I flew to Malaga for a second time, this time in the Seneca… so we were there in only an hour!
Lined up on runway 20 at Jerez, ready for departure:
I chose the Martin Two Kilo departure, since it routed us directly to the initial approach fix for runway 13, which was most likely in use and also gave better terrain clearance compared to the departure that took us to the Malaga VOR. We climbed enroute at the best rate of climb, which gave us the performance to satisfy the minimum gradient requirements to clear terrain.
Once out of Jerez and settled in cruise, I listened to the Malaga ATIS and noted down the details. As expected, runway 13 was in use and the weather was well above minimum requirements, so things were looking good. Soon we were handed off to Malaga approach, from Seville approach. There was a lot of traffic coming in, so they asked us to maintain altitude flight level 90 (9000 feet on 1013mb altimeter setting) and then vectored us around to fit us into the stream of traffic coming into Malaga to land. We were eventually given a final vector of heading south and were given clearance to descend and complete the ILS approach, and we were 30 miles from the runway threshold. Since approach asked us to maintain as high speed as possible, I kept my indicated speed up at 150 knots to fit in with the other traffic – the highest speed I’ve done an ILS at, yet! Then 5 miles from the threshold, I began slowing down, deploying the flaps under the limiting speeds and the gear, eventually I settled at 100 knots a few miles from the threshold and reached the reference threshold speed just as I crossed over and then touched down. We exited at one of the high speed taxiways and were then asked to contact the ground frequency, who gave us clearance to taxi, to park.
We had lunch and then it was my flying partner’s turn to fly us back, and my turn to relax and observe in the back seat. The view, as expected, was amazing:
My flying partner’s approach plates – he was following a standard instrument departure out of Malaga:
