Favourite Airports

Gibraltar has an “interesting” approach if the wind is from the east. Took a party of ATC Cadets there in 1989, at which time Spain was not allowing British a/c to overfly.Routed from Luton via the Bay of Biscay and watched with great interest as the masts of the yachts in the harbour were ABOVE the final stages of the approach to land! Equally, the fact that they have to shut the main road to allow a/c to land is fun!

Not me Sir, just happy to be here… 😉

I’m not a pilot, but thinking about it, I’ve been very privialiged in the ‘flying into’ job…

You would have thought you were a pilot, the way you were downing Jager Bombs and doing “Bombing Runs” at the Acey Deucy Bar in Oshkosh…

Gap – surrounded by mountains, near Grenoble, France (under parachute).

Broke another aircraft huh?

Moggy

Orlando International in a Cessna 152 on a student license is pretty memorable.

As is Oshkosh in a Spitfire.

Popham in a Yak11.

Woburn Abbey lawn in a Tiger Moth and Chipmunk.

Yeovilton in a Helicoptor on Sep 11, 2001.

Gap – surrounded by mountains, near Grenoble, France (under parachute).

Cooo, wot fun!

Not a lot of folks realise that Toronto’s City airport was the first base for ‘Little Norway’ the Norwegean’s free air force base in Canada in W.W.II. Very sadly they had to move after one of their floatplanes collided with a Toronto ferry, with a couple of deaths on the ferry and the loss of the crew.

I’m not a pilot, but thinking about it, I’ve been very privialiged in the ‘flying into’ job, and it’s the way one travels that counts too:

Canberra on one of the last 727 flights in Aus, jumpseat.

Da Vinci, Venice, under the lowest cloudbase, jumpseat on a BAC-111. When bits of the approach lighting appeared on bits of land, I wondered it the whole place was flooded. It was, it was Venice 😀

Hop across Melbourne from Morrabbin to Essendon in the co-pilot’s seat of a Learjet. Yes, it really was awesome.

Biggin Hill in a Rapide. Wish I was a gentleman, then it’d be my carriage 😉

‘HMS Heron’, AKA RNAS Yeovilton in a DC-3 (Thanks, Air Atlantique!)

Good try by the RN, but best name of an airport surely must go to ‘Buttonville’ Toronto. Isn’t that Toytown’s airport really?

Oshkosh, in ‘Mildreds’ L-39. Again, an awesome experience. The landscapes, not up to much, but they do cover it ALL with airplanes… Thanks Steve.

And Old Warden, in Hairyplane’s Maggie. A double dream come true, plus an overflight of the ex-RAF Tempsford, where a relative took of in 1944 and didn’t come back.

Wow, wot a list. Heh.

La Ferté Alais for lots of years of good fun, company and interesting aeroplanes.

Mojave as a good friend lets me play with his toys

and

Popham for housing the “The Royal and Ancient Rearwin Museum at Popham” and for having good motorbikes in there on frequent occasions and for lunch.

M

Great story on Toronto’s City Centre Airport. I’ve only been there once, about 10 years ago, and I remember being very impressed. I flew there from Cleveland in the Bonanza A-36, and I remember it seemed like a lot of water passed beneath before Toronto came into view in the distance. A beautiful airport, in a beautiful city.

Thanks for sharing.

CYTZ – City Center Airport in Toronto. This is my favorite for at least two reasons.

For many, many years, and as recently as 1996, my wife and I wnted to take up flying. After our intro flights, we realized the time and $$ investment required and reluctantly backed off.

Then in 2002, I was having a biz dinner at the CN tower in Toronto. The CN tower has a revolving restaurant. As our table revolved to face Lake Ontario, I saw a nice small airport (I guess it was the elevation of the tower) where I could, in the setting sun, see several small airplanes land and TO. At that moment in June 6, 2002, I made two decisions;

1. Learn to fly
2. Land at this airport on my next visit to Toronto

So, mid July, I simply blocked off time in my calendar and started taking lessons. As part of taking lessons, I was introduced to Sporty’ a catalog store located at I69 (Claremont County Airport) just outside Cincinnati. On the cover, they featured 6 of the most picturesque airports in NA. Guess, which one I recognized? Yes, CYTZ. I do not remember the rest, but I am sure Meigs was one of them before that thug Mayor Daley tore it down later.

