Craziest Airspace/Airport You Have Flown Into?

ARFlyer

ARFlyer

En-Route
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
3,189
Location
Central AR
Display Name
ARFlyer
So I got the idea from posting in another thread. As the title spells out, what is the craziest Airspace/Airport any of you have flown into?

I can start:

Craziest: Flying into KMEM during a Fedex push. Talk about flying with the big iron! ATC was making calls left and right. You basically had to reply with only the MOST IMPORTANT information. You did not have time to say anything else. Also trying to get wake turbulence separation is about nearly impossible. Taxing is a world of its own.

Oddest: Flying into an air show and being given traffic calls about a flight of Zeros on one side and a F-22 on the other. I also had to tell myself that I was not going to get in trouble by flying into an active TFR. The TFR was for the air show displays to get in and parked.

So it's y'all's turn!! :D
 
I landed at the KSC-SLF in 2005. It's incredibly large. Parked next to the only other aircraft on the field - a NASA T-38 on the ramp in from Houston.
 
landed on a old ww2 airstrip that is still open to public. At the end of the strip is a foster freeze ice cream store. I was with my 12 yr old son on a hot august day so we decided to stop for a cone. ANYWAY...... I had a 20kt headwind, touched down at end of strip and stopped within 6-700 feet. Ice cream store was on the other end of the 10,000 foot runway. Felt like I taxied for an hour:mad2:
 
My home drome (KVUO, Vancouver, WA) is in the only Class D area in the country in which there is no control tower. It lies under a shelf of nearby Portland Int'l's Class C. KVUO traffic is required to initially contact "Pearson Advisory" (a controller in KPDX tower) on the KVUO CTAF, before departure or before enting Class D inbound, for wake turbulence advisories; and thereafter make self-announce traffic calls in the pattern just like any other uncontrolled airport.

VUO_ClassD_zps93581f18.jpg
 
Anchorage International and the Lake Hood Strip are right next to each other. You can land at one and taxi to the other. In fact, they have railroad type arms activated by Anchorage Ground that will come down to block traffic so you can taxi across the road.

Can you log that taxi time as a cross country??
 
I've flown into KPHX twice VFR, and once into KSNA. But the craziest I ever encountered was Copperstate Fly-in without a tower.
 
We'll lets see how about 10 months after getting my flight ticket, doing a Xc from California to Ohio then on to Oshkosh. Great trip for a first year pilot!

Gary


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Pilawt said:
My home drome (KVUO, Vancouver, WA) is in the only Class D area in the country in which there is no control tower. It lies under a shelf of nearby Portland Int'l's Class C. KVUO traffic is required to initially contact "Pearson Advisory" (a controller in KPDX tower) on the KVUO CTAF, before departure or before enting Class D inbound, for wake turbulence advisories; and thereafter make self-announce traffic calls in the pattern just like any other uncontrolled airport.

VUO_ClassD_zps93581f18.jpg
Click to expand...

I flew into KVUO a couple of weeks ago with a guy who's familiar with it. I'm glad he was, because that's not a simple place to get in and out of if you're unfamiliar.
 
I was going to mention Oshkosh, but it's pretty orderly.

The scary one was FDK during the old AOPA open house days. They tried to operate it like its as Airventure, but nobody was paying the least bit of attention to the NOTAM or ATC instructions. I think there was quite a sigh from ATC who was about to send me around when I kept it in tight to 30 and went right off onto the grass after landing (I've spent a lot of time at FDK both on the hard runways and on the grass there).

Of course, while I wasn't flying, arriving during a DFW American Airlines arrival push at the same time thunderstorms were in the vicinity was truly amazing thing to listen to ATC.
 
KFHR on 4th of July was interesting, counted 6 on downwind.

Though I think the triple tree fly in was busier than that.

Been to VUO but there was a makeshift tower then.

Been through Memphis, Atlanta, Seattle, Orlando and Calgary but never landed at the main airports.
 
Teterboro. :yikes: Them guys talk funny.:rofl:
 
Sedona is interesting. You are landing on top of a butte. Winds can be very tricky.

Los Alamos is a one way runway, also interestly on a butte like thing. Sharp drop offs on either side.
 
Jaffrey, NH (AFN) where one end is about 30 feet higher than the other. Gret restaurant and ice cream place right at the end of 34. The other is Eastport, Me (EPM) where if you are not careful, you're flying in Canada. I found Parlin, NH (2B3) a bit strange where you had to backtaxi half the runway from the parking area. Then there is Plum Island, Ma (2B2) where an argument between neighbors had one parking heavy equipment on the runway at about 1,800', knocking off 400' in the process. Now there is a 6' chainlink fence in the way.
 
Pilawt said:
My home drome (KVUO, Vancouver, WA) is in the only Class D area in the country in which there is no control tower.
Click to expand...


That airport is a hazard. I am surprised that that bag Nat'l Park Service lady hasn't shut you down.
 
Tie between PDK (rapid fire machine gun controllers and lots of GA traffic) and MEM, for reasons cited above.
 
Couple of weeks ago I was in the training area and was about to head back to home drome when all of the fighter sorties were coming back from their thing. (In my area 2-way radio comms with approach is required at almost all times.) So two controllers were working half a dozen F-15s/F-18s onto final, at least 2 V-22s to a different runway, an AC-130, and little ole me in the mighty C-150. I had about 10 seconds to get in we were RTBing and didnt hear back from the controller for nearly 2 minutes.
 
