Most of us would fortunately acknowledge that being a pilot is not any simple job. In addition to an enormous duty, they should be vigilant and correct whereas guiding an enormous metallic chook right into a populated airspace. And, sadly, not all airports are created equal.
Somebody requested, “As an airline pilot, which airport would you select by no means to land at once more in case you might assist it?” Folks with flying expertise shared the airstrips, airports, and even cities they completely hated flying into. So get snug, if you’re on a flight, look out on your vacation spot right here, upvote your favorites, and share your ideas within the feedback part under.
USS Lexington – not solely is it an plane provider that transfer, pitches, rolls, heaves, has winds coming across the island inflicting a cross wind, and wind falling off the again finish (burble) inflicting a suck down simply earlier than touchdown – it’s SMALL even in plane provider requirements. And with hydraulic cats that kick your butt, actually.
Aspen (ASE) airport. Every part about it’s irritating. The strategy requires going out of your approach, and in case you miss the strategy it takes a little bit of time to re-position for one more strive. As soon as on the bottom, coping with parking and the bottom employees is irritating, too. However, perhaps that half has modified… I haven’t been to ASE in a number of years. There is no such thing as a such factor as touchdown at an unsafe airport… except you’re a pilot with exceedingly poor judgement. If it’s really unsafe, you then don’t land there. Nonetheless, iffy procedures and attempting to cram an airplane that doesn’t match into the airport can actually make it harmful.
Properly, the Lake Tahoe Airport is fairly unhealthy. I’d by no means land there as a result of there’s a a lot safer Airport not distant which known as Douglas County Airport. Flying into Lake Tahoe is like flying into a rest room bowl. Flying out of Lake Tahoe it is like flying out of a rest room bowl. Nonetheless, there could also be some Pilots who just like the problem of adverse airports.
I’m at all times alert after we function at DCA, Nationwide Airport in Washington DC. The river visible strategy isn’t notably harmful however any deviation will get you into restricted airspace and the results are embarrassing and newsworthy. I at all times pay a whole lot of consideration there.
My least favourite is Narita’s New Tokyo Worldwide Airport. Not due to terrain, or runway lengths, however due to the frequent, harmful, unstable ‘wind occasions.’ Winds of fifty–80+ knots abruptly come out of nowhere, and so they can wreak havoc with touchdown plane. Diverts to close by airports occur usually, due to harmful wind circumstances.
La Guardia. Most harmful airport on this planet. With the runway configuration and the Port Authorities’ ongoing want to stuff 10 kilos right into a 5 pound bag, it’s inherently harmful when landings are interspersed with takeoffs on the crossing runway. I had a close to miss within the early 90s and it left me indignant and disillusioned with the method when the tower personnel defended their errors.
Right here’s a scenario I don’t wish to repeat. I used to be flying into Zaragoza Air Base on a navy airplane, a C-21. I’d been sitting within the bounce seat chatting on intercom with the pilot the entire flight. He was a neighbor again at our base.
Discover there are parallel runways. We at all times landed on the Northern one, the navy Air Base facet. The Southern one was a civilian industrial airport.
We’re arrange for the touchdown with the co-pilot doing the touchdown. We’re coming from display left so we see the unsuitable runway first. I’m looking the windshield and spot we’re lined up for the unsuitable one.
I ask, “Which runway are we touchdown?”
Co-pilot responds, “12”.
I ask, “12 Proper or 12 Left?”
At that second all of us see a big industrial airplane on take-off roll heading our approach on the runway we’re set to land on.
Pilot says “My Airplane”, flips some switches, Yells to the fellows within the again, “Maintain on again there!”, and places the C-21 into max energy / max climb. I didn’t even know that airplane might climb that quick. We full a missed strategy /go round and the pilot lands us on the right runway with a co-pilot nonetheless white as a ghost.
For sure, I didn’t purchase a beer for that complete mission; they have been all on the co-pilot’s tab.
Virtually nearly any airport close to LAX. The issue is just not touchdown, however leaving. John Wayne is the worst. You need to climb out steeply then pull your energy again and nearly degree off, all of the whereas staying in a really slim departure hall. Frankly, in case you purchase a home close to an airport it is best to count on to listen to airplanes. They did not doze down a bunch of houses to place the airport in. It was there first.
