Scarey airports

[Fox Mike]

Saw this article today and realized that I have flown into four of them. Yeager, Regan, San Diego and Midway. I honestly think San Diego is the worst of the bunch.
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/scariest-u-s-airports-101752105449.html

 

[Cooperhawk]

Landing at Reagan can be an exciting experience. I have landed there numerous times as a guest in the cockpit. Believe me that runway looks really small as you start the approach from the south. Doing the River Approach from the north you follow the Potomac River until the Fourteenth Street Bridge, then you bank hard right to line up with the runway. :shock: By then you're so low that it looks like you'll hit the bridge with the wing. :roll: :roll: You can look into the windows of business buildings in Roslyn and Crystal City as you pass by. :shock: Then they plant the wheels on the runway numbers, and hit the reverse thrust as quickly as they can. :roll:

Landing at Minneapolis one Winter morning, as we dropped out of the overcast I heard the Captain say, "Oh ----!!"! I looked up and the runway was a sheet of ice. :shock: We landed okay but when he tried to turn off the runway the AC just kept skidding forward. He finally used engine thrust to turn the AC.

 

[stevemb]

Makes me kinda happy to only use Cleve., Erie, and Tampa. Tampa kinda neat because you usually bank over and around McDill and get to see the aircraft and ship left off at the end of the runways,where the SEALS train. I've snook fished on the water side of things there. Lots of warning signs....live fire beyond here, kinda stuff.

 

[wwb]

Coming home from Vietnam..... Wake Island. That old DC8 kept getting lower and lower and lower, and all you could see out the windows on either side was water. And straight down was nothing but water.

The runway appeared under the plane and the wheels hit at the same instant.... I swear he put it down before the numbers. Then it was full reverse thrust and stand on the brakes. I think the nose gear was in the surf at the other end of the island when he turned to taxi back to the terminal, because when he made that turn, all you could see out one side of the plane was water.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Well the only time I have been afraid flying was the time I flew to Khabarovsk Russia on Aero FLOP on my way to Sakilin Island Russia.
No Planes but Russian would fly there in the winter due to them not having snow and ice removal.
On one of the flights from Anchorage the flight was over booked. No problem there was still room in the baggage compartment so that is where four of my friends rode :wink: . Next flight was 3 days later. By the way Aero FLOP could not fly into LAX due to safety reasons with their aircraft. We did see the core in the tires on ours
The 300 mile flight to the job site from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the POS Helo wasn't much better. All the aux tanks were inside and they didn't leak to bad. You could sit on them without getting wet. No seats so we sat on our baggage. If you wanted to know where you were all you had to do was look through the crack where the aft clamshell doors meet :wink:

A typical winter day at Khabarovsk airport. The first plane in the picture is what I flew in. A POS and it smelled like it. The overhead storage was just a net and we just put our bags in the seats in aft fuselage. My buddy didn't have a seat belt so I gave him mine since it wasn't attached to anything. Just laying on the seat.
You also get to get your own bag and take it from the plane to the terminal. This is after a 45 min. wait for the stairs to get to the plane.

I left Houston it was 70 when I got to Khabarovsk it was minus 30

 

[Cooperhawk]

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Coming home from Vietnam..... Wake Island. That old DC8 kept getting lower and lower and lower, and all you could see out the windows on either side was water. And straight down was nothing but water.

The runway appeared under the plane and the wheels hit at the same instant.... I swear he put it down before the numbers. Then it was full reverse thrust and stand on the brakes. I think the nose gear was in the surf at the other end of the island when he turned to taxi back to the terminal, because when he made that turn, all you could see out one side of the plane was water.

I hear that. I hit Wake Island going over seas. Man that place is small!!!

