The Planespotting Thread

[CanaBull]

If you’re ever in the Greater Toronto Area the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is in Hamilton (about an hour drive from Toronto).  It’s a smaller museum but has some excellent exhibits plus flights on several, well worth a visit (2025 flights on the Lancaster all sold out, 2026 go on sale November 2025).

https://www.warplane.com/aircraft/flights/buy.aspx
 

In Hamilton harbour is the WW2 Tribal class destroyer HMCS Haida, another site well worth a visit. 

[Futtocks]

A family friend who died this year was in the RAF back in the Forties and Fifties and edited the Royal Air Force Music Services Association magazine in his later years. He'd been in the band, been flown all over the Far East for years... and existed on NAAFI ham, egg and chips the whole time.

Never touched a mouthful of "foreign muck" the whole time. When I knew him in the last 5 years or so of his life, my mum had just about persuaded him to try mushrooms and the faintest tinge of seasoning beyond salt and pepper. But not without many deeply suspicious facial expressions.

Edited December 9, 2024 by Futtocks

[Bedford Roughyed]

Smallest aircraft I've been on was a De Havilland Chipmunk.  A two seat trainer, did it a few times with aerobatics, loops, barrel rolls and stall turns.  Great fun.

Interesting aircraft, Puma helicopter, C17, and VC10 (seats faced backwards).

Got a soft spot for warbirds, P51, B25, B17's, etc.  

[Yorks Tim]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

At this point I should recommend Graham Coster's book Corsairville.

A history of flying boats, based around the true story of the Empire class Corsair that crash-landed in the wilds of Africa and how it was brought back to operation and finally flown home.

Here's a review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/mar/04/historybooks.gilesfoden 

The Flying Boat That Fell to Earth: A Lost World of Air Travel and Africa - Kindle version I think. 

[Futtocks]

24 minutes ago, Yorks Tim said:

The Flying Boat That Fell to Earth: A Lost World of Air Travel and Africa - Kindle version I think. 

Thanks; it looks like it has been republished under a new title, possibly with extra content or just renamed for broader appeal. The author and cover photo are the same as Corsairville.

[Yorks Tim]

I haven't read many books on the subject but this one about the 'Miracle on the Hudson' is brilliant.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ChhBFtCiJ8IC&q=langewiesche&redir_esc=y

 

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

5 hours ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

The other plane in there is an Antonov 2 which is a fascinating aircraft in itself.   I could bore you for hours talking about it's unique engine failure and emergency landing technique!

I can assure you it would not be a bore.

[Bostik Bailey]

17 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

spotted this little beauty today 

AH the good 'ole smoothing plane , not to be confused with the more common Jack plane with has a longer foot and it used to plane a flat surface with the grain. The smoothing plane is normally set much higher than the Jack plane and can be used in circular motion to smooth out any large irregularities  in the wood. It has become somewhat defunct now since the advent of portable high power mechanical belt sanders which can do a similar job.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Fellow aviation nerds, what's the most unique airport you've ever visited?

Mine is Gibraltar given how short the runway is with the sea at each end, the main road that runs across the runway and has railway-like barriers that come down when a plane is on the runway and how planes have to tightly bank round the Rock of Gibraltar and descend steeply to land because planes landing there aren't allowed in Spanish airspace.

[graveyard johnny]

20 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Fellow aviation nerds

it is exiting 

 

[Futtocks]

25 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Fellow aviation nerds, what's the most unique airport you've ever visited?

Mine is Gibraltar given how short the runway is with the sea at each end, the main road that runs across the runway and has railway-like barriers that come down when a plane is on the runway and how planes have to tightly bank round the Rock of Gibraltar and descend steeply to land because planes landing there aren't allowed in Spanish airspace.

Did anyone ever travel to Hong Kong Kai Tak?

 

[gingerjon]

14 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

because planes landing there aren't allowed in Spanish airspace.

I've just spent a happy few minutes looking into this and, apparently, for most flights, it is no longer true - and hasn't been since around 2006. For state and military flights, it remains the case. For civil and commercial, they can fly over Spanish air space.

[gingerjon]

Beef Island, the airport for the British Virgin Islands, is interesting in a Gibraltar-esque way, and landing on Boavista in Cape Verde in a sandstorm was an experience I don't want to repeat.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

18 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I've just spent a happy few minutes looking into this and, apparently, for most flights, it is no longer true - and hasn't been since around 2006. For state and military flights, it remains the case. For civil and commercial, they can fly over Spanish air space.