Not a pilot, however as a passenger, Lukla in Nepal was, as my dad says within the video, “critically attention-grabbing”. The runway has a 12% gradient (which is much more than it sounds!) with a sheer drop on the backside and a rock face on the high. I used to be sitting subsequent to my dad within the entrance row of the Twin Otter. Fortunately I hadn’t researched this airport’s legendary popularity earlier than the journey.
As an outdated (85 now) non-public pilot, I discovered each touchdown and taking off on the Catalina airport on Catalina Island each difficult and enjoyable.The runway is atop a plateau, so your strategy is over the water. While you’re very excessive over the water you’re a lot decrease relative to the airport runway. Then if you take off, the runway is humped within the center. Sitting on the finish of the runway, it appears to be like prefer it ends a number of hundred toes in entrance of you as a result of bow, however as you speed up an increasing number of runway seems as you get neat the highest of the hump. You need to belief your chart for the runway size because it’s not seen from the tip of the runway.
Los Angeles Worldwide. It’s not a nasty airport to land in, however you may have so many restrictions and airspace overlaps that it’s simply annoying to land there. I’m simply glad we’ve to be on a flight plan with directions from ATC after we do should land there.
Juneau, Alaska is fairly scary. There’s this large honkin’ mountain on the finish of the runway. You land going a technique and fly out going the opposite.
Gibraltar. To remain out of Spanish airspace, it’s important to fly very tight across the rock. If the wind is blowing, it’s extremely turbulent… Scary.
Paro in Bhutan can settle for twin engine jets, however solely seven pilots on this planet are licensed to make the complicated strategy between the mountains.
Have you ever guys ever heard of Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) or Congonhas Airport in São Paulo (Brazil)? Not a pilot however I HATE these locations. Landings and take-offs are simply terrifying. In São Paulo you may truly see individuals of their couches watching TV contained in the flats of tall buildings that surrounds the airport. In Rio, one mistake and your airplane will take a swim just like the pic under (and you’ll keep on the very finish of the two runaways whereas aircrafts come and go… that’s wonderful)
I’m not a pilot however as an extended standing airline worker, I can not consider anybody has but to say CR7 Worldwide Airport in Funchal, (FNC) Madeira. I visited that attractive paradise as soon as. Love, love the island of Madeira, however my first expertise touchdown there occurred on wet, foggy, mid February day in 1989 when the one runway was a lot shorter, much less large than it at present is. On windy days (that are most days) the aircrafts experience the currents like goshawks, balancing left and proper, at instances barely avoiding slamming in opposition to the flank of the mountain, or on the runway if low sufficient. Do that on a windy, grey, foggy day, or worst nonetheless at night time, and it may be an actual nightmare. With little or nill visibility, in case you overshoot the runway or get hit by a downward wind spiral, you’re toast. The well-known crosswinds of Madeira can kill an plane and even on a great day, FNC can get any stone assed pilot s**ting bricks on 1st touchdown try, normally aborted.
Years in the past I keep in mind a “60-Minutes” information program concerning the San Diego Airport. One thing a couple of tall constructing in the way in which. I simply checked, and it’s nonetheless there.
South Lake Tahoe Airport, CA. In the event you’re trying to land and should make a missed strategy or taking off heading south (view is to the south) you’ll clearly should do some severe climbing to keep away from working into the close by mountains. I used to be the nav on a C-141 that made a touch-and-go in simply this course, and the pilot was not anticipating the elevation rising so quickly, so I needed to give him some very fast vectoring to make it out safely. Though not too apparent from this view, there’s a sort-of valley that may be adopted that makes it a lot simpler than merely climbing proper over the dead-ahead peak. We have been there as a result of we had flown a Native out of Travis AFB and had accomplished all the necessities for that day with flight time left over (we needed to log 4.0 hrs), so the A/C stated, “Let’s go to Tahoe!”.
It’s not the worst on this planet by far. However Lindbergh Subject, the worldwide airport in San Diego in Southern California (designation: SAN) is one that can make it possible for the pilots keep awake on remaining strategy.
We’ve acquired hills 200 toes excessive inside a mile of each ends of the one and solely runway with no chance of aligning it any in a different way.
THE most troublesome airport to fly out and in of is the Tenzing-Hillary airport in Lukla, Nepal. On one finish is a cliff; on the opposite is a mountain wall. On the way in which, you’re flying between mountains, and there are sometimes clouds.
