Comments on: Freaky airplane landing videos

By: NelC

NelC — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:06:00 +0000

Doesn’t look like there’s much of anywhere to move an aircraft to. I’m guessing normal procedure is to land, despatch the passengers, load up some more, turn around and fly out again.

By: John Blackburne

John Blackburne — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:16:00 +0000

There was also the matter of takeoffs, which would be much more difficult/dangerous northwards towards the Kowloon hills. With planes taking off to the south it made much more sense for planes to land from the north. I think it could be reversed when winds blew strongly from the north, but this happened rarely.

By: Chris Barrus

Chris Barrus — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:28:00 +0000

@ wt29 There are differing rules w.r.t. electronics on aircraft and inconsistencies between all of them. For the most part, pilots can use whatever they want subject to FCC rules and the rules as determined by the air carrier (if it’s a commercial flight)

By: jmv

jmv — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:50:00 +0000

I was wondering if someone was going to mention the elephant in the room – who left their electronics device turned on?! Well, at least I’m the second person to say as much. Maybe all cameras are exempt, or if they aren’t, perhaps they will soon need to clarify that only FILM cameras (including 8mm & 16mm film) are allowed in use during take offs and landings!

By: colby knapp

colby knapp — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:06:00 +0000

if you like aviation PLEASE check out my wingsauce.blogspot . there are tons of videos and articles on alllll types of aviation. just gettting started but already over 100 posts

By: Festus

Festus — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:21:00 +0000

During our approach to Dulles (not National) on Turkish Air last week, everyone’s individual monitor switched over to the cockpit view. Terrifying! The yawing of the plane and the constant small pilot corrections, largely imperceptible to the passengers, were now exaggerated. Unlike!

By: Stuart Walton

Stuart Walton — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:15:00 +0000

If you have to abort on final approach, you’d rather not be pointing at rising terrain and a mountain range.

By: wt29

wt29 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:58:00 +0000

What I can´t figure out is what they are using to record these videos.

We are all told to ‘Turn off all electronic equipment during take off and landing as it may interfere with aircraft systems’ yet here is someone, patently, running digital video camera in the cockpit in contravention to the rules imposed on the rest of us schmucks. Admittedly, most of the equipment in actually under the floor in First Class ( the video was a British 747 – Assume BA but could be Virgin) but if there are any “sensitive instruments” then the cockpit is where they all terminate.

A digital camera, especially one with a tape transport – this had to be as Kai Shek has been closed for a few years – would be chock full of oscillators etc which could generate “interference”.

One set of rules for the rest of us methinks.

By: petz79

petz79 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:29:00 +0000

It looked scarier than it was, when I travelled to Madeira. You look out your window and only see the sea and one moment later you’re already on the runway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byvkjO1h41Q

By: arikol

arikol — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:14:00 +0000

This is one of my favourites:
from ground:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv_c6vA8DXE
(note that the cameraman is standing on the mountainshoulder that you have to not hit while doing the turn from downwind to final)

From cockpit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm6dQK0ipGk&feature=related
Again, notice that bloody mountain you have to avoid on the turn

The landing there is fun on anything from a tiny two seater up to to the larger planes.
As soon as you get up to a 10 seat aircraft such as the Piper PA31 (which has been used quite a bit in Iceland) then you’re coming in at around 110-120kts, which makes the whole thing quite fun ;D All pilots I know (myself included) enjoy this kind of stuff.

By: guanto

guanto — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:03:00 +0000

Nah, airplanes (especially the seriously small planes that would typically take off there) need their engines to move on the ground, i.e. get on the freaking runway in the first place. Maybe not full-throttle, even idling at times, but still, that’s how they move.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:14:00 +0000

Aren’t they fun? I send them to my flight attendant friends and tell each one they are the bravest people I know. But I do hate wading through the video game clips.

By: knoxblox

knoxblox — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:36:00 +0000

Upon seeing this, the first people I thought of who might be in the cockpit were Gene Ryack or Billy Covington.

By: Aaaab1

Aaaab1 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:34:00 +0000

landings at Tegucigalpa, Honduras are pretty entertaining…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk6c33WzZJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_z5HtME9n8

By: dculberson

dculberson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:15:00 +0000

I’ve been in a plane both landing and taking off from that airport .. it was interesting. Also had one of the pilots shout “I’m never flying this airline again!” (in Spanish). That was fun.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:12:00 +0000

That makes me want to go back to Khumbu. I have to say that the runway at Lukla was less terrifying than the bathroom. Instead of a hole in the floor, there was a board missing, and the poo-pile was above floor level.

