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.

 

[snowback]

Bar-10 Lodge in Northern Arizona...arriving from the North.

 

[avbug]

Been into Whitmore (Bar-10) many times. The flight in is anticlimactic, but the departure is fun if you're heavy. Tuweep just over the hill to the east is a great place. A little bit of a alk to the toroweap overlook, is worth it. The strip has a small lean-to with a picnic table and a sign that says "Tuweep, Terminal 1."

I flew some folks in there a few years ago to get married, standing on the edge of toroweap.

 

[CL60]

Think one is called the "Stonecutter" approach in Hong Kong and the other is Quito Equador, high, hot, and heavy... in the sim.

Seriously though... Lugano, Italy, a small airport in southern Switzerland and northern Italy at the southern foot of the Alps, was always a favorite of mine. Also Aspen, Eagle, or Rifle, Colorado in the winter.

After reading the posts, looks like most pilots think of "cool" as challenging.

 

[TurboS7]

We are all adrenaline junkies!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hagar17]

Wideawake Airfield, Ascension Island, in the South Atlantic. It's like landing on the moon.

 

[gsrcrsx68]

coolest place? In to a dried out wash(river bed) in N. az. pretty cool to see river banks on either side of the plain. I'm not sure if that qualified as maintaining a safe altitude(- 5ft agl) but it was my instructors idea and was crazy fun.

 

[Pickle]

re: Dominica

I also heard that a cargo company use to take a 727 in there. The runway isn't that long either. I think it's just over 5,000 feet.
Anyways, anyone else got anything to share?

The 727 cargo company you refer to is Amerijet, I flew with them for about 4 years. You are being generous with that runway length, as I recall it was more like 4200. We also went into St. Vincent, which was about 4400. As far as I know they still fly there. That was some fun flying, I once turned onto about a 1/3 mile final at around 300 or 400 feet in Puerta Plata. With no passengers on board, just the three of us freight dogs, we could be a little more, ummmm, aggressive and improvisational, let's say.

For those of you who have been into SJU, you may be familiar with the Bridge visual 10, and of course note 3 which states "procedure not authorized for jets or four engine props". We were on downwind (in a 727) for 10, but the controller wanted us to get in ahead of some American Airlines guy on a 10 mile final and slowed to Vref already, so they asked if we could "keep it in tight", so since he didn't clear us for the bridge visual, just asked us to keep it in tight, I did my best impression of the approaches I saw the Eagle ATRs do.

Keflavik Iceland with a 40 knot wind quartering headwind in an L-1011.

Maui in an L-1011.

 

[jsoceanlord]

chinle, arizona (navajo nation reservation). used to fly Ce 421 ambulances there at night. one guy hit a horse on landing, which almost killed him - buzzing required thereafter.

st barts is good- paul preston at tolair flew a dc-3 in there. the tamarindo approach at culebra puerto rico will have you hitting the roof if you're not strapped in (while dropping down past the ridge)..

 

[trigeek]

There were several one-way-in/one-way-out dirt strips in Central and South America that are memorable. The most interesting was landing on the highway turned LZ during the Gulf War. They packed dirt along the sides so it met the minimum width requirement of 60'. We definitely didn't stray from centerline.

The NVG 9-ship on 3 parallel runways in 15 sec for an airfield seizure was a lot of fun too.

 

[pilot141]

Turbo S7, yes!

I remember Araracuara well! I used to have fun with the radar guys by flying as low as possible as long as possible to see when they could pick us up. If we were good we could scare the crap out of the guys on "visual patrol".
I also remember turning final there and as we passed over the river gorge losing about 15 knots and getting the stick shaker. In 30 degrees of bank, power back, descending, stick shaker rattling and a HUGE cliff staring you in the face is not where I wanted to be. Oh, yes, we had the American ambassador to Colombia riding in the jumpseat. Now let's execute that stall recovery procedure SMOOTHLY and CALMLY so that no one is the wiser.....
Luckily the wind came back before it got too ugly, and we salvaged the landing.
We had a great lunch (spaghetti!), and then pressed on to other needed places (Leticia, Iquitos, etc).
What a great landing!