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Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

amusingplanet.com

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Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#51

Post by AnimalMuppet »

dtparr wrote: post #46
miohtama wrote: post #16

Gibraltar airport is one of the toughest (civilian?) to land. Only Captains are allowed to land. Flights often get diverded to Malaga due to winds. https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/696566/high-winds-...

The captain-only requirement is an interesting one. While it makes sense that you'd want the more experienced pilot doing the landing, how do you get more captains? I.e. if a First officer can't land there with a more senior pilot ready to advise/supervise/take over, it would mean each person's first time landing there is when there's no one else more experienced to advise.

The first time they might do it under the supervision of a check airman, or at least an experienced captain.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#52

Post by DoreenMichele »

My understanding is it is legal for planes in Alaska to just land on a road. They have relatively few roads and many places are only accessible via plane, boat or some other alternative to cars (like dog sled) for at least part of the year. They have about six times as many pilots per capita as the rest of the US. Some of their little towns have amazingly minimal airport amenities and crudely constructed landing strips.

I sometimes post articles related to that but there seem to be relatively few good articles on that subject per se. Instead I end up posting articles sort of related, like where a small Alaskan community called everyone to show up with their vehicles to provide impromptu landing lights for a medical evacuation after dark when the lights were not working.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#54

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #37
miohtama wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Living Daylights starts with the Gibraltar scene. Ian Flemmings, the author, was stationed at Gib during WW2.

With the runway?

I don't recall seeing it. There's a plane, and parachuting from the plane, but I don't recall that you ever see the runway.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#55

Post by andion »

heneryville wrote: post #25

Ometepe, an island in Nicaragua also has this. There is virtually no traffic control either. You've just got to look both ways... and up, before you drive across it. [0] https://www.google.com/maps/@11.5238261,-85.7012237,1228m/da...

I was about to comment exactly this!

I crossed both of them :)

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#56

Post by hopfog »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #23
duiker101 wrote: post #7

I lived next to the runway for about an year. I can actually seem the apartment from some of the photos. It was an interesting place. It's really just after the border with Spain so if you stay in the country you don't need to cross it every day, but more people work in Gib than live so there is quite a good amount of traffic. As with most things, you get used to it and it just becomes normal very quickly. The best t…

Was it not super loud?

I also used to live in an apartment right next to it (white building with red roof on the left in second picture) and yes, it was loud. The first times it felt like an earthquake but I quickly got used to it and the view was worth it.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#57

Post by laumars »

MS90 wrote: post #38
dilap wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They look small since they're next to big planes, but plane tires are actually quite big, so I'm not surprised they wouldn't have any trouble w/ the tracks.

I was more thinking about smaller GA planes, but it’s probably a similar situation. They’re designed to slam into the ground with a plane on top of them over and over again, so they’re probably more than strong enough.

Car tyres don’t have any issue (there’s plenty of car/rail crossings) so I can’t see why a plane’s would.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#59

Post by nixass »

Zadar Airport in Croatia had the runway intersecting road up until 2010. It is fairly busy airport during summer season. The road was closed as a part of aligning road safety policies during EU negotiations

[1.] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadar_Airport#History

[2.] https://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/zatvorena-cesta-zad...

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#60

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #52

My understanding is it is legal for planes in Alaska to just land on a road. They have relatively few roads and many places are only accessible via plane, boat or some other alternative to cars (like dog sled) for at least part of the year. They have about six times as many pilots per capita as the rest of the US. Some of their little towns have amazingly minimal airport amenities and crudely constructed landing stri…

Video demonstration of merging into traffic after a gas station pit stop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQIcK881es

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