FSX ! Marcos Gelabert to Bocas del Toro

I am using my new PC with FSX and let me tell you, with a good video card and a powerful processor you can finally start enjoying FSX!!!

I am flying in my home base (Panama) so my FSX flights have been local flights. For that purpose I installed the FSX Mesh South America (tiles A02 & B02) for proper topography. I also installed the excellent MPBO (Bocas del Toro Intl.) airport scenery for FSX by Rhett Browning which depicts the small airport as it is. The island however is just default.

In this blog entry I am posting my latest flight, an ambulance service on a Beechcraft Super King Air 350 from MPMG (Marcos A. Gelabert) to Bocas del Toro (MPBO) which is a real life scheduled flight (I did not declared it as such) run by Air Panama and Aero Perlas.

Bocas del Toro airport is located on an island on the Gulf and province of the same name. It has unreaped nature and becoming a tourist spot for those who still like the unbeaten path. The airport has a small strip, when landing on rwy 28 you have to be careful not to land on top of the houses or crash into a tall tree (autogen!) leading to rwy 28. You also have to stop because at the end of rwy 28 there is only some 10 feet before you ditch your plane into the water. Very challenging!

The pictures shown here are of my a/c once I reached cruise altitude of 10,000 feet having passed Taboga (TBG) VOR and on G440 to KIKES intersection with the Panama canal on the background. The other photo is from the pilot's window over the Caribbean Sea with the coastal area of Panama on the left. To the right is the coast of the province of Veraguas and further on we can already appreciate the Gulf of Bocas del Toro (of the province with the same name), we were getting closer to our approach point.

Since the Civil Aviation Organization does not make many charts available (and the few are very old unless you buy them) I am in the process of making approach charts for Bocas del Toro. In this flight I was testing the approach procedure.

Flight Brief
Bocas del Toro Intl. (MPBO / BOC)has a single runway (26/08) with bearings 267 and 87 degrees. It receives aircraft with weights not greater than 26,500 lbs. So please, refrain from using heavier (unrealistic) a/c, a couple of years ago I monitored on IVAO ATC some newbie taking off with a Boeing 737-800, sure he claimed it could take off but only because he was using a very unrealistic a/c model. In real life you will see only small aircrafts (GA) and other small STOL a/c such as the De Havilland DHC6 Twin Otter, Saab 300, ATR-42 and Islander.

The approach via runway 28 is tricky because you have to be above the houses and tall trees on the head of the runway and then do a last minute drop. The trees is mostly a MSFS AutoGen problem. The other end of the runway has only a few feet before dropping into the sea.

The airport has a small terminal on the east side, no fuel facilities and houses the BDT VOR (114.90) which is not aligned to the runway, you can't use it for accurate horizontal navigation.

Departure
Took off from Marcos A. Gelabert (MPMG/PAC) airport in Albrook, Panama from runway 36. Climbed runway heading and then turned right -overflying my neighbourhood- to intercept TBG radial, i.e. or heading 191. Over Taboga VOR (in an island) turned right to follow victor airway G440 via KIKES intersection.

We will cross the Isthm of Panama from Pacific to Atlantic and follow G440 along the coast on the Caribbean at 10,000 feet.

Approach
Our initial approach is marked by the GEMER intersection some 25 nm inbound BDT (Bocas del Toro VOR) so we descent down to 4500 feet. 10 nm inbound on G440 we should be at 3200 feet and turn right heading 15 degrees to fly the 10nm arc for a few minutes, watch until the airport is abeam on your left (examine the map).

Then turn left heading 267, if you set the OBS the indicator will be off by 4 dots and continue descending on a 3 degree slope. You should be around 1600 ft. 5nm inbound but don't go too low because of the houses and trees leading to runway 26.

Landing
Landing here takes good practice to avoid crashing the landing gear on the autogen trees. Then when over the autogen area there is kind of an opening (used for playing football!) that you can use to do the last minute descent onto runway 26.

Apply brakes and feather the propellers so that you don't ditch your plane on the sea, you might kill some divers! There is no return or turn areas/taxiways. You have to do the turn right on the runway and return to the east end (rwy 28) to the small apron in front of the terminal (see picture).