Andorra

The last visitor country as of yesterday on the blog was the Principality of Andorra. As you might know, Andorra is a very small nation hidden in the Pyrennes mountains which incidentally is a tax haven.

I set up a short flight from Toulouse (LFBO) to LESU which seems to be Andorra's only airport. The runway length at LESU is around 4400 ft, perfect for the B200. A direct route from LFBO to LESU is very short, only 37 or so NM. I decided to do some sight seeing over the Pyrennes so I set a longer route over Lourdes and Pamplona turning back to Andorra, the total distance now at around 280NM, good enough. Block time was 1hour and 30 minutes.

Ready to go, 32R

Traffic was sparse at LFBO this Saturday morning, this isn't an extremely busy airport anyway. I taxied swiftly from the GA area to 32R and took off without holding. Weather was winds 313 at 5, visibility 6 miles and clouds 800 scattered, 2000 broken. Temperature was 13C. I was surprised to see such a low temperature at Toulouse. During the years I was there at this time of the year it would be much warmer around mid 20s with sunny skies, making it impossible to concentrate on the upcoming end term exams!

I think I've improved now with the B200, I was tidier with the controls and procedures after take-off. Practice makes perfect. I also watched a couple of King Air videos on youtube to see how things are done in real life, they were very useful.

Climbing out of LFBO

After take-off I climbed on the runway heading was a couple of minutes and then turned left to the TBO VOR and engaged the A/P.

Too cloudy to see anything down there

Cruise at 10000 feet flight was calm, I went through mild turbulence a few times but nothing worthy of noting here. Fortunately the clouds cleared up 45 minutes into the flight and I was able to enjoy the view all the while having breakfast.

Turning over Pamplona

I went for the analogue panel version this time and I think I liked it better. I admit the EFIS configuration is very cool but I found it easier to navigate with the more simple Sperry analogue. I might stick to this one on my future flights with the B200.

It's not going to be easy with those clouds!

As I approached LESU, the clouds started building up again and made me plan for a possible divert to LFBO in case I couldn't see the runway. I planned on doing 3 passes and if the runway wouldn't come in sight, I would head back to LFBO. I had the fuel so it wouldn't be a problem doing the extra 37NM.

As I descended the flight became very exciting passing closely to the mountains, luckily the runway came in sight on my first pass. I looked around to spot a valley into which I could make the approach to runway 04.

Arrival weather was calm winds and good visibility with a temperature of 14C.

Short final runway 04

My approach was good, nice and tidy but my landing was mediocre. I touched down late and right of the centerline. I think I was too fast on the Vref. Anyway, I was able to stop using the brakes and reversers.

Once again, I was amazed how easy and fun it is to handfly this aircraft. Aeroworx has really done an excellent job here. Trim and throttle response is very good, not that I know anything about the real world B200 mind you, I mean in the FS world.

My next flight is most likely LTBA-LIMC with the TK 738W, I'll tell you why in the review itself.

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