My mum showed me a bit of program called Worlds most dangerous airports or something like that. Gibralter is at no 5, and bloody helly half of it is cut of by a main road. Hope your still alive Blingo , havent seen you on here for a few days. Fly from Malaga in future.
Quote from: FatFreddysCat on June 26, 2011, 09:14:53 PM
My mum showed me a bit of program called Worlds most dangerous airports or something like that. Gibralter is at no 5, and bloody helly half of it is cut of by a main road. Hope your still alive Blingo , havent seen you on here for a few days. Fly from Malaga in future.
Yeah this is a bit of a scary airport to land at, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar_Airport (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar_Airport) I haven't been there since the late 90s. I drove in from La Linea but I still have a recollection of a supermarket halfway across. I may be totally wrong but I'm sure Blingo will put me right.
Hong Kong used to be a bit tasty coming into land with skyscrapers on either side and not much room for error. They have actually moved the airport now and all you have to worry about are some mountains on the horizon.
I have flown many times in my life. However, I am afraid of flying. The Hong Kong things sounds lime my recurring dream, flying though (between) lots of high buildings.
We have to add the Vagar Airport in the Faroe Islands to the list too.
(http://www.floghavn.fo/SiteFiles/Public/141/Temp/b74c4b63-530a-4bca-95cd-845b21a427b1.jpg)
The runway is shorter that normal for traditional jet planes :002:
We have to add Sint-Maarten (Dutch overseas province) to that list. Too short runway so the airplane needs to start descending considerably early to make it to the end. The result:
747 Landing - St.Maarten (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo#)
Gib airport certainly is a little hair-raising! When we touched down I looked out of the window and all I could see was water below me, I thought I'd be swimming to passport control.
Madeira airport is a bit tricky.
(http://en.structurae.de/files/photos/f003301/perspec_pista_ne.jpg)
And I did the old HK airport in a 747 just before it closed in 98, fantastic fun.
Quote from: King_Crud on June 27, 2011, 09:40:40 AM
Madeira airport is a bit tricky.
(http://en.structurae.de/files/photos/f003301/perspec_pista_ne.jpg)
And I did the old HK airport in a 747 just before it closed in 98, fantastic fun.
You might call it fun, KC, but to normal people like me it was hair raising. I used to board the aircraft in white trousers and disembark with brown ones.
There was indeed a Safeways supermarket at the side of the runway, but it was shut down years ago.
The biggest problem with the runway at Gib is not the runway itself - although it is not the longest there is - but the crosswinds and believe me, when your son is coming back on a flight and the pilot tries to land with the wings rocking and you watch the aeroplane rev up and pull back up into the sky, your heart is in your mouth.
Apart from that, as I see it every day, it really is no big thing lol. (Oh and of course there's a bloody big stone to the side of it that is best avoided :005:)
Look at this it will give you an idea.
aborted landing at Gibraltar Airport (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKjudF68hxc#)
My wife and I were on a domestic flight which actually touched down and took off immediately at Mascot Airport, Sydney. This was an aborted landing okay but it obviously can happen anywhere and like this incident was never made public.
Pilots get a bonus if they can land in crosswinds CH. We get this problem every year with flights diverted either to Malaga or Tangiers. Nearly every Gibbo can tell as the plane approaches as to whether it will make the landing or not. I have been on a flight like the one above and have been taken to Tangiers. When you get there, they do NOT let you off of the plane and you just have to sit there and wait until they deem it safe to try again (normally hours). It may sound silly, but you are quite happy to take off again to "have another go" hahahaha.
Quote from: CorkedHat on June 27, 2011, 10:03:53 AM
My wife and I were on a domestic flight which actually touched down and took off immediately at Mascot Airport, Sydney. This was an aborted landing okay but it obviously can happen anywhere and like this incident was never made public.
I used to live under the flight path for Sydney. In bad weather I have seen planes abort landing, one Qantas plane I saw attempt it 4 times. But it's not newsworthy
walking across the runway at Gib is no fun either.
