(upbeat music)
- Now ask any aviation geek what they think about
when you say the words Saint Martin,
and they'll probably tell you this.
(plane engine roars)
(laughs)
That's flippin' awesome, isn't it?
This is, of course, Juliana Airport in Saint Martin.
It's a mecca for plane spotters from around the world.
Just the mention of the name is enough to send a
staring into the loins of anyone
who's ever called themselves an aviation geek.
But it's not the only airport on Saint Martin.
In fact, there's another one not far from here
that I think is potentially even cooler than Juliana.
(upbeat music)
So right about now I'm about to cross the only land border
anywhere in the world between France and the Netherlands.
And there we go, welcome to the French side.
So I'm now in the French side of the island,
everything's written in French.
(car rattles)
Now aside from having absolutely dreadful
road conditions here in the French side of the island,
they also have their own airport.
It's called Grand Case Airport.
It's a quite small airport.
It only serves a couple of destinations,
Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe and also St. Barts.
But it's really unique in the fact
that the runway is so short,
the aircraft have to reverse down the runway to take off.
It's the only airport in the world
where they have to do that.
So we're going to go have a look at it.
And later we're going to fly out there as well.
(upbeat music)
Right behind me then is the runway here
at Grant Case Airport.
It kind of sticks out into a lagoon very much like that.
And the aircraft come in,
in front of this beautiful mountain here
and touch down, slam down, and basically all the anchors on
to stop running off the other end of the runway.
When they take off, of course, it's a different matter.
The runway is too short for them to use half the runway.
And so they've got a power back maneuver
to reverse the aircraft right down
to the very tip of the runway
before they can then power up and take off.
It's all pretty cool, isn't it?
(plane engine roars)
Here he is doing his backtrack.
He's flipping around now,
so he's pointing the right way down the runway.
And watch what happens next.
There he goes.
Reversing to get the entire length of the runway.
And that would be a short field take off.
And off he goes!
There we go.
That was pretty cool, wasn't it?
Watching him take off doing that like a reverse maneuver.
And we're going to go and get on board one
and see for ourselves what it's like to be
on board with that power back maneuver
through reverse down the length of the runway
here at Grand Case.
So this then is the terminal building
here at Grand Case airport on Saint Martin.
It's quite a small place.
Home to a few chickens running around
or hens or whatever they're called
trotting around the car park.
It's quite a compact little airport.
Let's head inside and see what it's like inside.
Aside from the roosters trotting around
the terminal at Grand Case features a small cafe,
a couple of check-in desks,
and, well, that's about it really.
- [Airport Worker] Doing good?
- [Noel] I'm good, thank you.
There's a pretty laid back security inspection
before you enter the small departure lounge
where you get a good view of the ramp action.
This Cessna Caravan was bringing in the mail
from Guadeloupe.
As you can see by the weather Saint Martin
was once again resembling Fort William
rather than the Caribbean today.
Now Grand Case airport is predominantly served
by Air Caraibes, but there's also, I mean,
like what Air Antilles Express who fly in here.
There's one of their planes out there right now.
And St. Barth Commuter who fly to St. Barts
also fly in here with Caravans, as well.
The biggest aircraft here is the ATR 72
which is the one I'm going on today.
Air Antilles also send an ATR 42 in, as well.
So it's all little turbo-prop planes
to connect Saint Martin with all the other islands
in this part of the world.
Pretty soon there was the distinctive sound
of an ATR on its way in, and my ATR 72 arrived in
from her flight from Guadeloupe.
This one was delivered less than a year ago brand new
from Toulouse after undertaking a phenomenal ferry flight
via Cape Verde and Brazil.
(upbeat music)
Now Air Caraibes have their ATRs fitted
with these rather uncomfortable bench seats,
much like a bus, but for the length of flight
they operate it's difficult to complain too much.
(stewardess speaks in foreign language)
It was time to taxi out and experience one
of the most unique take offs in the world.
Once we'd held short for the departing iguana that was.
At first the backtrack from Grand Case seems fairly normal,
but once you've spun around
that's when it starts to get fun.
(aircraft engine running)
The runway has these two markings
for the pilots to know how far back to reverse.
One for the ATR 72 and one for the shorter ATR 42.
Just look how far back we have to reverse.
The main landing gear is almost touching the grass,
with the tail of the plane well over the grass.
Now it was time to see just how fast
we used up this incredibly short runway.
(aircraft engine ramping up)
And there we go.
Another flight safely airborne
for the flight down to Guadeloupe.
Our route down to Guadeloupe today
then took us south from Saint Martin
flying past Saint Kitts, Antigua, and Montserrat
before our approach and landing into Pointe-à-Pitre.
Flight time today was 40 minutes, cruising at 13,000 feet.
(upbeat music)
The flight down to Guadeloupe offers
some stunning views over the tropical islands down below.
Sadly we couldn't see any of those today
due to the low clouds and rain,
but I did spot a cloud that looked a little bit
like somebody pulling the "V" sign.
As I tried to take in these magnificent views,
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(gentle upbeat music)
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(upbeat music)
The rain did stop a bit
just before our landing into Guadeloupe, though,
and we made an approach and landing
into Pointe-à-Pitre airport.
(upbeat music)
If you've enjoyed this video,
don't forget to check out my previous video
flying to the incredible island of St. Barts
and having a go at landing a plane there myself.
And it didn't end well.
And the link's on the screen now.
I had just a 35-minute connection here in Guadeloupe,
to my onward flight back to Europe.
I was pretty nervous about whether I'd make it,
but it turned out I needn't have worried.
From stepping off the ATR to stepping onto the A350
for my flight to Paris took an incredible seven minutes,
making it the fastest and most efficient transfer
I've ever accomplished.
Oh, and my bags even made it too, so well done Air Caraibes.
Thanks so much for watching this video.
Take care, and I'll see you next time.