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- piwy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+108Kinda lame compared to saba's Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport. So dangerous you're officially not allowed to land there. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/Saba_airport.jpg/800px-Saba_airport.jpg
- stealpick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40Hey, I've actually been to Saba! I was looking right over the pilot's shoulder when we landed and I couldn't believe he was going to attempt to land on that strip. But that was nothing compared to taking off from that strip when you actually dive off the end of the runway towards the ocean before (one hopes) climbing back up again.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http://archibase.net/archinews/13712.html
- ubpsanity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19I notice the X's on the runway.. means the runway is closed.
Most likely to keep people from landing there, but still.. - starguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Is there anyone here who has not landed at this obscure, out of the way in the middle of nowhere airport?
- srodolff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Ah... Meigs Field...May it live forever in Flight Simulator.
- Pilot85, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13...these aren't that scary. As long as you know the standard patterns at those places, it's no problem. The Snow/ice covered one is dangerous because of the snow cover. The last one is a taxiway. Go to airliners.net or other places and look up Kai Tak airport - crosswinds there ARE scary. Some airports in South America and the Alps are angled, sloping, or curving. THOSE are some scary runways.
- falstaff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13That last one looks like it's from Liberty City.
- naich, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12This one isn't bad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwIAf9bPuAc
St. Maarten. - kdeuce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Do they say where these are, or am I missing it?
- Botond, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8>>Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the last photo just a causeway used for just Taxiing?
Yes, it is a taxiiway. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Actually, only one of them looks bad (the one with ice)... a few look absolutely huge (width and length).
- JonGretar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Isafjordur airport is also quite an adventure to land in. Made in a tight valley with a huge mountain at the end reqires you in some wind directions to fly down the mountain slope in a steep angle to reach the airport.
http://www.pbase.com/gbe75/image/55826798 - ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The road leading there looks like a challenge too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juancho_E._Yrausquin_Airport - GeneralFault, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I don't get it. These are all flat with no obstructions. A couple of them are short, but Ive been on shorter runways. There is a very commonly used airport here in S.California that is sloped down at about a 5% grade with several roller-coaster ups and downs in it all at the base of a 7000' mtn with very common santa ana winds. Now that airport is difficult to land on. Even San Diego Intl. (Lindbergh field) looks more difficult to land on with a highly populated hill directly before it causing the pilots to drop rapidly onto the strip.
- stealthduke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@arnar
Notice on those Airliners.net photos, where it says "URL (link) to this photo"
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0675240/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0385878/M/ - sagefool1975, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I've been there as well, it is quite amazing to come in and land there. Once they touch down they pretty much slam the engines into reverse (vs all the other puddle hopper flights I've been on where they slowly ease them into reverse.) I didn't experience the dive off the end when I left because we had a nice updraft, but I can easily see how that would be extra freaky. The wing sticks out over the cliff edge when they taxi out to the end and turn around. That road from the airport ("The Road" - there is only one on the island) is also amazing.
- MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -0/+5The first two look like pacific islands, or maybe carribean?
Either way, these might be difficult, even scary to land on, but they look really cool. Maybe they're private airstrips. - Avantime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Those places are hardly dangerous when you compare with the stuff you see in Papua New Guinea.
Gigantic mountains? Check.
Gigantic tropical thunderstorms that appears out of nowhere? Check.
Less than serviceable equipment? Check.
Steep 17 degree slope grass airstrips, up to 15000ft, that are surrounded by mountains, and the grass usually is too tall because nobody's bothered to cut them? Check.
Charts that came from the 1980s, with many areas unsurveyed?
Armed bandits with homemade shotguns firing at you trying to go to the airport, every single day? Check.
The whole country facing social and economic collapse and be overrun by criminals? Check
Here's some pics:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5200/finalskamalaidl3.jpg
http://www.pngair.com/?q=node/1083
http://www.pngair.com/?q=node/32 - rrasco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4when i went to the Virgin Islands we landed in St Thomas which was a little scary, not as bad as those in the photos, but here is a shot, you land from the ocean, and take off towards it.
http://samchuiphotos.com/CaribbeanDec03/025.jpg - tjthayer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Bah, those are all pussy airports... A few cliffs and water are no big deal (pilots tend to not "overshoot" runways all that often). The thing most of these have in common is practically non-existent air traffic! I'd say this is more challenging... http://pauldevis.batcave.net/images/google/top30airports/AtlantaWhole.jpg - And that doesn't even show the new runway.
