My excitement with this nice Airbus A350 continues...🙂...so, please share a bit of this excitement with me. And I also hope you enjoy this collection of pictures below. First of all, I've been always an airliner fan (via RW travel and also as an aviation enthusiast) immensely grateful to those incredible machines of the air. After all, those are the ones that have taken me across the world and oceans, giving me a life experience I would not have traded for anything else...🙂... 

Anyway, about today's flight, I do not recall I've had this much fun with an airliner (SIM) ever in my 20+ years in this hobby...🙂...

There are a couple of factors contributing to this unique feeling:

1. This is the first ever Airbus SIM (or any modern airliner SIM for that matter) that gave me a "novel" sensation in the cockpit (of course, this is yours truly virtual aviator speaking here...🙂...). For example, if you are previously used to the A320/A330/A340 SIMs and their (similar looking) cockpits (GA fans respectfully excluded here...🙂...); the A350-1000, the most ultra-modern Airbus that's flying today, must present (in the RW) quite a different (and unique) ambience within its cockpit (starting with the much more spacious layout, enhanced by the customizable and larger display screens, and an FMS interface that, though sharing the foundational principles from earlier Airbus types, differs significantly due to advancements in automation technology and design; actually it all seemed quite a novelty for an average simmer that I am). 
2. The Airbus A350 has variants such as these: A350-800, A350-900, A350-900ULR, A350-1000, and A350-1000ULR (of Qantas' Project Sunrise fame). In my Xbox/iniBuilds A350 version, I see the 3 variants (-900, -900ULR, -1000; notably SimBrief Flight Planner also includes specific reference to these iniBuilds A350 variants). The A350-1000, that I've chosen to fly here, is the largest (i.e., the longest and heaviest) member within the Airbus "twinjet" family today. So, it presents a (unique) flying experience like no other Airbus that I (or you) may have ever flown in the SIM....🙂...It feels heavy like an A380 but has only 2 engines...just like the A320 series or the A330 series...!

In my previous post, I'd mentioned the "fifth freedom" flights. The fifth freedom in commercial aviation allows an airline to carry passengers between two foreign countries, as long as the flight originates or terminates in the airline's home country. Essentially, it's the right to fly passengers between two countries that aren't the airline's home base. 

The shortest "fifth freedom" flight in the world is the one flown by Air France with its A350 (or B787) between Brazzaville, Congo, to Kinshasa, also in Congo. Note that though this flight travels between airports within the same country (Congo), none of these airports are Air France's Home base. This extremely short route traverses Congo River, the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile. The direct flight distance, believe it or not, is only 16 miles...!

Today, I've replicated this flight in the largest twinjet Airbus type, the A350-1000, in the colors of French Bee, which is a French low-cost, long-haul airline based at Paris Orly Airport. This is not your run-of-the-mill low-cost carrier. With 6 A350 XWBs (4 A350-900s and 2 A350-1000s; one of which A350-1000s, you see below in my images), this airline has, in its fleet, one of the youngest and most modern long-haul jets of any LCC we might think of. 

For this flight, I have also done my (first) Cold & Dark engine start-up on the A350-1000 (see the beginning images below), my challenge compounded by (self-induced) rainy and cloudy conditions outside...🙂...Of course, with the help of ample guidance from on-line videos, even though this is an ultra-modern aircraft (adequately rendered in the SIM), the essential start-up steps appeared simple taking no more than 15 mins...with excellent syncing built-in by iniBuilds between the SimBrief Flight Plan and Performance Data and the SIM's FMS/MCDU interface. BTW, somehow, while doing this Cold & Dark, I happened to recall today, from my distant memory, the Cold & Dark start-up of the "Project Tupolev Tu-154" a/c, that, once upon a time...🙂...in FSX, I used to diligently do, once a week, on the Saturday mornings. You can imagine the extremes of differences and complexities of the procedures between that legacy airliner off the (old) Eastern Bloc; and this ultra-modern jetliner...🙂...both educative in their own distinctive ways though...

