> >> I am still not convinced that the pilot didn't take off > from the taxiway to avoid wasting time by going all the way > out to the runway. > > > >I've had a pilot (Aeroflot....) start his takeoff > accelleration during > >the turn onto the runway. Until you've felt the tyres of an > airliner > >scrubbing sideways, you haven't lived. > > Don't know how I stumbled onto this a few weeks ago, but I did: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtnL4KYVtDE >
When I was a kid and we used to fly in and out of Gibraltar, Britain and Spain were still arguing about who owned the rock. Franco had closed the border and wouldn't allow British planes over Spanish airspace, so flights had to make a similar peculiar manoeuvre to land and take off in a way that avoided breaching their air space. It was a similar runway too, sticking out into the sea. Not jumbos though. On one flight we hit an air pocket during the strange turn and dropped quite a long way before the pilot figured out what to do. That was pretty scary and we had to be diverted to Tangiers for the night. You haven't lived until you've seen an aircraft full of people vomiting in unison. Flying out of Gatwick this afternoon we waited a long time on the taxi-way for another flight to come in and land before ours turned onto the main runway. I was watching it coming in and it appeared to be aiming straight for us - I wasn't entirely sure whether or not to shit myself. In the end I didn't, which is a good job really because the incoming plane missed us by probably as much as 100 ft. It literally rocked the plane I was in as it came over. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
