My year long project to become more acquainted and accustomed to airliner ops has been about as successful as I had hoped. The airplane that helped me break into doing this in a semi-realistic way was Microsoft, Asobo and developer Hans Hartmann’s ATR turboprop airliner. As we near the end of the year I’ve been doing some short hops in this airliner and I wanted to share.

Not a long haul

Even narrow-body airliners these days are used for increasingly long haul flights. With fuel efficiency, better reliability and larger fuel capacity we now have small twins flying extremely long distances – and that’s not what this journal is about. The ATR is intended for shorter distances and in practical terms, for us sim pilots, sometimes you only have time to do a 30 minute flight. So, here are a few that you can do in 30-40 minutes with the ATR or another similar airplane.

Helsinki to Tallin

Finnair flies their ATR fleet between a number of destinations but one of the shorter flights is the one across the Finnish Gulf between Helsinki, Finland and Tallin, Estonia.

This was a fun flight with a short distance and some epic weather and time of day. Flying around the winter solstice means that there’s very little light and northern latitudes like those of Helsinki and Tallin receive just a little under 6 hours of sun. So naturally this was a post-sunset flight!

Lifting off from runway 04R at Helsinki I encountered some brief turbulence and winds but that subsided quickly and we were able to climb away without much trouble. Dialing in the engines to climb mode, the ATR climbed up to my cruise altitude of 13,000 feet.

Flying the SID took us briefly north of the city before turning south. That positioned me for a beautiful blue-hour overflight of Helsinki with a flash of colour on the horizon and some dark clouds ahead.

I was worried about the clouds ahead, fortunately they were more dramatic than dangerous. There was some zero visibility and a bit of light snow and icing but nothing the anti-ice system couldn’t handle. Onwards after that to the arrival at Tallin. Darkness had fully set in and the low clouds were being illuminated by the nearby city center.

I landed and parked the ATR. A short, fun, successful hop.

Rønne to Stockholm

Next up is another real world hop from the Danish island of Bornholm over to Stockholm. This one is flown by DAT airlines with their colourful liveried ATR 72-600. With its red nose, I decided I would nickname my airplane for the day Rudolf.

The airport, EKRN, was part of the first world update and features some nice custom scenery. It has has also typically been quite a scenic location to depart from. No different here with the low, dramatic clouds!

After a brief backtrack on the runyway, we powered up and took off and then were immediately confronted by strong winds. Handling the ATR took some quick thinking but eventually I managed to get it stable and away.

After that it was a calm climb up to 18,000 feet and a brief cruise over to Stockholm.

The approach took me over Malmö, Sweden and then across the Øresund straight. Øresund international bridge dominates the scene with its road and rail access going across the waterway. I let MSFS determine the runway for landing and that ended up being Runway 30 into Copenhagen EKCH. A great way to see the bridge and the surrounding area.

Landed, parked, and took in the brief trip. Another short but fun flight just in time for the holidays!