Originally Posted by
rog747
I have just had a spanner thrown in the works, that BIA British Island Airways may have taken their shiny new MD-83's in there from 1988 (1800m runway) ---->
More digging!
For those of you, both Pilots and others, that take an operational interest of the past and rather challenging aspects of the operations at Funchal, such as those that have most kindly been mentioned here, such as from
Brakedwell;
An ex BIA British Island Airways skipper just sent me this - >>>
''We were unable to take the MD-83 there. The Vmcg was too high. For the non-drivers (airframe), that was the minimum speed you could control the a/c on the ground following an engine failure. In other words, approaching that speed you could neither stop or go on Funchal’s short runway following said engine failure - enough to spoil your whole day 😧😧😧
I took a 1-11 there twice. A very interesting exercise!
As Peter (Villa) said, we had to hop into Porto Santo for fuel''
Best R.