On Monday May 31st I finished up my duties in northern Costa Rica and made my way back to the Capital to await Tony's instructions. My first reactions were a bit angry, "How does he expect me to fly from South America to Europe to Nepal AND complete these short runway challenges?" But as I read, and reread the instructions and poured over his staged screenshots that really failed to capture the enormity of what he was asking my mood mellowed. I had the waitress bring me another serving of the grilled veggie-K-bob things with the rice and some kind of Central American Teriaki. I sat under the umbrella in my shorts and the tan "Crock-Hunter shirt" from Bill and as the warm tropical rain fell I formulated my plan for the month.
Tuesday June 1st, I departed MROC in a Pan Am 767 with 40% fuel and headed to Merida, Venezuela. (pict1) From the information and photos it looked alot like Medelin, Colombia where I flew into in my October 2007 PIREP. I skirtted along the northern coast of Panama and corssed northern Colombia before heading into ... I guess it's the northern Andes Mountains. The 767 was considerably lighter as I crested the mountains at 16,000 feet and stared my low-level drive down the valley. (Good thing that Chris had us practice in that fighter jet a couple of months ago!) As I tried to stay low I dropped in the flaps and eventually the gears came down which was the cockpit's signal to start warning me with, "Whoop Whoop! Don't Sink" callouts. (pict2) The GPS said I was less than 20 miles out and ahead I could see ... valley fog! "Don't Sink" I rounded the bend, took a last look at the GPS and then dropped to the mini-panel. "Don't Sink, Pull Up!" Airspeed 140 knots, full flaps, gear down, autobrake to max (I've seen the photos of what happens when you land with the parking brake set - I didn't want to do that!) "Whoop Whoop, Terrain!" Ahead I could just make out the ghosty outline of a tall building and remembered my approach into Medelin ... so headed slightly left toward that building and almost immediately I saw the runway lights ahead. (pict3) "Don't Sink ... Don't Sink ... Pull Up!" The landing was shockingly smooth, autobraking on this beast isn't like the 737!
(pict4) Full reverse and we pulled up nicely at the end of the runway. (pict5) No worries!
The only way to get a 767 around here is to use a tug so they drove one out, hooked me up, and pushed me back just over one mile to the very, teatery edge of the pavement. (pict6) I set flaps for take-off, turned autobraking off (There's no RTO here) and set the parking brake. Then I slowly advanced my throttles until the brakes would no longer contain the power! I released the brakes and we were off. I advanced the throttles to 99% and a mile later we were airborne and pulling up the gear. (pict7) 250 knots comes up fast when you are so low on gas!
My next landing was at St Maarten, the famous Princess Julianna airport but ATC was insistent that I land on 27. I've never done that before! Sheesh that's tight. (pict8) I was going to go missed until I saw my fuel gauges all on zero and somehow I slammed the 767 down with about 4,000 of runway left. (pict9) Another full-stop landing and we taxied to parking, shutting down with 186 pounds of gas in each wing! This bird will need a schedule C after that tour!
Next up was St Bart's and Tony said, "They've made a mess of it." So I climbed into a near-by Cessna Caravan and went to check it out. While there is no mountain in the way of runway 10 there is a large building and the other end doesn't have a bay it has trees. Looks good to me! Back to Prinecess Julianna and into a 738NG. 25% gas loaded and we were off. (pict10) Left turn and set-up for approach to St. Bart's runway 10. Full flaps, autobrake to max, spoilers armed ... how close to that building can I "Don't Sink" get? (pict11)
Well, pretty darn close! (pict12) (pict13) I had to use the toe brakes once under 50 knots but we stopped up rather easily. (pict14) Once again we called the tug to come out and turn us around, then I departed back over the building. (pict15) Now I made a right pattern and flew downwind to runway 28 (just to prove to Tony that I could land either way without the add-on scenery!) (pict16) You know the story from here: "Don't Sink" Flaps, Gears, Brakes, Stick Shacker ... we had it all. "Whoop Whoop, Terrain. Pull Up!" Over the trees and down to the runway (pict17) "Whoop Whoop, Sink Rate." "Sink Rate, Pull Up!" Over the last ... 
Now really folks! One little palm branch out there on the wing? Maybe some leading edge or slats damage but a crash? C'mon! (pict18)
Back to 28 ... over the building ... right pattern ... over the hill ... "Whoop Whoop Terrain" ... "Whoop Whoop Sink Rate" ... over the blasted palm tree ... slam down on the runway ... Umph! ... Reverse ... into the grass ... lock the brakes ... (pict19) (pict20)
There it is folks, you can't land a 737 on 28 at St. Bart's in default FSX scenery. Can't be done on the pavement. (pict21) Tug comes out ... turns me around ... full throttle ... into the trees. Second attempt = trees. Benjamin tried = trees. Benjamin tried again and drug the tail all the way into the trees. Benjamin tried a third time and stalled. So, you CAN NOT land a 737 on 28 and you CAN NOT take a 737 off from 10. That's it, can't do it! (pict22) (pict23)
737NG back to Princess Julianna. Next stop is SABA and again, no add-ons. I figure if this guy can do it in FS2004 ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KuE5x7JQQc so I flew there and FSX has surrounded the runway with trees! Back to St. Maarten. Now look, even Google earth shows no trees and a clean, straight-in approach like the 2004 video! (pict24) Into the Grand Caravan. With a tricky little knife-edge through the trees I got that one down and I managed to take off again but I'm not sure how! (pict25) (pict26)
Back to St. Maarten to call it a day and hunt down that recommended mesh texture. with textures located and downloaded and installed I stepping back outside the next morning to find St Maarten was ... GONE! "This sucks!" So I went into the Addon-Scenery folder and deleted all files associated with St Maarten. That restored the default look. Then I climbed aboard an LIAT Dash-8 Q100 and headed over the St Bart's. Again I found that the new mesh had wiped everything recognizable off the island and added a runway with a building in the middle of a broad open field. So back into the Addon Scenery folder and deleting another six files I had St. Bart's back to it's default tricky approach over the building into runway 10 - which I did successfully in the Dash-8 as well.
