He's going to a Cheyenne II it said somewhere. Personally, I think he'd be better off looking at Commanders or MU-2's if he's going into St Bart's regularly. That approach and field is not for the faint of heart. You need a yearly clearance from DGAC to be able to fly in there.

You'd better be on your A game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCT7IA9fHXM

I'm amazed at the planes that float half way down the runway. Get on the ground and get into beta, quick! Runway is only 2100 ft long.

The runway is downhill, and if there is a wind favoring the runway, there is ridge lift on short final.

Now here's how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFwXxCRtfiA

Makes the midfield turn off.

Mike C.

In all fairness, Christophe does a stellar job of getting the 414 in there. He's obviously got experience with the airfield. First time a 414's been in there, he said earlier in video. Landing comes at round 6:40 mark. Great job. Plant that thing, don't waste precious rwy on a greaser.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bCo7CUIqkxo[/youtube]

Here's a classic floatfest that doesn't end well.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/-z2o0acIlm4[/youtube]

While I was on what used to be our annual family vacation to st. Bart's a couple years ago, i spent a few mornings banging around the pattern, doing 20+ landings there with a local flight instructor in a c172, doing the flight work required to get the local certification (but not the ground school or the formal endorsement - my recollection is the validity of the endorsement is twelve months from your most recent landing there - you don't need to do it every year if you remain current. With an annual trip there I knew I wasn't going to stay current and even if I did, the bare minimum seemed foolish to me. Plus, transient parking is very difficult to obtain and I've never owned anything I'd fly to Saint Bart's. Even if I did, I'd probably park over at St Martin, Antigua or Puerto Rico and leave that landing to the pros).

There are multiple approach paths, depending on prevailing winds, due to the interesting surrounding terrain. You can land both ways and the approach path you use depends on the crosswind, to prevent flying into terrain and give you a chance abort the landing for a bit of the early part of your final from the bay side. Takeoffs are only over the beach and there are often a handful of stupid tourists on that patch of the beach you shouldn't be on in the event of a runway overrun or failure to climb on takeoff. That sight picture as you dive bomb it in, in ground effect from the descending terrain and over the traffic on the round about takes a good bit of getting used to.
It was great fun.