80 knot traffic patterns at LFBZ in an A220

In today’s flight, I chose to do touch and go’s at LFBZ, which had Tower online, in the beautful Airbus A220-300 (because why not?). But I definitely did not expect to get stuck behind a Cessna 172 doing 80 knots on downwind and final, which forced me to fly with maximum flaps and precision at the brink of stalling out throughout at the speed of 85 knots.

Flight details:
Callsign: SU-UUU (yes i know very creative)
Airport: Biarritz Pays Basque (LFBZ)
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300, Bombardier livery
Server: Expert
Flight Time: about 18 minutes

Taking off using only about half of the runway left. Back-taxi who?

Slamming the engines to give everything it has got and going space shuttle status, only taking off with seconds before overrun.


Stuck behind a Cessna on final doing around 80 knots, leaving me battling with the plane against stalling out with flaps and trim to the max - a truly terrifying experience.


Touch complete (definitely not butter), now for the go part.

Fast forward to short final, and a Challenger is on the runway after back-taxiing. The Tower cleared this aircraft for immediate take-off, which I had to respond with “Thank you, SU-UUU” as I was trying to save my aircraft flying at around 83 knots from stalling into the ground.

Well, that was my hair-raising experience for the day. Who knew the Airbus A220 was capable of flying at 85 knots?

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How were the winds at the time?

According to the ATIS because the winds don’t show up on replay (in terms of speed):
“Wind Variable at 15 gust 25, variable between 190 and 310”
So on final I had a crosswind but I can’t remember the wind speed.