Shortest runway in the world

St Barts may be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, but it is a little over commercialised now. Stillfun to watch the planes come in over the hill and land on a runway no longer than a rugby field

Landing in Sao Paulo is also quite an experience. You only see buildings and concrete as far as the eye can see....nothing else. NO green, then there is the runway surrounded by....you guessed it...Buildings!!!!

I dont travel as much as you guys but would like to contribute

The inside track at the bit T when JJ the Jet Plane comes back to land.

I hate flying,which is a drawback...

The airport at Genoa is on reclaimed land right along from the main harbour. The first time I landed there I thought the pilot was Kamakaze dive bombing a ship.

Heyy, great memories Magic. Landed there once too.

It was quite an experience as I was still pretty new to travelling and I thought the pilot was NUTS!!!

Great thread this.

If anybody else remembers any crazy airports you want to share with us!!!!

What made it worse Tommy is that the old Genoa airport was up in the hills somewhere and I had no idea that it had been replaced. So the closer we got to the water the more I was thinking WTF????

Magic,

Luckily I had never flown there before so I was just hoping the airport was right next to the ocean. On another occasion when I felw OUT of Genoa and got an opportunity to actually see the airport and how small it was I was quite horrified!!!

Good experiences all!!!

I've flown in and out of Zurich and didn't notice anything untoward. Landing in PE when the wind is blowing a gale can be a tad unnerving, though.

On an allied note the cr@ppiest airline I ever flew with was Pan Am. No wonder they went out. The flight attendants were ruder than marauding buffalos and the overhead luggage bins rattled so badly on landing that I thought the whole lot would come crashing down. The sandwich which passed for lunch was almost tossed at me like it had rabies. But they had a monopoly on that Frankfurt-Berlin route in the days when Germany was divided and could do as they liked.

Funny thing about wind. My wife and I came back from Portland, Oregon at the end of last year and flying into Newark New Jersey we had to deal with 100 kilometer an hour winds landing.

The first attempt was no good as the pilot was right over the runway and had to abort.....not a great feeling when you think the wheels are on the ground and then you hear the engines open up and you are away again....VERY unnerving.
By this time my wife has turned rom goldney brown to green.
Our second attempt was not much better as the captain again had to abort. This time the excuse was that there was another inbound aircraft landing on a different runway and we had to circle AGAIN.....Being pretty close to the Hudson river I though we may as well try there.....Not having any success with the runway!!!

Third time we are on approach and the aircraft just will not stay still. Its like we are being buffeted by heavy turbulence 10 meters above the ground!!!!
I was clenching more than my hands around the first class seat, when I remembered a few years back a japanese airliner whose wing scraped the tarmack on landing because of heavy winds.......and I s$%t myself even more.
We finally touched down wheel by wheel. First the left ones, then the front, then the right ones......STUPID scary!!

Next time before I fly I'm going to write to the Big Man above and ask him nicely to have the place where I'm flying to completely devoid of wind....In fact if we can fly in vacuum I would really appreciate it......Hoover if possible

Worse turbulence I have experienced was flying over the Tibetan Plains. It was very nerve racking and also coming into Tokyo the plane dropped and people who did not have their seat belts on were hitting their heads on the ceiling and people were screaming . A number of ambulances were waiting on the ground when the plane landed.

I've been lucky with turbulence though I once poured half a cup of hot coffee over my, er, lap when we hit rough air over the Alps at almost the precise moment I picked the cup up. I had to be wearing thin summer trousers, of course. Did as much to protect my private bits as a single ply tissue...