction right before crossing the numbers, followed by a nice, clean rollout. The self-imposed hold added about 12 minutes to the total ETE, but the fuel reserves handled it perfectly.
Debrief Notes
- Simulating holding patterns during offline flights is a great way to keep from getting lazy during the descent phase.
- I let the FMS manage the holding geometry this time, but on the next flight, I want to try flying a manual entry entirely by hand using the raw data to challenge myself.
- The SimBrief fuel profile for this route is basically spot on; no adjustments needed for contingency fuel next time.
- Next log: I think I'll try the same city pair but file for FL380 to see how the airframe efficiency shifts at a higher altitude.
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo · Livery: Air India · Simulator: MSFS 2024 · Network: Offline (Procedural Practice)