Because I’m not flying much at the moment I’ve been getting all nostalgic about some of my flights from the past. I started making a list of my most memorable landings in a plane and came up with a list of six really positive and happy ones, and one that was terrible.
Each of these landings were special to me for very different reasons, but they all have a very treasured place in my flying memories. So in no particular order here are my six great landings and one that still haunts me to this day.
How many of these have you been to?
Kulusuk Airport, Greenland
I’d always wanted to fly myself to Greenland but always thought it would only happen whenever I eventually manage to do my round the world flight. However it was on a one-week flying adventure from the UK across to Iceland when myself and Philippe, who I was flying with, realised that we had a weather window and a spare day in Reykjavik and could attempt to get across to the remote landmass of Greenland.
After 2 hours of flying Westbound we started to see sea-ice in the distance and then witnessed the incredible sight of 10,000 feet mountain peaks rising up out of the icy North Atlantic. We flew around some of the fjords to truly appreciate this unique landscape before calling Kulusuk Tower and getting clearance to land on their gravel strip 65.57ºN of the Equator. The most Northerly airport I’ve ever landed at.
The approach and departure in and out of Kulusuk over snow-capped mountains and icebergs was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, and this will forever be one of my proudest moments as a pilot to successfully land at Kulusuk Airport and visit this wonderful place.
Alice Springs Airport, Australia
I’ve been lucky enough to fly into Alice Springs on a couple of occasions and this place is special to me not only for its remoteness and solitude, but also because of the part it played during a particularly bad time in aviation. Right in the heart of Australia it’s a large commercial airport but one that not many people in the world would probably ever visit in their lifetime. Any time I travel across Australia it’s hard to not stop in Alice Springs simply because there aren’t many other options for refuelling (Ayer’s Rock Airport, the next nearest, is 337km away in a straight line). So seeing Alice Springs airport in the distance after you’ve travelled across the unforgiving Australian desert is a welcoming and relieving sight.
Sadly during Covid Alice Springs was also the temporary home to hundreds of grounded commercial aircraft, but as an aviation enthusiast this made it a fascinating place to visit to see so many huge aircraft in one place. Thankfully most of these are back in service now and have been repatriated back to their original homes but when they were at Alice Springs Airport I took the opportunity to fly over them in a helicopter to get a better view.
Alice Springs is also an interesting place to visit outside of the airport, around a 20 minute drive is the John Flynn Memorial, paying tribute to the founder of the Royal Flying Doctors Service.
Alice Springs Airport will always be a special place to me for its important role during Covid, the fact that it’s right in the heart of Australia, and because you can still find real solitude and peace in an otherwise large commercial airport.
Dili International Airport, East Timor
I’ve long had a dream to fly my plane around the world but Covid, then international conflicts, and then my own health issues have prevented me from achieving that goal (yet!). But as part of my preparation for flying around the world I flew from Darwin over the Timor Sea to Dili International Airport to practise taking my aircraft outside of Australia.
This was the first time I’d taken VH-EYZ out of the country and with the help of my friend Michael Smith, who accompanied me on the trip over, we flew the 2 hours from Australia across to the island nation of East Timor.
Unlike flying in Europe, or North America, flying in Australia means if you want to travel to another country you have to fly a long way. The trip from Melbourne to Darwin, before I’d even left Australia, took over 10 hours. So taking my aircraft outside of Australian airspace and into another country made this a very special landing for me.
East Timor was a fun place to visit and if I get the chance to go back there are several other airports around the country that support General Aviation and would be a great place to visit in your own aircraft as well. But landing at Dili International and walking from my own aircraft to the terminal as an International pilot made me feel very special.
Sogndal Airport, Haukåsen, Norway
On a flying trip around Europe I was struggling with some of my landings in the SR20 that my friend and flying Instructor Philippe were flying. So he suggested we take the aircraft to a remote Norwegian Airport for some circuit practise.
Little did I know that this airport may have a decent length strip but it was cut out of the side of one of the Norwegian Fjords! This meant that the airport was surrounded by high peaks, had steep slopes on either side, and at the end of the runway a drop off down into the icy water.
