Hi,can anyone tell me if airliners ever land on rwy 27 at SXM/TNCM (St. Maarten, Princess Juliana Intl.)?I flew EHAM-TNCM in the fantastic Ready For Pushback 747-200 with real-world weather updates. At 1600 cet (which I guess would be 1000 or 1100 local time), I was given vectors for a visual approach to rwy 27. Of course, because of the mountains, I had to approach from the south and perform a Kai Tak-style turn and acrobatic touchdown. Surely in real life no airliner is ever told to land on rwy 27 but always on rwy 9? Does anyone know if rwy 27 is ever active?

not on any photos i have ever seen due to the high photos. I think planes take off, but rarely.

I would think that you'd have to go to your alternate if winds made landing on rwy 9 impossible. But it would sure make the passengers sit up straight and take notice. :-)billg

no landings, too dangerous because of the mountains.I am sure winds are only a few knots, almost all airplanes can land with tailwinds, jets have about 10 knots or so limit.

I have never seen a rwy 27 landing by jets. The last charts I have all have rwy 9 approaches with a blurb that landing rwy 27 at night is prohibited, VMC day only. So I guess 27 can be used if required. I would also add that prevailing winds in that region favor rwy 9 most of the time.VMC= visual meteorological conditionsBill

Boy, I wouldn't think there would be room for an airliner to safely and legally cicrle to land the other way. That mountain is pretty close. But you may see private a/c landing that way, I guess, and thay may explain why the blurb is there on the charts. Maybe I should move to SXM so I can investigate this further? :-)

Nope. ####, I don't think anything bigger than a turboprop could make it in there safely. :-lol But a real pilot told me 9 is always used for arrivals. Not sure you'd want to use 27 anyways.Daniel P.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpgMember of SJU Photography. [A HREF=http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=9004]Click Here[/A] to view my aircraft photos at JetPhotos.Net!The official psychotic AA painter. :)