Quito Ecuador and Tegucigalpa Honduras come to mind. Also New Delhi has some interesting arc procedures as well as decompression routing should you lose pressurization or an engine just to the Northwest of there.
 
Quito Ecuador and Tegucigalpa Honduras come to mind. Also New Delhi has some interesting arc procedures as well as decompression routing should you lose pressurization or an engine just to the Northwest of there. And of course the old Hong Kong airport too.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Quito Ecuador and Tegucigalpa Honduras come to mind. Also New Delhi has some interesting arc procedures as well as decompression routing should you lose pressurization or an engine just to the Northwest of there.
Click to expand...

Art VanDelay said:
Quito Ecuador and Tegucigalpa Honduras come to mind. Also New Delhi has some interesting arc procedures as well as decompression routing should you lose pressurization or an engine just to the Northwest of there. And of course the old Hong Kong airport too.
Click to expand...

 
Restricted area R2305, while very HOT. It's the Barry Goldwater Air Force Gunnery Range, where the largest fighter base in the Western World trains. Most pilots don't know you can fly right through it, while it's active, with proper clearance. The corridor is between Gila Bend and Ajo, at 500 ft AGL. You get clearance, and are directed, by Snake-Eye, the same guy controlling the jets. On either side you may see jets strafing or dropping bombs. There may also be some artillery practice/testing going on. Once, they asked us to deviated 1/2 mile, to avoid a mass parachute drop. In the winter months, the Ajo country club is a good breakfast stop.
 
for me it would have to be Long beach (KLGB). that place is one big taxi "hotspot"
 
Having flown into and out of a bunch of back-country strips, I can't pick one field over another as the craziest.

I will, however, always regret not taking an opportunity that I was offered to shoot the landing at Kai Tak . . .
 
For me, flying into AirVenture. Still to me the craziest bit of airspace I have flown into…and out of...
 
I have been into KTEB on a Friday afternoon...the place was a zoo...I felt like I was in a hornet's nest...

The other experience I would outline a crazy was going through the Hudson River Corridor with a Class B clearance back in 2007...with about 140 hours in my logbook...

When I landed in Hartford CT, I felt like I had been beat in teh ribs from the pressure...it was intense...given my inexperience...
 
Pilawt said:
My home drome (KVUO, Vancouver, WA) is in the only Class D area in the country in which there is no control tower. It lies under a shelf of nearby Portland Int'l's Class C. KVUO traffic is required to initially contact "Pearson Advisory" (a controller in KPDX tower) on the KVUO CTAF, before departure or before enting Class D inbound, for wake turbulence advisories; and thereafter make self-announce traffic calls in the pattern just like any other uncontrolled airport.
Click to expand...

No, there are at least two more, at Seattle and El Paso, and these two don't even have airports within them.

a. The Class D airspace area listed below consists of airspace extending upward from the surface and designated as an extension to a Class B surface area.

ANM WA D1 Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, WA
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, WA
(lat. 47°26'56"N., long. 122°18'34"W.)
Seattle Boeing Field/King County International Airport, WA
(lat. 47°31'48"N., long. 122°18'07"W.)


That airspace extending upward from the surface to but not including 3,000 feet MSL beginning at lat. 47°22'37"N., long. 122°14'53"W., clockwise along the 5-mile radius of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to lat. 47°29'38"N., long. 122°24'46"W., thence clockwise along the 5-mile radius of Boeing Field/King County International Airport to lat. 47°30'00"N., long. 122°25'00"W., thence east along a line to lat. 47°30'00"N., long. 122°18'00"W., thence southeast along a line to lat. 47°26'00"N., long. 122°14'51"W., thence south along a line to lat. 47°25'49"N., long. 122°14'54"W., thence south along a line to the point of beginning excluding that airspace within the Seattle, WA, Class B airspace area.


b. The Class D airspace areas listed below consist of airspace extending upward from the surface and designated as an extension to a Class C surface area.

ASW TX D2 El Paso, TX
El Paso, Biggs AAF, TX
(lat. 31°50'58"N., long. 106°22'48"W.)
Newman VORTAC
(lat. 31°57'06"N., long. 106°16'21"W.)

That airspace extending upward from the surface to but not including 5,200 feet MSL within a 4.6-mile radius of the Biggs AAF and within 1.3 miles each side of the 222° radial of the Newman VORTAC extending from the 4.6-mile radius to 7.4 miles northeast of the Biggs AAF excluding that airspace west of long. 106°27'02"W., and that airspace in the El Paso International Airport, TX, Class C airspace area.
 

Attachments

  • KSEA.JPG
    KSEA.JPG
    180.9 KB · Views: 6
  • KBIF.JPG
    KBIF.JPG
    225.5 KB · Views: 9
I've flown a parachute into Manhattan a couple of times, at night of course. The airspace that low is empty of air traffic. Landing in the street is a tad busy.
 
Pilawt said:
Any others besides KVUO with an uncontrolled airport and no tower with the Delta ... ?

:)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there are no others like that. But there was another one without any airport at all, briefly.

attachment.php
 
Last edited:
TPA Tampa ,because of the airports and airspace around them,also Mac Dill doesn't want anyone going through their airspace.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top