Having the added jeopardy of the unforgiving terrain for these approaches made me pay very close attention to my landing technique, speeds, engine management and made me very focussed on what to do in the event of a go around or power failure. So this was an incredibly useful day of flying and is easily the most beautiful airport I’ve ever done circuit practise at.
Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport, Australia
The circumstances behind this particular landing were not ideal, but the memory I have of this day is a very special one. It was during the Covid pandemic when air traffic movements were severely reduced that private pilots like myself could book a slot and fly into large International Airports, and there’s no larger here in Australia than Sydney Kingsford Smith.
Most people flying into Australia would have flown into this airport at some point. It’s our largest International Airport, one half of the second busiest air route in the world (Sydney to Melbourne), and Qantas’ home base in Australia. It’s usually a very busy airport.
So to be able to book a slot and receive vectors to a 3-mile final from Sydney Radar, to be handed over to Sydney Tower, and to then be cleared to land on runway 34L (Australia’s longest operational runway – over 4.4km long) was such a special experience.
After landing the Tower gave me permission to taxi around for a few minutes to see the terminals and parked aircraft up close before clearing me through their Class C control zone over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and out back to Melbourne again.
I wish I would never have been able to do this flight, and that we never had to go through the Covid pandemic that of course cost so many people their health and livelihoods, especially in the aviation world, but purely as an aviation experience this was a landing I will never forget. I felt like a proper pilot landing at an airport of that size.
London Biggin Hill Airport, England
One of my earliest aviation memories is watching the Red Arrows and RAF Vulcan flying over the crowds at the Biggin Hill Airshow. We used to live in the UK and would go to the airshow most years. I’m sure it has a lot to do with why I love aviation now.
After moving my life to Australia and learning to fly in Sydney and Melbourne, it was another 30 years before I returned to Biggin Hill Airport but this time to land an aircraft myself on that runway I had sat beside as a kid watching other aviators do what I could only dream of.
Now I’m in the very fortunate position that I’ve flown in and out of Biggin Hill a few times, but one visit that will remain very special is when I returned there in July 2024 to fly a Cirrus SR20 out of Biggin Hill, do a lap of Britain, and return back and land there 5 days later. This would be the first hands-on flying I would have done since my brain surgery, making Biggin Hill a very special airport for me to land at for a number of reasons.
Mungo Lodge Airstrip, NSW, Australia
My final memorable landing sticks in my mind for all the wrong reasons. Mungo Lodge is a fantastic accommodation with a private strip, actually two strips crossing each other, in Outback New South Wales. I departed Mildura Airport to fly the short 20 minute hop over to Mungo Lodge and set up for an approach just like any other landing.
Mungo Lodge has two runways at 974 and 700 metres long – both being easily long enough for my aircraft to get into safely. I think knowing this was part of the problem that lead to some complacency on my part. Coming in to land I was too high, too fast, but with the comfort of the longer runway I did the worst thing any pilot can do in that situation, and that was to carry on with the landing and not go around for a more stable approach.
The extra speed I carried onto the landing meant I floated down about half the distance of the runway and even then I didn’t choose to go around. Instead I planted the wheels down on the gravel runway and applied strong brake pressure to try and slow myself down. At that moment I was very lucky not to catch a brake and skid across the low friction gravel surface. If I had done so at that speed there is a strong chance I could have skidded off and ended up seriously damaging the aircraft, or worse.
Mungo Lodge is a beautiful place with excellent facilities for pilots, but this landing will forever haunt me as one where it was only sheer luck that saved me from something potentially very very bad. I shut the aircraft down with my heart still pounding, I think about this landing a lot.
Ultimately I have learned a lot from that experience and whenever I am landing, at a short dirt strip or a long international runway, the moment I feel the approach isn’t stable I don’t hesitate to go around. That’s the one positive I take from this experience.
Adding more landings to the list
I am currently working on regaining my medical so I can get flying again, and when I do I’ve already started making a list of other unique airports that I’d like to try and land at. But I would love to hear about some of your favourite landings. If you have any suggestions please let me know why you think I should land there and why it’s special to you.