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This video clearly shows just how much skill is needed to be a great pilot. This is one of my favorites. I have shared this video before, though not at this forum.
Those who have not seen this video before I am sure will really enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1PY_...eature=related
In case anyone is wondering who does not know me, no I am not a pilot.
I do however really like talking about and learning about aviation.
What airport? Just so I can put it on my list of "airports to be avoided no matter how skilled the pilot is since I'd have a heart attack anyway."
:RpS_scared:
A runway the length of my kid's soccer field. Yikes!!!
Soapboxmom
It's TGU. Very good landing except for not getting his nose all the way over to the center line before TD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seriously?
This was always my fave airport to land:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqO6gdJIz8&feature=player_embedded
On the approach, which you don't see in the video I posted, as it's further away, is the gully flying as you swing and tightly maneuver for eight miles through the narrow sea channel which divides the mass of mainland Kowloon and the nearly vertical walls of Hong Kong Island. This was especially trying in windy conditions. At one early point, in the Lei Yue Mun Gap, the channel is constricted to a throat less than half-a-mile wide. Peaks, as abrupt as stalagmites, rear up within two miles of Runway 13's threshold, and there are unlit, high-rise buildings. Swinging low through the basin of light reflected between the harbour and the clouds is tricky. You come about a full 180 degrees. And many times, you have to cope with rain, clouds, wind shear, and always drift and varying sink rates. Too fast, you will have an over run, too slow, you will stall.
The takeoffs fully loaded with pax, fuel and cargo are just as fun. You really have to throttle the engines and attain rotation as soon as you can and climb quickly and be prepared for a steep 65 degree bank very quickly. In the landings, not only is there that ooompah bank at 47 degrees (and the area is extremely built up with high rise offices and apartment buildings just everywhere that you thread yourself over and through) but you have to nose down, then level off and flare (lift the nose) back up before touchdown of the wheels and then lower the nose back down again. There is not much room for crabbing yourself across the field and into position in a crosswind and not a very long runway either.
http://www.mcnees.org/images/travel/...744-HKG-02.jpg
That photo above above reminds me of the Toronto downtown island airport that Porter flies into.
Overshoot the runway and you're into Lake Ontario.
Flying in there in the winter gives me the same thrill. I hope to hell some SOB remembered to put the sand to the runway.
The stupidity of civil engineers it maybe should be called, who designed these airports in these locations and then who approved the build!
Quote:
Originally Posted by consolidation
It's not until a person actually flies into HK and similar places that they realize that the only choice open to the residents is to have the airfield situated where it is OR no airport at all.
Personally, I think it's a marvel of modern engineering and ingenuity and testimony to the unbelievable skills of the pilots that, not only do the airports exist, but, they are among the busiest and safest around.
I take your point and have nothing but admiration for the pilots, however I have been to HK dozens of times and lets face it while it is great that the minimum to achieve has been done, the wonder is... that it wasn't extended (as it is built upon and out of where once was sea) which would allow for growth and also surely make it an easier approach.
All over the world are testiments to civil engineering, civil engineering is like a BA where people who want to be a Engineer but struggle with maths and non physical concepts can still earn a title and a nice break at college.
As the great line goes...six munce ago I culnt even spel injunear, now I is wun:RpS_smile:
Speaking of HKG, it wasn't that the "minimum" was built to achieve an airport at all, it was that at the time it was constructed, it served it's purpose greatly and served it well into the future of the 20th century. It was built in the early 20's and was the International airport for Hong Kong from 1925 til 1998 when it was closed down. When it was built and for many years thereafter, the town was not built up with the skyscapers and the population that you see there now. Also the aircraft were much smaller and less powerful obviously. That airport was an amazing feat for the time in which it was built. Making the approach "easier" at some point later on, you have had to destroy the mountains and displace people and decimate the beauty and geography of the location, includig the harbor itself which became one of the world's largest shipping venues.
Born from that small airport were the likes of Cathay Pacific, now one of the largest carriers in the world and Dragonaire, Hong Kong Airways and Air Hong Kong. It was built and was the dream and the vision of two businessmen/ entrepreneurs. After WW II, it was used by two Navys as a base. The runway were actually expanded twice after it's initial construction over the decades as commerce and the size of planes and the jet age emerged. A new airport was contructed in the 90's at Chek Lap Kok and opened in July of '98. Literally in honor of the first airport, both the ICAO and IATA airport codes were transferred to the newer, larger facility.
I have to agree with LRM. You see, we are speaking specifically here of transportation and in a sense, of exploration and discovery itself. We are talking of the pioneering spirit that is alive and well in all cultures and basic to mankind itself. The need for man to connect globally, to be able to travel and ship goods around the world. That is what makes places like old Kai Tak so incredible. It is not merely the desire for commerce and expansion of economy, it is the all the technological genius to achieve these goals. From the men who envisioned the airport and what it would bring/mean, the engineers who designed and the workers and equipment who built the facility, to the the engineers who design the aircraft and keep striving to built newer, larger, more efficient and safer aircraft and then to the pilots who learn to fly them and take those planes top the ends of the earth. That fact that the largest plane at the time, the Boeing 747-400 was able to transport both pax and cargo there and land safely, was just amazing to me. It was a thrill, a challenge and a great part of the history of that airport. It required special training and a certification by the Captain to be able to do so. It will remain for me, a wonderful achievement and memory. It is a large peice of global commerce history.
Airports around the globe and those in very remote locations are what have improved and bettered the lives of billions of the world's citizens. Not just for commerce, but for food, medical supplies, building supplies, communication, varies technologies,for scientific purposes, and so much more. Today, you only have to look at flying in Alaska, the types of planes that are used, where and how they land, the weather and conditions and the incredible bush pilots who fly those aircraft to see that talent, that ingenuity, that drive, the fullfillment of what man needs and desires, is alive and well in the 21st century.
UGH!!! Can we get more than 10 minutes to edit and remove our typos? lol I can't type for crap!!!!
Thank you for the info, I can see your points better now.
I have to admit that I still have no great respect for Civil engineers but have taken the great points you have brought forward and better understand the history of HK airport etc.
I guess in any field of expertise you get great examples and craftsmen/women and also bad ones...maybe I have just met the latter too often and haven't met the former often enough.
Thanks for putting me on a straighter path, LOL
Speaking of the skills required to be a pilot, who fancies being a passenger at these airports, much less the pilots required to land there repeatedly??
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110207/co...qbsJcMIXKucQ--
Courchevel, France
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110208/ho...mg.kb6q7E64w--
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110207/gi...aUHfT0shyIAQ--
Gibraltar
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110207/sa...cVypYIK5JxBA--
Saba, The Caribbean
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110207/ma...ArdBvwqvWufA--
Funchal, Madeira
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/110208/ma...1vdjz4JVDhbg--
Lesotho, Swaziland
Those runways are all examples of runways that require absolute perfection to land. If I was a pilot, I don't think anyone could talk me into trying to land at Lesotho, Swaziland.