Akureyri, Iceland. It’s positioned at sea degree down in a fjord that curves, that means within the days earlier than GPS approaches, you had a alternative of both a) flying an strategy that stopped above the rim of the fjord, or b) receiving radar directions all through your descent to the airport.
Beneath precise instrument circumstances, flying down by way of clouds trusting purely on controller steerage was at all times unnerving. Iceland has a sterling home security report, so there by no means was any fear on that rating. Nonetheless, in case you’d ever been there earlier than in good climate and seen simply how slim parts of the strategy path truly have been, a number of palpitations have been forgivable.
Alton Bay in January/February. It’s the one FAA licensed ice-runway within the decrease 48 states. You’re touchdown on a frozen lake and attempting to steer and sluggish to a cease in an airplane, which is already troublesome to maneuver on the bottom, not to mention including within the complexities of doing it on ice.
Those which might be speculated to be the toughest are essentially the most enjoyable.
There’s nothing attention-grabbing about getting lined up 10 miles out on a radar vector straight-in strategy to a ten,000 runway.
THE FUN ONES
Fortunately I spent most of my profession flying the Japanese Shuttle between Washington Nationwide (DCA) and NY La Guardia (LGA). These two airports have in all probability essentially the most attention-grabbing and difficult approaches within the nation. It was a enjoyable strategy to be an airline pilot—and I slept at dwelling each night time.
At Nationwide, for instance, we’d be in a descending flip till about 200-300 toes above the runway. We favored to level out that if we made that precise strategy to every other airport, we’d get reported to the FAA by the tower and our licenses could be suspended for some time.
Touchdown on Runway 33 at DCA—which was uncommon to get—was a lot enjoyable I couldn’t consider it was authorized to do this in a jet with paying passengers on board. Individuals who rode by way of that strategy in window seats have stopped by the cockpit on the way in which out and—nonetheless somewhat breathless from considering they have been about to die—say they thought we have been ditching within the Potomac River till concerning the final two seconds when the runway abruptly appeared under. It was a lot enjoyable.
San Diego Lindbergh (SAN) is an in depth third. If we flew that low over homes anyplace else within the nation, we’d positively be violated, fired, and our licenses would have been revoked moderately than simply suspended—however it’s the norm at SAN.
SO, WHICH WOULD I NEVER LAND AT AGAIN IF I COULD HELP IT?
Each airport with large, parallel 10,000+ runways with lengthy straight approaches.
It’s laborious sufficient to remain awake whereas cruising at altitude on autopilot—the very last thing I want is to go to sleep on an extended, droning strategy on autopilot.
LaGuardia aka LaGarbage. It’s terrible. The nickname says all of it.
Newark, additionally not essentially the most nice airport to fly in to. I spent 4 hours taxiing there. Properly, we left the gate, got here again to the gate for extra gas after 90 minutes, after gas and extra provides, we taxied again out, solely to have the airport flip round. It was depressing. The captain I used to be flying with stated that’s pretty widespread.
Chicago O’Hare is one among my least favorites. It’s laid out terribly.
I personally hate flying within the Aspen, Colorado. The strategy is sophisticated, and sometimes instances it’s important to fly a holding sample as a result of visitors is a technique in, a technique out.
Whereas I wasn’t flying for an airline, the Moscow, Russia airports should not enjoyable.
These are the one ones that stick out for me.
I fly ATR 42 and 72. I’ve by no means hated any of the airports I’ve landed on, however some require extra consideration than others. Right here is my private listing:
Sandane, Norway: It is a 800 meters lengthy runway squeezed between fjords and mountains. The strategy to both runway takes you very shut to close vertical mountain sides, and the turbulence could be unhealthy. I’ve solely landed there in good climate with a lightweight plane.
Florø, Norway: Earlier than 2001 was the runway 800 meters lengthy and had a 5.4 levels steep strategy slope. (In the present day is the runway 1200 meters.) The airport has mountains in shut neighborhood. One of many runways would not have straight-in strategy, so it’s important to fly a circling strategy. After a touchdown at late night time in rain and robust wind is it laborious to sleep as a result of the adrenalin continues to be flowing in your veins.
Caticlan/Boracay, Philippines: The runway is 900 meters lengthy, and the apron may be very small. You need to taxi out and in with simply centimeters clearance to different plane parked on the apron. And the apron is stuffed with passengers strolling to and from the plane.