So, that resolve, at the CN tower overlooking CYTZ, resulted in my working on getting my License in ’03 and I promptly flew to CYTZ at the very next biz opportunity. As I made my entry into the circuit, I could see, in the distance, the mist rising from the Niagara Falls.

As I turned final, a gigantic (it was that close) bird (with real feathers) swoped down into my flight path. I instinctively swerved and landed without incident. I explained my evasive move to tower and there was really no issue. Apparently, par for the course at this place.

Now, the airport is on prime land, minutes from Toronto downtown, and is an island to boot. Several commuter airlines operate from here instead of from Pearson Int’l which is on the far outskirts of the city. After disembarking, one catches a 2 min ferry ride to mainland.

After concluding my biz, as I hopped on the ferry to take me back to the a/c, I was approached by a local reporter. She was doing a piece on this airport and wanted my opinions on it. Apparently, was a move afoot to close this airport, and like Meigs, convert it to more of a public use space. The only difference being that there was at least some public debate on the matter.

I made my impassioned plea to keep the airport as is, and I pointed out its advantages to the city.

1. Proximity to downtown – good for business and tourists.
2. Picturesque to boot.

I have not followed up on the airport’ continued status. I have not seen anything in the press. Perhaps, Canadians resident here can update us all on its status. I hope it is allowed to remain a GA gem.

What a brilliant story – you’ve made me really jealous!!!

CYTZ – City Center Airport in Toronto. This is my favorite for at least two reasons.

For many, many years, and as recently as 1996, my wife and I wnted to take up flying. After our intro flights, we realized the time and $$ investment required and reluctantly backed off.

Then in 2002, I was having a biz dinner at the CN tower in Toronto. The CN tower has a revolving restaurant. As our table revolved to face Lake Ontario, I saw a nice small airport (I guess it was the elevation of the tower) where I could, in the setting sun, see several small airplanes land and TO. At that moment in June 6, 2002, I made two decisions;

1. Learn to fly
2. Land at this airport on my next visit to Toronto

So, mid July, I simply blocked off time in my calendar and started taking lessons. As part of taking lessons, I was introduced to Sporty’ a catalog store located at I69 (Claremont County Airport) just outside Cincinnati. On the cover, they featured 6 of the most picturesque airports in NA. Guess, which one I recognized? Yes, CYTZ. I do not remember the rest, but I am sure Meigs was one of them before that thug Mayor Daley tore it down later.

So, that resolve, at the CN tower overlooking CYTZ, resulted in my working on getting my License in ’03 and I promptly flew to CYTZ at the very next biz opportunity. As I made my entry into the circuit, I could see, in the distance, the mist rising from the Niagara Falls.

As I turned final, a gigantic (it was that close) bird (with real feathers) swoped down into my flight path. I instinctively swerved and landed without incident. I explained my evasive move to tower and there was really no issue. Apparently, par for the course at this place.

Now, the airport is on prime land, minutes from Toronto downtown, and is an island to boot. Several commuter airlines operate from here instead of from Pearson Int’l which is on the far outskirts of the city. After disembarking, one catches a 2 min ferry ride to mainland.

After concluding my biz, as I hopped on the ferry to take me back to the a/c, I was approached by a local reporter. She was doing a piece on this airport and wanted my opinions on it. Apparently, was a move afoot to close this airport, and like Meigs, convert it to more of a public use space. The only difference being that there was at least some public debate on the matter.

I made my impassioned plea to keep the airport as is, and I pointed out its advantages to the city.

1. Proximity to downtown – good for business and tourists.
2. Picturesque to boot.

I have not followed up on the airport’ continued status. I have not seen anything in the press. Perhaps, Canadians resident here can update us all on its status. I hope it is allowed to remain a GA gem.

Love Albenga in Western Italy. Downwind leg for the Easterly runway has your starboard wing scraping the mountainside, then this big hill looms right where you want to turn base.

Love N Weald, just because.

Le Casselet, down by Nice on the edge of Bernie Ecclestone’s GP circuit. There’s something about arriving in a tatty ragwing and then being ferried the forty metres to the terminal in a shiny new Espace bus by a uniformed chauffeur

Old Warden – need you ask?

Moggy

King Air C-90A

Great pics srpatterson

What plane is that?

Dean