St Barts - French West Indies

[Three Wheeler]

Has anybody out there had any experience of flying themself into St Barts in the French West Indies? I'd be particulaly interested in hearing the detail of what was involved in getting the rating/authorisation to do so.

[FNG]

Not me, but a friend did it a while back.

Whacky steep approach with a small mountain in the undershoot. See attached <a href="http://www.wiid.net/~ailes/us/the_airfield.htm" target="_blank">http://www.wiid.net/~ailes/us/the_airfield.htm</a>

[Three Wheeler]

FNG - Thanks for the link, hadn't come across that one before. Do you know if your friend was staying on St Barts or whether he flew in from one of the other Islands (St Martin possibly)in the area to do the rating.

[FNG]

I'm not sure, but I think that he may have arranged to meet a St Barts-endorsed instructor on another island, and that they then flew together to St Barts. My friend has a UK CPL and QFI rating, although he was flying an N reg on his FAA PPL.

[sennadog]

No I haven't but I've sailed extensively in that area and for what it's worth you'll want to watch out for mooring/anchor lights if landing in the dusk as the approach is directly over a bay where everyone lays up for the night. The final approach looked quite "interesting" to me so let us know how you get on.

[D Beaver]

Spectacular approaches.

For a picture, goto <a href="http://www.bea-fr.org/anglaise/rapports/rap.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bea-fr.org/anglaise/rapports/rap.htm</A> and select Aircraft: DHC 6, Site: Saint Barthelemy and View. This is a preliminary report (in French only) of a Twin Otter crash in 2001. There is a photo in section 10 of the report showing a Twin Otter on short final after having crossed the ridge (Col de la Tourmente) which obstructs the approach to Runway 10 (640 metres long - LDA 515 metres).

The report points out that the approach path clears the hill by less than 30 ft. The approaches I observed seemed to consist of a normal approach path aiming at the lowest part of the ridge (where a road passes over it, just to make things more interesting), followed by a dive at the runway.

The report also points out that the AFIS agent at the airport cannot see approaching aircraft until they are past the ridge on short final. Pilots must have a special checkout and very interestingly, in view of some recent threads on PPRuNe, the local rules include the mandatory use of English for communication when there is a non-Francophone pilot in the circuit. Operations are Day VFR only.

The report is preliminary only and does not speculate on the cause of the accident.