I fly here from Runway 24 of FZAA (N'djili Airport) in Congo, to the Capital city of Brazzaville, also in Congo, landing on ILS Runway 05 of FCBB (Maya–Maya Airport). On the SimBrief and EFB MAPs (and also in my external images below), you can spot the Congo River that I flew over in this extremely short flight with this ultra-long-haul jetliner. I've flown at 4,000 ft cruise, and though I've initially activated lateral (managed mode) guidance, most of this flight (heading/altitude control and LOC/GS signal captures) is conducted manually. 

This A350-1000 (SIM) was a pleasure to fly and land. I'm no aspiring Airbus pilot expecting pilot-grade accuracy...🙂..., but this SIM exercise today more than met my own criteria of fun and complexity. Apparently, in the RW, according to Airbus, transitioning from an A330 to an A350, with the benefit of a common type rating, can be accomplished in as little as 8 days. And, of course, in our virtual world of aviation, it's literally down to hours...🙂...Oh well...no harm dreaming a bit...

The a/c felt quite distinctive and wonderful from my perspective...satisfying my long-held interest in this jetliner...

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited August 5, 2025Aug 5 by P_7878

Nice set !

cheers 😉

Another great set of photos! You're tempting me with that aircraft!!!  🙂

I'm sure you also saw iB's recent announcement for the upcoming A340?

https://msfsaddons.com/2025/08/02/inibuilds-confirms-a340-airliner-for-msfs-2024-heres-whats-coming/

Felt your excitement coming through. Love that first shot (in the fog) especially, but they're all good. Always nice to hear from a satisfied (and appreciative) simmer.

9 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Nice set !

cheers 😉

Appreciated the comment, pmplayer...!

Hope you get going yourself soon on this one...!

 

2 hours ago, rmeier said:

Another great set of photos! You're tempting me with that aircraft!!!  🙂

I'm sure you also saw iB's recent announcement for the upcoming A340?

https://msfsaddons.com/2025/08/02/inibuilds-confirms-a340-airliner-for-msfs-2024-heres-whats-coming/

Thank you, rmeier. I got tempted for this by pmplayer, you know, and, as I understand, he is unfortunately stuck with some (reported) WASM crashes. And if you ever get this SIM, I cannot wait to see the Air Canada A350, which I believe they don't have...wearing one of the (fictional) heritage red cheat-lined liveries...🙂...

BTW, strangely, I've noticed these days, that whenever I open a new TAB on my iPhone, bits of SIM News are coming up front, rather than World News...🙂...Don't know if that's a good thing or not...but someone seems to know what I like better (need to clean up some Cookies maybe) ...🙂...Yes, that's where I saw a recent FSElite article about iniBuilds' (upcoming) A340.

I visited the link you posted above...sounds good. They show an LH A340-300, in which I must have travelled umpteen times...🙂...So, we may also have the A340-600 from Aerosoft/Toliss...Hope they bring it out soon (and in Xbox too), before my hair turns grayer...🙂...we'll see...

 

1 hour ago, John F said:

Felt your excitement coming through. Love that first shot (in the fog) especially, but they're all good. Always nice to hear from a satisfied (and appreciative) simmer.

Thank you, John, such excitement is a bit contagious, as you know...🙂... Yeah...in that (self-inflicted) gloomy weather, it was hard to see where the Battery switches were...🙂...but I managed...

No regrets for this investment...it somehow felt different from the other airliner cockpits. And I'm not just talking about the Boeing cockpits with which most of us are familiar since decades...thanks to PMDG...🙂...

Hi IniSteve:

Thanks for the reaction…didn’t notice it yet. Rarely have I seen it before for my post here from the commercial maker…🙂…

Thanks for making it available on Xbox. It builds credibility so others can follow…🙂…

All good, so far.

Cheers…!