Funchal!!

[Fly2e]

I have seen a few photos of this airport and I have a question. Is the approach as challenging as it looks? I mean, I know the runway is pitched up a bit but to add to that, it seems that in all the approach pictures I have seen on airliners.net, the aircrafts are battling the controls. The nose is pitched up, pitched down, the landings are hard, etc...
I assume there is usually a strong crosswind coming off the waters of Portugal!

Beautiful.










This Airbus is landing, not taking off!


Pitched down a bit?


Now that's a crosswind!!


Has anybody ever fly in or out of there?........in right life that is!  ;)

Dave

[SilverFox441]

"Flyjet 191 Heavy, Funchal Tower: Call the ball!"
"Funchal, Flyjet 191 Heavy: 757, 8000, 140 souls, Roger ball!"

[J41]

I havent been there but they are nice pics I like that one of Air 2000. Just one thing I think that one landing is a 757 not an Airbus.

[SilverFox441]

Uh...wasn't really looking at the type, was comparing the airport to a carrier....

[Silver1SWA]

BAH!  You left out the most interesting angle of all!  

[jrpilot]

Great pics...did the 757 hit the ruway with her tail?

[Mr. Bones]

the approach isn't difficult because of the strange construction, but the crosswinds...that's the challenge at Funchal. you can imagine the winds coming from the see...90

[Cherokee_6]

All I can say is that I would be a tad bit nervous if I was a  passenger in that last pic and  lookedout the window and saw the runway approaching!

[Craig.]

you should see bristol and birminghams runways for slopes.
Personally i wouldnt like to have a brake failure on that runway, a big drop one end and a really big drop the other:)

[Sam 400]

They should install arrestor cables. Imagine the G's you'd encounted in a '47 lol. Your head would end up in the back of the seat in front lol!

Looks like a cool airport. I'm gonna take my eurofighter there in a bit to see how well it is portrayed!

Sam

[Corsair Freak]

you should see bristol and birminghams runways for slopes.
Personally i wouldnt like to have a brake failure on that runway, a big drop one end and a really big drop the other:)

Cool

[Jared]

"Flyjet 191 Heavy, Funchal Tower: Call the ball!"
"Funchal, Flyjet 191 Heavy: 757, 8000, 140 souls, Roger ball!"

lol that's funny...;-)

[Nexus]

I've always been a fan of LPMA (funchal), have several cockpit DVD's where more than 10 approaches are pictured.

Yes, the approach is somewhat different from the conventional straight-in approaches, and the airport lacks ILS. The pictures depicted above are all showing the runway 05 approach (either a VOR DME or NDB)
Both runways have the FUN VOR as a reference (or the MAD NDB). You'll make the sharp right turn to rwy 05 at 6,7 DME from the VOR, then you only have 2 visual references, one called ROSARIO (pass that at 850ft) and GELO (at 650ft)

Pilot in command must have done the approach before as 1st officer, that's a requirement

Anyway...the problem here is of course the winds. The island hill is sloping down, hence -at times - creating wind moving DOWNWARDS, so the crew has to monitor windshear warnings...the island is disturbing the airflow of course. And Madeira is in the middle of the Atlantic ocean so the wind conditions can be pretty violent

Love the thread Fly2e!

[Fly2e]

Love the thread Fly2e!

Thanks Nexus!
Thanks for the info!

Dave