WINDWARD STOL Challenge: take-off practice at Saba

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 take-off practice uses Saba's famous runway 12: if you don't lift off, you will drop 138 ft to the sea below. The aim is to lift off as soon as possible. With full load, you should be able to lift off well before the end of the 1000 ft long runway. The weather is perfectly calm.

The plane is loaded at 100% of max. gross weight (50% of max. fuel, 100% of max. passengers).

One way to take off is to achieve full power before releasing the brakes, and to rotate with full flaps at about 60 kt (less flaps suffice at lower loads).

(Note: the default FS2004 scenery unrealistically places the runway close to sea level on a flat island.)

Suggested procedure: The flight starts at the very beginning of runway 12, with max. flaps 5 (35°).

Do this:
- rev up the engines to full power;
- release the brakes;
- at about 60 kt, rotate the nose up to about 10°;
- after lift-off (about 75 kt), gradually retract the flaps to gain both forward speed and vertical speed.


You may watch a video of one of my take-offs: press Alt-O | V | select Win0-STOLtakeoffpractice-SABa | Play Clip. (Note: video replays don't show flap settings or flap movements.)

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