WINDWARD STOL Challenge: landing practice at St. Barthelemy
Note: You may print out these flight instructions,
or consult them in-flight (press F10).
This flight assumes familiarity with FS2004 (FS9), its ATC,
and the add-on Winair Twin Otter.
About the flight:
This second landing practice uses St. Barthelemy's notorious runway 10,
which starts just behind a saddle over which the aircraft must approach,
and ends just before a beach.
The dual aim is to touch down, and stop, as close to the threshold as possible.
The weather is perfectly calm.
The plane is loaded at 80% of max. gross weight
(30% of max. fuel, 45% of max. passengers).
One way to fly this approach is to first descend powered on a medium slope,
until reaching the saddle at about 70 kt.
Then a steep dive is needed to the runway.
Touchdown may happen halfway down the runway, which is long enough (2100 ft).
(Note: the recommended add-on scenery makes the saddle slightly higher than
in real life: 190 ft instead of 150 ft; the default FS2004 scenery makes
the saddle higher again: 220 ft, including trees.)
Suggested procedure:
The flight starts at 1500 ft at 135 kt, on autopilot,
lined up with the runway, with flaps 0 (0°).
Do this:
- disengage the autopilot (press Z);
- slow to 80-90 kt for a standard approach, with flaps 3 or 4 (20-25°)
and a descent rate of about -500 to -600 ft/min,
aiming just above the saddle in front of the runway;
- before the saddle, slow to 70 kt, with full flaps 5 (35°)
and a descent rate of about -300 ft/min;
- just past the saddle, push the nose down for a steep dive;
- flare at the last moment;
- at touchdown, push the nose down hard, reverse thrust (F1 then F2), and brake;
- cancel reverse thrust when stopped (F1).
You may watch a video of one of my approaches: press Alt-O | V |
select Win0-STOLlandingpractice-SBH10a | Play Clip.
(Note: video replays don't show flap settings or flap movements;
and the plane can disappear underground when it stops, thus crashing.)
For the next practice flight,
load flight Win0c-STOLlandingpractice-SAB.
Press ESC to end the flight.
Further documentation:
Read the Word file FS2004 MV challenge - Windward STOL.doc,
located in the folder C:\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files\Windward STOL
(or similar path).
Copyright 2004 Michael Vone