Diving into a busy & chaotic Adis Ababa! (LHR-ADD)

Hello everyone!
I recently flew a glorious route from London Heathrow 🇬🇧 to Ethiopia’s Bole Adis Ababa 🇪🇹. It was by far the busiest airport I’ve been to because of a Sunday event going on, and it caused some chaos! It was really fun to be able to simulate a true rush hour at an airport!

The flight took us over the stunning morning Alps 🏔️, the blazing hot Sahara, and the Ethiopian Rocky Mountains.

Hope you’ll enjoy!

  • Server: Expert
  • Aircraft: A350-900
  • Livery: Ethiopian
  • Flight duration: 7 hours 22 minutes
  • Route: London Heathrow - Bole Adis Ababa
  • Call sign: Ethiopian 701 Heavy
  • Departure: 4:30am scheduled (simulator time)
  • Arrival: 13:45pm scheduled (simulator time)

After loading cargo and passengers, we taxi and line up on runway 27L.

Take off! It was a super calm morning with only 2 knots of wind, so we got off the ground smoothly!

We leave London as the morning sunshine reflects the beautiful A350.

A stunning view of the morning Alps!

Flying into the boiling Sahara desert 🏜️

The incredible Ethiopian scenery 😍

Since Adis Ababa was at its peak on arrivals & takeoffs at the time, the ATC controller literally forgot about me and made me fly right above the airport! 😂

The ATC controller forgot about me AGAIN, this time on final lined up with runway 25L.

I had to go around because:

  • I was too high and fast for an appropriate landing
  • The ATC forgot to give me landing clearance (probably because there was a controller change a few moments before)
  • There was another aircraft on the runway

So, I increased my engine power, set up the flaps, pitched up, and went for a go around.

Second try! I successfully landed this time, but take a look at how busy it was! So many planes were waiting to take off!

After landing, I parked myself at terminal 1 with other Ethiopians from Toronto, Washington, New York, and more!

I had trouble finding a parking space as well because there were too many planes!

This was another superb flight! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Europe to Middle East / East Africa routes always are brilliant with fantastic scenery, so I’m hoping to do it again someday!

I recently got awarded for the New user of the month, and it couldn’t have been done without all your support, so thank you!

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