2006 average 2674 flights per day. - cpcouvillion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I agree. You are supposed to land ON the runway, it shouldn't matter what is around it. ;)
Do you have an example of a curving runway? I've heard about them and am curious to see what one looks like. - vrillusions, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Another view of the airport from the top of the volcano looking down (shows the road leading to it)
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1146078/M/ - Hazardc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4There's lots of cool photos on airliners.net.. i can look around there all day, although im a hopeful future pilot.. so i get a little more excited in the pants over what might be mundane aircraft photos to some
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4http://www.disi.unige.it/etaps2001/REACH/aeroporto.jpg
- vrillusions, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@cpcouvillion
only curved runway I could find, and on grass as well
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0677502/M/ - stealthduke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Submitter: Yes, the last one is only a taxiway... It's the airport in Macau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau_International_Airport - sjbdallas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3 I'm no pilot but from looking at the photos i'm not sure why any of them would be necessarily difficult or scary. Its not like you have tons of room for errors landing at a major airport anyway since you still have to bring a plane down on a specific runway. Instead of buildings, a terminal, houses, and freeways surrounding the runway, these pictures have water and mountains.
- luv2lrn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Re: Curved Runways
Attached is a photo of Hudson Island, BC (in the Gulf Islands). It not only has a dog-leg but is peaked in the middle. Just to make things interesting, the dog leg and the peak are at different points along the runway. It is also lined with 120' trees so there is a rapid transition from crosswind to no wind at each threshold. At least it has open approaches.
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.peternash.com/properties/z_archives/hudsonisland/images/12.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.peternash.com/properties/z_archives/hudsonisland/index.htm&h=179&w=270&sz=13&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=ilD9CUB-hcKx5M:&tbnh=75&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhudson%2Bisland%2Bbc%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26sa%3DG - inarguable, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As a pilot, i can say that there is nothing irregular or dangerous about any of those runways (the last one is a taxiway, not a runway), and i dont know many other pilots who would have any hesitation shooting an approach at any of them.
- inarguable, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Yeah, but most non pilots look at those and go "Damn. But what if you miss? You'd fly into a cliff!" Like that would be any different than missing a runway and flying into a stand of oak trees, or a plain old wheat field. You might be able to land in the wheat field with 4 seat prop plane or something small like that, but a 737 or A320 would make a big flaming mess."
I got news for you dude, as a pilot, if you ever miss the runway entirely, you better expect your day to get really ***** in a hurry if you keep descending, and that is anywhere you are (save the lakebed at Edwards AFB - or Area 51). That is what missed approach procedures are for. The fear that non-pilots have from seeing a sight like these pics provide is is actually part of the reason most civil airliners have turned off the nose camera feature that the in-flight entertainment system has during short-final approach. Occassionaly, passengers in back would get totally freaked out and actually scream aloud when they saw the nose cam view of the upcoming runway, particularly in a crosswind approach where heavy yaw was imparted on the aircraft. - GreatDrok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You're right. I'm still only learning and I wouldn't be particularly phased by any of them. Heck, runway 19 at Carlise (http://www.carlisleairport.co.uk/info.htm) is actually more scary than these because it is short, you have to fly low over a farm house, fence and a road, there is a bump half way along it and you have to do a short takeoff and hope like hell you can get over the power lines (hard in a Cessna 150) that aren't far off the end of it. I was doing circuits there a few months back and if you don't stick it down very close to the (displaced) threshold you won't have enough runway to stop or takeoff again. Oh, and it is also rather skinny for someone who has done most of their flying out of Newcastle International.
- CaptRR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Meigs Field, Wasn't that the airport that the mayor tore down in order to build a casino on, but their was some wrongdoing found, so now all that sits their is a destroyed airport
- b0wl0fud0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Check out kai tak international airport (Hong Kong) which is now closed:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8595143022111722945
More information about why it was so dangerous here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak - rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The last one must be for departures only... god, i hope so.
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Eh that just looks like the old Meigs' Field on Northerly Island in Chicago:
http://64.143.36.15/images/Meigs_Field--credit_Marge_Beaver_sm.JPG - cpcouvillion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2AOPA is a great resource for current and future pilots. http://flighttraining.aopa.org/projectpilot/
- CrazyRussian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2must be awsome to watch a game at the field
- zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ive seen worse. not strips you could put a jet liner on.
