03-31-2008, 07:13 AM
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Guru
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Minnesota
Age: 41
Posts: 17,637
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JLB
That picture reminds me of landing in Honduras at Tegulcigalpa's airport. I looked out my window and stared a goat right in the eye. The pilot flew his 727 like it was some fighter plane.
Tegu airport is carved out of a mountainside, and you have to approach it and pull a tight turn, just like a Corsair would do on a carrier landing. At the end of the runway is a cliff, with about 100 yards of mud before you would go off of it. There was one plane that had gone too far was stuck in the mud just short of the cliff. Thank god I saw that after I landed.
My next trip down there I got an aisle seat.  |
That sounds similar to landing at the old Hong Kong airport:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport
Landing at Kai Tak was considered challenging. Depending on the landing direction, aircraft had to pass over densely populated areas in Kowloon at low altitudes. The infamous "checkerboard" approach to Runway 13 involved flying down an ILS-like "Instrument Guidance System," toward floodlit orange and white checkerboard patterns painted on a hilltop. The checkerboard served as the landmark for a sharp 47-degree right turn at about 100-meter altitude to align with the runway -- a marginal manoeuvre at best in a large, heavy jet -- often made more difficult by turbulence and strong crosswinds during the last part of final approach and at the runway. Many airplanes were damaged attempting this approach and landing.
At the northern end of the runway, buildings up to 6 stories rose just across the road. The other three sides of the runway were surrounded by Victoria harbour. The low altitude manoeuvre was so spectacular that some passengers have claimed to have witnessed the flickering of televisions through apartment windows as their aircraft approached the airport's landing strip.
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