'Tis amazing to me how airports attract videographers. On an earlier excursion into YouTube I saw a number of shots of planes landing on the (constrained) runway in Sint Maarteen. [A Dutch/French island in the Caribbean.] Fortunately this was after I had flown in and out of that airport. There is a 30-40 foot stretch of sandy beach just beyond the fence that is just beyond the end of the runway, so it is quite easy to stand directly beneath the very final approach.
Many decades ago, as a teen I lived in La Paz Bolivia. The airport was above the city, on the edge of the Altiplano. It was not paved. It was not level. It was at 13,000+ altitude. Fortunately the wind was seldom a factor as the preferred takeoff was to start at the higher end of the runway, accelerate downhill. (Incoming flights landed uphill.) My sense is that if you couldn't get airborne by the end of the runway, you'd drop off the edge of the plateau and have a chance of gaining sufficient airspeed to be able to recover as you dove. I don't think that ever actually happened. All three Bolivian airforce planes used that airport, and during one of the revolutions I watched them from our porch, taking off, strafing a part of the city, then returning to the airport. Ah, those were the days. stan On Feb 7, 2010, at 11:14 PM, Anthony Farr wrote: > This Russian pilot must have wished he had a taxiway entrance at the > runway's end for a little extra takeoff run: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZGXwbPfwQs > > He backtracked all the way down the runway, and still almost ran out of > tarmac. > > regards, Anthony > > "Of what use is lens and light > to those who lack in mind and sight" > (Anon) > > > > On 8 February 2010 08:59, mike wilson <[email protected]> wrote: >> Stan Halpin wrote: >> >>> >>> I am still not convinced that the pilot didn't take off from the taxiway >>> to avoid wasting time by going all the way out to the runway. >> >> I've had a pilot (Aeroflot....) start his takeoff accelleration during the >> turn onto the runway. Until you've felt the tyres of an airliner scrubbing >> sideways, you haven't lived. >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
