Best airport and worst airport?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I am bored so decided to start another thread.

What was the worst airport you have been to, and what was the best?

I would say Luanda in Angola for worst and Santos Dumont in Rio for the best.

[Panama Jack]

Frankfurt (EDDF) and London Heathrow (EGLL) score high with me for ATC efficiency. I particularly light the way they control ground traffic at Heathrow-- so simple. A number of US Airports are also very good (haven't operated into any of them recently). Bangkok Suvarnabhumi female controllers have the most beautiful voices. Melt in my seat before I even get to the gate and make me think "I'm home!" (even though I don't live in BKK).

On the opposite end of the scale, I dislike places like Khartoum (Sudan), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Mumbai (India). Damascus (Syria) seems to always be Panic-Central with poorly designed approaches and screaming controllers. WTF, over? IATA has issues with this airport also. Kathmandu (Nepal), Sanaa (Yemen) and Shiraz (Iran) are the three more challenging airports in our route network. Get more than two of these in a month and you know you've pissed someone off at Scheduling.

[200hr Wonder]

Anything in up north with the name Fort or Lake in it. And then some. Hint see them big piles of sand? Why not PUT IT ON THE RUNWAY AND PACK IT so that it is not 1/2an inch of loose gravel to suck into the damn props!

[nimbostratus]

Worst I ever landed at would have to be Zouerate, Mauritania. Gravel runway in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Control tower windows were so dirty it was impossible to see through them (I went up and checked). The "Controller" sat up in the tower with his handheld battery powered radio. (No electricity in the control tower either). F-28's came in there every day.
Because the runway didn't have lights and the gravel runway looked identical to the surrounding desert there was a line of mining truck tires that acted as lead in "lights", when you got to the end of the tires you touched down, that is, assuming there wasn't a herd of camels crossing the runway or a dozen cars on the runway, taking the usual shortcut into town. It didn't help much that visibility was often a couple of miles or less in blowing sand...

Best airport, I'd say Keflavik (BIKF). Something very nice about having an airport as large and efficient as that in the middle of the North Atlantic. It's such a comfort to have that one available. And the guys at South Air are so dependable for a quick turn.

Nimbo.

[flying4dollars]

This really should be more specific. What type of airport? La Ronge vs Schiphol, hrmm.

In either case..

Fav: Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt Main
Worst: Tunis Carthage and Tripoli Airport

[Brantford Beech Boy]

Worst = YYZ

Best = Anywhere that is not YYZ

BBB

[Expat]

As a pilot, I would say, any uncontrolled canadian airport is best. You can even land on the taxiway if the cross wind component is too high.
As a passenger, Charles de Gaules was good, except the 25 minute taxi run, following a six hour non smoking flight...
Worst for custom control was, and still is Tashkent, Uz, coming from Moscow at 0400 in the morning. 200 passengers lining up in front of four passport control agents. No matter what you do, as a foreigner, you end up the last. They have a way to move around you, so that the whole family passes you.
I learned to just sit and have a smoke before lining up.
Until one day, an airliner from Istambul dumped another 200 passengers, that all ended in front of me!
These soviet airports have a habit of dumping passengers in the middle of the night, when all aiport staff is sleeping in their offices.
Noise abatement has a good side!!!
Moscow is another funny airport that has the plane circling at 1000 AGL in bumpy weather at low speed.
But you can see the dachas very well.
Kabul is not bad, but kids tend to cry a lot, because the descend is steep!

[swordfish]

You haven't really LIVED until you land at Keglsugl, Papua New Guinea: elevation, 8150; runway is about 2250' long, and a7% slope.

Or how about Teptep: this is only 6500' ASL, 2100' long, but it sports a 10% (average) slope - actually about 15% at the NW end. After landing at about 150 kt ground-speed in an Islander with the stall-warning urging you to abandon this madness, you have to add power (lots) to get to the top. Is this "worst" enough?

Also, typically all these high-altitude strips in PNG develop anabatic breezes as the morning develops, and you have to land with a tailwind...although you get the benefit of a headwind for the takeoff!

[StudentPilot]

Best would be an uncontrolled grass airfield somewhere. I prefer ones without too many people around, although when you need help nothings beats having a handful of other pilots or the entire village on hand.

Worst would be a parking lot where you need to go through security (aka international airport).

After landing at about 150 kt ground-speed in an Islander with the stall-warning urging you to abandon this madness, you have to add power (lots) to get to the top.

How much wind did you have to be going 150 knots with the stall warning going off? I've never flown an Islander, but wouldn't that be 80-90 knots of wind? Is landing with such a high ground speed normal in PNG, or were there extenuating circumstances?

[swordfish]

The "150 kt ground speed" was a tongue-in-cheek estimate. I don't know what the g/s actually was...we didn't have GPS in those days. All I remember is that you appear to be screaming in to land, in relation to what it looks like at sea level. But the stall warning is ALWAYS squawking at you. Also, these places rarely (used to) have windsocks; they were simply strips carved out of the jungle on the side of a hill.

