Dulles airport
 

Never again.I'll pay anything to avoid this place in the future.

Lol. I wish I could
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I always use DCA but I'm a US Airways guy. It's usually running pretty well...

-spence

[QUOTE=spence;1013021]I always use DCA but I'm a US Airways guy. It's usually running pretty well...

-spence[/QUOTE

The river visual is a fabulous approach there. Awesome
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They seem to take a more relaxed route these days then in the past...if you're on the right side the view take off is always great.

-spence

Spence, you should have seen the beauty of that area 60 years ago. My cousin's
dairy farm , where I worked as a kid, was about 1/4 mile from where they
built Dulles.
110 acres of pure beauty, quail, pheasant, wild turkey, killdeer, and farm
ponds full of bass. You couldn't hear a sound except for cows and coon dogs tracking
at night.
Gone now, with 200 houses on it. :( He moved to a Gentlemen's farm in
Loudon County with the proceeds.

[QUOTE=GattaFish;1013048]Pilots hated it. :D

Seems like the airports that passengers like the most, pilots like the least. DCA is hated due to all of the prohibited airspace around greater Washington--that's why that winding river approach was used. They much preferred Dulles.

Same with JFK and LGA (aka "La Garbage" to pilots). Passengers love the convenience of La Guardia, but pilots hate the short runways with limited overrun areas if they have to abort a take-off. JFK has two runways over 15,000', and was a designated emergency landing site for the space shuttle.

Some airports are equally hated by both pilots and passengers---LAX comes to mind.

And if you think that Dulles and JFK are logistical nightmares for passengers transferring between airlines, try Charles DeGaulle in Paris on for size.

Yes, the noise abatement around DCA I believe is pretty bad. Inbound there was also that last turn over the river which was impossibly low. I've got to think even an experienced pilot would be breathing heavily...

I hate LGA. They used to overbook the airport so badly it was slow on a good day, then a bad wind takes them down to a single short runway and it grinds to a halt. There was a report I read several years back that attributed a significant of air delays NATION WIDE to LGA for this reason.

-spence

Nah.....that airport overall just plain sucks.

But in the end the reason for the trip was worth it.

Noise abatement a not an issue like they were in the days of the B-727.

As for LGA. I am in and out I that airport all the time. The Expressway visual is another fun approach. 7,000 ft is plenty. Just can't get fancy.

Those visual approaches are where you get to use your stick and rudder skills.

Hate to say it but none of the approaches you speak of are anything like flying into Tegucigalpa Honduras.

The freight flying I did was also fun. Runways so short if they were wet you can't land there. Let alone snow. The company I worked for had a waiver just after Katrina to fly into KMSY carrying water and tankering fuel landing the short runway with NO approach, no airport or runway lights at night and no operating control tower. Now that was seat of your pants flying.
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Oh, I'm sure a lot of third world strips are much worse. I remember a show about worst airport routes on the Travel Channel or something that had big jets landing on mountain island strips...pretty crazy.

-spence

Watched a video of it. I assume if you didn't scrape the ground your glide path would be all farked?

-spence

Nope. Flew the B-757 in there. No scrapage. Lol
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I didn't notice a groove on the hill on the video but it looks like a low altitude descent with a tight turn, especially for a big jet.
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