Favorite airport?

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I have traveled thru lots of different airports.  My top three favorites domestic are SFO, Sky Harbor, and Orlando.  My top three intl are Heathrow, Schiphol and Zurich.  What about yours?  I should also mention that Pittsburgh, with its airside mall, gets honorable mention.

John

[vp49p3 216]

ORBX NZMF Milford Sound - try flying into it through the Mountains in bad weather or good weather.  Gotta love it!!

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I think I tried that once, very breathtaking!  Also flying into LOWI (Innsbruck) is a challenge. 

John

[richstacy 0]

On ‎9‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 1:04 PM, Cactus521 said:

I have traveled thru lots of different airports.  My top three favorites domestic are SFO, Sky Harbor, and Orlando.  My top three intl are Heathrow, Schiphol and Zurich.  What about yours?  I should also mention that Pittsburgh, with its airside mall, gets honorable mention.

John

I like VFR general aviation.  My favorite airport is Fly Tampa's St. Barts, which is part of the Saint Maarten. scenery.  Lukla-Mt.; Everest is great.  both of these require intense concentration.   Re larger airports , I think Sion Switzerland  is great. I use FS Global Ult. mesh. I also like old Hong Kong,Kai Tak VHHH For large AC.

[richstacy 0]

Real airports?  All large modern airports are duller than dull.  DEN, SFO and Hethrow are OK.  I also like Kahului, OGG, not because I like the airport but because I like Maui.  

[Rhinozherous 90]

Tegel, Berlin - EDDT 

It is old and relativley small and the architecture is very... lets say functional. But it is a charming one. 

And, of course, my home airport - Vienna, LOWW :)

[Chock 17,769]

Not strictly speaking an airport, actually a glider airfield, so not even one where you can (legally at least) land powered aircraft (although it has been done a few times), my favourite is Camphill in the Derbyshire Peak District, which is set in some beautiful terrain mostly comprising small sheep farms on rolling hills with many dry stone walls and old stone buildings. For those of you who have ever seen the 1955 movie, The Dambusters, or any documentary about the real-life WW2 Lancaster bomber raid on the German dams, the place where the crews practiced - Derwent Reservoir - is just nearby to Camphill, so that'll give you an idea of the kind of terrain we are talking about. Derwent Reservoir has a dam broadly similar to the target areas in Germany, in that it is surrounded by hills and required some precision flying from those bomber crews to get down to fifty feet above the water's surface and avoid the surrounding hills. The Peak District itself is notorious for having been the site of a number of crashes of many military aeroplanes over the years, among them Lancasters, Ansons, B17s, P-51s, B29s, Meteors etc and much of the wreckage of such crashes remains there to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derwent_Reservoir_(Derbyshire)

So Camphill is kind of notorious among the pilots, being located on top of a hill 1,350 feet above MSL. The airfiled itself is just 1320 yards long and 600 yards wide (and not especially flat either), which puts it quite a few hundred feet above the surrounding terrain with severe drop offs on all sides. This means it is notorious for windshear; severe downdrafts on approach are fairly common, necessitating a steep fairly high speed final approach. There are few other fields near it suitable for landing, so it is a good test of skill to get down onto it when flying something which has no ability to go around. Nevertheless, that necessity does end up making you a good pilot, which is why it is my favourite place to fly from. I've seen many pilots show up there and say things like 'are you insane? This not an airfield, it's a hill! How the hell can anyone land on this?' and that's especially true when there is a west wind blowing, where you have to land across it in just 600 yards. If you can pull that off smoothly, you know you are a good pilot.

http://glidingclub.org.uk/about-camphill/airfield/

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

Real world would be Vancouver because it is well managed and helpful to people because Canadians are awesome. Also stunning view of the city and mountains and probably one of the best interior designed airports with native art and large aquariums which makes it enjoyable while waiting to depart or in transit.

Auckland would be my second choice because when you get home from a long journey you are greeted with that warm Kiwi smile, which I would describe as take KLAX, and imagine the complete opposite of that......that would be Auckland.

 

[tonywob 4,768]

For me, it has to be Wellington airport. Love the approach over the water. I also like the decorations in the terminal.

[EastFB72 16]

Love Milford Sound and Queenstown Airports as they're great Approaches

Vancouver | Singapore Changi | Wellington are three of the best that I've ever visited as well

[John_Cillis 2,406]

7 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

Real world would be Vancouver because it is well managed and helpful to people because Canadians are awesome. Also stunning view of the city and mountains and probably one of the best interior designed airports with native art and large aquariums which makes it enjoyable while waiting to depart or in transit.

Auckland would be my second choice because when you get home from a long journey you are greeted with that warm Kiwi smile, which I would describe as take KLAX, and imagine the complete opposite of that......that would be Auckland.

 

Forgot about Vancouver.  Stunning setting for an airport.  Only flew in and out of there once, back in 1995, but I enjoyed the ambiance of the airport.

John

[F737MAX 5,557]

11 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

Real world would be Vancouver because it is well managed and helpful to people because Canadians are awesome. Also stunning view of the city and mountains and probably one of the best interior designed airports with native art and large aquariums which makes it enjoyable while waiting to depart or in transit.

Adored Canada (and NZ), but I don't get the attraction with Vancouver Int'l - I found the design in most parts of the concourse gave a sensation of being boxed in, I don't remember being able to get that many views of the fantastic mountain scenery, but I do remember the ridiculously long queues / lines to go through immigration and the CBSA officer demanding to see my wife's qualification certificate which hangs on a wall some 4,500+ miles away at home!

Best? Possibly Hong Kong, clean, airy and uncluttered interior (if a little soulless), lots of natural light and great views of Lantau Island through the many, large windows (a Norman Foster designed terminal), rapid clearing of immigration and customs and a great view of the entire city when on Westerlies approaches.

My local LCY, is a chic dump - crowded, stuffed full with overpriced retail and shabby corridors to the gates. But what an experience on RWY 09 approach with the 5.5% glideslope and an altitude restriction of 2,000ft over London.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I believe there are some transatlantic hops into London City, or so I've heard.  In 1984 I flew into London and had great views of the city as we followed the pattern into Heathrow.  Luck of the draw I guess.  On my last flight in from Phoenix this year I did not see the city, just the terminals as we took off and landed, I still think about that eleven hour marathon flight.  Only added a few hours going west into the timezones, 2:30PM Takeoff, 5:30PM landing.  I called it the "longest day".

John