Rio Hato circuit on BAe J41

A bit over a week ago I gave myself a birthday present, a shining and professional simulation from PMDG, namely the BAe Jetstream 4100 (J41) turboprop. There have been excellent reviews on this a/c and I decided to buy it and it was a good buy.

To fly this thing you have to at least read the Pilot Introduction booklet and the Pilot Tutorial or you will end up with engine fires or catastrophic engine failure. I have only browsed the Aircraft Operation Manual (500+ pages!).

So, having done some reading I decided to familiarize myself with it to see if I have understood the concepts, you can't fly this bird like you would a default (or freeware) FSX aircraft. Because I am still a "student" and was short of time I took the controls of the bird with engines running (not a cold start).

You can say I was the First Officer (FO) Pilot Flying being instructed by the Captain. My plan is to do a full range flight (Bahía Solano, Colombia to Tocumen, Panama) once I feel comfortable with it and ready to do my first "line flight".

Prior to this I had developed an add-on scenery for Rio Hato airport (MPRH) for FSX. Our J41 was parked on the only medium ramp on this airfield near the main hangar on the apron. My virtual captain had given me control after ready for taxi.

Flight Brief

We will depart from Rio Hato (MPRH)'s medium ramp and taxi to runway 34. We will pay close attention to the lessons learned about ground and air handling. In particular the proper use of the condition lever and thrust lever according to the phase of flight. We would monitor the EGT, Torque and RPM on the Engine Instrumentation Panel, we do not want to burn the engines.

After takeoff we will simply do a full circuit around the airfield with the last part over the sea prior to landing on runway 34. The weather was clear with perfect visibility.

The circuit

We will take off and climb runway heading to a height of 4000'. Then we will do a 1+ minute crosswind leg at around 190 knots keeping the condition lever in the flight setting.

Then we will turn left on our downwind leg heading out to sea (I can't swim!). On our way we will have both the airfield and Decameron resort on our left. We will continue some 8nm into the sea, around the same place where the victor airway to MPCE (Chitré) passes. Keep an eye on the speed, we don't want to be too fast because this bird has some quirks.

Finally turned left again after some 2 minutes after passing the coastline and started our base leg (see picture) having descended to around 3500'. Our airport is just left of the green forest seen right atop the cabin on this screenshot. In our virtual cockpit we monitor the EHSI to keep our heading. We will also reduce speed to around 160 knots. Use the panning button on the virtual cockpit to also look out the window, we want to keep an eye on the small island (Farallon island). Don't go past that island, we must have it around 1nm on our right during the final approach.

Then our final turn into the final approach leg continuing our descent profile, our throttles where down and the condition lever full forward (we need 100% on descent). Make sure to start your turn on time to be properly aligned with runway 34. When crossing the coastline you will see the buildings of the Decameron resort (and some beach huts) on your left and the (abandoned) house of former dicator Manuel Noriega on your right. Keep an eye on the runway, there is a small radio beacon on your right (real life obstacle).

The landing was nearly perfect with a flare at the end. I think I was a little fast (138 knots). You can see on the screenshot the control tower, the main hangar we we started and a white van ready to take us to the resort after sweating it. Unfortunately I did not land on the spot I wanted, as a result even with reverse thrust I did not manage to stop the a/c before reaching the end of the active runway. This means we overrun the Panamerican highway!

Well, this airfield is a curiousity, it is a larger runway split in two by the Panamerican Highway! so we did not hit any car (luckily) and we could use the rest of the former runway (nowadays closed) to come to a full stop, we didn't need much of it. After that I put the condition lever to its TAXI position, throttles to idle and turned right into the taxiway. Then again right onto Bravo taxiway crossing the highway and past several hangars on our left. At the end we turned right again near the radio beacon and passed behind the head of runway 34 to head to the ramp where I started originally and shut down the engines. Pfew! I was scared of having engine fires or melting down the engine but I guess it did good to monitor the engine parameters and use the levers properly. The virtual captain however, was not too happy about overruning the highway :O.

I still have a lot of reading to be done, having already color coded the Pilot Tutorial with indications of where to find the various instruments. Lately I am having a lot of joy flying small aircraft (virtually) and turboprops. I also have my Wilco Publishing/Feel There Legacy to be mastered.