Route to Sydney

[Evanelpus]

Please accept my apologies if this is posted in the wrong section.

Some friends of mine are travelling to Australia with SQ in the not too distant future. The flight leaves LHR and their twelve year old son wants to know what countries he will be flying over en route.

Apparently my friends have contacted SQ and were told that it was not their policy to make this information known to the general public. I do appreciate that routings are dependant on weather/winds etc but as a rule of thumb can anyone give me something I can pass onto the young lad??

[chiglet]

At a "Wild" guess,
France, [poss Switzerland,] Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma and Malaysia.
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[Carnage Matey!]

If my fading memory serves me well I think you go something like- UK, Belgium, Germany, Austria, somewhere east of there, Yugoslavia(ish), Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Malaysia the Singapore. Then for leg 2 its just boring old Indonesia and Oz.

[Lurk R]

I've travelled SIN-LHR and return 4 times with SQ and it seems they have 2 routes - the North one and the South one depending on winds and weather.

North seems to follow Malay coast, Bay of Bengal, Northern India, Pakistan, a multitude of Eastern Europe countries that sound like Kazakstan!, Germany, Netherlands, London.

South was the same until southern India and skirted across towards the Persian Gulf, up the side of Iraq, then a quick "Z" manouevre avoiding Lebanon, Greece, Germany and as above.

If the Northern route is flown and they depart LHR on the midday flight, get them to look out the window passing the Pakistan / Indian border in the middle of the night. Amazing to see the whole border lit up with what I assume was neon lighting on the fence!!! Stretched to the horizon in both directions and was quite amazing to see from FL370...

[Damsel]

Once on board just tune into the Inflight Entertainment system which will give him all the required info.

[Pom Pax]

And if its daylight and not night (evening departure ex London) its quite spectacular going over the Khyber Pass into Pakistan on the northern route.
The northern route goes up the dutch coast over Denmark, the Baltic, Latvia?, south of Moscow and onto a multitude of former russian republics to Afganistan and Pakistan to India. Well thats the way I've been taken. :)

[Bullethead]

There are two general routes from LHR to SIN, one closely follows the great circle, try this link, http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=lhr-sin%0D%0A%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=black&PATH-UNITS=nm&MARKER=1&RANGE-STYLE=best&R ANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE ,for a map of the great circle from LHR to SIN,and the other goes further south over Turkey and then over the Persian Gulf. It will depend on the winds of the day which way the flight is routed. You should be able to insert other airport idents to explore the other routeings available. For example the more southerly routeing would be LHR-IST-TBZ-AUH-SIN.

Hope this helps. :D :D ;)

Edited to get link to work.

[ 24 July 2001: Message edited by: Bullethead ]

[Evanelpus]

Thanks for the info which I have passed on to the family. The son is studying the atlas as we speak, this is much better than classroom geography.

[chiglet]

Reality [really] is better than Theory.
Routes vary along with the winds. The "Far Eastern" routes are 'subject to change'...as is EVERY other route...
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[On Track]

As a kid I always wanted to have the window seat so I could watch the world go by, and always wanted to know where I was and what I was looking at.

Now that I'm a pilot, nothing's changed! :D

If your friends would like an aerial geography lesson over Sydney in a light aircraft, get them to email me. For some reason I can't mail you.