Pilatus has aborted several landings just now!

stbartshopper

Senior Insider
Great view from our Villa in Milou. Decent cross wind. Tried twice that we saw and third time was the charm.
Came over the hill, got close and aborted. Tried over St. Jean and aborted again. Just landed.
This is not uncommon on windy days. These pilots receive special training to land at what is rated the third most difficult to land in 2019.
Planes are often empty coming in and full going out during the mornings and vice versa in the late afternoons. Take offs are not a problem even with strong winds.
 
You may want to look into the real reason for this before you consider rescinding your frequent Tradewind endorsements or cause concern to other travelers... could just be another mom and several children missing at sea or another magnitude 6.4 earthquake reported on island, etc.... or could be a real issue...

The "often empty coming in" to an airport for which "pilots receive special training" may be a clue as to what is going on but it is best not to speculate on this important matter...
 
Our villa is above the airport for many years and it is almost an everyday occasion for us to witness pilots practicing their landing approach...that’s how they learn...
 
Our villa is above the airport for many years and it is almost an everyday occasion for us to witness pilots practicing their landing approach...that’s how they learn...
Have seen same from St Jean beach made me think fleet had expanded oh silly me, but practice it was, touch & goes. Like flying Tradewind just wish shorter ride to & from SJU.
 
You may want to look into the real reason for this before you consider rescinding your frequent Tradewind endorsements or cause concern to other travelers... could just be another mom and several children missing at sea or another magnitude 6.4 earthquake reported on island, etc.... or could be a real issue...

The "often empty coming in" to an airport for which "pilots receive special training" may be a clue as to what is going on but it is best not to speculate on this important matter...
Criticize a poster for posting incorrect info?? How dare you? LMAO
 
Thank you Izzy for your comments.
We were listening to Radio St. Barth before our upcoming trip. My wife, who lived in France, told me a special alert was broadcast asking for people to be on alert for a missing SeaDoo with a mother and child aboard. She suggested that I should inform Forum members to be on the lookout in the event some were on the island. It turned out that a SeaDoo was missing and had been involved in a collision with a boat and a man was aboard.
The initial earthquake report we heard stated that SBH, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico may have been impacted and warned about possible a possible tsunami. Fortunately for SBH, it was determined that the quakes were only in PR and that there was no wave impact.
We have flown in to SBH from SXM and flown around again due we guess to wind or the pilots not happy with their approach. We haven’t experienced a fly around with Tradewind.
In terms of water, read Kevin’s posts. The island was at 1/2 of its production capacity for quite a while and a number of areas were shut off according to the owners and managers of restaurants and hotels in the areas affected. We were asked to conserve water- we always do- but to have Forum member awareness and take extra measures I thought prudent.
 
Whether well-intentioned and whether due to misheard/mistranslated French (the SeaDoo), incompletely researched information (the correct information regarding the quake was readily available before you posted), overstatement (main support that you provided for precarious recent island-wide water problems was a restaurateur needing to decide between paying for delivery of available water or closing and the presence of an empty pool at LT), or misrepresentation (Pilatus requiring 3 attempts to land rather than what may have been routine training), the results can be additive. Your Herculean efforts on this site - I think you have posted in all main forum threads and many other threads within 24 hours since mid December - can be undermined by posts that prove inaccurate. The analogy to the boy who cried wolf, who intentionally misled, may not be fair but the result can be the same.

if you want to post a response, you can have the last word on this subject or you can let things just vanish into the ether. These type of "discussions" typically do not lead to a good place, can be counter-productive to the aims of this site, and are no way to spend your time on island.

All the best,
Izzy
 
Training is allowed in peak season until 11:00 am local time. If you see the same plane going around after that time, it's probably due to an unstable approach with variations of the following:

- Speed: too fast (or too slow)
- Altitude: too high (or too low)
- Off track
- Airplane not fully configured for landing (gear not locked, flaps not fully extended, ...).

or another good reason not to land: other airplane/vehicle on the runway, obstacle, weather (winds out of limits, reduced visibility, flooded runway...), mechanical issue...

A go-around is a routine manoeuvre for pilots who are always prepared (the mindset is: "each landing is a possible go-around"), however it can be impressive for passengers.

SBH can be a challenging airport and each landing requires focus. If things are not "right", a go-around is the safest option.
 
Criticize a poster for posting incorrect info?? How dare you? LMAO

I have noticed lately that some posters get very frustrated with hopper. Please don't take this site so seriously. Its mainly a chat line with a little good or bad information every now and then. lmao too.
 
Diana,
You only have 4,875 posts since 2005, that is an average of 325 posts per year; Hopper has 9,154 posts since 2013 which is an average of 1,526 per year. I believe you need to step it up with comments. LMAO too.
 
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