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Page 1 of 5 Dangerous approaches and airportsIntroduction The highly reliable autopilot and autoland systems present in modern add-ons today takes very few of what Flight Simulator can show. In this guide, I'll be presenting you some of the best and most beautiful approaches in the world. If available, the real life approach plate and custom scenery links will be also presented - this way you can fly these approaches in the most realistic way. Even if you don't feel like performing the whole approach, give those airports a try... they are nice enough even without the approach plates! Five airports/approaches are discussed here: Princess Juliana, Santos Dumont, Kai Tak, Innsbruck and Madeira. For easy navigation, I have put each one in a different page. After you read a page, click on the Next > button (located on the left side of the page bottom) to read the next one. Let's start with the most popular approach among simmers! 1. Philipsburg / St. Maarten - Princess Juliana (SXM / TNCM) 
This is for sure the most popular approach in the world, mainly because of the beach -- named Maho Beach -- that is just before the runway. Aircraft landing on runway 09 pass above this beach so low that you think you can actually touch the main gear; when they are taking off, the jet blast can make people on the sand get to the sea! You can just image how cool it is to have a 747-400 pass just above your head and how skilled those pilots have to be in order to perform this approach correctly; a slightly lower altitude at the wrong time can have catastrophic consequences.
Before you start, download the Princess Juliana scenery by Delblond Christian at the AVSIM Library. Some background info ... Princess Juliana International Airport is the airport of St. Maarten, located 15 kilometers northwest of Philipsburg. The island of St. Maarten is the smallest landmass in the world shared by two nations: the northern side is governed by the French and the southern side is one of the five island territories that make up the semi autonomous country of the Netherlands Antilles, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. While English is the main language on both sides, Dutch is the official language on the southern side and French the official language on the northern side. Because of its geographical location, the island plays a strategic role in the development of neighboring islands Saba , St. Eustatius (also Netherlands Antilles territories), Anguilla and St. Barth´s. As a matter of fact, the Princess Juliana International Airport serves more than the community of St. Maarten and its tourism industry. The airport is the hub that feeds St. Martin and surrounding islands as well. More information about the Pricess Juliana airport can be found in their official website: www.pjiae.com The famous approach: DME/VOR for runway 09 !  | This is the approach plate used for the DME/VOR RNW 09 procedure at Princess Juliana. If you are not familiar with approach plates, check the "How to interpret approach plates" tutorial: [TUTORIAL] Interpreting approach plates I must enforce that this is a non-precision approach (no ILS) and landings on runway 27 are prohibited because of the huge cliff behind it. If you are too much used to autolands and ILS approaches, this will be very difficult to perform at first - the DME ARC that is required is one of the most difficult procedures and requires much practice to be done correctly. If you can perform this approach correctly, you are a skilled pilot! The approach starts at 2600 feet, over the ST. MARTEEN VOR (PJM - 113.0). Intercept and track radial 318 until 7 DME from the VOR, where you can start turning left to enter the 9 DME ARC. The concept behind DME ARCs is simple: imagine that you, with a compass, draw a circle with its center over the VOR and with a radius of 9 nautical miles. Then, follow the part of this circle required by the plate and you're done. In this case the DME ARC goes from from radial 318 to 276; exit this circle so that you reach radial 276 as far as 7 nautical miles from the station. Once you have visual contact, align visually with the runway and accomplish normal landing. The Princess Juliana airport is so popular among simmers because of the skills needed to land safely and the visual beauty of the island. As you enter the final approach, the first sight of the island can be seen -- the cliff behind runway 27, PAPI lights, Maho Beach and some hotels/bars nearby ... On short final, the altitude must be constantly monitored so that you don't burn a couple of people on the beach :) Now, get yourself a nice Boeing 747-400 from Project Open Sky (www.projectopensky.com) and try that approach. I'm sure that once you get the hang of it, it will be your favorite one. Enjoy the awesome sky and low passages over the beach - it's guaranteed fun! |
Short final for runway 09 ...
Still think it doesn't exist? Check out real pictures at www.airliners.net ! Please advance to the next page now...
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