No one has the market cornered on being self righteous, delusional, weirdos like the jack-booted booger eaters of the Bravos.
Charleston is pretty *** backwards, never been to Morgantown. I heard the team plane bounced on the runway at the Charleston airport. That runway ends at a several thousand foot drop off. Scariest airport to land on I have seen. And I’ve traveled to 48 states. WV is Nick Saban’s home State so behind A&M, WV is second.
I take it you have never flown into Roanoke, Aspen, or Orange County; the latter possessing the shortest runway of any major airport - only senior pilots allowed.
Sorry, I have been told that for decades. That short stop, then the takeoff, shutdown, then go again.
Since I live 20 minutes away, I fly into and out of SNA (Orange County) probably 20 times/year. I only remember a hard braking once or twice. They fly mostly 737s, Airbus 320s and occasionally something the size of a 757 because of the limited runway length. For those who haven’t traveled out of SNA, on the takeoff to the south/ocean (95% of the time due to the incoming coastal breeze), so as “not to disturb the rich folks below,” pilots climb up hard at a steep angle then power back (coast) until they clear the coastline. I’m so used to it that I almost never even hear the announcement but for newbies, it’s an interesting experience.
St. Maarten you may be thinking of, but it isn't short. Just pilots hot dogging coming in low over the beach. Stupid.
How about Beirut, where the runways and laterals were patched with asphalt at all of the key access points between the terminal and runway that had been smart-bombed by the Israelis a few weeks prior to me connecting to a flight to Saudi?
Speaking of landings, this has to be the coolest (to watch) and also most frightening runway on earth...
I’m no pilot but I know the entire Marshall Football Team died in a 1970 plane crash at Charleston Airport. I think they missed the runway. I just thought that was one reason WV was second to A&M as second weirdest fan base. Plus they just are wiered. Then when I heard the UT team plane bounced the landing at the airport I thought that was a close call. And I know that landing was steep and with mountain drop offs on both ends of the runway. Kinda scary. That landing there freaked me out the two or three times I did it.
It's not that bad, but in San Antonio, Hwy 281 runs right in front of the landing strip in San Antonio Airport. I've seen some pretty low entries into the landing strip there.
I'm an airline pilot. Before that, I flew private jets for 12 years. They are the biggest offender, but no approach to a runway like that requires you to come in so low you are merely feet above a road, beach, bystanders, whatever. If the runway is that short, then it is not a suitable runway, and that's it.
Just curious, how do you rank the runways at Chicago Midway? Not the worst offender, I'm sure, but I always worry about whether a fully-loaded 737 will come to a stop with enough room to spare* (bear in mind that I grew up in the Panhandle and my first commercial flights were from AMA with its SAC runways built to accommodate B-52s) *I seem to recall there was at least once incident when a 737 ran off the end of the runway and onto a city street
Never liked MDW, either landing (sharp banks, probably to avoid the ORD traffic) or taking off (quick turns and then holding at a low altitude, as I recall). I’ll be interested to see what HIC says. BTW, as I recall, the incident to which you refer was a Southwest plane that skidded off an icy runway and hit a car with a young boy inside. Very sad.
Midway has "shorter" length runways than most airline served facilities. We don't fly in there, but my wife does with Southwest. Very flight is planned to be able to land in less than the full runway available, for safety margins. No big deal, really, you just can't float down the runway thing to get a really smooth landing. Yes, the incident was during a heavy snow storm. I think SWA did not require the use of the use of the auto brakes, but I'm not real sure abut that. I believe the snow caused them to lose braking effectiveness. Since then, we now have much better reporting criteria for the surface friction of the runway.
Even though I don't go in there now, I was based at MDW during my private charter years. Yes, taking off toward the north, we turn to avoid the airspace surrounding O'Hare. If you fly into MDW, aircraft are slowed way up prior to final approach. The slower you are flying, your bank angles will be higher due to lower groundspeed. Again, no big deal, and certainly not excessive bank angles by any means. All safe, but can be a bit disconcerting to some.
I never have seen it personally, but I landed in St. Thomas on a C124 and we scared the hell of the landing party as they thought we may not be able to stop.
Aggy is to energetic, enthusiastic, over the top goofiness what Alaska is to state land mass. The new Aggy is like the next Elvis or next Johnny Cash. In other words Nuh uh.