The two things that make me nervous are take-off and landing. Of those two, the take-off is the worst part for me. I'm fine going down the runway but as soon as I feel the plane leave the ground I tend to grip my arm rest a little tighter.
I'll try to avoid looking out the window as the plane ascends or banks left or right probably because in my mind if I can see the ground and all I can think about is falling to the earth below. Now once we're at a cruising altitude of 30-plus-thousand feet, I'll stare out the window at the ground, the clouds and other passing aircraft.
Landing isn't too bad I guess but on my first ever flight years ago we had some pretty bad turbulence as we descended through a thunderstorm and that freaked me out a bit. Just ask the lady in the seat ahead of mine after I grabbed for the seat on one particular drop and grabbed her hair instead.
I'm not a veteran flier by any stretch of the imagination but I've done it at least a dozen or more times. I've even flown in a Canadian Air Force C-130 Hercules a couple of times. Once I rode in the cockpit the whole time as I knew the pilot. That was pretty cool and oddly enough, the take-off or landing didn't really bother me in the least.
I have been fortunate to land at airports which aren't too scary either. The St. Petersburg / Clearwater International Airport in Florida was a little freaky the first time as you come in over Old Tampa Bay and not until just before you land do you see the ground. Up until then I thought I was going to land in the water and I had checked my bathing suit.
The Tampa International Airport is similar but not quite as bad. You circle over the water to line up for the approach to the runway but you see the land a bit sooner.
There are some airports that I would probably want to avoid. Among them would be the Courchevel Airport located in the French Alps. It has a very short runway of only 525 m and you have to land going up-hill and take-off going down. Only small private aircraft and helicopters are allowed to land there and the pilots need plenty of skill.The other location I have in mind is one you want to avoid landing at and you also want to avoid laying on the beach near it. Princess Juliana International Airport is located on the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean.
The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 metres, which as you might guess, just barely leaves enough room for the big boys to land. The planes approach the island flying just above the water and moments before landing they go right over the Maho Beach.
You may have seen pictures of the big jets just missing the tourists at the beach and think they were manipulated in some way with Photoshop but that just isn't the case.
Below is a video of a jet landing at the airport. After watching it you might be surprised to learn that there have been no major aviation incidents at the airport. I think I can avoid landing there any time in the near future.
Hey Mark,
ReplyDeleteI've had my share of harrowing landings in my day as well. I was flying in a Tutor and we did a touch and go and the pilot remarked that something strange happened as we took off again. I didn't feel anything but he was sure something wasn't right. So we had the control tower look at our landing gear as we flew bye as slow as we could. The control tower had the fire trucks and ambulance called out as we circle the air drome and the pilot and I went over the emergency routines as well as the possibility of having to eject. Then we came in for the landing. The pilot told me the nose wheel had a problem so as we landed he kept the nose off the tarmac as long as he could and then when the nose hit the pavement, it shuttered like crazy and we could feel the nose wheel disintegrating as we continued down the runway. The pilot had a very hard time controlling the jet and we ended up stopping inches from the left side of the runway. We both quickly got out of the jet and waited as the ambulance and fire truck arrived, which was all of ten seconds. I can't tell you how much my blood pressure was up then but I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. What an experience, but not one I'd like to repeat.
John