Stuart Morton, an English PPL student living in Toulon, writes:
Sue
Not sure if these pictures are something that might interest you for the blog, but I am over in St Barths in the French West iIndies at the moment and the landing here is quite unique.
I have attached a few pictures I have shot whilst working here.
When I left the island the other day, I explained to the aircraft captain that I am currently doing my PPL and let me sit up front with him, and at 600ft gave me the controls then he let me fly all the way to base leg at St Maartens. Only in the caribbean.......
Look forward to hearing from you.
Stuart
NB The aircraft featured in these spectacular shots are the Britten-Norman Islander (PJ-WEB) and the De Havilland Canada Twin Otter (PJ-WIH).
Click on pictures for larger image.
Pretty cool - Not sure that I would try it in a Robin DR400
Would probably end-up in the splosh.
Posted by: Les King | 14 January 2009 at 11:58 AM
Now that’s what separates "les hommes" from "les garçons"! And the people on the beach too!
Posted by: Father Brian | 14 January 2009 at 12:21 PM
Hi Stuart
Thank you for this posting,it is superb in fact it makes me very envious , I have always wanted to fly in the Caribbean.
Of course now we may change the rules a little so when you come to fly with me we shall use this as the criteria for our circuits!
Posted by: Susan Virr | 14 January 2009 at 12:59 PM
You can see at the far end of the runway on the last picture there is in fact a small flying club here in St Barts where there are Cessna 172's and DR400's.
I will try to post the video I have done of a few landings onto youtube as it really gets the heart racing when viewed from the beach.
Posted by: Stuart Morton | 14 January 2009 at 02:39 PM
Those Twin Otter's never did flare very well - that landing even bent the runway!
Posted by: Mark | 31 January 2009 at 01:14 AM