Catarman, Philippines: The airport splits the city in two, and individuals are used to cross the runway the place it’s most handy. In any case, there’s only a few plane actions a day. I’ve seen youngsters working on the runway in entrance of me.
Manila, Philippines: The airport has two runways, and so they cross one another. Two instances have I been given clearance to take-off after which been ordered to cease due to crossing visitors. The standard of the radio tools utilized by ATC is questionable, and typically are you able to hardly perceive what they are saying. And there’s an excessive amount of visitors on the frequency, making it laborious to ship your message. At one event did ATC neglect me after take-off, and I ended up on a collision course with a mountain. At one other event did the usage of non-standard phrasing trigger battle with different visitors.
Hazrat Shahjalal Worldwide Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh is much by the worst place I’ve ever landed on. I actually have no idea the place to begin. If you find yourself in Dhaka, you retain your eyes and ears open. A lot of the airport automobile operators are extremely incompetent. They’re below skilled and do lengthy responsibility hours. Just a few months again, a flap fairing of one among our A320s was torn off by a excessive loader. I had an in depth name as properly. Received nearly hit by a reversing baggage loader whereas I used to be doing the stroll round.
The air visitors management can also be horrible. I have no idea whether or not it’s the fault of the controllers or the tools they’re utilizing. There may be normally one controller controlling the whole air area, and when it will get busy issues go haywire. Significantly, the handover from Dhaka FIR to Kolkata FIR is horrible. We now have to maintain the Dhaka frequency on one of many radios and the opposite radio tuned to Kolkata frequency. It’s a two pilots job. One pilot listens to Kolkata and the opposite listens to the Dhaka. And thoughts you, these are busy air areas. There is no such thing as a silence even for a minute. And the worst half is climate deviation requests. Dhaka is understood for its tropical storms. You may need to ask them twice and even thrice for a deviation. And the time they arrive on they may say ‘standby.’ They don’t have any clue of the depth of the scenario.
Of all the main airports which have existed thus far, there needs to be one proper reply: Kai Tak Airport, particularly Runway 13, in Hong Kong.
I’ve had too many pilot buddies and family and friends mentioning the obvious nightmare touchdown in that airport was once.
It was apparently so troublesome to land in that airport that as a pilot you wanted to have a particular allow to authorise you to even make the journey… and accidents nonetheless stored taking place.
The rationale why it was so laborious was principally due to the airport’s surrounding terrain. A brief heads as much as architects of the long run – please do not construct your airport in the course of a densely-populated metropolis centre surrounded by mountains. It’s usually not a good suggestion. That stated, Hong Kong grew extraordinarily rapidly, so it was solely doable that the unique designers of Kai Tak Airport didn’t envision such fast city development.
Lately it’s Burbank as a result of we land there at near max touchdown weight typically and we’ve to go under the GS, hit the 1,000-foot mark, and lock up the brakes… It’s acquired mountains round it, a number of visitors, and lots of instances they don’t clear us to land till a pair miles out, and I’ve to determine what the tailwind is basically fast.
A number of pilots I do know have informed me that within the US, Yeager Airport, Charleston, West Virginia, is among the hardest. It’s a very quick runway tucked away on a flattened mountain high. Having flown in as a passenger a variety of instances, that is the one the place the pilots try to decelerate the quickest (quicker than Halfway is the way it felt to me). The climate will also be a bit difficult right here I’d suppose as properly.
I’m not an airline pilot however since getting my licence ( earned at a 200 x 7000 ft runway ) I’ve made an effort to broaden my horizons, shorter, narrower strips, some not even paved. Been to grass, gravel, & sand.
The difficult strips are by far essentially the most attention-grabbing. If I had to decide on, I’d lose the 7000 x 200……..
I’ve completed some aerobatics ( about 8 hrs to this point ) – that’s superior flying ! ( extra to come back, for positive )
Hanada, Japan is a procedural headache, no less than in comparison with Narita.
Kaului, Maui generally is a ache. The runway is on the shorter facet at 7000 ft and it is common for the winds to be reported one thing like “280 variable 030 levels ,15 gusting 25 kts” , a number of enjoyable.
Pendleton, Oregon has a runway with a big dip which may play heck with a clean touchdown in case you land lengthy on the upslope
Simply a few of the ones that come to thoughts.
