WINDWARD STOL Challenge: flight 6b - Saba-St. Eustatius (SXM-SAB-EUX-SXM)

About the flight: Winair flight 535 makes a round trip in 3 legs from 14:40 to 15:45, as a new storm approaches. Its second leg to St. Eustatius requires a STOL departure from Saba's shortest commercially-used runway in the world. The flight then returns to St. Maarten.

WARNING: Before this flight, you should practice STOL take-offs at Saba, using flight Win0d-STOLtakeoffpractice-SAB.

All 3 legs - Time: about 1h 10min. Length: 80-100 nm.
This leg - Time: 15-25 min. Length: 20-30 nm. Load: 24% fuel, 8 passengers (40% of max.).

Weather: New storms. Winds from 070° at 12-15 kt.

Airport and Navaid information:
- St. Maarten: elevation 13', runway 09/27 (no ILS), VOR/DME PJM 113.0, NDB PJM 308
- Saba: elevation 138', runway 12/30 (no ILS), 1300 ft long
- St. Eustatius: elevation 129', runway 06/24 (no ILS), NDB PJE 235

Saba-St. Eustatius: The flight begins on the ramp at Saba at the scheduled time: 15:05.

Unpause, press S to jump into the cockpit. If desired, contact ATC for IFR clearance. Start the engines. After engine start, make sure the generators GEN1 and GEN2 are ON. Also click the right gray button on the RMI (toward bottom left of panel) to link the green needle to the NDB PJE at St. Eustatius (you can magnify the RMI by clicking on it).

With ATC permission, taxi west along the runway (30) to runway 12. Turn around at the extreme end of the runway.

You have a relatively light load, so flaps 4 (one less than max.) will be OK. Take off and head straight out, climbing at 105 kt. Cruise at 2000 ft and 135 kt.

If the radio heading indicator (RMI) stops turning with the plane (FS2004 will warn you), switch GEN1 and GEN2 to ON.

If you do not use ATC, do this:
- after take-off, turn right to heading 150°;
- line up with runway 06, guided by the PJE NDB.;
- land on runway 06.


Exit the runway to the right/south (FS2004 has no taxiways or terminal here).

Shut down the left engine and open the doors. The scheduled arrival time is 15:15.

If you wish to fly the next leg with ATC, load flight Win6c-SXM-SAB-EUXramp-SXM (this loads the new flight plan). If you prefer to continue without ATC, use the following instructions.

St. Eustatius-St. Maarten without ATC: The scheduled departure time is 15:25.

At 15:25, close the doors and start the left engine.

Take off to the northeast on runway 06, and head for VOR PJM at St. Maarten on course 360°.

Cruise at 3000 ft and 135 kt.

Land on runway 09.
The scheduled arrival time is 15:45.

Press ESC to end the flight. For the next round-trip flight in this Challenge, load flight Win7a-SXMramp-SBH-AXA-SXM.

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