Before I bid farewell to Lima (Peru), see my previous post, and I return home to a dreary, rainy, windy, cloudy, wintry day...🙂...around here today, I wished to explore a bit the vicinity of Lima airport. Lima is a most interesting place on earth, with rather unique and strange geographical elements (seemingly almost extra-terrestrial like terrain...🙂...) to say the least. The city is in a coastal desert with the staggering (Andes) mountains to the east, and the vast Pacific Ocean to the west. When I travelled via this flight just about 20 miles east from the airport (see the MSFS Map shot #s (2, 3), below, for my region of exploration), I quickly ran headlong into these dominant mountain ranges, so that, I'd to rapidly climb to 20,000 ft to feel safe...🙂...despite been (safely) ensconced within the cockpit of this (nice) A320neo (V2) [Please note this iniBuilds' A320neo V2 is an upgraded version that came with MSFS2024, built on top of the (original) Asobo A320neo that was made available at the launch of MSFS2020.]

Lima resides in the shadow of the formidable Andes mountains (see images, below), and, apparently, the Andes create a "rain-shadow", which is a major reason why the region around Lima is a desert, as they block moisture-carrying winds. This (arid) coastal (desert) city gets little rainfall, but it has access to water from the rivers flowing down from the Andes, and, of course, the Pacific Ocean. Along the Peruvian coast, there are nearly 50 (Andean) rivers that flow into the Ocean.

For this post, I've chosen to fly the A320neo in the colors of Peruvian airline (Star Perú). BTW, with this flight, I complete my successive deployments, here, for now, of all the 5 iniBuilds (MSFS2024) modern Airbus jetliners: A350, A340, A330, A321, A320...🙂...flown in that order (see my recent posts, if you wish).

Here, I have lifted off SPJC's Runway 16L (the forbidden Runway...🙂...see my previous post), and head east into the dramatically rising mountain ranges of the Andes, for about 40 miles inland, and then fly back (westward), toward the Ocean; in the process, also having to rapidly descend down the mountain slopes (see images) to capture the Localizer and Glideslope signals of ILS Runway 16L, for final landing.

If you recall, I'd previously pointed out the near-disastrous incidence, at this (Lima) airport, of the Copa Airlines Boeing 737-800 that was mistakenly lined up for (this) ILS Runway 16L, which runway, btw, per active NOTAM, still remains "unserviceable" today due to on-going construction work. On May 23, 2025, just as the Boeing 738 had already descended down to the last 500' AGL, aiming for touchdown, the watchful Tower had caught sight of the error and had instructed the crew to go around for another approach into the other (parallel) Runway 16R.

For visualization here, I've included 2 B2B images below (shot #s 16, 17) during my final descent to Runway 16L, at exactly the point where the radial altitude on my (cockpit) PFD (shot #16), is showing 500'. Indeed, that must have been a close call and a recipe for impending disaster, with barely a mile or two (or a minute or two) left for touchdown, with the runway in sight just ahead (see shot #17), further aggravated by the presence of the KLM B777-300 on the ground, that happened to be crossing the same runway.

Hope you enjoy this collection of images...of the (fascinating) surrounding topography of Lima...captured from this smart-looking A320neo airliner...flying in the (fictional) colors of Star Perú (Note: As far as I can tell Star Perú does not operate any A320, the Reg. ID (OB-2167-P) seen here actually belongs to a Star Perú B737-300).

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited October 19, 2025Oct 19 by P_7878

Fine set of shots, like the landscape around, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

pmplayer, John, Luis:

Thanks for the responses. Glad you liked Lima/Peru…🙂…

 

13 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Fine set of shots, like the landscape around, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

Appreciated the note, and you’re welcome…🙂…
Yes, it was indeed very interesting (local) scenery to explore…

Cheers…!