 

[Merle1948]

Saw this article today and realized that I have flown into four of them. Yeager, Regan, San Diego and Midway. I honestly think San Diego is the worst of the bunch.
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/scariest-u-s-airports-101752105449.html

The one and only time I landed in San Diego I could read the prices on the gas pump below me - that's way to close for my fragile nerves! :roll:

 

[Merle1948]

Well the only time I have been afraid flying was the time I flew to Khabarovsk Russia on Aero FLOP on my way to Sakilin Island Russia.
No Planes but Russian would fly there in the winter due to them not having snow and ice removal.
On one of the flights from Anchorage the flight was over booked. No problem there was still room in the baggage compartment so that is where four of my friends rode :wink: . Next flight was 3 days later. By the way Aero FLOP could not fly into LAX due to safety reasons with their aircraft. We did see the core in the tires on ours
The 300 mile flight to the job site from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the POS Helo wasn't much better. All the aux tanks were inside and they didn't leak to bad. You could sit on them without getting wet. No seats so we sat on our baggage. If you wanted to know where you were all you had to do was look through the crack where the aft clamshell doors meet :wink:

A typical winter day at Khabarovsk airport. The first plane in the picture is what I flew in. A POS and it smelled like it. The overhead storage was just a net and we just put our bags in the seats in aft fuselage. My buddy didn't have a seat belt so I gave him mine since it wasn't attached to anything. Just laying on the seat.
You also get to get your own bag and take it from the plane to the terminal. This is after a 45 min. wait for the stairs to get to the plane.

I left Houston it was 70 when I got to Khabarovsk it was minus 30

I have NEVER been willing to get off the ground in anything the Russians built! :shock:

 

[SAJohn]

San Diego (Lindbergh Field) is always fun. It is so neat to look up at people on their apartment balconies while you are still descending.

The second most scary landing I even made in my Cessna 177 was at San Jose International Airport. Having 737's pass as I was landing was puckering. The most scary had more to do with having to land in Instrument Flight Rules fog when I was only Visual Flight Rules rated. (The control tower and I agreed that it Special VFR conditions.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Coming home from Vietnam..... Wake Island. That old DC8 kept getting lower and lower and lower, and all you could see out the windows on either side was water. And straight down was nothing but water.

The runway appeared under the plane and the wheels hit at the same instant.... I swear he put it down before the numbers. Then it was full reverse thrust and stand on the brakes. I think the nose gear was in the surf at the other end of the island when he turned to taxi back to the terminal, because when he made that turn, all you could see out one side of the plane was water.

You should try Wake Island at 02:00 in a rainstorm and no moon !!! :shock: :shock: :shock: Nothing to see UNTIL BUMP BUMP and the lights alongside the runway appear.
Got my BIL ( an Air Force Capt at the time) OUT of Bed. Called him on the phone and said :
You are one Hell of a Nice guy; Here I come to visit your little (water retention construction) Island in the middle of NO WHERE and you weren't even here to meet me; NICE GUY. (This was after his spiel about it being an non-secure line and how could he Help me, Ma'am).
His reply : I'm Sorry Ma'am IF I had known your were arriving, I CERTAINLY would have been there to greet you;-----------------------------------------LONG PAUSE------------------
"WHO THE HELL IS THIS ANY WAY ??" Laughing I told him; Your SIL who the hell else would call and get you out of the bunk at 0200 hours. He was at the terminal in shorts, t-shirt and flipflops in FIVE minutes !!

I always liked Lindberg Field in San Diego; you could look into the apartment windows on either side of the street as you landed over the hill. :roll: :roll:

 

[Cooperhawk]

One very stormy day I was on a B727 enroute to National Airport, (Reagan). The storm front was just east of the Blue Ridge and we were in a holding pattern eighty miles west of the airport waiting for conditions to improve at the airport. The weather in the holding pattern was clear and we could see the ground, and also the front just east of us.

Finally the Controller informed us that the airport weather had just improved and we were cleared in to land. National did not have an ILS System on the south runway, so we headed south on the downwind to make the ILS Approach to the north, or runway 36. We were still in clear air but the weather below us now looked like an ocean of gray.

Suddenly the Controller informed us that the weather had again deteriorated and were we CAT5 qualified? (Not sure if 5 was the right one). Anyway, the pilot looked at the copilot and then back at me and picked up the mike and replied to the negative. Sensing their uneasiness of having the FAA in the cockpit I told them to forget that I was there. Just then the Controller came back on and said that the weather had suddenly improved and we were cleared for the ILS36 Approach. (I think he wanted to help the pilots out).

