I flew the Fenix A320 from SKSP Isla de San Andrés to MHTG Toncontín International Airport near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
This turned out to be massive mistake. I didn’t check the charts for the destination until after I’d taken off, it calls itself an International Airport and I’m in an A320 - how hard can it be?
We started with an unusual jetway connection.
During cruise I checked the chart and was immediately concerned. “Special aircraft and aircrew authorisation required.” RNAV 02 is effectively a large circle to land approach with a very long base and a 90 degree left turn onto final almost at the runway threshold.
If that wasn’t bad enough the runway is very short, I checked on the EFB performance calculator and I was going to need over 90% of the runway length to stop. Apparently pilots deliberately land short here rather than the usual touchdown point.
Here we go!
Look at that last picture again, the runway is there on the left side of the shot.
I didn’t quite get the turn right, I went a touch too early and had to back out, then I ended up finishing the turn too close. I knew I needed to land right near the start of the runway and it didn’t look good. I should have gone around of course but it was late and I wanted to go to bed, so levers to idle and I dived a bit, then pulled up to avoid the ground, stalled and fell to the runway.
So I did just make the runway but with 99kt airspeed and 4200fpm descent rate and that’s the end of the story.
It turns out that international flights were stopped in 2008 due to accidents, including an A320 that crashed that year on this runway approach.
It looks like fun in a different vessel, perhaps I’ll come back another day in the Kodiak or maybe even the vision jet.