Quote from: Blingo on June 27, 2011, 10:12:32 AM
Pilots get a bonus if they can land in crosswinds CH. We get this problem every year with flights diverted either to Malaga or Tangiers. Nearly every Gibbo can tell as the plane approaches as to whether it will make the landing or not. I have been on a flight like the one above and have been taken to Tangiers. When you get there, they do NOT let you off of the plane and you just have to sit there and wait until they deem it safe to try again (normally hours). It may sound silly, but you are quite happy to take off again to "have another go" hahahaha.
Rather you than me Mr B. I'm not the best of flyers. In my job I had to fly at least once a week for ten years so I got pretty used to it but I never really enjoyed it. I have been in aborted landings, lightning strikes, engine failure and God knows what else. The only thing I haven't experienced is volcanic ash but that may still happen.
Hopefully not CH lol.
Peabody, you make it sound like you are dodging landing aircraft as you are walking across the runway hahahahaha. It is bloody annoying though when they put down the barriers to let the sweeper clean the runway during rush hour lol. The queues to get out of Gib are a bigger nightmare than the planes.
What I meant was, it was areally hot day and we took a chance and parked in La Linea, our friends did'nt wan to splash out on a cab so we walked and we walked and we walked!
You must have been going in the wrong direction lol. Gibs not even 3 miles long hahaha.
Iraklion's airport was always a joy to land at. It's also carved out of the side of a rock so that any cross breeze hits the airplane in two directions and, the sudden cessation of a breeze drops you on the runway like a stone. It was always a pleasure to see the Greeks cheering after a safe landing and crossing themselves repeatedly after "an interesting" landing.
This was in the late 1970s, and most of the voices we heard over Olympic Airline's intercoms welcoming us to Crete were British. I think they were all RAF Lancaster veterans.
Quote from: HatterDon on June 27, 2011, 04:22:12 PM
Iraklion's airport was always a joy to land at. It's also carved out of the side of a rock so that any cross breeze hits the airplane in two directions and, the sudden cessation of a breeze drops you on the runway like a stone. It was always a pleasure to see the Greeks cheering after a safe landing and crossing themselves repeatedly after "an interesting" landing.
This was in the late 1970s, and most of the voices we heard over Olympic Airline's intercoms welcoming us to Crete were British. I think they were all RAF Lancaster veterans.
Good grief! That landing is brutal. You come in from the sea and aim at a cliff face, hoping that the pilot will pull up in time!
Did the old Hong Kong airport landing shortly before it moved , pilots landing there had to have special training, like CH I am not a good flyer always glad to feel the hopefully smooth bump on landing. It was very off putting at Hong Kong to look out of the plane window and see a woman putting washing out on her balcony of the tall flats seemingly just at the end of the wing
Ironically the two worst landings I had were both in the UK.
A Monarch Airways landing at Luton, during bad weather, where in the end the pilot just dumped the bird on the runway and must have left a crater.
And a BA flight at Heathrow where we literally touched down and took right off again as there was another plane still dawdling around on the runway.
I went to Windy Wellington earlier this year, and the crosswinds made that quite an interesting experience. Apparently the airport is renowned for it.
Quote from: sipwell on June 27, 2011, 07:20:39 AM
We have to add Sint-Maarten (Dutch overseas province) to that list. Too short runway so the airplane needs to start descending considerably early to make it to the end. The result:
747 Landing - St.Maarten (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo#)
Sod going there :046:
Quote from: The Equalizer on June 27, 2011, 04:30:20 PM
Quote from: HatterDon on June 27, 2011, 04:22:12 PM
Iraklion's airport was always a joy to land at. It's also carved out of the side of a rock so that any cross breeze hits the airplane in two directions and, the sudden cessation of a breeze drops you on the runway like a stone. It was always a pleasure to see the Greeks cheering after a safe landing and crossing themselves repeatedly after "an interesting" landing.
This was in the late 1970s, and most of the voices we heard over Olympic Airline's intercoms welcoming us to Crete were British. I think they were all RAF Lancaster veterans.
Good grief! That landing is brutal. You come in from the sea and aim at a cliff face, hoping that the pilot will pull up in time!
I've done that one, never really noticed anything ontoward to be honest.
