Airport approach's

[nptguy]

From time to time you hear pilots rank the most difficult airport to land at . Just wondering what are some of your votes for the most difficult approach.
LGA and Logan seem to be the most talked about or how about St. Maarten. Thanks for your time!

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

whats the ohare vor trick?

 

[ILLINI]

FlyChicaga, have you ever been into Dwight, IL? It's north of CMI. That's another fun one to not only find, but land on. The E-W runway is gravel and short, especially when the corn on the West end is 8' tall. The AF/D says it's 21 feet wide, but I remember there only being a few feet on each side of the mains in the 172 I was in. My instructor and I used to have landing contests there. It's a great place to demonstrate the narrow runway illusion. Just about every student I've taken there had to go around because they were fooled by this illusion. The N-S turf runway is even shorter!

Dwight, IL - (KDTG)

 

[BigFlyr]

Try shooting a visual approach into Dominica (TDPD) in a B727.
Disable the Ground Prox Warning Horn, clear the top of a hill by a couple of hundred feet on left base then down into the gorge, hills on both sides... left wing barely clearing the banana trees until the 4500 ft (approx) runway comes into view... which ends abruptly into the Caribbean. That will keep you on the edge of your seat!

 

[GCD]

Fukaoka, Japan JAL B747 certified to circle

ILS approach from the sea into a closed mountainous valley. Break out at circling mins, turn right over the city, left down-wind at 300 feet above the buildings, turn left at the train station, turn left at the river, descend to 200 feet AGL, pick up the PAPI on final.

Because of the wind from the sea, it was not unusual to be at 160 knots IAS on down-wind and see >200 knots ground speed, and plenty of mechanical turbulence caused by the mountains and buildings.

If you ever get the chance to go to Moses Lake, WA, watch the JAL B747's practice the 300 foot AGL circle approaches.

The approach into Bangkok isn't difficult except for the Thai controllers trying to vector you into other airplanes or thunderstorms. At least they could understand the word UNABLE.

What is really fun is when the Prince decides to take his F5 for a joy ride and closes down the airport at push arrival time, and everyone is down to min fuel.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

25kt crosswind going into rwy 36 (4G8) Columbia Station, Oh about 5 miles SW of Cleveland Hopkins in a Baron. What the hell was i thinking? Demensions are okay, 3200X40 I gotta tell you. That was the $hitiest maintained runway I have seen.

 

[ceo_of_the_sofa]

What is really fun is when the Prince decides to take his F5 for a joy ride and closes down the airport at push arrival time, and everyone is down to min fuel.

Man, I want to be a dictator...

 

[jsoceanlord]

what's so hard about st martin?

'though i used to wonder how 747's departed with a mountain on the departure end.

st lucia (in a 727) has to win the shortest runway award, with mountain on the departure end - i was stressed going there in the jumpseat of a shorts

san diego lindbergh is good

 

[midlifeflyer]

It's being flow VFR, but this is essentially following the "Roaring Fork Visual" into Aspen, Colorado


Edited to correct the url:

http://midlifeflight.tripod.com/video/

 

[brew3departure]

More airports...

I really enjoy posts like these. Here are some of my favorites:

Keeping it in Illinois:

Cottonwood - near Rockford. If memory serves, landing one direction almost takes you right through the uprights of the high school football field adjacent to the airport!

I'll second Dwight as a great test - took an Arrow in there as a Commercial student and redefined the "short" in short field landing...never says it has to be a soft landing as well, right?

One of the airports I used to strive to take my students to (I think I've said this in an old post somewhere) is Lacon/Marshall County (C75) on the way to Peoria, adjacent to the Illinois River. Rising terrain, narrow runways, SHORT runways...a big valley off the approach end of one...you've got almost all the runway illusions right there.

Going outside Illinois:

Ship Rock, New Mexico...popular destination for rock climbers. This was several years ago but runway lights were/are head lights from a pickup truck.

Albuquerque, NM: only because you can take off and land a C-172 10 times on the longest runway there (13,800ft I think?)

And as far as airline stuff goes, probably my favorite (?!) is Manistee, Michigan. Lakers out there know what I'm talking about. One runway, 5500 feet long, one ILS, and a helluva crosswind...toss snow and ice in there and it's...fun...yeah...that's it!

Enough for now,

-brew3

 

[DGdaPilot]

Re: More airports...

One of the airports I used to strive to take my students to (I think I've said this in an old post somewhere) is Lacon/Marshall County (C75) on the way to Peoria, adjacent to the Illinois River. Rising terrain, narrow runways, SHORT runways...a big valley off the approach end of one...you've got almost all the runway illusions right there.

This is awesome....I never thought I'd find anyone else who's been in C75! I flew out of Pekin originally and went there quite a bit. Nothing like having a row of trees on one side of the runway to stir up that wind!

 

[mike1mc]

Just to add a few more...

Orlando Country in Florida (like landing on a sidewalk) 3100' x 30'

Fisher's Island/Elizabeth Field (08B) in New York

Islesboro, ME (57B) 2400' x 50' in a canyon of trees

 

[DoinTime]

Bagdad, AZ (E51)

Each end of the runway is at about the same elevation but there is about 100 feet of elevation change in the middle. Not a very warm feeling to land long without being able to see the end of the runway when you know that there is cliff shortly after the threshold.

 

[avbug]

Sandwash, Utah. Runway is just wide enough for the landing gear on a Cessna 207, drops off shear on each side 750-1,500', just long enough to land on and stop, just enough room to turn around and depart the other way. Sits on top of a long, very narrow mesa.

Whiteriver, AZ, when the wind is blowing. Strong shears at each end, three windsocks, three different directions, and never a good ride.

I chased a bull off the runway at shiprock one night. It was an ambulance flight, and the bull didn't want to leave. We chased it off with a .45 auto, then parked an ambulance at the far end with it's lights shining toward us. If the bull entered the runway, we'd see it sillouetted against the ambulance lights. I rolled until roughly abeam where the bull was, when it elected to return to the runway. I rotated, flew at about 8' until clear of the bull, set down, continued, then lifted off for ABQ.

If you leave your airplane at Shiprock, don't plan on everything being in it or on it when you come back.

 

[banned username 2]

I rolled until roughly abeam where the bull was, when it elected to return to the runway. I rotated, flew at about 8' until clear of the bull, set down, continued, then lifted off for ABQ.

If you were already "flying" at 8' (in ground effect), why set back down? Wouldn't you accelerate faster in ground effect without the excess rolling drag?

 

[avbug]

People put airports in some of those places because the airports are needed there. People fly there. In some cases, it's the only way to get there. Sandwash is used largely to ferry river runners to a point where they can get on the river, usually coming out of Moab, or Greenriver, UT.

Why put the airplane back on the runway? Because it wasn't ready to fly yet, and the preference against striking the bull was to lift up in order to avoid a conflict, and then set down again.

Real world vs. theory.

 

[brew3departure]

Remembered a few more...

I'll second whomever mentioned Orlando Country (X04?) -- a sidewalk surrounded by trees...lots of trees.

Toss Umatilla, FL into that mix also!

And, no, we didn't stop for any length of time at Ship Rock

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico -- don't remember the exact length of the runway, but eerily similar to Orlando Country with palm trees instead of normal trees...

And, I've never piloted an a/c to this one, but before all the 9/11 foolishness and heightened security, cockpits on international airline flights were open to guests once in a while. Had the opportunity to ride in the jumpseat of a few Mexicana 727's on the way to Mexico growing up...Zihuatenejo (probably butchered the spelling) -- will always stick in my mind. Not a very long runway, one runway only, trees and jungle on one end, miles and miles of ocean on the other!

Take care,
-brew3

 

[Dot_AK]

For one I've never gone into and don't want to:

Sparrevohn LRRS (SVW)

4100 feet long, but "runway surrounded by mountains. located on the slope of a 3302' mountain - approach from the South only, land rwy 34 only, take off rwy 16 only. Successfull go-around improbable. Caution: winds in excess of 20 kt may produce severe turbulence. Radome winds not always available."

For fun and amusement - this one's on Katchemak Bay, right across from Homer.

Jackalof Bay (4Z9)

1000 by 35, gravel, subject to flooding and debris - underwater at +16.5 feet tide. Use caution due to logs left at high tide. Rwy 12-30 doglegs. Rwy 30 departure requires left turn out, rwy 30 right turn out due to rising terrain (it's at the bottom of a bluff). Rwy used as access and staging area for kayakers. Rwy 12-30 narrows to -10' at SE end.

Kayakers love the spot - great for flying them in, dropping them off, and taking off. Local pilots have a lot to say about the place, very little repeatable in polite company.

 

[ilinipilot]

Hello,
I watched a video of a Continental 737 going into Tegucigalpa??? with my CRM class. ( a student in the class's father was the CPT) That was cool to watch, hills just off the end of the runway. The runway itself looked like it was just blasted with mines. I guess its a CPT only appch and throughout final appch you get terrain warning and GPWS alerts to pull-up. I was wondering if anyone ever flown there and your opinions on it.
Thanks
D