WHEN AIRLINE PILOTS HAVE FUN

HOWEVER, EVEN WITH AIRLINE FLYING, there are opportunities for pilots to have a bit of fun and excitement. One such opportunity is the straight-in approach to Hoedspruit’s Runway 09.

The descent and landing into Hoedspruit 09 is interesting because of the short distance from the Drakensberg Escarpment to the threshold. It reminds me of a Presidents’ Trophy Air Race where the organisers placed a checkpoint just 5 nm beyond the escarpment. I know of a number of pilots who admitted to exceeding Vne getting down to the checkpoint.

Despite having been a front-line military airfield for Mirage operations, the 09/27 runway at Hoedspruit is decidedly secondary as it is only 2000 m long and 27 m wide. As an interested amateur pilot, it seemed to me to be something of a challenge for a jet the size of an Embraer 190. In asking Airlink about how they fly the approach and landing, I learned much about airline operations, procedures and limitations.

The day we flew straight into Hoedspruit’s 09 from Cape Town, I was amazed to see the windsock showing about a 15-knot tailwind – blowing from 270, directly down the runway.

As a ‘Pappa Charlie’ pilot who regularly descends into Hoedspruit in a piston single, on clear VFR days it’s always fun because I want to stay high over the escarpment, even if only to keep my wife/hostie in the back happy by minimising turbulence. I typically remain at FL095 until past the escarpment at Mariepskop and then put the nosedown and descend at about 1500 fpm or more, keeping the power on to keep the engine warm, but also with a wary eye on VNE.

For a jet airliner to descend from FL370 straight in-to Hoedspruit, top of the descent has to be far before the escarpment. For our descent in Airlink’s Embraer 190 there was a layer of alto stratus at around FL150. So the descent would have been at least partially IMC.

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