Twin Otter: Marcos A. Gelabert to Playon Chico, San Blas

Route: TBG A574 REMAL A574 PONPO
Cruise Alt.: 7,000’
Fuel Used: 461 lbs.
Distance: 105nm
Aircraft: (FeelThere/Aerosoft) Twin Otter DHC6-300 / modern
Livery: Air Panama
Flight Nr.: PST411
Departure: MPMG @ 06:00
Destination: PYC @ 06:55

This is a short account of the 2nd flight on the new VA covering another scheduled flight. I had to restart the flight sim time because I had to enter in a discussion with the ATC of MPTO_APP (I needed to fly over Taboga). He was wrongly insisting that my altiude was incorrect and improperly declared and that my destination airport was something else. Panama’s transition altitude is 18,000 ft so specifying an altitude is correct instead of a flight level. Secondly, 7000’ was correct for an eastbound IFR flight. Last but not least it was also correct to put ZZZZ in the destination and entering “DEST/Playon Chico PYC” in the flight plan.

After taking off with information Foxtrot from rwy. 36 I turned right to head towards Taboga VOR (TBG 110.0 / 311.00 NDB). MPTO_APP had gone offline so I didn’t need to contact him. Then I turned left right on the outbound radial towards REMAL intersection some 46nm away. I had tuned TBG NDB on the ADF so that the ADF needle should be pointing back, and the TBG VOR on both NAV radios, NAV1 for the VOR indicator to see if I flew on the radial and NAV2 for the DME to know when I had reached my waypoint. Here the copilot says “Captain, the weather hasn’t cleared yet, I hope it has on the coast.” At this point “we” were over the mountains that couldn’t be seen. A nice “feature” of the FeelThere/Aerosoft Twin Otter X is this subtle shadow the cockpit panel/sunglare casts on the windshield. Under low visibility conditions such as this or at night this downward (towards the side) shadow disorients you leading you to believe it is the horizon! so, keep an eye on the bank indicator or you will turn and tumble!

Good news! we are reaching PONPO intersection, by now I had already tuned the Tupile (TPL 356.00) NDB on the ADF radio while TBG VOR was still on both NAV radios. The good news is really that the weather has cleared over here, a beautiful dawn at the San Blas archipel!. Tupile (Wannukandi airfield) is somewhere on the far right. It is time to initiate our descent to 3000 feet. Actually I think I should have started a bit earlier, this Twotter likes to float.

Great! the short Playon Chico airfield is on our left as well as the two inhabited islands (the town), not so in FSX. Now, while descending we will start adjusting to go seabound and then do a nearly 180º turn for our final approach. Anyway, I made this nice airstrip for FSX and am developing some others in this area.

Here we go, start setting up for landing configuration. We have to overfly the two islands and land on the runway. There is a tree to the left so if we don’t align well the wing hits it and it is all over!.

This is a challenging strip because it is short, therefore the TWin Otter that is up to the task. The other challenge is that at the end of the runway there is a big hill and if you come too high to land but too low to get away, you crash on the hill. Same if you don’t stop in time. Pfew, my heart was beating fast even though this is just a simulation. When I was over the 2nd island I realized I still hadn’t lost enough altitude, the ominous hill ahead so I called a missed approach, turned left and tried again.

The second time around I was good, good alignment like the first time but also the correct descent profile, yet that mountain at the end doesn’t look very friendly. Watch out for the tree and the water!

And finally the time came, landed on time at Playon Chico on my Air Panama Twin Otter simulated aircraft. The landing was soft at –36 ft/min. Turned around towards the little rural terminal and there were bags waiting!

Due to certain limitations I had to make some adjustments in FSX terrain due to the FSX South America mesh, so while the airfield is just a little bit displaced (otherwise it would have been in a hill, not correct), it is nearly as it is in real life. The only problem is that with the FSX South America Mesh the mountain at the end of the runway is a bit too close and steep. Originally I thought there was no way to land on that end but… watch this You Tube video of a real life landing on that side of the runway! very impressive how the pilot comes in a very steep descent from the right bordering the mountains then does a sharp turn to the left (still very steep) and lands at the beginning of the runway. The STOL capability of the aircraft lets it stop very fast too, obviously he had lowered the speed to be able to to this (I think, right?).