Pred02 From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 52 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 10732 times:
What are some of the difficult approach airports in Europe that are used for commercial, or not just private aircraft?
What comes off the top of my head are LUG, SMV, and maybe even TIV. SMV does not get scheduled traffic, but they do have occasional private B737 came in for landings.
The airport is surrounded by mountains, and it's eusually very windy/rainy or foggy/hazy.
Last time I went there, the approach was down the fjord (opposit approach to the one shown on the picture).
Visibility was probably around 1000m and cloudbase was appx 300ft above runway.
PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10 Reply 4, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 10588 times:
I would imagine Courcheval, France, is right up there:
Pred02 From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 52 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 10553 times:
Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 4): I would imagine Courcheval, France, is right up there:
Beautiful airport and scenery, but I don't think any scheduled service operates to there.
Quoting Dahlgardo (Reply 3): The airport is surrounded by mountains, and it's eusually very windy/rainy or foggy/hazy.
Only Atlantic Airways and Air Iceland fly out there?
PanAm747 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 10501 times:
Quote: Beautiful airport and scenery, but I don't think any scheduled service operates to there.
Dahlgardo From Denmark, joined Sep 2004, 122 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 10433 times:
Quoting Pred02 (Reply 5): Only Atlantic Airways and Air Iceland fly out there?
Atlantic has about 5-7 scheduled flights a day with destinations in Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Scotland.
I dont know about Air Iceland.
Maersk Air used to fly there (even with 737-200s back in the 1970s & 80s) but they stopped some years ago.
The 737-200s had specially upgraded engines because of the short runway. As a suppliment to the dangerous terrain and at times voilent weather, the runway 13/31 is only 4101 x 98 feet (1250 x 30 meters). Not much room for errors.
In 1996 a Gulfstream III (F-330) of the RDAF crashed on a mountainside on approach to Vagar. The plane, which carried the Danish Commander in Chief, was brought down by violent mountain winds and crashed in inverted position .
BuyantUkhaa From Mongolia, joined May 2004, 2779 posts, RR: 3 Reply 8, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 10348 times:
Quoting Pred02 (Thread starter): What are some of the difficult approach airports in Europe that are used for commercial, or not just private aircraft?
The 09 Approach to GIB is tricky due to airspace restrictions from Spain. However with the new "understanding" in place, that may have eased. They are (were) different for civil and military operations as you can see here:
PlymSpotter From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11117 posts, RR: 63 Reply 9, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 10285 times:
Similar to Vagar, Longyearbyen (LYR) in Svalbard, Norway suffers from some amazing weather extremes, which coupled with the months of darkness during the winter make for some very difficult approaches. Still, SAS and Braathens maintain several weekly (possibly daily?) services year round.
LCY - London City is also fairly unusual when you consider the steep glide path and the size of jets which fly in there. PLH - Plymouth was the first UK airport certified with such a steep glide-slope, coupled with a very short runway (just over 1100m), high altitude; stuck right between the moors and the sea, this creates some pretty abysmal weather and very difficult approaches into it.
The Isles of Scilly (ISC) is also another difficult one (as are many of the Scottish Isle Airports), 570m long, stuck out in the Atlantic off the tip of Cornwall it's pretty open to the elements, SkyBus only fly Islanders and DHC6's in.
Pred02 From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 52 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 10018 times:
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 9): LCY - London City is also fairly unusual when you consider the steep glide path and the size of jets which fly in there. PLH - Plymouth was the first UK airport certified with such a steep glide-slope, coupled with a very short runway (just over 1100m), high altitude; stuck right between the moors and the sea, this creates some pretty abysmal weather and very difficult approaches into it.
The Isles of Scilly (ISC) is also another difficult one (as are many of the Scottish Isle Airports), 570m long, stuck out in the Atlantic off the tip of Cornwall it's pretty open to the elements, SkyBus only fly Islanders and DHC6's in.
Given the short runway length and the steep approach, limits the type of aircraft allowed to land at LCY, much like LUG and other airports with steep approaches and runways.
It's funny to see so many airports being mentioned in the Balkans.
I am wondering if any pilot is certified to execute these approaches, I am sure in the case of Faroe Islands that those pilots are well trained to handle the conditions. Much like pilots that fly to very north providences of Canada.
Funchal is a "Captain's Only" approach for most airlines, captains having to have at least one jump seat ride into the airport prior to handling due to windshear, the runway being elevated on concrete pillars and an upward slope at the approach end.
Gibraltar used to be fum coming in over the dockyard on the Gibair Viscount.
TPAnx From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 1021 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 9595 times:
For a larger airport, how about Templehoff??
TPAnx