Top 10 scariest runways

[ardypilot]

Nothing new, but thought it may interest a few people on here- this article was posted on stuff.co.nz yesterday:

Nervous fliers, beware! A travel website has come up with a list of the world's scariest runways that can make even the most relaxed travelers grip their armrest.

1. Paro Airport, Bhutan

Tucked into a tightly cropped valley and surrounded by 16,000-foot-high Himalayan peaks, Bhutan's only airport is forbidding to fly into. It requires specially trained pilots to maneuver and land through a channel of tree-covered hillsides.

2. Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten

The length of the runway is just 7,152 feet which is fine for small or medium-size jets, but as the second-busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean, it regularly welcomes wide-body jetliners like Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s which fly in low over Maho Beach and skim just over the perimeter fence.

3. Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC

Located smack in the center of two overlapping air-exclusion zones, Reagan National requires pilots flying the so-called River Visual into the airport to follow the Potomac while steering clear of sensitive sites such as the Pentagon and CIA headquarters. On taking off, pilots need to climb quickly and execute a steep left bank to avoid flying over the White House.

4. Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar

Pinched in by the Mediterranean on its eastern flank and the Bay of Algeciras on its western side, the airport's truncated runway stretches just 6,000 feet and requires pinpoint precision.

5. Matekane Air Strip, Lesotho

The 1,312-foot-long runway is perched at the edge of a couloir at 7,550 feet. You drop down the face of a 2,000-foot cliff until you start flying. Says bush pilot Tom Claytor: "The rule in the mountains is that it is better to take off downwind and downhill than into wind and uphill, because in Lesotho, the hills will usually out-climb you."

6. Barra Airport, Barra, Scotland

The airport on the tiny Outer Hebridean Island of Barra is actually a wide shallow bay onto which scheduled planes land with the roughness of landings determined by how the tide went out.

7. Toncontin Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Having negotiated the rough-hewn mountainous terrain, pilots must execute a dramatic 45-degree, last-minute bank to the left just minutes prior to touching down in a bowl-shaped valley on a runway just 6,112 feet in length. The airport, at an altitude of 3,294 feet, can accommodate aircraft no larger than Boeing 757's.

8. John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York

Pilots have to avoid interfering with flights into New York's two other close-by airports, LaGuardia and Newark. Set up in 1964 as a noise-abatement measure, this approach forces pilots to have a reported 1,500-foot ceiling and a five-mile visibility before lining up with runway 13L and the waters of Jamaica Bay.

9. Madeira Airport, Funchal, Madeira

Wedged in by mountains and the Atlantic, Madeira Airport requires a clockwise approach for which pilots are specially trained. Despite a unique elevated extension that was completed back in 2000 and now expands the runway length to what should be a comfortable 9,000 feet, the approach to Runway 05 remains hair-raising. Pilots must first point their aircraft at the mountains and, at the last minute, bank right to the runway.

10. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba, Netherlands Antilles

Perched on a precipitous gale-battered peninsula on the island's northeastern corner, the airport requires pilots to tackle blustery trade winds, occasional spindrift, and their own uneasy constitutions as they maneuver in for a perfect landing on a runway that's just 1,300 feet long.

For the full list click here.

[Matthew]

There's a space in your link Trolly, small typo

Excellent list Flying rolling off the side of that cliff at Matekane Air Strip sounds pretty scary

[Naki]

Wouldnt Wellington (on a windy day) and Queenstown be scarier than StMaartens? Actually how scary would StMaatren be - youre just approaching low over a beach??..what about StBarts with the approach over the hill/road? ..and Lukla?

[Chairman]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Feb 2 2009, 11:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

4. Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar

Pinched in by the Mediterranean on its eastern flank and the Bay of Algeciras on its western side, the airport's truncated runway stretches just 6,000 feet and requires pinpoint precision.

This one is scary for more than just the plane passengers.

There's only one road to and from Gibralta, it's along a causeway from the Spanish town of La Linea. The runway for Gib airport is built across the causeway, and the road crosses it. Have a look on GE.

There's not a lot of room for coaches on Gib, and lots of tourists go there, so the coaches park in La Linea and the punters walk across the causeway. And the runway. I believe it's the only runway in the 1st world with a pedestrian crossing. There are lights and loud sirens that go off when a plane is coming, and then you either don't start crossing or, if you're standing on the centreline gawping at the view like I was, you run. It's a long way from the centreline to the perimeter fence on foot with a boeing on short final

Gary

[greaneyr]

QUOTE (Naki @ Feb 2 2009, 01:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wouldnt Wellington (on a windy day) and Queenstown be scarier than StMaartens? Actually how scary would StMaatren be - youre just approaching low over a beach??..what about StBarts with the approach over the hill/road? ..and Lukla?

Yeah I was just thinking the same thing. St Maarten is over-hyped IMO because it gets so much airtime due to its combination of low approach over beach and large jets. St Barth's is way harder to land at. In FS9 (where the terrain isn't as realistic as FSX) I still don't think I've actually managed to land anything bigger than the 172 at it.

[FlyingKiwi]

I'm pretty sure they fly Islanders and Twin Otters into Saint-Barthélemy.

Edit - Whoops, didn't read your post properly, sorry 'bout that!

[Grumble]

QUOTE (FlyingKiwi @ Feb 1 2009, 07:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm pretty sure they fly Islanders and Twin Otters into Saint-Barthélemy.

Edit - Whoops, didn't read your post properly, sorry 'bout that!

Have flown in and out of Barra. Wasn't scary, just fun!

[greaneyr]

Actually, I think I may have overstated my piloting skills - even landing the 172 there on FS9 requires pinpoint accuracy that my poor piloting skills clearly lack!