Fort Sherman to Albrook, Panama

Another leg of my series of VFR bush flying in Panama. This time we rented a virtual Mooney Bravo (ICAO: M20M) with Garmin G1000 glass cockpit, unfortunately the FSX exterior is not so fine and the virtual cockpit hard to read.

We will fly from the province of Colon on the Caribbean Sea to Marcos A. Gelabert on the province of Panama, on the Pacific coast.

Fort Sherman AFB
Fort Sherman airfield is 2500’ long with runways 01/19 nearly at sea level. This was a former US Air Force Base on the Atlantic but nowadays it is no longer used.

We should tune the France Field VOR DME (FNC 109.000) on NAV1 and set the OBS to R-091. We took off from rwy 01 towards the sea and turn right towards FNC. On the picture you can observe the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal, an eye sore in FSX and FS9, a beauty in real life. Several landmarks missing here. This leg is short (5nm) and we continue climbing though this a/c seems underpowered.

FNC is the terminal VOR/DME of Colon city’s airport, Enrique Jimenez (ICAO: MPEJ) which you can see under the left wing. Another airport poorly depicted in MSFS. We turn right keeping FNC on NAV1 (tune TBG on NAV2) and OBS R-124 as we will be heading to MADEN intersection.

As we fly towards MADEN intersection we will eventually see the artificial Madden lake (see picture). In the vicinity there is Calzada Larga airfield (FSX: MP23), actively used for training flights. Some more important landmarks missing here. Last year a student and instructor had engine trouble and ended their lives in this lake.

In this flight we also had some rain and low clouds but visibility was still good. There was some time to enjoy the scenery although in real life there is a lot more forest and jungle than shown in FSX, even with this XCloud 9’s South America landclass. Yet I recommend this landclass (payware) as it is a great improvement over the default FSX landclass for the whole region of Panama!.

Actually, after reaching MADEN intersection you should fly another 4nm before turning right to go straight towards rwy. 18.

Marcos A. Gelabert, Albrook, Panama
This public airport is a hub for regional airlines flying to all corners of Panama. It is located on the pacific coast at the entry of the Panama canal as well! Lots of landmarks missing here as well.

Anyway, by now we have TBG VOR/DME set on either NAV1 or NAV2 as reference, there are no terminal beacons at Marcos A. Gelabert (ICAO: MPMG). Anyway here above a shot of our final approach to the airfield (rwy 18) with the city of Panama on the left, actually if this was photoreal you would see my parent’s house there! You can use the VASI approach lights and watch your descent because there is a hilly obstacle on that end of the runway.

MPMG is one of my favourite departures and destinations for local national flights (as it is in real life). Although there is add-on FS9 scenery, there is none for FSX. As usual we landed safely in our rented Mooney Bravo, taxied to the ramp and opened the door, and oh my! according to this I am a woman, how can that be? If you paid attention to my suggestion, you would have landed here as well (rwy 36) flying the C208B from Punta Cocos.