The 10 scariest runways!

Some sould be added: Cusco in Perú, San Martin de los Andes and Ushuaia in Argentina, Tegucigalpa and Quito. I would add: San Sebastian in the Basque Country (Spain), Bilbao and Melilla.

Middle Eastern airports are strange when you’re landing. All that sand and desert then a runway appears out of nowhere.

To state the obvious but what about the slippery slopes of Innsbruck or some of them high altitude ones in Peru and othe rSouth American countries? Some scary ones up there.

Well, trust me that, if windy and rainy enough, any runway can get pretty uncomfortable… Nearly 2 years ago, and I still shiver thinking of it.

Wet ‘n’ windy Aberdeen can be quite sporty…

Try the 1900 metres runway in wet windy day in LCG-Northwest of Spain………..wowww….

I’ve been flying for over fifty years and wet and windy runways still put the wind up me!!

Having operated into GIB many times, there is no doubt that wind condtions can get exciting, particularly with south westerlies, southerlies and south easterlies.
The rotor effect of south westerlies give on short finals a tailwind, with a down draught, rapidly turning into up draught with headwind.
The dancing water on short finals for the easterly runway, after a nice curved visual approach, is amusing….
Operate within established tolerances, as per charts and you should be fine.

Now the only thing dangerous about JFK, is the controllers, rudest in the world bar none. Even our American cousins thing JFK is a weird place.

DXB Driver

(The problem with GIB is,under certain conditions you get a tail wind in both directions at the same time.
Oh yes? Where did you acquire that information? )

I read it in a book about about the history of Gibraltar and the airfield.
I guess it must have have been false information then.

wawkrk

Here’s the original website w/ Pictures!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2001276/posts

The problem with GIB is,under certain conditions you get a tail wind in both directions at the same time.

Oh yes? Where did you acquire that information?

Having operated into Gibraltar many times it is not something I was ever aware of. There are many other local effects dependent on a combination of wind direction and speed, all are well documented and laid out in the airfield documentation. There are is also a table of maximum recommended wind speeds and directions for operation, disregard them at your peril. However there is nothing “scary” about Gibraltar, it is unusual and does require a bit of extra care but apart from that it is OK.

I much preferred going into Gib’ than quite a few of the Greek islands, particularly at night.

exmpa

The problem with GIB is,under certain conditions you get a tail wind in both directions at the same time.

Try the 1900 metres runway in wet windy day in LCG-Northwest of Spain………..wowww….

i dont think ‘scariest runways’ is the right phrasing!
Interesting Approaches? maybe?
Funchal is always fun to fly into!

Jon 🙂

I’m suprised Samos, Greece isn’t on there. That’s a fairly scary approach dependind on the weather. Usually very turbulent and lots if windshear, not to mention a Funchal kind of approach on one end of the airport.

Paro approach may be scary to some but i loved it. Between the mountains at low altitudes. One of the best approaches on this planet.

What about the checkerboard approach at the old Hong Kong airport.. or the reef runway at Honolulu with it’s sharp turn after take off past Diamond head

Who writes this tosh?

1L.

When I first saw the thread title , I thought it was referring to this newspaper article from last week’s Sunday Times…

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article4268167.ece

Seems that they are actually 2 different articles – unless there’s some plagerism going on?:rolleyes:

Or maybe people are so fed up talking about high airline fuel prices – so they’d rather talk about scary runways of the world…

I wouldn’t call most of those scary. SXM has nearly 8000′ of runway with an approach over open water. Doesn’t push the limits of aircraft or pilots to handle that.

DCA is scary in that if you bust the 2 Prohibited Airspaces to the north you are tracked by NORAD and missle defense systems. Again, 7000′ of runway with only a sharp turn to landing on runway 19 (which has several visual/instrument pieces of equipment to guide you in). But beyond the airspace limits which are well documents with landmarks to pick them out it isn’t scary at all.

Only 1 of 4 runways at JFK is less than 10,000′. Runways 13L/R have sequencing lights to guide you in visually from the south in VFR conditions. Again, unusual but not scary.

Talking to pilots who have flow it I would agree with Toncontin Airport being on the list. Not to mention that the type of aircraft being flown into these airports make a lot of difference. Perhaps a 747 into Matekane Air Strip would be scary but a C172?

Having been to Barra for the first time just a few weeks ago I can tell you there is nothing scary about landing there. It’s absolutely fantastic.

I have also flown into Gibraltar and Funchal MANY times. Both are interesting but not scary.

Who writes this tosh?

1L.