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