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Wow...tough airport to land at!


heymisterk

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I was inspired by Rocketman's posting of the Shuttle camera footage he posted awhile.

 

I am not a pilot, but I am fascinated by aviation. So I Googled "Toughest places to land."

 

The consensus in the U.S. seems to be San Diego; what used to be the most difficult in the world was in Honduras and the old Hong Kong airport, but both have been replaced by a new airport.

 

That leaves this, a landing in Bhutan. If you want the juicy part, jump up about 5 minutes into the video. From what I read, only a handful of pilots are licensed to land there...

 

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That video is crazy. My wife wants to go to Bhutan. Maybe I should show her that video. When I was a kid, I was in the ATC (air training corps) aka, the Air Cadets. Part of that involved flying lessons but that video was scary.

 

Hell, the US Navy pilots land on tiny airports everyday and night; the carrier is moving away from you, it is going up and down, and the landing area is barely longer then the aircraft you are flying. Miss the hook and...well;

 

In all fairness, the technology the fighter pilots have at their disposal is far better and more responsive. This is like comparing a slow, difficult to handle truck with an F1 car. One thing that I've always been curious about is when the shuttle pilots dock with the ISS. I'm guessing that is a lot harder. Especially when you consider that the guys in your video were probably candidates for Nasa at some point.

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The G-force Navy pilot go through taking off and landing is, in all fairness, a lot more violent than anything a commericial air craft could survive, and technology can't change that.

The deck of a carrier is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Every landing is a controlled crash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31Q-p4E5P0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31Q-p4E5P0&feature=related

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The G-force Navy pilot go through taking off and landing is, in all fairness, a lot more violent than anything a commericial air craft could survive, and technology can't change that.

 

I'm aware of that, but it's like comparing apples and oranges. The plane landing at bhutan will be very lazy (handling wise) in comparison to the nimble fighter jet.

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I'm aware of that, but it's like comparing apples and oranges. The plane landing at bhutan will be very lazy (handling wise) in comparison to the nimble fighter jet.

 

 

That airport at Bhutan is scary no doubt, a long approach up a canyon and a small strip, landing at Kauai's Lihue airport is no fun, it's very short and always has crosswinds. and the planes are much larger then the one's flying into Bhutan.

These are some good vid.s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXaxLj_6Ty4&feature=related

But remember this, commercial pilots are not landing a deck that is going up and down, with aircraft sitting within a few feet with aviation fuel in them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aulyFhS-eK8&feature=related

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I guess I was just thinking about it in terms of commercial aviation. I mean, I am not going to visit a destination on a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier. [tongue] What gets me about that Bhutan video is that hard left bank he has to do just seconds before landing!

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Gibraltar airport where i live is no picnic either, always makes it into the top ten difficult airports.

 

runway is very short and crosswinds can be terrible.

 

to top it all off the main road to spain actually goes THROUGH the airport and traffic has to be stopped for aircraft to land !

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKjudF68hxc

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obVe6FeNYvg&feature=related

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I have never been nervous about flying but had one of the roughest scariest landings ever at Newark, NJ. Heavy winds, rain made the pilot miss the first time around and he had to go and try it a 2nd time. Nerve-racking to say the least.

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When a pilot starts resting their arm on the dashboard, they're getting nervous. You can see both pilots do it a couple of times.

 

[scared]

 

I didn't know that! That's a cool observation.

 

At 6:19 in the vid, you hear the guy filming say, "Holy sh*t!"

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San Diego is tough with mountains, strong cross winds from the coast, mexico's airspace which isn't the safest plus extra heavy traffic make it tough. The old Hong Kong airport was the real nightmare for me watching a jumbo jet thread through huge skyscrapers to land always made me very nervous. Some of the roughest landings I've ever been on though are right here in my home town of phoenix on hot umber days the planes are going so damn fast to keep them in the air it's a hell of a jar and I'm always surprised when the tires don't pop.

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This one is one of the most famous, viral video, many of us have seen it. A Korean 747 landing at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. I used to have a much longer video of this, can't find it now and the computer I saved it to is long since dead.

 

 

This one may not be the most difficult, but it will certainly get any pilot's attention. Only one way in (and out) and there is basically NO going around if you don't have it nailed. Courcheval France

 

From the cockpit...

 

From the airport (different plane)

 

I'd actually like to try this one!

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A buddy of mine was a factory service rep for a minor equipment manufacturer. He told me about a trip to, I think South America.. or it may have been the aforementioned Honduras.... Anyways he was on the final leg of his journey on a DC-9 sized aircraft. In order to line up with the runway, the pilot had to maneuver between two mountain slopes with the wings almost vertical, then at the last minute snap the wings back horizontal just before touching down.

 

He said it was a hair raising experience. [scared] On the way out of the plane he commended the pilot for doing a difficult job. The pilot said there were only two pilots in the world qualified to hand at that little air port.... there used to be three. [crying]

 

He thought about this as he boarded the same plane to exit that airport through the same mountain valley. [scared]

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In the few times I've been on an air plane, I've always been behind the wing. Once the plane begins it's descent, the flaps and slats are up, down, down up up up, down, up... There is NOTHING routine about landing. My hats off to the boys in the cockpit.

 

I've never been on one where cross winds cause the fuselage to be less than parallel to the run-way. It must be a sphincter tightening experience. [scared]

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