Survey: World's Most Extreme Airports

[Sasa 921]

Hi Guys!

In the time after we released Lukla for FS9 and FSX some people told me about similar, challenging, extreme airports on other parts of the world.

Which are the most chellenging and extreme airports YOU know and maybe like to see in FS?

Tell us here, add some links to photos and/or videos and we will see. Maybe we can enhance our series of challenging airports after Lukla and Helgoland by some other ones sooner or later.

Bests,

Sascha

[Iron.Eagle 0]

First thing which comes to my mind: SABA or Yrausquin Intl.

just found that one too. It's on Malta.

Or Courchevel (LFLJ) in France or Peyresourde (LFIP). or Méribel (in the middle of a Golf-court, only 4.6km West-North-West of Courchevel)

[Iron.Eagle 0]

sorry, Sascha. I didn't see PPanPans post in the other thread. I just knew these airports before...

[Marc W. 0]

Male International Aiport ... awesome ... an artificial island which practically only consists of the airport / the runway itself ... :shock: ... built on an atoll ...

Landing there is quite the experience, with a jet! Only for skillful pilots, that is!

[strega13 0]

personaly , i think that these quirky little airfields like helgoland and lukla are a whole lot more interesting than yet another version of one of the major airliner's airport .

- saba is a good choice ( but has already been very nicely done )

- courchevel and alpe d'huez ( http://mady.n.free.fr/chris/france/alpedhuez/ ) as well as many of the small airfields in the alps would be awesome

- barra airport in scotland ( as far as i know of , the only airport in the world which has scheduled flights where the only available runway is on the sandy beaches : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=STqmbc8k9rU )

- Vestmannaeyjar in iceland could also be a good candidate i think ( http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0318...&photo_nr=3 ) , and i am sure many of the airports located in mountainous or remote areas of alaska/canada could go perfectly with aerosoft's DH beaver .

there is also a cute little airport in nepal that is located in an area that looks like a crater in the middle of nowhere , can't remember it's name or designation , but if anyone does know which one i mean ...

[Daniel Roethlisberger 0]

I have a few suggestions:

- Vagar on Faroe Islands: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0058204&size=L

- Nuuk / Greenland: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0058203&size=L

- Isafjurdur / Iceland: http://i.pbase.com/g3/34/632934/2/55826798...dursAirport.jpg

- Of course, St. Barthelemy: http://z.about.com/d/cruises/1/0/V/1/2/st_barths039.jpg (not done for FSX)

- Ambrì, Switzerland: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1079074&size=L / http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0877729&size=L

--> If you do this one, please don't forget to include the hockey arena "La Valascia"

- Paro, Bhutan: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0540452&size=L

- Not so spectacular but quite difficult to approach: Ronaldsway, Isle of Man: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0623970&size=L

Maybe I'll add some more later.

Regards

Daniel

[ManuelL 71]

Courchevel is already available for FSX (from Neuroflight)

Some general pictures:

http://get-humor.com/dangerous_airports/

Saba Island (with approach video)

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/17/165...a+Island%2C+SAB

I like this one (Barra, Scotland)

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/18/154...Scotland%2C+BRR

Narsarsuaq, Greenland

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/11/27/16...reenland%2C+UAK

[hofritz 0]

I like this one (Barra, Scotland)

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/18/154...Scotland%2C+BRR

EGPR (Barra) is already available from Visualflight as part of Scotflight for FSX: Vol 1 - Highlands & Islands.

[palm 0]

Courchevel is done now from another company.

[Albrecht 9]

What about Norway?

ENSD Anda

ENNK Framnes

ENHV Valan

Or some nice Mil Airports in Switzerland:

LSMA Alpnach

LSMM Meiringen

LSMF Mollis

(would be hard, to get a permission to photograph... but a real challenge to land)

Albrecht

[pbearsailor 9]

Another tough one we used was Fagalii in Western Samoa, short and on a hill, lots of trees and turbulence on approach. Article at bottom of the page at this link: http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2004/10/01/air--sea

cheers,

steve

[Daniel Roethlisberger 0]

Or some nice Mil Airports in Switzerland:

LSMA Alpnach

LSMM Meiringen

LSMF Mollis

(would be hard, to get a permission to photograph... but a real challenge to land)

Albrecht

Perosnally, I don't see the problem of landing in Meiringen. The Hornets decline over Interlaken and come from the seaside to land on Rwy10. No problem.

[altstiff 28]

Alta Norway (ENAT) at 6000ft long, it's in a Fjord and always has nasty cross winds.

Kelowna BC Canada (CYLW), is also in a vally. Most use RNAV to get in and out safe.

Screen shot is from my WAR Norwegian Airlines DVD showing a landing there, this is an awesome DVD to witness this landing alone.....

[Sasa 921]

First thing which comes to my mind: SABA or Yrausquin Intl.

just found that one too. It's on Malta.

Thanks, Chris. But the link to the airport in Malta does not refer to the right URL.

Bests,

Sascha

[Iron.Eagle 0]

Sorry for the double link^^'

the airport is Gozo (LMMG) at Malta. I've edited the link...

it's only 174m long and 22m wide...

what the heck is supposed to land there?

[Sasa 921]

what the heck is supposed to land there?

Well, it's a helipad. Nothing more and nothing less. :wink:

Btw: It was/is already included in our Malta scenery.

Bests,

Sascha

[wehyam 0]

On a similar theme... Its an obsession with me..

Wouldn't it be nice if..

