Landing into Queenstown, NZ. The view from the sharp end
Very very pretty...
:good:
Very nice!
Yup - that is a great video. I'd love to see the instrument approach plat for that one.
Yesterday I had a great flight myself. Had to go up to Islip, NY, (out on Long Island). The trip up was off shore and nothing spectacular. But coming back they gave me some really convoluted routing that took me West right over top of Kennedy Airport, Manhattan, etc. and then between NY & Philly and home along the West side of Philly, Balto, DC, etc. You just never know what you're going to get in the North-East corridor.
Dave-what altitude? whenever I have had to go to the other side of NYC (CT) they take me up north and around. Your route sounds a lot more interesting.
Put me over JFK at 6000 then as I progressed actually dropped me down to 4000 then back up to 6000 on the West side of Balto. Not really my choice of altitudes, but higher might have encountered some icing.
Beautiful scenery for sure!
Only part to make me nervous was coming through that cloud layer.
I was hoping to NOT meet one of those nice looking mountains.
One of my best friends was a Lt. in the CAP SAR teams. I've seen too many pics.
Clouds and mountains don't mix well in these parts. Of all their missions they only got one survivor.
Sweet.
Seems like anytime I go east of DC/Baltimore they route me directly over BWI (there is a VOR on the field). I guess they figure if you are directly overhead you won't affect anything on the field!
Dave: Queenstown, NZ:
Looks like a fun approach. Note that the field is at 1171 elevation, the "hills" around 6000 to 7000+
The missed approach for both looks like a doozy also...
Reminds me a bit of the approach into our State's capital Juneau which has a bad reputation for wind sheer. Planes on take off have to make a sharp 180 to avoid flying into a mountain, which in 1971 claimed 111 lives. Worst airline accident up until 1975. The mountains make for some very unpredictable winds and weather. They now have a system in place called JAWS that updates pilots on wind conditions 6 times a minute making things a bit safer. Good thing because the only way to reach our capital is by ship or plane.
I have done some flying in Alaska (always as a passenger, never as a pilot). I flew from Juneau to Haines and then Haines to Skagway and back to Juneau. It was a four seater, single pilot commercial flights, so no IFR. We got stuck in Haines for a day or two until the weather lifted and we could get to Skagway scud running. At the Skagway airport I was going out to occupy the HARN point at the airport, and was driving down the runway kind of fast, and I got pulled over by a cop, saying I was not allowed to speed down the runway! Totally deserted (in the winter). Didn't give me a ticket, though. Also rented a plane (C210) and pilot in Tok just to fly around and sightsee. Didn't see any cool wildlife, though. Then drove to Chicken to do some work...
At the time I didn't have a lot of hours as a pilot, I would love to be able to fly around up there some more now that I am a bit more experienced.
Both approaches are "interesting"
And the runway is quite short too...
Indeed - a fun approach! An interesting approach I flew on my trans-Atlantic flight was the approach into Narsasuauq, Greenland, back in 1990. It was an ADF/DME with minimums of 5000 and 5. The approach profile was steep!
Talked to an Icelandic Air pilot that flew the visual into there in 737's. When they were going in up the fiord you could look out the left window and see nothing but rock and look out the right window and see nothing but rock. And even in good weather you couldn't see the runway until about a mile out.