We were vectored east to intercept the ILS and then followed it north on the approach. As we began our descent we settled into the clouds and everything went opaque. I was sitting just behind the captain looking over his shoulder so I could see everything. I heard the copilot calling out altitudes as we descended and was waiting to hear the copilot call out "Decision Height", which means if you can't see the runway you have to add power and abort the approach. Meanwhile the captain was flying the gauges.

Suddenly I heard the copilot say, "I have the rabbit"! (The rabbit is that series of flashing lights on the end of the runway that from the air look like they are running towards the runway). He maybe saw it, but I did not. :shock:

Searching for the lights I strained my eyes and then suddenly, I felt the wheels touch the ground, and just then I saw the white stripe appear right under the nose. After reversing thrust and slowing the AC the captain could not find the turn off and needed a follow me truck to lead him to the gate.

At the gate they shut down the engines and the captain told me to open the cockpit door. He then stood in the door and accepted the thanks of all the little old ladies that (just couldn't believe how he found the runway).

Neither could I.

 

[Merle1948]

My personal worst two landings (I was a passenger, not the aircrew) involved a trip to Rota, Spain to pick up the USS Eisenhower and ride her back to the US.

The first "event" was aboard a Navy C-9 when we landed in Nova Scotia (?) and the runway was a sheet of ice. I was in the next to last seat on the right side & it made me VERY NERVOUS when I was looking down the runway - I had always thought that was the pilot's job! :shock:

The second was when we landed aboard the Ike, and the pilot missed the arresting cables and we had to bounce - go around and try again. At that point I wished I was high enough up the food chain to fly out on the helo with the group leaders - much gentler landing that way. :mrgreen:

 

[Fox Mike]

Landing at Reagan can be an exciting experience. I have landed there numerous times as a guest in the cockpit. Believe me that runway looks really small as you start the approach from the south.

1/19 the LONG runway is only 7,169 ft long. Compare that to BWI 10/28 at 10,502 ft and there is no water at either end.

 

[Cooperhawk]

1/19 the LONG runway is only 7,169 ft long. Compare that to BWI 10/28 at 10,502 ft and there is no water at either end.

So it's 1 and 19 now. Magnetic shift by the way. It used to be 36 and 18 just like MSP was 29 and 11. That Airport is now 30 and 12.

Does everyone understand that magnetic variations change over time?

 

[Merle1948]

1/19 the LONG runway is only 7,169 ft long. Compare that to BWI 10/28 at 10,502 ft and there is no water at either end.

So it's 1 and 19 now. Magnetic shift by the way. It used to be 36 and 18 just like MSP was 29 and 11. That Airport is now 30 and 12.

Does everyone understand that magnetic variations change over time?

My bet is "no" despite the ominous talk of an impending pole reversal! :mrgreen:

 

[Cooperhawk]

Does everyone understand that magnetic variations change over time?

My bet is "no" despite the ominous talk of an impending pole reversal! :mrgreen:[/quote]

Aaaah the old pole reversal. Scary, just like Y2K. :shock:

 

[Wyandot Jim]

1/19 the LONG runway is only 7,169 ft long. Compare that to BWI 10/28 at 10,502 ft and there is no water at either end.

So it's 1 and 19 now. Magnetic shift by the way. It used to be 36 and 18 just like MSP was 29 and 11. That Airport is now 30 and 12.

Does everyone understand that magnetic variations change over time?

Yep Ours was 17-35 now 18-36
Was 7 Deg. East variation forever now 5 Deg. East

 

[Coogs]

about 15 years ago, leaving the Dominican Republic air port, been there as well as Montigo Bay in Jamaica quite a bit, my name wall called over the loud speaker to report to gate 3 (they only had three gates at the time, and the terminal was just one big thatched hut!) So I get there, this guy, who doesn't speak English at all, well he kinda pronounced my name, motions for me to follow him, out around the tarmack, into another hut with a bunch of baggage carts, and there are about 6 dudes, two of them carrying MP-5's, a dog, standing around a luggage cart with my wife's bag on it. Now really, not one of them spoke English, I'm trying to understand what the want, they keep motioning at the bag, so I finally open it up. They still keep pointing at it, I'm shruggin', like what do you want, so I start pulling stuff out, over comes the dog and starts hittin' on my wife's shoes!! She had packed her blood pressure medication and some other meds down in her shoes! I hand the med bottles to one of the dudes, they start passing them around, they really looked disappointed that it wasn't something else!!! My wife later told me that while I was walking away from here when they called my name that it might be the last time she ever saw me! It was a little scary at the time, but now is a good story, Coogs.