It's not only the tailwind component (btw - normally you tried to get there before 9 or 10 in the morning to alleviate this problem), it is the heat, high density-altitude, and the weight you were carrying. Not to mention the underpowered aircraft we flew. Plus the slope of the runway makes it tricky to visually approximate what a 3° final approach slope looks like - a common error for inexperienced pilots (me) was to come in too low. Plus you rarely get to make a final more than a mile or 2 long; normally it's a base leg down the valley, and turn onto final about a mile.

The high ground speeds are "normal" whenever you're landing at high density altitudes. Any time above 5,000' at 20° you're looking at relatively high g/s.

There are lots of places like this in PNG; I only went to a few. Keglsugl and Teptep were only 2 of the more memorable ones. There are actually about 500 airstrips in PNG, of which about ⅓ are higher than 5,000' ASL.

[Just another canuck]

You haven't really LIVED until you land at Keglsugl, Papua New Guinea: elevation, 8150; runway is about 2250' long, and a7% slope.

Or how about Teptep: this is only 6500' ASL, 2100' long, but it sports a 10% (average) slope - actually about 15% at the NW end. After landing at about 150 kt ground-speed in an Islander with the stall-warning urging you to abandon this madness, you have to add power (lots) to get to the top. Is this "worst" enough?

Also, typically all these high-altitude strips in PNG develop anabatic breezes as the morning develops, and you have to land with a tailwind...although you get the benefit of a headwind for the takeoff!

This I can relate to...
Irian Jaya strips...
Soba - 2000 feet at 6500'. 14 % upslope. Cool thing about this one was on takeoff, it was like a ski jump as you went off the end.

Ninia - only 1500 feet at 5500'. 13 % upslope for the first 1200 feet, then goes to a staggering 19 %.

Ilaga - less than 2000 foot runway at almost 8000' altitude. Approaching this runway had to be done at no more than 75 knots in the Caravan (fully loaded at this altitude, it felt like you about to fall out of the sky) and you better hit the threshold or you'll end up off the end of the plateau like the Indonesian Twotter that still remains there.



Best airport... Jakarta International... the only terminal I've ever been in where you can get a rub and tug.

[swordfish]

Yes, Irian Jaya is even less developed than PNG, and it doesn't surprise me that there would be many awful places to get into and out of there.

You must have had the stall warning going full time on takeoff, then you pray for a drop off into the valley so you can tip down & accelerate!

It makes me smile to see how terrified these junior copilots I fly with get when the stall warning starts to sound when we land a King Air in a short strip. I used to live by it, and depend on the margin between the warning and the actual stall....

[skidoo]

Worst :LAGOS by a factor of 100 then Luanda, Kinshasa & Lubumbashi

Best: Zurich, Frankfort, Nice & Hong Kong

[Kzanol]

hands down worst airport... pikangikum (CYPM). If you have to go there its almost always not a good reason. Gas sniffers, bootleggers, pop and chip hauls and dead body runs... which are always at night for some reason and creep you right out!

[swordfish]

hands down worst airport... pikangikum (CYPM). If you have to go there its almost always not a good reason. Gas sniffers, bootleggers, pop and chip hauls and dead body runs... which are always at night for some reason and creep you right out!

Regrettably sounds like most other communities North of 60. And yes, I agree - the social ills of these communities will make you wonder at times.

[Clearwater]

.

[Just another canuck]

YPM sounds like a real handfull.

I can't imagine trying to squeek an airplane onto a 3500x100 strip @ 1100 ASL maintained by the Ontario Government.

To make matters worse the only guidance at your disposal in IMC is a GPS approach !!

(51 N)

"real handful", "squeak an airplane", "only a GPS approach" ... these are all jokes, right?

[raven54]

Me thinks yes.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

"real handful", "squeak an airplane", "only a GPS approach" ... these are all jokes, right?

No probably not for some , because people can only relate to their own experience and what seems to be difficult for some is quite simple for others.

It all depends on what you have been exposed to.

[HavaJava]

My favourite is Saba...beautiful scenery, just enough of a challenge to keep you awake (1300 feet long with cliffs to the ocean at either end) and awesome service (there are probably 20 airport employees for an average of 6 Twin Otter flights a day).

[Expat]

My favourite is Saba...beautiful scenery, just enough of a challenge to keep you awake (1300 feet long with cliffs to the ocean at either end) and awesome service (there are probably 20 airport employees for an average of 6 Twin Otter flights a day).

Photoshop???

[cyxe]

Photoshop???

Nope its real. I've been there (got there by boat however).

Here's a vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVdaFv6kbkw

[HavaJava]

Nope...for real

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juancho_E. ... in_Airport

[Tibor]

Worst as a passenger is either Heathrow or . de Gaulle in Paris

[swordfish]

Photoshop???

Nope its real. I've been there (got there by boat however).

Here's a vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVdaFv6kbkw

This place is a no-brainer. Interesting and scenic, but hardly the "worst" airport.

It's paved, with markings, got good approaches and overshoots, and you go there in a T-O which approaches at 70 without the stall squawking at you, land on a sixpence, . it in reverse, and you're stopped in a few hundred feet. If some of our guys who use eskers all summer long saw this, they would laugh you out the door. Fortunately for you, they don't read this site very much.

Now in a crosswind blowing like a bitch and a mile in rain...that might keep you on your toes, but that's hardly an "airport" thing.