Departing from St. Bart's runway 28 I next headed over the SABA and found that the island and runway looked about the same but the add-on had added some buildings and cut down a couple of trees on my approach path. I know, Tony said not to do this in FSX but I had come this far ... So with gear and flaps down I headed over the rocks and made a slight left-hand turn, cutting the throttles and letting the plane fall down the hillside with, "SINK RATE" and "PULL UP" ringing in my ears. I was tempted to just land on the downslope and drive onto the airport but keeping it real, I kept the wheels just feet off the grass until I could squeeze between the remaining trees and touch the wheels down. This model of Dash-8 is really twitchy and even if I could hold the pitch steady the downhill run had my speed up around 110 knots which was far to fast to land and stop so as the mains touched I slammed the throttles in and pushed the flaps levers to full-up and successfully did a touch-and-go. Then I flew back to St. Maarten.
Later in the day I had secured an EMB-120 and took that over the SABA. Same approach, running downhill between the trees. "SINK RATE" "SINK RATE" (pict27) I flared at 90 knots, (pict28) wheels down at 80 and stopped just in time with full reverse and heavy braking!
I taxied over to the buildings and shut down, then I ordered a cool drink and sat down with some locals who were talking about some jerk that tried bringing a Dash-8 in earlier in the day! (pict29) Finally I left and flew the EMB-120 back to St. Maarten's and jumped into an A380 (this was for Bill's benefit). (pict30) (pict31)
I took the A380, overnight, to Zurich. I started out at FL290, climbed up to FL330 and finally up to FL370 just before dawn. (pict32) Our route took us over the whole and France and then we landed up on runway 14. (pict33) The landing was long but so smooth that the spoilers didn't auto-deploy! (pict34) I pulled into a gate just next to a departing 744 and then headed off for some breakfast. (pict35)
Later in the morning I climbed into the TooMuchFS Express CRJ-200 and headed for Courchevel, France, about 140 miles away. (pict36) Our route took us directly over Sion, another challenging location from a past FOTM. (pict37) Finally I crested the last hill and disconnected Otto. I pulled the throttles back and started dropping in flaps and gear as the speed came down. (pict38) Finally I was ready to head in but even with the add-on there are some trees in the way! The first pass was high and I gotta tell you, going missed here ain't the best thing to do. The second approach was much better, "TERRAIN, PULL UP!". With the stall horn screaming I skimmed the treetops ... HUGE flare and set her down just in time to launch off the ski jump at the end.
(pict39) I slammed the throttles forward and plastered the belly of the CRJ into the hillside about 200 feet up from the runway's end.
Next I turned crash-detection OFF and flew the approach again, this time flying THROUGH the trees on finals, landing on the very end of the runway and stopping up on top. (pict40) So Tony, the only way to land a CRJ in Courchevel in FSX is to fly through the trees with crash detector off. Take-off was similar - through the trees. So I turned crash back on and flew the approach and landing again with the Dash-8 making it both in and out with no problems. (pict41) (pict42) (pict43) (pict44) Well, sweaty palms and too many "PULL UP!" warnings but we all survived and I flew the Dash-8 back to Zurich were I grabbed some dinner before departing in a Singapore Airlines A350. (pict45) By the way, why does Tony's FOTM tell us to land Courchevel in a CRJ yet he shows landing in a Dash-8? (pict46)
I flew the A350 on another overnighter landing in Kathmandu before dawn the next day. (pict47) (pict48) Later that day, when the wind died down, we had perfect weather for flying. Tony had said to land a CRJ in Lukla but then I got an e-mail that said only a Twin Otter had worked so far. Well, I loaded up an ATR-42 and headed the rather short climb up to Lukla (NE of Kathmandu). (pict49) Certainly the trip up into the Himalayas as scenic and my first pass took me beyond the airport to look at the approach into runway 24. (pict50) I'm thinking this is NOT the way to go. (pict51) Flying back out to where I had more room I turned around and tried two approaches into runway 06 but found each time that the angle and the trees just weren't going to work out. Yes, my approaches had all the "Terrain, Pull Up" warnings but no "Sink Rate" cautions this time! Finally I decided that I could land on a heading of 07 even though the runway was running 06. (pict52) (See Drawing) (pict53) That worked just fine and I successfully got the ATR-42 in and out from 07/25. (pict54) (pict55)
I flew part of the way back to Kathmandu before switching to a Dash-8 and successfully completing another circuit in and out of Lukla. (pict56) (pict57) Finally, turning around in the same spot (about 25 miles from Lukla) I switched to an EMB-120 and made the best/easiest-yet cycle through this high-altitude challenge. (pict58) Then I flew the EMB back to Kathmandu (pict59) and after dinner climbed into a Boeing 787 for the flight down to Mangalore, India. (pict60) (pict61) Though the airport has had some 737s overrun the runway I was able to get the 787 down and stopped without concern. (pict62)
Tony, I should have known you'd pull something like this out of your hat. Thanks so much for helping to tune-up my landing skills. You'll see me next month starting out from Mangalore. (pict63)
