Barbados

I just didn't want to leave South America. Actually, my planned flight was in Europe and the Middle East as I was thinking of doing Geneva - Tel Aviv but I just had to do an airline flight on this continent.

I remembered seeing a great Barbados airport scenery a few months ago and decided to give it a go. The stretch from Buenos Aires to Barbados proved to be as long as a transatlantic but I was determined to do the flight.

DHL flight 872, fictitious obviously, was a fresh fruit and meat haul from Buenos Aires to Barbados, the cargo being imagined by myself.

South American route

My take-off weight was around 235K lbs with 66K of it consisting of fuel. I loaded her with a bit over the required amount in case I ran into headwinds during the long trip.

Since the 3000NM flight was going to take half a day, I rushed with the preflight and started my taxi 10 minutes after I launched FS. I had done most of the planning before anyway.

Shot by the DHL dispatcher in Buenos Aires


Storms were building southeast of SAEZ as I was getting ready to depart. The other side of the airport was clear skies but I could see lighting east of the airport. Take-off was going to be interesting, I thought. Winds were 300 at 5 and 12C. Winter is just starting in the Southern Hemisphere.

Taxing to the active, "29"

Traffic was sparse at SAEZ. Despite the heavy amount of AI at gates, I guess peak hour had not come yet. My taxi took around 10 minutes and as I headed to the active I observed the departures and arrivals per my afcad modifications.

Departing traffic was correct using 29 but I also had landings on 29 which was supposed to occur only on 35. SAEZ is a diffuclut airport to replicate in FS, runway usage wise. That's why I prefer parallel runways in FS. They work like a charm.

Climbing out of Buenos Aires

Despite the building storms, my climbout was really smooth, without any turbulence. The modified air files I was using made a great difference and the PSS 757 was behaving better, the climb rates closer to what I've seen in WAR dvds.

As I was heavy, I initially climbed to FL320 and let the FMC compute the S/C further into the flight. My first S/C was to FL360 and then to FL380 as I burned fuel and got lighter.

The Amazon


The flight took me over the South American continent and I flew over Paraguay, a part of Bolivia, Brazil (obviously) and Venezuela, my route heading due north.

On many occasions I had the opportunity to see sections of the Amazon river, other than that most of cruise flight was relatively boring and I did other stuff around the house, among other things a nap!

Occasionnally clouds formed up below me and the ride was very lightly bumpy due mild turbulence. Luckily the wind was in my favor and I didn't run into any headwinds.

The forecasts for Barbados remained unchanged and I got cleared to runway 09. As much as I love the PSS 757 I find the VNAV descent logic a bit flawed so during my descents in this aircraft I keep track of the altitudes and speeds. Curse at it all you want but I still don't think FS ATC descent instructions are that bad either.

Turning base for runway 09


There doesn't seem to be any arrivals for TBPB, coming in from the south, I followed the 15NM DME arc and intercepted the localizer. The rest was pretty basic for any simmer, lower the gear when the glide slope comes alive and slow down to Vref + # depending on the winds.

Barbados airport offers a lovely view as you approach over the water and get to enjoy the city lights along the coast. I bet it's even more beautiful in real life.

Short final ILS 09


My landing was quite good with a nice smooth touchdown. I slowed down with autobrakes 2 and reversers. TPBP is easy to cope with taxiways wise and I went straight to the cargo ramp without any hesitation at junctions.

Sunset at Barbados


I found out this was one gorgeous scenery so I decided to do another flight from TBPB. I've got an entry from Peru recently so I might fly. The alternative is to head up to the US. It's been a while since I've flown there, by the way.

Also, I want to do a Qantas flight from Australia to New Zealand. Again, too many options and not enough time...

Thanks for viewing