For the (SR)Pilots and the flying folks

[desertslave]

I've handled some enthusiastic crosswind landings in my day (most coastal NJ airports are challenging at times), but these are eye-poppers!

http://www.westernjournalism.com/nothing-short-miracle-none-passengers-killed/#lbMA5p7Qrwo8ZqVO.01

 

[sr71plt]

I think I saw a clip on that on the news. I'd post more but LC's and Roz's heads would explode into a rabid psycho rant that would take over the forum for days.

 

[redzinger]

Ahhh, BHX. Knew it well ten years or so back as it was the airport marginally closest to home.
I've flown most of those airlines too, especially Monarch, First Choice & flybe.

Not the worst airport, IIRC, LBA (Leeds Bradford) was more likely to close in the event of iffy weather.

What that video needs is a comedy Brummie soundtrack.

 

[Handley_Page]

I suspect that Brum landings might be a tad easier if they'd have rendered the runway a bit flatter.
Damned good find, that one, Madam.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

That was truly fucking insane. I am not ever going into that airport anywhere near winter or autumn.

Reminds me how risk averse I have become now though - I clearly remember doing the twin prop 'puddle-jumpers' into Baltimore from Chicago in the middle of winter all the bloody time. Same sideways up down seesaw woahr stuff! Sqweech...! Whirrrrrr. Loved it. Seems to me I recall the biggest problem was if the cabin crew was going to turn up or go on strike or just not be contracted by whoever owned whatever team that day/week.

 

[desertslave]

My brother flew his entire career (right out of college until required retirement age) for TWA/American, and was also a flight instructor on the side.

He tells the story of having a student in the left seat and coming in to a local airport back in PA with a 25kt crosswind. The airport had 2 runways in an X configuration. He came in on his assigned runway, crabbed as hard as he could, touched down just shy of the intersection, and rolled off on the crossing runway. A friend of his happened to be in the tower and cheered on his behalf.

His student was dead silent as they taxied to the hangar, and my brother swears he had to peel the guy's fingers from the wheel. It took his student a week to come back, but he did!

I've flown with him a handful of times since I got my own license, switching off flying and navigation. He is damn good, even if he was spoiled by all those cushy controls and autopilot. I guess that goes for the family. Mom was our first pilot, followed by Dad, then Bro and eventually me. Dad was my first passenger.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I should say I was and am strictly only a passenger!!! I worked for a Chicago investment bank and actually knew Bernie Madoff very slightly - he was a really nice old guy it seemed to me even then (that he was old, are they telling the truth about his age?!). He had a tiny little outfit - no way known could he have talked the numbers that they are speaking about now. I find that whole affair um, dubious in the extreme and may be covering up a lot of things for a lot of BIG people.

I used to have to go to Baltimore for industry conventions and then also make last minute connecting flights to Japan from out of O'Hare. Hence the small twin engined things.

 

[sr71plt]

Hairiest landings I've had as a passenger have been into the old Kai Tek airport in Hong Kong. Had to curve around between mountains with Chinese territory everywhere that had to be avoided in those days and then come down over the city to a very short runway jutting out into the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIvbm2ZlsnQ

Worst landing as a pilot probably was in a Cessna 172 that was leaking fumes into the cockpit (one passenger near to passing out) and landing on a short runway field in Bailey's Crossroads, Northern Virginia, that was surrounded by highrises (and closed as an airfield shortly thereafter) and you had to skim the top of a Toys-R-Us sign to be able to hit the runway close enough to the start not to run out of runaway. Had to make three passes before getting close enough to the top of the sign not to knock it down but to get the plane landed.

 

[desertslave]

Hairiest landings I've had as a passenger have been into the old Kai Tek airport in Hong Kong. Had to curve around between mountains with Chinese territory everywhere that had to be avoided in those days and then come down over the city to a very short runway jutting out into the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIvbm2ZlsnQ

Worst landing as a pilot probably was in a Cessna 172 that was leaking fumes into the cockpit (one passenger near to passing out) and landing on a short runway field in Bailey's Crossroads, Northern Virginia, that was surrounded by highrises (and closed as an airfield shortly thereafter) and you had to skim the top of a Toys-R-Us sign to be able to hit the runway close enough to the start not to run out of runaway. Had to make three passes before getting close enough to the top of the sign not to knock it down but to get the plane landed.

When I was a kid my parents had a Piper Tripacer, and we traveled anywhere we could get on a days' flight. Atlantic City was a favorite in the summer, into Bader Field. I can remember plenty of easy landings from the back seat. Flash forward about 11 years. I did my long cross-country with my instructor with intentions of going to Ocean City, but there wasn't a soul around (it was early November) so we went up to AC instead. Holy crap! Those casinos didn't exist that last time I'd been there, and they made for very uncomfortable short field landing and t/o.

 

[rjordan]

I agree with SR71PLT on scariest landing as a passenger. I had an unobstructed view straight down the Kai Tek runway on landing and I was sitting in a rear seat.

Scariest with me as PIC was Colt's Neck Airport in NJ where I took my flight training in a Cessna 150. It was a turf (grass) runway and the section where the numbers should have been often turned to mud under all the grass. Probably the shortest short field landing ever except for a carrier landing when I hit the mud. My shoulder was bruised and hurt for a month from the seat belt.

Colt's Neck Airport and the whole era it represented is pretty much gone anymore.

I'm also a commercial hot air and gas balloon pilot. No such thing as a cross wind landing in a balloon. All landings are straight downwind. But in anything over a few knots, they can be real white knucklers. Like docking a dinghy flying a spinnaker for a 50 footer.

Hat off to the men and women who do this for a living commercially or in the military. They earn their pay and then some.

rj

 

[redzinger]

Funchal (Madeira) was my hairiest landing. It was like a rollercoaster on the descent. In fact, I've been on smoother 'coasters. Up down, side to side, back and forth. All directions. For some reason, I started laughing, then the rest of my family joined in while we were tossed around. Up-side-down-ooh, look at that mountain-sky-sea-mountain again-hehehehehehe....

Was expecting a go around but the pilot nailed it. Then slammed on the brakes before we ended up in the sea (runway is very short). First and only time I've actually applauded, and I think that was due to the hysteria that had set in.


Beautiful island but fuck me, the microclimate has to be seen to be believed.