Speaking of Airports

Now that title was supposed to follow Juvat's Monday post "Airport Festivities" which would have worked out quite well as far as titles go, but Sarge had other plans.  He's the boss, so I humbly gave up my semi-regular Tuesday slot for his post-Labor Day post.

Nevertheless, this is a mostly aviation-centric blog, with the writing staff here at The Chant having been involved in flying during our military careers.  Now?  Not so much, unless you count the desk I fly for the Navy these days.  Sure, we still fly, but instead of being paid to do it, we pay some corporation to let us fly the friendly skies.  And boy do we pay them!  I looked into flights to Hawaii for a family trip next June after the teenangster graduates high school, and I'll be taking out a second mortgage if we qualify.

I'm still very much interesting in aviation, reading blogs like AskSkipper, Fightersweep, and this one of course.  And I watch (or watched) shows such as Dangerous Flights, Wings on the Discovery Channel, Dogfights, and even Air Disasters.  I'll even admit to watching airplane drivel such as Airplane Repo, which has to be the biggest phony of all "reality" TV shows since the invention of reality TV, but it's something to play in the background as I read the blogs or research content for this one.  As a side note, that show was narrated by Mike Rowe, but no longer.  I hope he quit because the show was so cheesy and that he has too much respect for himself.

Because of that interest, and most of my friends and relatives knowing that I once flew for a living, I'm either emailed material, or I'm always on the hunt for interesting airplane stories, jokes, and photos.  One of the recent ones had to do with crazy and/or dangerous approaches and runways.  I though it would make a good blog post for one of my Tuesdays Wednesdays.  So, with no interest in being all snarky and political today, and a lack of a decent trivia post in the recesses of my noggin, I bring you a bunch of airplane-ish pictures- some from an email you might have also received, but with a few others I've heard about over the years.  I hope you're happy.  It takes a lot of work to copy stuff from email into a post.  That's right, I said I wouldn't be snarky.  So fasten your seat belts low and tight across your lap and put your tray tables up...

This 4000 foot runway is somewhere in India.  Probably a beautiful approach, but an awfully short strip.  If the plane overruns the runway, you'll have a short swim to the next island though.

This is Courcheval Altiporte in the French Alps.  I've used it before, as it was the airport depicted in the James Bond film "Goldeneye."  It's at nearly 1800 feet with a sharp drop off- both in the middle of the runway, and at the end of course.  Before landing, I think pilots have to call the runway environment in sight, but what do you do if you don't have the take off environment in sight?

A Beech King Air on its after-landing run out.

                                                

Don Mueang Airport in Thailand.

"FORE!"

"What did you say?  I can't hear you with that airplane behind you."

This one is in Gibraltar, and while a runway extending into the sea isn't all that crazy, take a look at the lower right side of the picture.

Yep, that's a city street- Winston Churchill Avenue intersecting the runway.  Don't run any red lights!  Seems like an engineer that could develop a runway into the bay could figure out how to build an underpass for the cars.

Gisborne New Zealand has a different type of thoroughfare running across its runway.  Before takeoff, you have to check NOTAMs, the weather, and the local train schedule.

Old Kai Tak Airport approach in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has replaced this runway with one further out into the bay, but I remember seeing the big last minute turns as we ferried in from the carrier during port visits.

Speaking of runways in the bay, this one is near Osaka Japan.  When they miss the landing, the pilots are required to call out Bolter Bolter Bolter!

Madeira Airport in Portugal is built off the side of the land, improving on the original runway which was close to the mountainside.

Barra Airport Scotland

The seaside airport in Northern Scotland has a runway that is often covered by the ocean during high tide.  That's because there isn't really a runway, airplanes land on the beach.  Surf's Up!

St. Barts

This one has probably been seen before as the beach from which it was taken is very popular among tourists due to the proximity of the runway to the public beach.  St. Maarten is where the opening shot and this picture are from.

Pinterest

This one isn't so crazy, but I like it enough to use it here.  It's the approach to San Diego's Lindbergh Field, which takes passengers and crew over Interstate 5, and the five story Laurel Travel Center, which requires a relatively steep approach.  The proponents of a joint military-civilian airport at Miramar tried to claim that it made the approach too dangerous, but with zero accidents and hundreds of pilots saying it was safe, the argument failed, as did the effort to move the airport.

You don't have to be Sir Edmund Hillary to reach this airport, but it's quite elevated nevertheless.  Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal has a 9300 foot drop at the end of its runway.

This is Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the Caribbean Island of Saba.  At 1300 feet, it has what is thought to be the shortest runway for a commercial airport anywhere in the world.

While many of these airports are only serviced by propeller aircraft, here's one of the scarier runways that US carriers fly jets into- Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

                                             

By the way, I'm sorry I can't seem to get these videos centered up.  I tried to crash Sarge's Blogging 101 class, but it was full.  So, about these airports- been to any of them?  Do you have any others that I might have missed?  What about scary landings?  Hmm, probably a post or two in there for Juvat!  Let me know in the comments. what you can shake loose from your cobwebs.

I'll leave you with the shortest runway I've ever seen, and had a few scary landings on it back in the day.

USS INDEPENDENCE (CV-62), although since it has Phantoms aboard, it's a bit before my time.