 

[Tweety Bird]

Avon, Colorado, early 1980s. Flying the 30 DME arc off a VOR to the approach fix, and then riding the 8.5-degree glidepath of the MLS, with mountains of the Gore range somewhere on the left and right - but obscured by clouds of course. The station manager at VON calling the weather right at the minimums (a clue that it was probably well below minimums). The airborne MLS equipment on the Dash-7 was questionable at best, and the Vietnam-era TALAR ground equipment could be even worse (on at least two occasions I witnessed a failure of the airborne equipment display 2 centered needles with NO flags on the indicator. Thank goodness our pilots were good at cross-checking things).

The missed approach, if needed, followed the signal from a company-owned NDB down the Vail valley, only to pick up another one at Eagle County a few miles west. I think Orville and Wilbur found their way to Kitty Hawk with those old transmitters (I have a story about getting 1,300V DC through my left hand one time trying to fix the one at Aspen). The underpowered -7 struggling to climb through ice and turbulence, shedding ice from the boots on the wing and tail, and more chunks of ice from #3 prop striking the right side of the fuselage.

Another time, with just a handful of us (including 3 FAA inspectors) returning to DEN from our winter-season MLS flight tests in a Twin Otter, ice built up so fast on the wing struts and gear legs that it took 80% NP just to stay on the glidepath. I watched the pilot apply more and more and more and more power to those PT-6s as the approach progressed. It was a scary night and the pilot was visibly shaking when we shut down at the hangar that evening. He told me a few days later that he didn't think we could have stayed airborne for even another 5 minutes.

Now I teach mechanics about the 787 and realize how far aviation has come in just 3 decades since those days. But boy, I sure did learn a lot back then.

 

[graygun]

I've done the Potomac river route into Reagan a few times.

 

[Colonialgirl]

All this about airports got me thinking , so I started listing all the airports I have been into, out of, or stopped at with no plane change. OMG :shock: :shock: :shock: what a list, I never realized HOW MANY and often I have flown in my life. :roll: :roll: :roll: For your Reading pleasure here ya go:

Airports I have flown into/from as a passenger:

San Diego
El Centro, CA
Santa Ana (John Wayne)
Ontario, CA
Long Beach, CA
LAX
Santa Barbara, CA
San Luis Obispo, CA
San Jose,CA
San Francisico, CA
Portland, OR
SeaTac, WA
Las Vegas, NV (multiple times)
Tucson, AZ
Yuma, AZ
Phoenix, Az
Flagstaff, AZ
Minneapolis, MN
Detroit, MI (NWA Stop, No plane change)
O'Hara, IL (multiple times)
Midwest, IL
Kansas City, MO
St Louis, MO
Springfield, MO
Tulsa, OK
DFW, TX (multiple times)
Houston, TX (SWA stop, No plane change)
Miami, FL
Tampa, FL (Multiple times)
MCO (Orlando, FL) <also Multiple times>
Dulles, VA
Reagan Nat. (Washington, DC)
BWI (Baltimore, MD)
Philadelphia, PA
La Guardia, NY
Heathrow, England
Gatwick, England
Manchester, England
Bangkok, Thailand (Old Airport)
Hong Kong, China (the NEW one)
Osan AFB, Korea
Kimpo, Korea
Tachakawa AFB, Japan
Kyoto AFB, Japan
Wake Island
Midway Island
Honolulu, Hawaii
Kona Airport ( The old one,Big Island)
Hilo Airport, (The Big Island of Hawaii)

 

[Merle1948]

All this about airports got me thinking , so I started listing all the airports I have been into, out of, or stopped at with no plane change. OMG :shock: :shock: :shock: what a list, I never realized HOW MANY and often I have flown in my life. :roll: :roll: :roll: For your Reading pleasure here ya go:

