Great Carribean landing video

[Intruder Driver]

Check this out:
http://www.islaculebra.com/puerto-rico/culebra-airport.html

It's a landing video at Culebra, a small island off Puerto Rico. Besides having great beaches, Culebra was a great place for Roosy Roads Flying Club members to go and learn how to really fly an airplane in a situation that required intense concentration and being accurate with the numbers.

If you ever get to the islands and can rent a plane, two great airports for unique landings in the Virgin Islands area: Culebra and Beef Island (BVI).

Enjoy.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

nice

 

[Intruder Driver]

Here's the initial view approaching the airport area

 

[Intruder Driver]

Belay my last about Beef Island. The BVI government expanded the runway and moved some dirt to make it less unique and challenging.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

I'm guessing VFR only?

 

[Intruder Driver]

Culebra is, and you can only land in the direction in the video. Becasue of the island's topography, there is almost always a 10-12 knot wind blowing right down the runway. A few brave souls have tried to land with the wind behind them, thinking they could escape the fly through the notch and drop over the hill approach, but most trying this either ran off the end or executed a go-around.

I tried it twice in a 150 and just decided it was too foolish for me.

 

[TheBubba]

Intruder Driver, thanks for the videos.

Brought back some fond memories... first time I was ever in the front seat of an aircraft, we landed at Culebra... think it was a 172, but twas in the late 80's, so the memory is a little shaky... But I do remember being a little scared. However that flight and landing sealed my decision to get into Naval Aviation. The pilot was a Tomcat driver who's wife was a good friend of my mother.

 

[Intruder Driver]

As a former air ops officer at Roosy Roads, it was distressing to see us close the base. Besides being an incredible training op area for battle groups, the flying was incredible. 95% VFR; few rules. I had the luxury of flying the A4 with VC-8 and the C-12's we had at air ops, and we flew the C-12 to almost every airport long enough in the Caribbean: Grenada, Dominica, Martinique, Antigua, Jamaica (mon), Barbados, Haiti, etc. We supported embassies in Haiti, Dom. Republic, Antigua, Jamaica and Panama, so we flew there a couple times a month. We flew to St. Thomas at least twice a day in support of technical folks. On the personal side, I bought a 150 so my wife and I could fly to places like Culebra, St. Thomas, Vieques, Beef Island, etc. on the weekends. What a blast. Time to relocate.

 

[Gatordev]

I spend a few weeks in Culebra back in the late '80s as well. Didn't fly in there, but would walk over and watch the daily people mover come in and land. Always looked like a challenging but fun approach. Thanks for the vid.

 

[TheBubba]

As a former air ops officer at Roosy Roads

If you don't mind me asking, when were you air ops there? Was there from Aug 87 to Sept 90. My mother was stationed at the hospital down there.

PR was a great place to spend some time (Need to go island hopping in the Caribbean with my wife). I was a little upset when they closed Roosy Roads as well. I was hoping I could get stationed there sometimein my career, but then they went a closed it before I got my commission.

 

[gaijin6423]

PR in general, and especially Culebra, is a pretty b!tchin' time. My wife's from Palmas del Mar on the Eastern coast of the island, and we've been everywhere but Rincon in the West. She keeps promising to take me there, but I think she's secretly afraid I'll try to surf and either embarass her or die in the attempt.

Due to my wife being a native of the island, I always get a distinctly non-gringo experience every time I visit PR, so if anyone's looking for something off the beaten path (read: cruise ship tours), give a shout. If I can't come up with anything, I promise my wife will.

 

[e6bflyer]

Check this out:
http://www.islaculebra.com/puerto-rico/culebra-airport.html

It's a landing video at Culebra, a small island off Puerto Rico. Besides having great beaches, Culebra was a great place for Roosy Roads Flying Club members to go and learn how to really fly an airplane in a situation that required intense concentration and being accurate with the numbers.

If you ever get to the islands and can rent a plane, two great airports for unique landings in the Virgin Islands area: Culebra and Beef Island (BVI).

Enjoy.

Nice post, kind of reminds me of this video (sorry if it is a repost):

 

[scoober78]

Sick video E6B...those guys are the real deal. Last of the great barnstorming, early days of aviation. I'd love to experience flying like that.

 

[Gatordev]

Due to my wife being a native of the island, I always get a distinctly non-gringo experience every time I visit PR, so if anyone's looking for something off the beaten path (read: cruise ship tours), give a shout. If I can't come up with anything, I promise my wife will.

I spent Christmas in Parguera a few years back. Pretty place but a bitch of a drive from San Juan, especially when there's no rest stops. I never understood why it was "quicker" to go all the way to the east coast and around than the west coast, but what do I know. Nice snorkeling out on the reef, though. It also is one of the sights of the JIATF radar aerostats. If you look on Google Maps, you can even see it in the air.

 

[Intruder Driver]

Bubba, I was air ops Mar 90 to Jan 91, then assumed command of the reserve center at Roosy (with an office on the ocean in San Juan as well), but remained on DIFOPS orders since I was NATOPS qualified and a check pilot in the C-12 and A4. Quite the good deal all the way around. Never told the detailer what a good deal it was because I knew I'd be paid back later for it.

The west side of PR is a great place. A real adventure is to land at Mayaguez at night, because there are power lines short of the runway that spook you daytime and horrify you at night, just knowing they are there. It's also fun to land at Boreiquen on the NW corner, the old B-52 strip, and there is great surfing there.

The Blue Hawaii restaurant at Palmas was one of our all time favorite places to eat.

Our first child was born at Roosy, and still has dual US/PR citizenship until he's 18.