More Difficult Airports to Fly Into

[Northwest 102]

Where are some of the more difficult airports you've flown into and out of and with what kind of aircraft?

For example I had a heck of a time flying into and out of Aspen KASE with a King Air C90.  Was very tough getting out of the airport.

Does anybody know of some in Europe or anywhere else around the world that are tough to get into and out of?  Present something of a challenge?  Oh and what aircraft you've used to get in and out.

Looking for some new challenges.

Thanks

MIKE

[Tai-2]

Osaka Int in Japan with Real Weather in a 747. Not hard all the time, only certain seassons with real weather. Which kind of says why

[FuturePilot]

I like Hana because it has tall trees at the ends of the runway, it's easy with a small Cessna, but I like to try it with bigger planes.

[Ang2dogs]

Try KGWS, Glenwood Springs, Co. RWY 32 preferred for landing, RWY 14 for take offs.  tough in the day time almost impossible at night, and forget in low vis situations. The runway length is 5916', and alittle bit wider than my beech 58. Have fun!

[grizzard]

Try LFLJ in a King Air. However .....  you should load up some better scenery.  Or .... KSEZ ... (about 20 miles from Flagstaff) on a plateau.  For a real challenge fly into Lukla in Nepal ....  VNLK I think ...

[B_7772]

http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaB ... 1262681937, look at Daube's post.

[SeanTK]

A few challenging favorites (note: I mainly use FS2004, although FSX runs fine at high settings on my PC. I just have more addons for my preferred flying style in FS2004 still, so I don't know how some of the fields I will mention are presented in FSX.)

Queenstown, New Zealand (NZQN)
-No ILS (instead has non-precision types), and you need to be aware of your surroundings on approach in the fjords of the South Island of New Zealand!

Juneau, Alaska, United States (PAJN)
-Tall nearby mountains, cruddy weather, and an offset localizer make this airport interesting to fly into, especially during the winter season.

Trondheim (Vaernes), Norway (ENVA)
-On good days it's a very tame airport, but the weather possibilities here, combined with the mountainous terrain not far away can make things interesting. (Note: This can probably be applied to most other Norwegian airports too!)

Yrausquin Airport (TNCS), Netherland Antilles.
-Known to most as the "Saba Airport" it is pretty much the equivalent of landing on a stationary aircraft carrier. Located in the Netherland Antilles, I'll let the picture explain for itself. In real life, pretty much the only aircraft that can be seen here are BN-2 Islanders or DHC-6 Twin Otters. I would not suggest taking anything larger in unless its a DHC-7.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... irport.jpg


Gustaf III Airport (TFFJ), Netherland Antilles.
-Just a short hop from Saba mentioned above, most people know it as the St. Barthelemy Airport. The interesting aspect here is the exciting, diving approach to one end of the runway that is needed depending on wind conditions. Although this approach is rather risky, the airport is served by mulitple airlines that fly small commuter aircraft like BN-2s, DHC-6s and Do-228s.
http://www.arsgeek.com/wp-content/uploa ... irport.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... strip.html


My main flight sim modes of transportation are in Beechcraft or De Havilland made turboprops. This includes the Beechcraft King Air series (prefers the AFG 300), Beech 1900D (by PMDG), and Milton Shupe's De Havilland Canada DHC-7 "Dash 7".

[ManuelL]

I would recommend the French Altiports (Courchevel, Meribel, etc.) - They may not be so difficult in standard FS, but there are some freeware and payware addons that replicate the sloped runways very nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNFNFZq2BFY

[grizzard]

Ok .... a little self promotion here, but if you want to see what Courchevel looks like with corrected scenery (and free too) ... watch this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXqf5drwqs

The download sites are listed a couple of times in this thread ...

[Northwest 102]

Wow, thanks everybody for these great responces!  Sounds like I have a lot of flying to do!

MIKE

[U4EA]

I like Hana because it has tall trees at the ends of the runway, it's easy with a small Cessna, but I like to try it with bigger planes.

Hana is pretty awesome!  One of my faves is Telluride, Colorado.....cool huge drop-off just after the EOR!

[AuMaV]

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport Saba, Netherlands Antilles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIuS4qx9WE4

[Tyler012]

"
What's the worst airport to fly into?

There's no really bad airport these days. The most interesting is probably Fueng Chow, years ago, doing charter operations and very simple operations. There was no landing aid because it was a very physically, strangely positioned airport. It was built on the edge of a mountain. It had a flat area where they had a runway, and it had another flat area where they had the terminal, and that was all it consisted of. There was no land before the runway or land after the runway. It was... interesting."
~Retired British Airways Pilot.

[stonek]

I think that the most difficult airports are the small ones over the mountains. Alps i.e. are full of small/difficult airports, sadly many of them are not included in the original FSX, but you can download them as addons.

Regarding the large airports, imo it mainly depends on the wheater conditions, lenght of the runway and aircraft you're using.

[BoerVanBreda]

Paro (VPQR) runway 15 in Bhutan is good fun. The airport is in a valley with steep sides either side of the runway, which is fairly narrow and quite short. I fly the default 737.

Wikipedia says; "The airport is located at an altitude of 2,235 m (7,333 ft) in a steep valley on the bank of Paro river. With surrounding peaks as high as 5.48 km (18,000 ft) it is considered to be "one of the world's most challenging airports". Flights at Paro are allowed under visual meteorological conditions (VMC) only and are restricted to daytime hours (sunrise to sunset). According to Travel & Leisure, only eight pilots in the world are certified to land at the airport."

Khorog (UT1C) in Tajikistan is another Paro-esque airport though worse. Both runways have curving approaches due to mountains, and you'll only be able to line-up about 2-4 miles or so out, and both approaches are steep. I prefer the Flight1 ATR for that airport.

Gilgit (OPGT) in Pakistan is another. Mountainous approach, then a short, narrow runway, with a fairly sharp turn to final. Last time I tried it in a Learjet...and didn't make it. I haven't tried it again.