Some scenery genius took an area of the FSX planet, say British Columbia .. Alaska.. a bit like Patch and Hogelmann's Vancouver+ (and the earlier 2004 stuff) or even maybe a completely 'artificial world' like hawaii or helgoland!!!! nuzeeeeeland maybe

and built on it a whole set of challenging .... not necessarily real... but realistic farm/bush airstrips.. on beaches, in lakes etc.. gravel, sand spits.. for the 'aspiring' bush pilots.. no pavements or runway lights.. no hangars.. strictly tie down.. just huts and tents etc and hazards... rough and short and tight corners.. can you land it? But more importantly can you get out of it.. skis and floats etc. ... would people buy it?

... and maybe aerosoft would make a FSX Super Cub? :wink:

regards

[Marc W. 0]

On a similar theme... Its an obsession with me..

Wouldn't it be nice if..

Interesting!!!

btw : "Hogelmann" ...

[wehyam 0]

Thank you Algernon.....

Jon Patch and Hogel Sandmann..

Please don't sue me ...

I'm always doing that... :? Part of my brain is broken :roll:

[Iron.Eagle 0]

@ Algernon:

not "Interesting!!!" but:

VERY INTERESTING :!: :!: :!: 8)

[wehyam 0]

... I dont know whether you guys are taking the er.. mick :?

BUT ... Here's something I prepared earlier... Maybe it already exists..

BUT I've spent a hour 'flying' down the Fraser River from Lillooet playing at 'outlandings' in the 'vancouver+' scenery..

Imagine...

Suppose there were airstrips of varying difficulty. But all were rough. The only pavement you see is at the airport where the maintenance facility is sited; or the road you ‘out landed’ on. You get problems: grass, gravel, sandbars river/lakes, altitude, winds. Every one is different but characterised by one or more problems: short, narrow, sloping, rough, doglegs, beasts (moose, bears, gophers?), boulders, rocks, driftwood etc. Various difficult approaches: trees, mountains, slopes, cliffs! Problematical take offs . Can the weather even be set for shear and rotor?

In short, a terrain for aspiring bush pilots. (beta tested by FE Potts); with different problems for different seasons. Soft mud to ice to snow to mud whatever; strips you can only land one way and you take off the other, strips you can only use in the winter or summer or the gentlest winds.

The strips could be graded: easy to expert. You get a tick for landings you walk away from. You get two ticks if you don’t need to walk but can take off from it again.

You fly into the lake without checking its clear and you hit a bear or some drift wood and you die horribly and alone. You get all the excitement but you don’t have to de-ice the plane with a rope in -20:20... Maybe some of the challenge would be to fly a route through them.. maybe you could just slew to the overhead... maybe…

As one who ‘knows’ nothing about it, the interesting challenges this would pose to the scenery designer would be to get ‘realistic’ low altitude ground terrain with subtle lumps, bumps, slopes gravel, rocks and all. For the plane makers the development of more realistic ground handling of the aircraft. For the aspiring ‘bush pilot’, the challenge would be in appraising the landing site against one’s competences and the flying characteristics of the plane under different weights and balances etc. I don’t know whether the ‘weather man’ need get involved at least in the beginning.

So instead of landing into a nicely illuminated paved runway with hangars and pretty cabins pristine chalets.. ... one lands into a rough soft muddy field with a rusting ‘trailer’ and shed in one corner! And a dead moose hanging in a tree?

What I’m ‘looking for’ are at best are farm-strips/hunter's shacks and tents which are really nothing more than a locally detailed ‘flattened a bit’ of irregular shaped piece of terrain, rather than a 500 by 40 yard rectangular smooth strips of ashphalt and a taxiway... At their worst the strips would be sandbars or ‘gravel beaches’ along a lake side with a cliff at one end and forest at the other and a fallen tree half way along it; oh and which also narrows alarmingly just after the ‘numbers’ (these would be the bones of a long dead moose and a rusting helicopter engine and rotor which failed to make it.

This isnt FSCargo.. Its not Freight dogs..

It's the aspiring bush pilot's set of 'Lukla' airstrips .. hours and hours of challenging flying etc.. can you get in? can you get out? And with how much fuel..

It's for those 'pilots' who dont care how many rivets are in the beaver elevator trim tab.. but want to haul it in on the wrong end of the power curve so it stops before it gets to the end where the gravel stops and the rapids start... etc ...

Like I say its a fantasy, an obsession.. its why I 'fly' sims... but none quite cut it yet...

[Albrecht 9]

Re: realistic farm/bush airstrips

I woul like it!!!

And it would be nice to see on this "hours and hours of challenging flying..." sometimes a bear, elk, cariboo or seal ...

Albrecht

[Iron.Eagle 0]

think i know now what wehyam means...

he has got in mind a sort of new FSX Mission Pack, just that the "missions" are the airstrips...

i thought were were looking for airports for single release just as Lukla :?: ... then SABA would be ONE.

it's an interesting idea nevertheless. i don't like these "island-airports" 'cause it's just as any other: HIT THE RUNWAY. - which isn't that difficult because it's just as big as any other. it would be only an optical highlight and nothing challenging

[wehyam 0]

Iron-Eagle.. GruB?

You're right.. It's the airstrips that provide the difficulty and become the missions.. the challenge to the scenery designer is that he has to make it so that if you're 4 knots too fast you bend it .. if your soft field landing technique is not good enough you're on your back..etc.. If you dont read the slope right you come in too low/high and it hurts... and course that you can't dial up for the QFE etc.. landings you just cant make unless you can do a full flaps 60 degree banked turn rock steady at 30ft at 3 knots over Vserious... ..whatever..

I can almost taste it...

[PPanPan 0]

Wehyam - I love what you suggest but reckon we'll have to wait for FSXI or even FSXII for sim reality to match your (and my) expectations. In the meantime, there are some great books you can read detailing the adventures of the early pioneers of Alaskan bush flying - one pilot was Jack Jefford (can't recall the book title) and there's another book called 'The Flying North'. The things they did back in those days were incredible and are just what you are looking for in a sim.