Hello, I realized the other day that I had never actually tried this famous approach so I gave it a go today...let's just say it didn't go well.

Looking at the charts, there's a waypoint PR816 that says you have to be at 13,800' and 145 knots.  It's then not far to the airfield (maybe 10 miles?) which is at an elevation of 7364'.  I understand this is a cloud break approach meaning it's really meant to get you below the clouds then you take over and fly manually.  Even with that in mind, I'm not sure how you're supposed to descend fast enough to have any chance of making the airport from there.  A 3.5* approach will still leave you around 3000' AGL at the airport.  I flew well over the airport then died trying to do a 360 to get my self situated for another lower approach.  I was in the Fenix A320.

Does anyone know how this is meant to be flown?  I must be missing something on this one...it just doesn't seem possible to descend that quickly from the required altitude of 13,800' (at this point you're crossing a mountain ridge before entering a valley so I don't think any lower here is a real option).

If you don't have Navigraph charts handy, you can see a chart for this approach on page 40 here: https://www.doat.gov.bt/aipp/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AIP-AMD-01-2018.pdf

The Cat C minima is 10320ft , so it looks like it’s designed to deposit you in the airfield overhead at PR808 at around 3000AGL and if out of cloud at that stage descend visually in the valley to land.…good luck.

As you rightly say it’s a cloud break procedure rather than an instrument approach to a runway.

Edited December 11, 20223 yr by jon b

Thanks, yeah I mean is the procedure actually to fly an A320 at a 7* slope down, or overfly the runway at 3000ft then do a 360 in a tight valley to get back to the runway?  Neither sound like a good option haha. 

I've been trying to find a video on youtube showing this but I haven't found one yet that clearly shows how this is done.

No, it’s just a descent of around 3500ft to 10320ft over around 10 miles so that would just be a nominal 3 degree path or there abouts.  It implies once you’ve broken cloud hopefully by 10320ft you lose the remaining 3000ft down to the airfield my visually manoeuvring. I’m sure each airline that goes in there would produce its own briefing material on how best to fly the visual segment.

I found this chap has prepared a video from back in the FSX days, it looks like what you’re after.

Also some good stuff here..
 

https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/a-guide-to-the-paro-approach/500927

And now watch an Airbus make the same approach in real life, keeping in mind the fine briefing from the FSX example above:

 

25 minutes ago, n4gix said:

keeping in mind the fine briefing from the FSX example above:

And keeping in mind that this one is for Rwy33 instead of Rwy15.

8 hours ago, jon b said:

Also some good stuff here..
 

https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/a-guide-to-the-paro-approach/500927

That one has a good verbal description of the approach to 15 either from that overhead point or from the approach from the S. I used to have a map showing the track to be flown up into the valley along the ridge on the left side with the following 180 return in the direction of the airport (alas, I cannot find it anymore). The are some interesting details like jumping that last ridge just before touch down.

But if I remember correctly there is at least one real-life video on youtube for that approach.

Here is one:

and here is another one, flown most impressively by a lady. What I remember from the briefing that I cannot find anymore is that they aim for the distinctive house on that final ridge (Mr Smith's house ?), where they start the continuous turn to the runway. I crashed 9 times out of 10 that I tried it.

 

Edited December 12, 20223 yr by A340Bangla
spelling

After digging some more, I found that the FSDG manual (for P3D and FSX) gives a very good description including that map I was looking for for both approaches.

I do not know if I am allowed to post it here but it can be found by searching for Paro approach tutorial

A belated thanks for the posts everyone.  It does look like these videos and links show the 15 approach where you approach from the south then loop back around then land vs the newer Cloudbreak RNAV15 approach from the North which has a seemingly impossible descent?

I'm not sure how it's done IRL, but my way is after like 812~810, do a 360 visually in the valley too lose altitude before landing, technically it's a Cloud break procedure that only guild you to where you can start Visual flight