Planes, planes, automobiles ... and the battle of Riga airport ...

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TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
One more thing I forgot.
You can't chicken out. There's no go-around. There's nowhere to turn, and there's a mountain in front of you.
Once you start the descent, you are going to land. One way or another...
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
I think I would prefer to go through at any of these airports (apparently the scariest in the world) than ones that are tedious and / or corrupt and / or staffed by self-important jobsworths. My favourite airport is Vantaa in Helsinki, beautifully designed and just somehow calming.
Unless your arrival from London is at one end and your domestic flight is at the other - and there's a 40 minute connection. It must have been a 20-minute route march from gate to gate, and there was the added bonus of hoping that our suitcases carrying the thermal underwear would make it up to wintry Lapland with us...
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
May I commend Courchevel airport to you?
A very short runway, on a slope, on a mountain.
What could possibly go wrong?
To be pedantic, as a passenger you can never bail out. I found Funchal (on FM's list) reasonably tolerable, even as a nervous flyer, and most of the rest look OK. My worst approach and take-off was at Naples on the flightpath straight over the mountains - your angle feels much steeper than usual, and there's something wrong about being close to the ground with 10 minutes to go.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Ah! Courchevel! That airport is a short schuss away from some of the swankiest chalets in the French Alps, not to mention the clinic where Gti Junior was taken with his back injury three weeks ago.

The amazing thing about that picture in the Wiki page linked is that there are black tyre landing marks at the UPHILL end of the slope, meaning aircraft must have swooped down over the pistes and dropped onto the flat bit then managed to brake on the steep downslope and get back up again! Surely not?
 

TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
I think they're joins in the tarmac, if you zoom right in and take a look.
I hope they are, anyhow. I've skied just above there, and you'd never bring a plane into land down the hill.
At least, not twice you wouldn't. It's not so much a glideslope as a plummet.
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
The worst major airport I have ever landed at was Congonhas in Sao Paolo. This was the scene of one of the worst ever air disasters a few years before. The big problem is that the runways are short and greasy (something to do with the interaction between the humidity and the materials) and they've never really solved this problem. The airport is completely surrounded by favelas (slums) so there's no real get out if things go wrong. Anyway, when we landed the plane skidded seriously and sort of turned a bit sideways. This is not what you want.

Congonhas-Airport.jpg
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I've had the pleasure of Congonhas and it's amazing that they don't have more incidents. The terminal itself is an overwhelming mellee of humanity and quite scary, I wouldn't want to be there alone!
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
I've had the pleasure of Congonhas and it's amazing that they don't have more incidents. The terminal itself is an overwhelming mellee of humanity and quite scary, I wouldn't want to be there alone!

It was certainly an experience. Mind you, much of Sao Paolo is infinitely worse. I wasn't there to spend time in the wealthy parts.
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
It was certainly an experience. Mind you, much of Sao Paolo is infinitely worse. I wasn't there to spend time in the wealthy parts.
I can imagine,.. we didn't hang around as we were based in Campinas. But en-route to the airport our taxi blew a tyre on the motorway close to a large favela. We rapidly bailed out to assist a quick wheel change only to find the spare was knackered, so there we were, suitcases o the hard-shoulder in a mild sweat. The only answer was to keep the car moving away from the favela on its rim. Eventually we found a hotel by the motorway with a shuttle bus for the remainder of the journey.
Brazil is a beautiful and scary place.
I'd love to go back.
 
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