The Tropics

Can't beat the warm breezes and the sun shine you get in the tropics. And with me getting sick of winter already I had to get myself into a tropical state of mind. A flight to the islands was in order.

My friend Stu who flies for ACA said it's no secret he bids on the warm routes during the winter just so he can do a pre flight walk around in short sleeves....

Today I'm flying the PMDG 737-800 for the now defunct BWIA (Beewee for short). KFLL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) to TNCM (Saint Maarten). It was tee shirt weather all around.

Pushing Back KFLL

BWA883 has 141 passengers for today's journey. In real life they flew out of KMIA but I wanted to depart where I last left off and I did not want the insane amount of waiting you might endure at KMIA.

Taxi on TANGO to 27R

Departure weather at KFLL was wind 060/07kts with clouds 3'600 few and a mild 22C. I was offered runway 31 for takeoff as it was close to my gate near Terminal 4, but due to small runway length of 6'930ft I decided to play it safe and use the longer 9'000ft runway 27R even though it was a long taxi ride on the opposite side of the field.

Using the BAHMA1 departure I headed east out over the Atlantic and then turning south once over the Bahamas onto the A555 airway.

27R KFLL

The ride down to TNCM was very smooth at FL370 and I encountered little traffic, the odd American Eagle or American Airlines flights heading to San Juan, the Turks and Cacao's and the US Virgin Islands.

I had time for a real life shower on this flight and even ate a nice pasta dinner for my in flight meal. Not many cruise images due to this! After a hot shower and meal, I choked down a coffee and it was time to start heading down for the approach into TNCM.

Using the the one and only arrival into TNCM, ULUBA the weather was setting up for a runway 10 VOR approach. Wind was 120/08kts with clouds 2'100 broken and a tropical 27C. The arrival route was a bit bumpy but no convection in the area during this mid afternoon landing. I called for a flaps 40 and auto brake max.

The arrival took me almost straight in from the JUICE fix for a 10 mile final that is offset from the runway slightly. Some traffic was coming and going, a Delta 757 to Atlanta, American 757 going to Miami and a Lear Jet on it's way to Milwaukee.

Short Final runway 10 TNCM

I went visual and hand flew from 4.8nm DME and 1'600ft, no glide slope at TNCM so your on the PAPI on your way in.

This is the time you need that extra brain and set of eyes and hands in the cockpit. I forgot to arm the G/A and reset the MCP altitude for missed approach. It was a good two minutes or so of hand flying the landing, critical time I normally use for setting up my landing configuration and going over the checklist.

The landing was not half bad considering I did most of it, I touched down smooth enough but did a slight one wheel bounce. I was aiming to try and get slowed down fast enough to use the turning bay 2/3 down the runway that the Jepp chart requested, thus the reason for the called flaps 40 A/B MAX. In a 747 that is impossible, your going all the way to the end to turn around. I flew the 747-400 into here a couple years back and talk about a white knuckle approach. Much easier in the 737-800 thank you very much, but just as exciting.

At the gate TNCM

Surrounded by palm trees and sun the entire route. And then 27C at TNCM, can you imagine! Makes me want to fly in shorts and have a tropical drink......