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

By: hidy

hidy — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:58:39 +0000

from sxm dont leave the any more but that’s whats makes the airport unique its always fun to go back.PLEASE DON,T CHANGE IT.A UNIQUE COUNTRY ,PEOPLE AND AIRPORT

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 01:42:03 +0000

they should close that runway for landing

By: Deidre Leslie

Deidre Leslie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:37:27 +0000

these people are crazy!!!! My gosh they saw the plane turning and they just stood there. Very fascinating though. lol

By: naseem

naseem — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:35:29 +0000

its not a joke my friend .its to much dangerous for the human being .

By: beingboring

beingboring — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:16:22 +0000

I would kill to lie on this beach

By: hhopper

hhopper — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:18:45 +0000

Hey, I read it.

By: BubbaRay

BubbaRay — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:20:25 +0000

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.

By: Frank IBC

Frank IBC — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:15:23 +0000

St. Barth’s airport requries a STOL, IIRC.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:38:13 +0000

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.

By: Frank IBC

Frank IBC — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:20:09 +0000

I was in Bolivia on May 24, hhopper.

By: hhopper

hhopper — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:13:07 +0000

Gee, how quickly we forget…

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

By: bobbo

bobbo — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:11:59 +0000

27-28 Its never too late. “Recall em while you can!” Use em as you wish, but only the rare lady enjoys a good war story. Tell her instead how you flew over a meadow and the field of yellow poppies were in the shape of a heart, and you turned the airplane around to be with her.

((Ha, ha, I crack myself up!)) If she is real stupid, say the flowers spelled her name!! That one can work on a real smart gal too if she knows you are full of shit and having fun.

Life offers Lots of “incidents”. Hopefully we can learn from them all.

By: RBG

RBG — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:48:59 +0000

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

By: BubbaRay

BubbaRay — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:45:30 +0000

#26, Ah, such a late post no one will read it anyway. Bobbo, it’s alway fun to emergency land an 800 lb. taildragger that runs out of rudder at 30 kts. in a 35-40 kt. crosswind. Nothing you can do but head out into the grass as the airspeed dies off. Watch out for those runway lights. And taxiing? Nah, just shut her down in the field and call for a tow and two really big guys to help hold down the wings.

By: bobbo

bobbo — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:30:58 +0000

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.