XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Crazy Airports

Some airports are awful. Like LGA Laguardia. Others are not bad at all. DFW, Dallas is, in my opinion, a pretty decent airport.  LAX is a hassle, but PSP Palm Springs, and SNA John Wayne Orange County are pretty nice. And LGB Long Beach is delightful. But those are big airports, servicing jetliners. I grew…

Some airports are awful. Like LGA Laguardia. Others are not bad at all. DFW, Dallas is, in my opinion, a pretty decent airport.  LAX is a hassle, but PSP Palm Springs, and SNA John Wayne Orange County are pretty nice. And LGB Long Beach is delightful.

But those are big airports, servicing jetliners. I grew up flying out of a tiny little strip into SEA SeaTac.  And even that wasn’t too crazy of an airport. Some airports have, shall we say, impressive approaches. Most of us have seen videos of the crowds watching jets come right over the road to St. Maartens.

And St. Maartens twin, St. Barths, has one of the more impressive approaches, skimming downhill to a rather short runway.

But my favorite crazy airport doesn’t even have runways! Barra, off the coast of Scotland, simply uses the beach. It has regularly scheduled airline service, but the schedule varies due to the tides.

But for crazy approaches, and if you’re only going to watch one video on this post, this is it.

What’s your thoughts on best and worst airports?

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  1. JH, MSG (Ret)

    Tegucigalpa Honduras. Been there. Done that. Never again.

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  2. xbradtc

    Oh, yeah, that’s a good one.

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  3. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    Tegu – WOW is all I can say!!!

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  4. Walter Sobchak

    What about Lukla in Nepal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing-Hillary_Airport

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  5. Think Defence (@thinkdefence)

    Some great video there

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  6. CavScoutCoastie

    Guantanamo Bay was a tough one especially for big jets. They have to bank hard to make the approach and avoid violating Cuban airspace. I remember watching a DC-10 come in once and I wasn’t sure he was going to make it.

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  7. Buck Buchanan

    The old municipal airport for Killeen, TX, was a nightmare. At one end of the runway was a graveyard and at teh other was a roadway with a big ass ditch.

    I have landed on a carrier in a COD.

    The COD was an easier takeoff and landing than an American Eagle commuter out of Dallas!

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  8. timactual

    On that last video, what’s the big deal? It’s at least a par 5, only one water hazard. Do they let other folks play through while they are sitting on the fairway?

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  9. 11chighanglehell

    I don’t know if they still have these features, but Tegus last I was there had nice features like: Traffic light behind the runway to stop vehicles from being hit, a cliff like drop at the end of the strip, and my favorite was the assorted aircraft graveyard to both sides of the runway.

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  10. Jim

    It’s not crazy, merely a low approach by a Stratofortress:

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  11. Esli

    Flying out of Barstow, CA, in a C17 with one tank onboard, at noon in June (i.e. little lift and big load=rolling to a point where we just about had less runway left than available lift)…. Necessitating immediate aerial refuel followed by near mid-air with B52 hooked to KC135 going the other direction. It’s a one-time, I know, but most memorable takeofff ever for me.

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