Hope you enjoy this story along with the images of an aircraft (BAe-146/Avro-RJ) that has always caught my fancy since my early days of SIM. QW has nicely simulated this very unique aircraft (QW's 2nd output after B757), which is quite enjoyable to fly in our SIM. And, for me, it has been nearly 10 months since I last flew this plane, so, today, I wished to fly it one more time before the year comes to an end...! The Avro BAe/RJ aircraft was expressly created with "short-field performance" in mind. To that end, a twin-engine configuration could not be chosen, because no manufacturer was producing a 13,000-lbf-thrust-class high-bypass ratio turbofan engine, at that time. So, it had to be powered by four 6,500-lbf thrust engines, giving it its distinctive look, and also the name "Jumbolino". The RJ variant (subject of this post) featured a modernized cockpit with FMS/EFIS replacing the analogue ADI, HSI, and engine instrumentation of the (earlier) BAe model.

Now a bit about the locale: St Helena is one of the world’s most remote islands, a tiny speck of (barren and wind-swept) volcanic rock, measuring only about (10 by 5) miles, virtually in the middle of nowhere, in the (vast) South Atlantic Ocean. If you happen to examine closely, on the Map, the islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the water-mass between the African and South American continents, you'll appreciate their remoteness. St Helena, of course, is well-known in history as the place of exile for Napoleon, and also where he died six years later (on May 5, 1821).

From the aviation perspective, St Helena, in RL, is a most challenging airport. It is situated such that at times serious wind shear makes it difficult to land from the north (Runway 20). From the other direction, Runway 02 is touted safer to land, but it is still plagued by tailwinds, which increase landing ground speed, and thus impose weight restrictions. For illustration, see the video clip of a British Airways B737-800 (finally) landing on the Airport in the 3rd go-around attempt (with obviously no alternative AIRPORT in sight!). Please search for "flight struggles to land on st helena" to view the 1min video (I find the 2nd attempt most fascinating, so close to the tarmac, and yet unable to make contact for landing)!

Now about the role of Avro RJ in all this: On 3 May 2017, an Avro RJ85 (same model and livery used in this post) of (SA) Airlink (a privately owned, Johannesburg based feeder airline) made the very first commercial airline flight in history to Saint Helena, a charter flight from Cape Town, South Africa, via Moçâmedes, Angola, to Saint Helena Airport. It was to pick up passengers stranded when the island's only link with the outside world, the British Royal Mail Ship RMS St Helena, went out of commission for nearly 2 months, with propeller damage.

For this flight I've started out from Moçâmedes/Namibe airport (FNMO), and have flown the (SA) Airlink RJ-85 to Ascension Airport (FHAW), instead of St Helena, the reason being FSX (default) does not have a runway for St Helena, and I do not have any add-on scenery for it (although I'm aware some may be available, I'll find!). The (simple) FSC Flightplan (please see screenshot) is a direct route (for a total distance of 1619 nm) with just one (custom) FIX, at 25nm, south of (FHAW) RWY 31/13. When this route is uploaded to the RJ's FMS, the FIX appears as "WP1" on it (please see FMS screenshot). I note, again, this (QW) SIM is nice all-around with e.g. its LNAV/VNAV capability (so useful in this scenario) adequate for our simming purpose (here, the pre-set 4000' altitude constraint, being, automatically and accurately met for the 25nm FIX). Also, please see one screenshot of the (atypical) "rear-mounted" (extended) speedbrakes in the rear of this aircraft.  

And, of course, I could not ignore St Helena, so I've included one fly-by shot (the very last of the set) of this historic island, to, maybe, help remember the final days of the legendary Emperor! Thanks for reading and, especially, for viewing these pictures of this one-of-a-kind aircraft, that still continues to be in service worldwide. Comments are welcome. [QW(RJ)/REX]

Have a great Christmas Week! Hope you've some SIM time (or/and MSFS news reading time) along with family time...🙂...!

https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=fsx+st+helena&CatID=root&Go=Search

There you go! 

And this link has some pictures:

https://www.fs2000.org/2016/05/02/fsx-st-helena-ascension-and-tristan-da-cunha-islands/

The original post in AVSIM has broken links for pictures..

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/484839-st-helena-island-fhsh-airport/?tab=comments#comment-3385434

 

Mark: Thank you (and to the scenery creator, of course)...It took me a few hours this morning for the flight, but I found a foothold to land my Avro in St. Helena!

Please see separate post.