St. Maarten Airport – The Wildest Place in the World to Watch Airliners

The approach to the old airport in Hong Kong (Kai Tak) was pretty crazy, too.

Good Grief !! I’ve come that close to power lines before, and hope to never repeat that close one again. Students!

Here’s one plane that wasn’t that fortunate, trying to make an emergency landing on a highway. This is exactly why being a flight instructor isn’t just a bunch of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGndTM-w_68

I was there in 2003, stayed at the Maho Beach hotel, which is right near this attraction. It was kind of interesting eating burgers and watching planes land. All inclusive baby!

Memo to terrorists: Forget the shoulder fired missile, just bring a rock.

Takeoff from La Paz, Bolivia

#9, Frank, yes, I used to fly in and out of Albuquerque NM, 5100 ft. MSL, and at 110F the density altitude approaches 10,000 ft. Cheese, it’s like taking off at near the service ceiling of a light twin. Nothing like a 13,000 ft. runway to help!

#10—Thanks for the clip==it gave me the willies. And it is more unnerving to take off than it is to land. The take off roll becomes less controllable as time goes by while landing is just the opposite.

Interesting Factoid (or not?)–we had to take off and land early in the morning at La Paz because of what limitation of our aircraft??????

——- think and scroll down——

Sorry bout that, but some might want the exercise.

Answer==as stated, the higher you are (density altitude) the faster your true air speed is. So, before the air got heated up by the sun thereby raising the density altitude thereby increasing the takeoff and landing speed, my aircraft was limited to a tire rotation speed of 162 mph. Above that rotational speed, tire fatigue (blow apart) could happen rather quickly==especially on landing with the extra heat.

Night landings were fun too what with no instrument landing service.

Over and out.

Bobbo -

Interesting. I noted that both my flights into La Paz from Miami were very early in the morning, but I didn’t know why.

Another complicating factor – for the above reasons and others, the weight of planes flying into La Paz is restricted. On my previous trip, when the plane was preparing to take off from Miami, it was determined that there was too much weight and 10 passengers were volunteered to take another flight. Unfortunately, as they were removing the luggage of the people staying behind, they took out my checked bag and didn’t put it back on the plane. So I spent the first day in Bolivia with just the contents of my carryon bag and the clothes on my back.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras has a hair-raising approach and short runway.

Anyone that close to an American runway, or even making an effort to watch planes take off and land (see plane spotter stories) are treated like potential terrorists.

18–Another great video. I noticed he was in a bit of a crab when he touched down, so its windy too?

Hadn’t been there in almost 40 years but Goose Bay, Labrador used to be interesting. The runway was built between the plateau and the ocean, so you had to lose about 2500 feet in less than 3 miles to land. First time, I thought I was dead for sure! San Diego is fun too

23–Yes, thats a crab. Actually strong crosswinds are relatively “easy” to handle, its the variable direction, and worse yet, the gusts that can kill you. Small aircraft are built to land in a crab. The structure of large aircraft makes the landing gear subject to failure if the side forces/shear are too great such as experienced when landing in a crab==so the procedure is to land “wing low” by applying rudder to line up the aircraft and cross ailerons to prevent drifting.

I was ordered once to land at Andrews AFB with strong gusting winds 90 degrees to the runway. I reported that the gusts (over 50 mph) where outside the range of my aircraft. The tower responded to “land inbetween the gusts.” Well, I have called BS before, but I was intrigued—can I get this beast down???????

So, I lined up using maximum asymetrical control and was doing ok, but the aircraft was drifting slightly. I guess the landing charts are correct, 50 mph was the max! What to do????????

———scroll down for those interested———-

——–and yes I apologize—————-

——–This is War Story No 2————

So, the only thing left was to use asymetrical engine power and that did indeed work. Once on the ground we taxied in and stopped and the plane was immediately unloaded. I asked the loadmaster how he got the cargo off so quickly and he asked what I meant. We were just parked. The aircraft was being buffeted around like I had never experienced, while parked!

I could have died. Not that big a deal, but I would have taken my crew with me. I swore never to show off again – - – and I never did. That lead to War Stories 3 & 4 for another day.

Can I use that next time I’m in a bar full of ladies?

When I have a dinky 172 on final in a crabbed configuration, normally I would swing the aircraft parallel to the runway at the very last moment.

Not too many war stories here.

Once had a coyote run out of the bush and chase the tire as I was on the roll for take-off.

Dumbest Moment: Low time, landing a 152 at an Int’l airport. Taking my sweet time and causing a heavy to have to do a last minute go-around. Geez, I’m sorry….

Weirdest moment. On a night final, a bird flying straight at the aircraft somehow flits over the prop and bounces off the top of the cabin.

Weird moment #2: Passenger pees into a coke bottle and drops it onto a farmer’s field.

Is This Nuts Or What Moment: Solo spin practices (Canada) with only 17 hours of flight time.

Most Exhilarating Moment: Probably night flights over the big city & subsequent landings.

Most dangerous Moment: Seeing the face of the other pilot as we both cross the VOR at the same time.

RBG

Gee, how quickly we forget…

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=11601

One think I loved about landing in St Barths, French West Indies (an extreme landing to say the least) is at the end of the runway, is a nude beach, so after a death defying land, the treat, and a great bar as you step off the plane.

Yay, I get the final post that no one will ever read! Doesn’t anyone use a “slip” in a crosswind (or too high an altitude on final) to land an airplane anymore? Sure, it freaks out the passengers (bottoms tend to slide in the seats), but it’s a proven technique to land even a light twin (King Air) in a really bad crosswind. Works every time. Once you get all three wheels down, it’s the rudder (or asymmetrical thrust) that dictates whether or not you can keep the craft on the runway.

I would kill to lie on this beach