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10 most extreme airports - history channel DVD and TV show

Started by Phil Bunch, Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:50

Phil Bunch

I just finished watching an interesting TV show on the history channel.  It's called "Most Extreme Airports", and is also available as a DVD from history.com.

I took a few notes on these alleged 10 most extreme airports they identified.  It was remarkable to see these approaches and take-offs with real aircraft on this TV show.

I'm not sure I would choose these as the 10 most extreme airports in the world - any thoughts?

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10 ksan - San Diego, California

9 madeira airport, funchal, portugal, FNC/LPMA, built out over the ocean in part, supported by columns.

8 Eagle County Airport, EGE/KEGE, Vail, Colorado

7 Courcheval airport, French alps, 18.5 deg slope

6 Kai Tak  the legend lives!

5 Gibraltar  highway crosses the runway, levanter wind phenomenon, rapidly changing tail and cross winds that show up just at landing.

4  St Maarten, Princess Juliana airport, 800 m mountains, beach & road at one end of runway; people blown back onto the beach by 747s taking off!

3  St Barth's airport (SBH, TFFJ) on Saint Barthélemy island, Gustaf III airport, 2100 feet long.

2 Toncontin airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, TGU/MHTG.  terrain, shortest runway in world with international traffic (3294 feet), cliff at end of runway, step down approach through terrain.  

1  lukla airport LUA/VNLK, northeastern nepal, flights to & from Katmandu, also known as Tenzing-Hillary airport, 12 degree uphill landing gradient into adjacent mountain, Twin-Otters land here, 1600 ft runway with 2000 ft dropoff to valley below; hazards include altitude, mountains, wind shear, turbulence, short runway, constantly changing weather with extremes, gateway to Mt Everest, 30 flights with 500 pax per day, 9382 ft altitude, no cars in town and no nearby roads, twin-otters land here.   Runway paved in 2001.
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A fairly useful web site for approach charts and airport maps is skyvector.com. which I found through Google.
Best wishes,

Phil Bunch

ray

add another to the list..
VQPR, paro in bhutan,
I always find this airport interesting, not successful all the time in msfs, using a 738 of course.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_23/737-700Bhutan_story.html

of course ... the 319 won the bid :'(

Phil Bunch

Quote from: rayngwtadd another to the list..
VQPR, paro in bhutan,
I always find this airport interesting, not successful all the time in msfs, using a 738 of course.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_23/737-700Bhutan_story.html

of course ... the 319 won the bid :'(

From wikipedia:

"According to Travel & Leisure, only eight pilots in the world are certified to land at the airport."  

Bhutan has some interesting airports and air travel options.

Since it has a 6500 foot runway, we could use it for 747-400s!  A candidate for worldflight??? (grins)
Best wishes,

Phil Bunch

Shiv Mathur

#3
Would be interested to learn about pilots being certified for various
airports.  If I have a CPL, I cannot fly to just any airport I wish to?

torrence

I don't know how bad it is for a real pilot, but ksan is exciting even as a passenger in a small plane or in a sim.  The field looks great from the ocean, out on the flat not far from the harbor.  However prevailing winds are on-shore and most flights land from the East on the single Rwy 27.  The approach is over Balboa park located in hilly terrain to the east of the airport and you have to stay above 1800 ft to the final approach fix on the crest of the last hill before the airport.  At that point on a clear day you can wave to the dinners at Mr A's rooftop restaurant about half a mile off your starboard wing and dial down the V/S rapidly to match a 3.14 deg final glide slope.  With a displaced threshold I think you have only about 9400 ft usable runway.  With winds and big plane this can be fun.

Cheers,
Torrence
Cheers
Torrence

ray

:D
adventurous, keep the speed low, and bank hard, haha!

Shiv Mathur

#6
Sorry to be a nuisance, but I'd really like to hear from a real-life pilot
about this 'pilots having to be certified to land at such-and-such airport' business.

Thanks,
Shiv

(Couldn't find anything about it with google)

Hardy Heinlin

#7
Quote from: Shiv MathurIf I have a CPL, I cannot fly to just any airport I wish to?
I'd say 99.9% of all land runways (don't know about water runways) can be used even with a PPL.

Some critical runways (steep slope, short length, high obstacles) may first require a few training patterns with an instructor, and in most cases the respective logbook entry will suffice as a certification.

The most famous approach requiring a special license was probably the IGS approach into Kai Tak. I don't know what kind of certification procedure they used and if it was airline specific or a government thing.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

Will

The Grand Canyon SFAR 50-2 needed a check ride in order to fly within it... It's the only case of airspace I know that requires a special flight certification.  The airport (KGCN) didn't need any special rules.
Will /Chicago /USA

Hardy Heinlin

Ah ... Grand Canyon airport ... that was a great time back in 1994 :-) Four guys in an old C172 ... I did the takeoff in the evening and flew the leg back to Page (our camp) for a red-romantic approach in the dusk ...



(I think my old scanner oversaturated the red soil a bit.)

|-|

Will

Hardy, I was flying for Grand Canyon Airlines in 1994, so we were at KGCN at the same time.  Interesting!  Perhaps you used their refueling services.  The Twin Otter is nothing like the 744, but I would have gladly shown you around if you'd been interested...  Power levers on the ceiling, a wild arrangement!
Will /Chicago /USA

Hardy Heinlin

Interesting, indeed :-) I knew (from forum posts) you were flying there, but didn't know it was in 1994.


|-|

Will

Will /Chicago /USA

Shiv Mathur

Thanks Hardy and Will.
So I guess the 'only 8 pilots in the world certified to land at Paro' is merely
some journalistic spicing up.

Cheers,
Shiv

Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers

Possibly certified to land an A319 at Paro. That is something else.

Hardy Heinlin

For takeoff and landing at Paro you must always anticipate random Yeti attacks.

Hardy Heinlin

QuoteWhile Bhutan is the most extreme example—only eight pilots in the world are qualified to fly into Paro—

qualified = certified?

Shiv Mathur

#17
Phil's post (#3 in this thread) says 'certified'.

Hardy Heinlin

Phil quotes Wikipedia ("certified") whose original source says "qualified".

Shiv Mathur

#19
Ah yes ... well noticed.

But qualified or certified, it does seem to be an invented statistic.