Airports I have flown into/from as a passenger:

San Diego
El Centro, CA
Santa Ana (John Wayne)
Ontario, CA
Long Beach, CA
LAX
Santa Barbara, CA
San Luis Obispo, CA
San Jose,CA
San Francisico, CA
Portland, OR
SeaTac, WA
Las Vegas, NV (multiple times)
Tucson, AZ
Yuma, AZ
Phoenix, Az
Flagstaff, AZ
Minneapolis, MN
Detroit, MI (NWA Stop, No plane change)
O'Hara, IL (multiple times)
Midwest, IL
Kansas City, MO
St Louis, MO
Springfield, MO
Tulsa, OK
DFW, TX (multiple times)
Houston, TX (SWA stop, No plane change)
Miami, FL
Tampa, FL (Multiple times)
MCO (Orlando, FL) <also Multiple times>
Dulles, VA
Reagan Nat. (Washington, DC)
BWI (Baltimore, MD)
Philadelphia, PA
La Guardia, NY
Heathrow, England
Gatwick, England
Manchester, England
Bangkok, Thailand (Old Airport)
Hong Kong, China (the NEW one)
Osan AFB, Korea
Kimpo, Korea
Tachakawa AFB, Japan
Kyoto AFB, Japan
Wake Island
Midway Island
Honolulu, Hawaii
Kona Airport ( The old one,Big Island)
Hilo Airport, (The Big Island of Hawaii)

You must have racked up a lot of frequent flier miles.... :lol:

 

[Fox Mike]

I've done the Potomac river route into Reagan a few times.

If you fly into the Pentagon in a helicopter you use the low level river route that is also a ride.

 

[Merle1948]

I've done the Potomac river route into Reagan a few times.

If you fly into the Pentagon in a helicopter you use the low level river route that is also a ride.

HMMM, I wonder why I never got invited to the Pentagon??? :lol:

 

[Rick Courtright]

Does everyone understand that magnetic variations change over time?

Hi,

That it changes, I've known for a long time: between about 1965 and today we've gone from about 15 deg E to approx 12 1/2 deg E here in my little corner of our rock. But is the change relatively linear? (I'd assume so, but dunno...)

Rick C

 

[Cooperhawk]

Actually, no it isn't. Magnetic waves have a swirling pattern on the Earth and each location may have different degrees of deviation. Pilots use a chart to factor in Mag Variation into flights involving magnetic compass nav.

 

[mohavesam]

Don't know about scary rides, although I've done some 2.6M miles with Delta and close to a million with American, plus others. I just enjoy the view. Nothing scared me more than the helo rides to rigs off the Texas coast...
But speaking of scary, I've been to Philly and Newark. Always feel like I need a tetanus shot just walking through those places...

 

[RugerHound]

I don't care much for scary rides if I ain't drivin'...

San Diego is a pig to get into & out of ... I know some pilots and most of them hate going into Lindbergh Field when the wind is out of the west. During Santa Anna conditions, they take off to the east which is also a white knuckle ride for the pilots, although the passengers don't see the risks. Fortunately the Santa Ana conditions only occur a few times a year. The commercial pilots I know prefer a root canal to taking off to the east out of Lindbergh...

La Plata County Airport near Durango, Colorado isn't a particularly scary airport on its face... It's on the top of a mesa, and is flat as p$$$ on a plate. The problem is that landings can be like falling down stairs when there's a lot of thermals around. That airport and Cheyenne Wyoming are both miserable in the heat of the summertime in those Beech 99s! I've had such rough rides in & out of those airports that I actually got bruised.

 

[RugerHound]

Don't know about scary rides, although I've done some 2.6M miles with Delta and close to a million with American, plus others. I just enjoy the view. Nothing scared me more than the helo rides to rigs off the Texas coast...
But speaking of scary, I've been to Philly and Newark. Always feel like I need a tetanus shot just walking through those places...

Amen to that! 'Specially when they're too heavy and they 'bounce' 'em off the pad, fall for airspeed and bank on ground effect to keep it out of the 'big blue tool box'. :? :shock: