Coolest place anyone has flown into?

[fly26]

Chicago - Meigs Field in the summertime in the B1900 for Great Lakes. Lots of fun!

 

[StockholmRadio]

Da Nang, Vietnam in an MD-11...1 week ago. Another interesting and sporty destination was Pristina, Kosovo back in Oct of 2001. I have been with World Airways for about two years now and have seen exactly that...and then some.

 

[Kaman]

Unusual, cool...maybe?

Hi Guys,
I don't know if the following constitutes a "cool" location for an arrival, but here goes:

As crewmember or pilot-in-command:

1. LZ "Eagle" at Mogodishu International Airport, Somalia HH-60H.
2. Ford Island NOLF Pearl Harbour, HI Grumman Cheetah.
3. An island out in the midst of the "100 islands" Republic of the Philippines HH-2D.
4. JDS Kongo SH-60F
5. Otay Lake airport San Diego County, CA C-206
6. About 2-3 km from CNN bridge in the Kuwaiti desert HH-60H

As pax:

1. MCAS Iwakuni ATA L-1011-500
2. Taipei International Airport UAL 747-200
3. Denver/Stapleton International Airport UAL 767-200 in a blizzard.
4. Honolulu International Airport Pan Am 747-200 plus many others over the years!
5. Barnstable Municipal Airport ANE FH-227 and DHC-6

Regards,

 

[sydeseet]

Night river visual 18 DCA circle to 21. Nothing like low level yanking 'n banking over a dark river hoping that eventually a few of the 80 bazillion lights in front of you align themselves into two rows. Oh, and watch the Prohibited Airspace on your left.

Lakeway Airpark, Lakeway Texas. Little strip in the middle of a uppity neighborhood near Austin. I flew so low over the houses on approach that I could actually tell if the woman in the shower was a natural blonde. She wasn't, but I didn't hold that against her. The runway has more up's and down's than a typical pilot's career. Self serve everything - including honor system drinks and snacks.

 

[saabtrash]

Whats cool about Warroad?

 

[Squanto]

A very fun place, if your in the neighborhood, is a two hour flight over the Saharra Desert south of Algiers called Tindouf. It was an Algerian Air Force Base when we were there.

Our VIP pax was a former US Cabinet member who was having a meeting with the President of Morocco and the President of Algeria. We put on 17,000 lbs of Algerian rocket fuel and proceeded to try and pay for it. The Algerian Air Force wouldn't take our Multi-Service cards and we didn't have 6500 bucks laying around. The meeting was over as our VIP strolled up to the airplane. I told him that we were trying to find a way to pay for our fuel. He said, "I'll take care of it." He walked back to the Algeria President. They talked for a little bit and I saw the Prez laugh, waive his hand and our guy walked back. "The President said that its free, lets get the hell out of here and smiled."

Next stop the Azores. Fun little trip though.

 

[avbug]

What's so cool about RRT (Warroad)? Frankly, any place that one wouldn't normally go, but goes because one is flying, is a great place. For me, RRT was just such a place. I would never have been there if I didn't have to fly out of there, and I would have missed it.

I've flown into and from places with perfect white sand beaches and bright coral just below the water surface. I've flown into places that required tight turns around an active volcano on short final to make the runway. Places where shooting is going on. Places that take one's breath away with history and scenery, and all sorts of things.

But probably the most remarkable to me are places I wouldn't ordinarily have been for any reason but the airplane. Places I wouldn't ever have willed myself to drive or go, yet somehow ended up being. Green River, UT. Troy, AL. Mt. Isa, AUS. Punta Gorda, FL. Where ever.

What's there? Birds. Dirt. Wind. Often ice and snow. Many places, no people, often no structure...no fuel. Sometimes it's been places where I refueled from jerry cans stored underground in ice chests. What makes it "cool" is being in places others seldem venture to go, having it all to myself, having the luxury of a means to do it owing to necessity or design, and even just the privacy of the moment.

The exotic, I can buy a postcard for. I never take pictures. But the personal, secret pleasure of simply "being" in some of these places, and the little things I find along the way, make for pleasant memories I can't buy. Small stuff, like watching the little herd of goats at Monument Valley which crosses the runway twice a day, and has no shepherd. They are on their own, and move from home to "pasture" like clockwork, coming out of the sage with no warning, every day at the same times. Things like walking a dirt runway for good measure at a remote canyon strip, and finding a badger hole that wasn't there before...and then meeting the badger.

There is something definitely cool about flying for several hours to touch down at such a place, shut down, and hear...silence. Priceless. The coolest place on earth is the place you happen to be, if you're happy there, and you like it. Often I find that in small towns and out of the way places that are largely forgotten. It's in these places that I find myself.

 

[TurboS7]

When I get to heaven hope that you are there....priceless.

 

[surplus1]

Bluie West -1

"..... and done a hundred things you've not dreamed of .....

And there in the high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God."


Nice thread guys. Enough memories to shed a small tear.

Avbug, you have the picture.

 

[TurboS7]

When I read avbug's post I thought of an evening many years ago at Araracuara, Colombia. The sun was setting with hugh buildups up TRW's all over the place, we had decided to stay the night, night flying is a no, no in the jungle. I walked through a little foot-trail to a gorge droppiing 400 feet down to the river. Flying up and down the gorge were beautiful red macaws letting out their quawking shreeks. Just when I thought I had seen it all the sun came out and all along the gorge was a beautiful rainbow from the spray of the rapids below. The silence combined with the running water from the gorge, the macaws, and the noise of the leaf cutter ants walking was something I will never forget. Each place is a new adventure from Tuzla in Bosnia, to a dark approach to Prince Sultan Air Base in S.A., PAR APP. to a black hole then suddenly puff the runway at 300feet as they turn on the lights.My favorite's, DCA National, LGA, 13L/R APP JFK, Tegucigalpa,Honduras,Guatemala City, Guatemala, San Jose, Costa Rica, the old airport at Medellin, Colombia, Cap Haitain, Haiti,Lagoon via 8 SJU, Corfu, Greece,DLM, Turkey,Aviano AB, Italy,Keflivik when it is really nasty, Kodiak Island, AK, KET, Ak,JNU, AK, Goodnews Bay, Quinihawk, St. Mary's, and the Gardner airstrip #1,#2,and #3 along the Cinder River, AK. The best is Pavon, Colombia a 400meter airstrip I made just so we could fly into and fish for peacock bass. This month I get to fly to HNL and Maui, newbees for me, so maybe I'll get to add a bunch of South Pacific stuff to my list this summer.