Landing at St Barths TFFJ (Pilots View) _ Straight In RWY 10 (Part 1) 

Thanks. The tutorial I made is very accurate. Its missing some details, but overall its very accurate.

Honestly I think they use 10 for time, no need to go into patern coming from Princess Juliana, its basically a straight in approach. Save 2 min per flight at the end of year you saved 50 hrs of fuel

@@FSX404 I would have never thought of that, but it makes a ton of sense. Based on runway length, terrain, etc, there won't be any long-range flights (737 or bigger) which could come from anywhere, so I can see why the majority of flights would be coming in from Juliana or Grand-Case, which in turn would make the shortest path to Gustaf III be to the Runway 10 end, as you pointed out. Thank you! The need to save on fuel aint' no joke either! Is 100LL readily available there? The other thought that occurred to me was whether it would be worthwhile for them to purchase just a bit more land north of the runway (and parallel to it) and move Le Château road a little further north of the runway, to make way for a return taxiway from the 28 end. Of the landings I've watched, it looks like the Twin Otters are able to use enough thrust with their 2 propellers to get stopped soon enough to make that turn directly off of 10 and onto the exit, but the PC12's, Caravans, and even smaller GA planes don't seem to be able to get slowed enough to exit there and they need to go to the end of the runway to turn around and then back taxi. A parallel taxiway on the north side of the runway would still require crossing the runway to get over to parking, but would at least avoid using the runway all the back to the exit. I'm sure the cost for that work and land purchase would be very high. Either way, thanks for that answer and may you always keep the blue side up!

Otters and few others can do the dive you see in videos, most other planes cant, you'll pick up speed and float. Hill is too big, much bigger than it looks in videos. Just a normal short field approach and hope you touchdown before the middle taxiway.

james dell in this case its relative, I was higher than usual for this airport, but at ~50 feet is normal for an obstacle at any airport. So yup, I was just a tad too high over the hill for this airport. Its something you have to do a few times to get right, first time you're always a bit cautious. After all this is a tough airport.

+Carlos Aguilar Thanks, it was intense

No ground effect, 20+ feet above, and no forcing down of the beechcraft. Just maintain speed and let it come down on its own. All you can do. Those STOL turboprops can force the nose down and follow the hill because they can create extra drag with the prop and they have reversable props to slow down. But mere regular planes will just pick up speed and glide if you force the nose down. Thats about 150 foot drop so, you will pick up speed. Better to mantain speed control. You've seen some videos of planes that tried to be cool and force that nose down like the Otters... they just glide and glide and glide... right into the sand

@@FSX404 Cool :) Awesome trick with the props. Did notice the pinpoint speed control. I just thought (looking at the landing markers) that the hill crossing made it gain altitude. Guess it was an optical illusion cause the hill dropped off so fast. Thanks for clearing it up :)

@@locossanity videos dont convey how big of a drop that is, I should have had a facial camera afer overflying the cars, my eyes popped and my jaw dropped at how high we were. I thought no way we make it down, no way, but the checkout instructor said just keep it here (speed) and have patience.

@@FSX404 Shock drop :) Nice description. Thanks for that. You have really nice precise control of the plane. It was a pleasure to watch and learn. Appreciate it 🙌🏻 Take care

Aidis it was about 30 feet above the road. Looks lower on a GoPro. It was my first time after all.

Its a judgment call, can you stop the plane in a 1200 feet with headwind or 2100 feet with tailwind.

From those who fly regularly, I'm told the cutoff is around 10kts, and that those conditions prevail in the morning hours before the trade winds pick up, so 28 gets the most use in the morning. But a judgement call is better than a rule of thumb applied blindly. I'm also told when there's enough of a left crosswind component on runway 10, runway 28 may become preferable due to there being a headwind on base, and the final being so short, but I imagine that's a gamble only taken by those who know the island's winds like the back of their hand.

Yes I did, sorry for the late reply

I just went there for a vacation. I did the flight part of the qualifications, but I didn't do the ground school part because qualification only lasts 1 year officially and 6 months for the rental place. So I'd have to get re-qualified again next year. I'll get a full qualification including ground school next time I go.

+GVad The Pilot (FSX404) ooh, did you see maho beach at st maarten?

+Tyreek Murillo I went there for a couple of hours on my last day at St Maarten. Should have gone there more, but I was having too much fun swimming at my hotels beach, lol

+GVad The Pilot (FSX404) it's an awesome experience, so how does it work? you can rent a plane while on vacation?

+Tyreek Murillo basically, but I coordinated months ahead of time. I sent an email to the rental place owner, gave him my experience. He thought it was enough, and once there I called him and scheduled a flight.

Once you get there, you'll do well to check out the Bahamas. Not many challenging fields but the sheer abundance of little out-of-the way cays where the airstrip takes up the entire length of the island... you can just hop from one to another, and the scenery is getting better by the day. I'd recommend the Berry Islands for starters; the trio of Chub Cay, Big Whale Cay, and Little Whale Cay airports make for a fun time hopping around before you head off towards another island chain in the area, and Chub Cay is itself an international airport (so can serve as your port of entry to the Bahamas from, say, Miami International). I also enjoyed landing at Tuvalu but it takes ages (2 hours or so in a fast turboprop) to get there from the nearest airfields in Fiji and Samoa (as far as I know the only commercial connecting flight is from Nadi in Fiji); I had no idea just how isolated it was until then. Hoping to see it once in my life before the ocean retakes Tuvalu for good.

Still kosher to do so; as long as it's not beyond.

chip I think he was aiming to land past the two white squares on the runway (I forgot what they’re called)

@@SCHULZE1 Touch down markers

His speed went up when he dived down to the runway numbers. Had plenty of energy to loose after that. It was a perfectly safe landing but I think he was a bit fast on final. Not sure what the wind was, maybe it was the safest thing to do. You certainly don't want to be too slow and low near the road on final. Congrats to the pilot!

disclosure: at St Barts the rule of thumb is that if you haven't touched down by the last taxi way, you go around. I just thought it was funny that he touched down at that point 🤷‍♂️

Rebecca Pagano hahaha, you win the internet today

What??

De nada

essel23fly not on this approach, but they do on the other side. Actually the touchdown marks are used as a glidslope when landing on runway 10. Cant see in a video, but you keep the close edge of the markers touching the hill top in front of the runway, and that is the glideslope

Actually, yes. Search for "avweb why this landing went wrong" (no link because RU-vid's antispam sucks), and at the end of that video, they show a few landings on the numbers.

Gunnie's Lets Fly VFR; you can my video, just give me credit for it. I actually look forward to seeing your video, let me know when you post the video.

Thanks GVAD .. Will do! :)

Prob Saturday Morning my time .. Just doing the editing. Like to post Saturday and Wednesday if I have something of value to share .. ru-vid.com/show-UCbH6XpPsRzAml0CTNJeUe0g My channel Link :)

Agustin Enzoa you ever landed at St. Barths?

Stfu please

outwiththem wrong, control your airspeed. And stop watching Twin Otter videos. The Otter is made for STOL and you can put the nose down 15 deg without gaining speed cause of huge flaps and twin props that act like air brakes. See that video of an Aztec trying to follow the hill down, you just gain airspeed and float forever, then end up on a beach.

Or you can do a forward slip to kill speed and increase the angle of descend to land shorter and not that marginally safe. I did them there in Aztecs in the 1990's. Did them also at virgin gorda with 20 knots crosswind over that rock that was blasted off later on.

@Wogden 700 - Not if you do a Forward Slip too. and a short push down is not going to increase the speed so much. A man has to do, what a man has to do..