Quote from: Burt on June 27, 2011, 06:31:51 PM
A Monarch Airways landing at Luton, during bad weather, where in the end the pilot just dumped the bird on the runway and must have left a crater.
yeah i had a wobbly landing on Easyjet at Luton. The plane was wobbly around coming in to land and there was a group of lads near me making mock vomiting noises and yelling "we're all going to die!". Those of us who weren't scared of flying were laughing, but there were a lot of people who didn't find it funny
Worst landing for me was at Houston airport (late 80-'s) where the plane must have hit some wind shear, because one second I'm looking at the ground on a normal approach and then we seemed to move 90 degrees right and then back again and the plane seemed to just drop on the runway and some people were hurt in the cabin.
Straight after that I had to board a plan to Detroit and then flew through the worst thunderstorm I have ever been in while on a plane, and i'm not kidding this plane must hav had something like 130 seats and there were only 5 of us on it with 3 stewards. One of the worst days of my life.(and the fact I was staying in Detroit did not help)
A 747 captain told me that potentially the most dangerous airport to land at is Perth Western Australia. Reason being, in the unusual event of there being bad weather, you have no choice but to land as there is nowhere nearby to divert a 747 to.
Have you seen how much Desert they have over there Vinnie lol?
I was coming back from our sales kick-off in San Diego last year and had to go back to LHR via Dallas.
The South West flight was about 20 minutes out when there was a loud bang, then a lurch, a change in engine pitch and also a change in the atmosphere of the passengers... Particularly when we banked sharply and started heading back to San Diego.
The pilot made an announcement to the effect that the more observant amongst us may have noticed a bit of a noise and the fact that we were running on one engine less than normal, and that as a precaution we were returning to San Diego, and not to be alarmed by the emergency vehicles that would be waiting for us there.
Actually San Diego itself is an interesting airport - pretty much smack bang in downtown SD, and with a frigging great car park all but obstructing one end of the runway.
Back to my Wellington airport comments...
Wellington Airport....crazy landings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA7qkUeltNI#ws)
They don't call it Windy Wellington for nothing
Of course, any landing that occurs when people are firing machine guns at you is in a different category. I used to prefer daytime take-offs and landings so I didn't have to watch the tracer rounds.
Quote from: HatterDon on June 28, 2011, 03:31:50 PM
Of course, any landing that occurs when people are firing machine guns at you is in a different category. I used to prefer daytime take-offs and landings so I didn't have to watch the tracer rounds.
The tracers still look pretty decent in daylight mate. That is if you are behind the 20 millimeter and hitting things you can actually see which nowadays is a lost art and waste of time
Quote from: finnster01 on June 28, 2011, 04:48:03 PM
Quote from: HatterDon on June 28, 2011, 03:31:50 PM
Of course, any landing that occurs when people are firing machine guns at you is in a different category. I used to prefer daytime take-offs and landings so I didn't have to watch the tracer rounds.
The tracers still look pretty decent in daylight mate. That is if you are behind the 20 millimeter and hitting things you can actually see which nowadays is a lost art and waste of time
Tracers are the perfect example of the old saying, "It's better to give than to receive."
when i was young my extended family took a flight up into the highlands of Papua New Guinea. We were flying in a small cessna between mountains, with limited vision due to mist. We eventually came out of the top of the mist, found the mountain we were due to land on, had to fly around twice while they moved the cows from the landing strip. My grandfather, who fought and was shot in Tobruk in WW2, said it was the scariest thing he's ever experienced, scarier than fighting the Germans & Italians.
Quote from: King_Crud on June 28, 2011, 05:01:36 PM
when i was young my extended family took a flight up into the highlands of Papua New Guinea. We were flying in a small cessna between mountains, with limited vision due to mist. We eventually came out of the top of the mist, found the mountain we were due to land on, had to fly around twice while they moved the cows from the landing strip. My grandfather, who fought and was shot in Tobruk in WW2, said it was the scariest thing he's ever experienced, scarier than fighting the Germans & Italians.
I can understand the Italian bit. I rather take them on than the cows.
When the Falklands war started, the Italians surrendered.
