Twin Otter : Volcan, Chiriquí to Albrook, Panama

In our previous flight we took off from Pavas, Costa Rica to take some tourists to Volcán, Chiriquí, Panama with 200 lbs. of fuel We arrived on schedule just before it got dark because Volcan has no lights. If you recall, our virtual pilot didn’t shut both engines because we were going on to Marcos A. Gelabert, Panama city (ICAO: MPMG, IATA: PAC) to take the rest of the passengers. Turn around was quick because it was getting darker.

There are no fuel facilities here in Volcan and we had just enough fuel to arrive to Albrook plus a bit more spare. The challenge of managing fuel properly was compounded because this was going to be another IFR flight and most of the flight was going to be at night.

We will continue our flight with our trusted Twin Otter 400 (ICAO: DHC6) in Cayman Airways livery, modelled by Premier Aircraft Design (PAD). Volcan airport add-on developed by me to replace the poor default airport. As stated in the About Us tab, all posts on this blog are about flight simulation and you should never use it for real life navigation!!! Even though I use an updated mesh, it does not fully reflect the real altitudes (+- 70m)!.

Briefing
At Volcan (FSX: PX02, FS9: MP21) we will taxi to runway 12. Our cruise altitude will be FL150 (15,000 ft.) for the most part and in this trip we will cover 201 nm, our expected flight duration will be 2 hours and should consume around 95 gallons. Contrary to our original plan to go closer to the coast to avoid the mountains, we will add a challenge by following a more straight route with the “cordillera central” (Panama’s mountain range or continental divide) just left of us. Sometimes we will fly over a few mountains as well. Therefore we must monitor our course and altitude properly.

Our fuel is limited, therefore the straighter route but so will be visibility even in good weather. In this IFR flight we will be making use of the David (ICAO: MPDA, VOR/DME: DAV 114.30 NDB: DAV 350.00) and Bocas del Toro (ICAO: MPBO, VOR/DME: BDT 114.90) navigation aids to track the initial intersections in our route and in the 2nd phase we will use David and Taboga (VOR/DME: TBG 110.00 NDB: TBG 311.00). The Santiago navaid is along the way but it is only a VOR, no DME you can use its R-353 however because the RONAM intersection is on that radial at some 31nm northwest of Santiago. Our route will be “ETATI dct EGOSO/A110 a502 RONAM a502 IRUKA/A070 a502 TBG/A025”

Departure
As you can see on the screenshot in the briefing section, when while we loaded up it got very misty in Volcan (typical of the region) and we had a small window of time to take off before it was too dark. While the few passengers from Bambito and Volcán ate their crackers we taxied to runway 12. We took off at 18:15 local time. The airport is at 4642 ft. altitude and climbed runway heading (no obstacles). We took off with 122 gals. and 1710 lbs. of payload.

Retracted flaps accordingly and turned slightly left heading 102º towards ETATI intersection 23.5nm away. Tuned the DAV VOR/DME on NAV1, BDT VOR/DME on NAV2 and DAV NDB on the ADF. While we track our heading we will monitor both VOR needles as we have set OBS1 to R-030 and OBS2 to R-184. At ETATI the needles should center and DME1 should show around 20nm and DME2 some 41.5nm.

Cruise
Reached our cruise altitude of 15,000 ft. at 18:23 local time with 104 lbs. of fuel. A few minutes later (18:25) we reached ETATI intersection, both needles centered and the ADF needle pointing DAV at 103º. We keep the same VORs tuned but update the radials to OBS1 at R-082 and OBS2 at R-162, move the ADF rose to our new heading of 125º. We won’t be flying any victor or jet airway so straight to EGOSO where DME1 should say 30.5 and DME2 55.8nm. We keep our cruise altitude because of the mountains on our left and some below us.

At EGOSO descended to 11,000 feet but if you aren’t sure keep 15,000 and if it wasn’t for the darkness around us we would see Cerro Santiago on our left. Fuel had to be properly managed so don’t forget to keep on leaning the mixture at these high altitudes. From now on we will be heading 125º over victor airway A502. Watch your altitude because 20nm from EGOSO we will be flying over and along the mountain range. At 18:56 local time we reached RONAM intersection with 88 gals. of fuel with the montains of Santa Fe below us. By the way, once passed EGOSO we are inbound Taboga VOR (VOR/DME: TBG 110.00 NDB: TBG 311.00) so don’t forget to tune it in NAV1.

IRUKA intersection was our next waypoint 57nm away. By now the virtual pilot was a bit worried, we have used a bit more fuel than expected (mixture leaning problems?) I checked the flight log, fuel consumption stabilized after the climb. Made a calculation error because I looked at “fuel weight” rather than “fuel amount” and that was giving odd results, maybe not enough to reach our destination. That was weird, there was Chame airport in the vicinity (southwest) but it has no lights, can’t land there. Last chance could be Rio Hato, farther away which has lights (add-on, not the stock FSX airport!) but no fuel facilities there yet the passengers can stay at any of the two resorts. Ah, there it was, I realized of my error and according to the new fuel calculations I should land with some 35 gals. at most, pfew!.

Descent
About 55nm inbound Taboga we are cleared of most mountains and we can descend to 9,000 feet, this would be around El Copé on our way towards IRUKA intersection. This would be mostly over lowlands but be watchful, IRUKA is at the last mountainous region in our route.

Reached IRUKA at 18:22 local time with 37.5 gals. of fuel. We are now over the Campana National Park with some mountains (Campana Hill, Gaital Hill) around or below us so watch your altitude and course!.

Some 20nm inbound TBG we have low hills, the virtual pilot descended now to 7,000 feet. Continued on course 084º towards TBG. The MPTO_TWR contacted us (improperly, this was the domain of MPTO_APP) to assign squawk code 1002 and indicate that due to inbound/outbound traffic from Tocumen Intl. (ICAO: MPTO) we should be at Taboga at 2500 feet.

Approach & Arrival
As we neared Taboga we kept the same NAV radios and ADF tuned, only set OBS1 to course 005º. Turned left with Howard (ICAO: MPHO, ATIS: 133.00, ILS: HOW 110.90 359º) on our left. The Howard ATIS indicated clear skies, noted the QNH, scattered clouds at 1600’. Somehow couldn’t get the MPMG (Albrook) ATIS so Howard had to do, it is just a couple of miles east.

It was very dark (did I say that?) and the real arrival waypoints of MPMG are not on my (simulated) navigation device :(, it only has lights but no navigation aids. So, it happened, low on fuel and had to declare a missed approach! If the situation was more critical prior to Taboga I could have gone for Howard’s ILS on rwy. 36.

After the missed approach procedure (yeah, full throttle, retrack flaps accordingly) I did a left circuit but in real life I think they will direct you to MADDEN and wait there. There was no online ATC on IVAO at MPMG. I announced my legs on UNICOM although there was no traffic in the area and this time I landed on rwy. 36 with a bit of fuel left. Pfew! we made it safely and on time!

Airport	Code	Altitude	Local time	Zulu	Fuel
Volcan	PX02/MP21	4642’	18:15	23:15	123.00 gals.
Albrook	MPMG	46’	19:50	00:50	9.70 gals.