I’ve been manning the WMBT Tower in the last few days, and it’s one of the most challenging airports in this simulator.
If you read about it on Wikipedia, this is a “one-way” airport - you can only land on Runway 20 and take-off from Runway 02. There’s a mountain blocking your takeoff from Runway 20, don’t even try taking off in that direction.
Please follow instructions when I redirect you to Runway 20 to land, landing at Runway 02 is useless, you would have to descend at 5000+ fpm and slam the runway really hard.
With that said, feel free to try out this fantastic airport, and watch youtube videos of real-world landings at WMBT for the correct approach procedure (you have to do a sharp turn just seconds before you land).
With that said, you’re very welcome to try out this fantastic airport. B737/A320 are fine, but anything larger than that will be a huge challenge.
WMBT is in the top right corner of the Singapore/Kuala Lumpur area.
Pretty tough huh? And if you’re using the ILS guide feature (red rectangles) they confuse you even more.
Of all my ATC duties, this is the worst airport, most people just seem to crash into the mountains either on landing or on takeoff (you have to turn left, many aircraft can’t climb fast enough).
Or they miss the runway, but the chances for a go-around in a fast aircraft are slim - there’s a mountain dead ahead.
I did 3 to 4 go arounds using the red rectangles back then when i was pretty new to IF, never tried that airport ever. Perhaps i can give it a go now, its quite a forgotten place being top right of a region.
Says alot about the actual simulation capabilities of IF when people land nothing larger than a 320 on the likes of FSX yet the IF videos are landing everything upto an a380 like its nothing 😁😂
I can land 02 easily. If I’m following procedures then yes, I will obviously take 20, but when I’m just there for a muck about ill give 02 a shot.
The two techniques I use for landing 02:
Follow the cliff side for about 5 seconds from the coast (maybe less. This is off memory) before making a sharp ‘yank’ and line up. A late touch and hard brakes is often necessary if one is opting for a smooth touch.
Follow the GPS approach into 02 whilst staying as low as possible along the mountainous jungle. Although typical landing speeds can be used, I find it much easier to almost stall the aircraft (which means an imperfect touchdown is inevitable) and then increase power once at a more appropriate speed. Of course the other approach is to sort of duck-dive in once you’re over the cliff. I don’t like this approach at all but it can be done well. Kind of like an extreme St. Barts.