Fair enough, I saw it on a documentary about unusual airports, must have just been an old documentary, I didn't know it had changed.

[CanaBull]

My air travels have been remarkably boring other than one time coming into Yeadon where we were coming into land and it seemd like an awful lot of runway had gone past without touching down, when we did the anchors were slammed on harder than I'd ever known before or since and we stopped just short of the end, needing to be pushed back afterwards to turn to the terminal.  Never really liked that word at an airport really lol

My dad when flying out of Kuwait had an engine drop off.  Didn't say anything until a few weeks later either.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

7 hours ago, CanaBull said:

My air travels have been remarkably boring other than one time coming into Yeadon

Leeds-Bradford is by far the most challenging airport in the UK for jet pilots (unless you're based there full-time and used to it).   A short landing distance available, at an airport sat on top of a hill, in a permanent gusting crosswind that regularly hits about 35 knots.   I have absolutely no idea why someone chose to put the airport there.   Maybe it was because of Murgatroyd's Fish and Chip restaurant next door.   Which to be fair, is not a bad reason.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

In terms of operating a flight, the most unique airports I've flown into are probably:

1) Funchal in Madeira (half the runway on stilts in the sea, and extremely tricky wind conditions)

2) Eldoret in Kenya (people walking across the runway, and trying to park a 777 on an apron built for light aircraft)

3) Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (not least because it has the coolest name of any airport "wagga-doo-goo").

 

As a nerd / enthusiast (or Aerosexual as my wife labels me) , Al Mahatta in Sharjah beats them all.   A road has been built on the runway now, and it's surrounded by tall buildings, but it remains open as a museum.   It's basically a fort with cannons and a control tower, and is preserved exactly as it was during the times of Sharjah being a British protectorate.   It was used as a staging post by Empire Airways on their flights from the UK to India and Australia in the 30s.   They even have a small collection of planes.   Best of all it's a dirt cheap entry fee! :

https://www.sharjahmuseums.ae/en-US/Museums/Al-Mahatta-Museum

 

[Bedford Roughyed]

Lukla is an interesting airport.  

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Lukla is an interesting airport.  

That's Tenzing-Hillary Airport isn't it? Tends to be considered the starting point for climbing Everest. Almost 3,000m above sea level with a really short runway that has massive drops at each end of it. The weather can be horrendous up there as well with gale force winds often making landing almost impossible, especially considering the planes that go there are only small turboprops.

[Bedford Roughyed]

12 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

That's Tenzing-Hillary Airport isn't it? Tends to be considered the starting point for climbing Everest. Almost 3,000m above sea level with a really short runway that has massive drops at each end of it. The weather can be horrendous up there as well with gale force winds often making landing almost impossible, especially considering the planes that go there are only small turboprops.

It only has a massive drop at one end, the other end is a cliff face.  

[CanaBull]

15 hours ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

Leeds-Bradford is by far the most challenging airport in the UK for jet pilots (unless you're based there full-time and used to it).   A short landing distance available, at an airport sat on top of a hill, in a permanent gusting crosswind that regularly hits about 35 knots.   I have absolutely no idea why someone chose to put the airport there.   Maybe it was because of Murgatroyd's Fish and Chip restaurant next door.   Which to be fair, is not a bad reason.

Appreciate the pilots eye view of that! Thank you!

[Fly-By-TheWire]

13 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Lukla is an interesting airport.  

The interesting thing about Lukla is that once you are past a certain point on final approach, you are commited to landing.   There isn't an option to go-around (abort the landing) due to the terrain.   This would be fine if the runway was long and level, but it's extremely short and uphill, which makes judging the landing very difficult.   Given the option, I'd rather fly to Kathmandu and walk up!

[gingerjon]

17 hours ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (not least because it has the coolest name of any airport "wagga-doo-goo").

 

And is used excellently for comedic purposes in Radio 4 series Cabin Pressure.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

And is used excellently for comedic purposes in Radio 4 series Cabin Pressure.

Really? I’ve not seen that show since it was originally broadcast. My wife (ex cabin crew) has it on DVD so I’ll have to get into it over the winter.

Edited December 12, 2024 by Fly-By-TheWire

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

Really? I’ve not seen that show since it was originally broadcast. My wife (ex cabin crew) has it on DVD so I’ll have to get into it over the winter.

Cabin Pressure was a radio sitcom; are you thinking of The High Life?

Both are excellent, but very different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Pressure_(radio_series)

Edited December 12, 2024 by Futtocks