But strips cut on the side of a mountain with trees only cut back far enough
so I could land. So none of this drifting sideways on final crap. Its straight in Carrying just enough speed
Make it over the approach and stalling it hard on to the runway.
Then using all the brakes you have to keep from running off the end. Where you don't get to run off into the nice
and relative soft water. No you would slam in to very unfriendly and very hard trees.
Once down, I would load up and wait for the day to cool off. As the load I was carrying would not allow me to
take off because of the air temperature. As soon as the temp was down and the wind was calm.
I would preform a short field take off as soon as I would clear the ground,
Cycle the gear up in an attempt to clean up the aircraft and get more climb performance.
I on average would clear the trees at the end of the runway by not more than 40 feet.
I would then turn away from the mountain, lower the nose and zoom down into the valley to get my speed up so
I could retract my flaps. Mountain strips are scary during dusk very scary.
Because you really don't have a clear view of anything.
How can you tell that's a mountain ahead of you and not clear sky?
The mountain is the black space where the stars are not. - xofc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As many others have said, it all depends on what you're flying. Try landing in a confined LZ that's maybe twice the size of your aircraft, at night, on goggles.
- vmxeo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@stealpick
I've landed at the airport too, several times. Thankfully, someone had warned me about the shortness of the runway before I got there. As the pilot announced that we were beginning our decent, I overheard a the couple behind me talking between themselves wondering if I was a resident or a tourist. They concluded I *must* have been a resident by the fact I didn't freak out when I saw the runway we were suppose to land on. But yeah, I takeoff from that strip is another story... - joepodcaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@inarguable "As a pilot, i can say that there is nothing irregular or dangerous about any of those runways "
I have been a pilot for a major airline for eighteen years, and I was a military pilot before that. Look again, inarguable, there is something irregular and dangerous about at least two of those runways (excluding the taxiway), and you should be familiarize yourself with those dangers and be cognizant of them every time you fly there. - arnar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Here are some better photos of the Isafjordur airport.
http://tinyurl.com/2mrxp4
http://tinyurl.com/22fuhe
(thank god for tinyurl - the original ones where over 660 characters each!) - Pseudorious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The last one is Macau and is not dangerous in any way. It's a major international airport built on pilings.
- kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not much margin for error on that one. But why'd they build it that way? They could have gone uphill.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can sympathize with the idea that seeing everything outside of the plane is probably not good for the passengers' general state of mind. I'm not a particularly good passenger when it comes to flying, I tend to be in dread of crashing through the whole flight. When I flew back from England a few years ago, we went into a holding pattern over Philly. At times, you looked out one window and saw the tops of buildings, and looked out the other window and saw clouds. That can definitely be unsettling. As much as I dislike actually flying in planes, however, they still fascinate me, so while I was unsettled to say the least, I was still somewhat comforted by the knowledge that it was a holding pattern, and that banking like that was not particularly dangerous.
- toastiepostie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Meigs has nothing to do with a casino but instead Mayor Daley wanted to shut it down so he bulldozed the runway and turned it into a park and outdoor concert hall.
- vagarach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes! I knew I recognised the name! I played flight sim '95 for countless hours try to perfect my landings at Meig's Field. Oh and flying through the city in the Extra 300s. good times.
- subscriber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Then you'll like this: http://digg.com/podcasts/Fly_With_Me
Its by an airline pilot who takes a recorder into the cockpit and does interviews with pilots etc... There's radio chatter, flight attendant stories, and "there I was" stories from pilots. - vrillusions, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@inarguable
I have always wondered if they had a nose cam. Not if they had one mounted on the plane, but one that you could watch from the in flight video screens. I went to Japan, which was the first big flight I've been on and first time on a plane in general in like 10 years. The whole time for take off and landing I was looking out the window. At one point approaching narita we had to go into a holding pattern while still over the ocean. When it banked I was on the bottom part facing the ocean and we probably went in a circle for a few mins until the airport was clear. Looking back I could really see people freaking out "OMG I SEE THE OCEAN WE"RE GOING TO DIE!!1!one".
I did notice the flight channel that showed the current speed and altitude was turned off durring the final approach as well, probably the same reason to prevent people from freaking out when the see the altitude dropping so fast. -
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