I just wasted a 3-hour flight into this airport only to find out it’s impossible to get a 737 in on this instrument approach.
Or could somebody explain to me how in the heck you are supposed to achieve this? It ends right on top of the runway. They require a ridiculous last minute left hand turn, followed by me doing all the wrong procedures for a go-around and the aircraft not doing anything I wanted it to do. I tried a second time with the same result. And then I had no idea how to reprogram the FMC to go to the alternate. Yeah I know, read the manual…
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It’s an interesting approach, but keep a few things in mind.
Even the best RNAV there (0.3 RNP) is a 3.5 degree descent angle so you need to watch speed since it will tend to run higher than most normal approaches unless you stay on top of it.
You’ll hit the DH/DA of 4429’ MSL (1141’ RA altitude) at 0.8 nm before TG011. So you end up with a visual approach from quite a ways out and fairly high. Also, minimum visibility is 2.6 km, so you’re not going to be flying in weather all the way down to the runway.
So see if those numbers give you a bit more room to get on the runway. But it is a more challenging approach requiring careful speed and altitude control.
Regards
From what I could tell of the approach, the DH and the end of the runway are one in the same. They end you right over the threshold (or as you say .8nm) at 1100’ AGL, way too high to land in a B737 and at the same time requires a sharp left turn to get aligned with the runway. I wonder if airliners only land the other way on RWY20 in the real world. I’d be interested to hear from a real B737 pilot who has actually flown into this airport. I was unable to make the turn and descend enough to get down.
I’ll try and get in if our power comes back on!
TG 11 shouldn’t be at the threshold unless something in the sim got messed up or the approach chart has changed.
As I said, I’ll take another look when I can and see what’s going on. I’ll take my trusty 930 to see if the approach works right in it and then do the 737 to see if we can narrow the issue down.
Regards
A couple of things from the approach chart (still haven’t been able to get back in the sim due to equipment issues on my end! Grrrr!). While you hit the DH at 0.8 nm from TG011, which is also shown as the mandatory visual approach point where you can continue descent as long as you are visual. If you have the runway in sight, you still have 2 nm to TG010, and then 0.1 nm from there to the runway threshold for a total of 2.9 nm’s to get down from 1141’. So it shouldn’t be dumping you over the threshold while still at 1141’ since you can continue down visually. If you can’t see the runway at 0.8 nm prior to TG011, you can’t continue this approach.
Also, the approach is actually an RNP AR approach, so IRL, not every pilot can go fly it (fortunately, we can do pretty much as we please in the sim!!). This approach also shows one of the advantages of RNP AR approaches which is you can have true curved final approaches.
Again, I’ll try to get in the sim and give it a whirl as soon as my UPS is here and up and running!
Regards
P.S. I don’t have the 737, but I’ll give it a go in the A310 and A320 (V2) which should be fairly comparable, at least in testing the approach.
A few remarks on TGU (MHTG), the largest aircraft that regularly flew into there that I know of would be 757-200, but mostly it was A320/A319 and B737 or E190 or 727. Honduran military also has a base there, and I know they had C-130’s land there, but it was a simple matter for a C-130 to land there.
Last time I checked flights in the big jets now go to Soto Cano (it has some other name now, but it’s the former air base northwest of town) and only smaller regional aircraft fly into TGU.
The circling approach to Rwy02 is a famous approach. Starting in the 90’s they progressively cleared more of the hillside away. Even after these improvements, it was still considered one of the most challenging approaches in the world in a big jet. They had many near-misses at TGU over the years as the linked video points out (and some accidents) and eventually the government switched big iron over to Soto Cano.
There used to be some landmarks you could use to visually orient yourself over the city and making the turn, I assume they’re still there. One was a circular cemetery, where you would have to be in your turn before that landmark. Another was a cloverleaf interchange (highways) and there you should be pulling out of your turn as you pass over it.
One of the things I love about this forum is the wealth of knowledge our community shares! Whether it’s related to aircraft, airports, ATC, etc, etc.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge of this area’s past and current operations! It brings an airport “to life” when we know more about the places we’re able to visit in the sim!!
Thanks again!
Regards