By: petsounds

petsounds — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:10:00 +0000

This is sort of a tangential comment, but I flew into Heathrow a few weeks ago on a 777, an ANZ flight from the States, and we got put into a LONG holding pattern making circles around the airport. We had been making laps for around 15 minutes when my seatmate by the window taps me on the shoulder and tells me to look out the window. I look out, searching for I know not what, and only seeing the dreary skies of London. “No, down there!” he clarifies. I look down and in a moment of horror realize there’s a 747 flying beneath us perpendicular, not more than 100 feet below. Way less than the approved 1000 feet distance. The pilot then suddenly banks hard towards it and we fall into line behind the 747. I have to imagine there were more than a few curse words thrown around in the cockpit.

By: creativehumanoid

creativehumanoid — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:54:00 +0000

There’s always this “airfield.” The approach and departure are both over water…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn5DHw70zPo

By: teapot

teapot — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:17:00 +0000

1) I was lucky(?) enough to experience the old HK airport approach and it was truly disturbing, but fun. It’s not often that a pilot points the plane at a hill 50 seconds before landing. Does anyone know why they didn’t just land the other direction on the old HK runway? Seems like that would have been a sensible idea.

2) If you ever have a chance to take acid on a plane do it. Best sunrise ever.

By: Preemptive Placebo

Preemptive Placebo — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:15:00 +0000

Last May we landed at Lukla and shot this video from the cockpit.

http://youtu.be/KDyJ2WLURLU

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:03:00 +0000

Gravity. The 12% grade over 1,500 feet gets it moving pretty damn fast.

I don’t think that they use much brake on landings, either.

By: Bilsko

Bilsko — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:55:00 +0000

In addition to St Barts – which I haven’t been to – I’d add the airport on Saba (just south of St. Maarten) as one of the trickiest. Its one of the shortest commercial runways (400m) and involves a mountain on the incoming side and cliff on the outgoing side. Plenty of youtube videos searching for “Saba landing”
Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RU_fk6zNmc

By: guanto

guanto — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Awesome, thanks!

But you got carried away in the last sentence; how do you think airplanes move and accelerate on the runway?

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:53:00 +0000

As a frequent flyer into DCA I always loved hearing the gasps of the newbies when taking the wing-over so close to the water.

By: taras

taras — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:36:00 +0000

There was an excellent documentary on (UK) Channel 5 a few months ago called World’s Most Extreme Airports, well worth checking out if you can find it.

http://www.channel5.com/shows/worlds-most-extreme-airports

By: Kyle Duren

Kyle Duren — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:21:00 +0000

When I landed there in 2010 I had no idea it was such a crazy airport. Thankfully I looked it up online AFTER I was back home!

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:19:00 +0000

An airport designed to recreate an improbable Hollywood action sequence!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:10:00 +0000

Landing, schmanding. Try taking off from Tenzing-Hillary Airport at Lukla. The runway is 1,500 feet long with a 12% grade. When you get to the end, you're in mid-air with a 2,000 foot drop below you. It's conventional to turn the engines on after you're in the air.

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:10:00 +0000

That second video of the 747 drifitng around… holeeee sheeeeeittt!!!

By: scolbath

scolbath — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:10:00 +0000

While the pilot in question is entitled to his opinion, and I will defer to his opinion on the avaition issues, here is one from a passenger.

I’ve been flying in and out of DCA (from BOS) for > 30 years. The airport clearly has its idocyncracies – I would describe RWY 1 as ‘pointed at the White House’ more than ‘pointed at the Mall’, but unless you are flying in and out of DEN every day with miles of flat plains on approach, as a pilot I’m sure there is an oddball issue to deal with. Someone upthread mentioned the parking garage at SAN – even my home airport of BOS has Winthrop with its water tower on one side, and the freight docks AND LNG shipping channel on the other.

From a passenger’s point of view, there is really no comparison between DCA, IAD, and BWI. The Metro to IAD won’t be done for several years yet, and even with its renovations the security lines at IAD are epic. Departures in the afternoon are regularly delayed 20-30 minutes or more as a line of jumbo jets (with associated 2+ minute wait times) depart for Europe. I’ve gone to meetings in Reston (right outside the airport) and driven back to DCA rather than use IAD. Security lines are typically 5 minutes or less, so I can leave a meeting in downtown DC or Arlington at 4:30pm, and comfortably made a 5:30 departure. I’m probably back at home in Boston before most people in DC have even made it to the suburbs out by IAD or BWI. Clearly there is a considerable value proposition there.