# Which North American Airports Entail Particularly Steep Takeoffs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640 "2005-07-15T13:42:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/41 "2005-07-16T17:06:47Z")
Charleston is what we old helicopter pilots call a pinnacle approach. The runway has a cliff at each end, which is not at all dangerous, but a mite disconcerting. I thought that was The John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Did they change the name? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/42 "2005-07-17T01:17:31Z")
It’s both, **Paul**. Confusing but there ya go. Yeah, the steep takeoff and abrupt powering down of the engines mid-takeoff freaks people out. And the last couple of time I flew out, the crews weren’t even mentioning it anymore! :eek: I have flown out of John Wayne on both commercial and private jets. The commercials are certainly more noisy and scary, but the private jet wasn’t a piece of cake either (but oh-so-quiet). Because the planes take off over some of the most expensive real estate in the US, there are no flights before 7:00 am or after 10:00 pm (or is it 11? Can’t recall). But that moratorium is set to expire shortly, and the big stick over the heads of Newport Beach residents to vote for an airport at El Toro Marine Base was that if they didn’t, the early/late moratorium would be lifted. Even with the noise abatement measures, it’s still pretty damn loud on the beach. The airport on Catalina Island is pretty hairy. Short runway perched on the end of an island. An overshoot puts you into the Pacific; an undershoot puts you into a cliff face! :eek: I love this town! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/43 "2005-07-17T05:24:36Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > I don’t know about steepness of liftoff but there can be some convoluted take offs from Washington DCs Reagan National airport. Due to it’s location near so many sensitive and secure sites there’s a pretty strict corridor through which planes must pass I’ve been told. I’ve watched many take-offs from Reagan National. The planes there have a very steep take-off angle when headed north. On that course, they’re headed straight towards the Washington Monument and The White House. They also bank to the left (west), but not too far, 'cause then they’d be over The Pentagon. Landings from the north (going south) are interesting: you follow the Potomac from NW DC at a slow right bank, then tighten a bit, then straighten out within 1/2 mile to land. My former brother-in-law, a pilot, says it’s quite terrifying. :D:D ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/44 "2005-07-17T09:11:46Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Also, what about sharp banking? Sometimes I could swear the pilot is auditioning for “Top Gun II.” Do you guys sometimes lean it a tad hard just to get that old feeling back again? The most extreme bank angle I’ve ever experienced in a commericial airliner was small compared to what I was doing to myself yesterday. It _seems_ extreme because most folks aren’t used to vehicles that bank in a turn, and they also probably have never experienced what “steep” really looks and feels like in an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/45 "2005-07-17T11:09:04Z")
**pilot141** I know you can’t have flown into every airport everywhere, but are you familiar with Bogota? I’d never been afraid on an airplane until I flew Avianca. I flew into Bogota, then to an island owned by Colombia, San Andres. Both landings were frightening, San Andres a little more, since old crashes where just bulldozed to the sides of the runway. :eek: I don’t recall the take offs, I took sleeping pills about 40 minutes before. I figured if I was to die, I’d rather sleep through it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/46 "2005-07-17T12:57:30Z")
Not that it’s a frequent destination for many, but I’ll never forget getting out of Whitefish, Montana. As soon as the plane left the runway, it went up as steeply as possible while executing a tight spiral. Not until we got above the mountains did the plane level off to head east. At the time I wondered if the size of aircraft coming into that airport was limited by the ability to make that climb. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/47 "2005-07-17T14:33:06Z")
**picunurse** believe it or not I’ve been into Bogota 30 or 40 times. I liked the city because you were just north of the equator but you needed a jacket at night. The airport was a pain, though - one runway (at the time), high altitude and lots of mountains. Sometimes if we were taking off with a lot of cargo we’d go light on the gas and just fly east to Villavicencio (not sure about the spelling) which was east of the mountains and at a much lower altitude. We could then fill up with gas and continue the trip. Heck, any airport that is near the word “Andes” is going to be sporty! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/48 "2005-07-18T03:47:04Z")
> [@pilot141](#): > > **picunurse** believe it or not I’ve been into Bogota 30 or 40 times. I liked the city because you were just north of the equator but you needed a jacket at night. The airport was a pain, though - one runway (at the time), high altitude and lots of mountains. Sometimes if we were taking off with a lot of cargo we’d go light on the gas and just fly east to Villavicencio (not sure about the spelling) which was east of the mountains and at a much lower altitude. We could then fill up with gas and continue the trip. > > Heck, any airport that is near the word “Andes” is going to be sporty! \ I was there in November. The hotel turned the heat off at night, including the water. The beds had 3 alpaca blankets so, sleeping was great. But, up at 6 AM for a cold shower, then breakfast, back to the room to find all the windows open and the room temp about 45°, wasn’t so great. Luckily, it would be 85° by 10:30 AM. San Andres was a small island off the coast of Honduras. Almost flat, but the runway was very short, and I believe air traffic control wasn’t the “A” team. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/49 "2005-07-18T04:33:45Z")
Kauai, in Hawaii, has/had a banked ascent/descent around a mountain/hill. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/50 "2005-07-18T04:35:58Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It _seems_ extreme because most folks aren’t used to vehicles that bank in a turn, and they also probably have never experienced what “steep” really looks and feels like in an airplane. I came back because of **picunurse** ’s description of Bogota (continued hijack: where was your hotel? We used to stay right in the Zona Rosa in some nice red brick hotel). But I really wanted to emphasize that what **Broomstick** said is true. What feels like “OMG Exxxtreme!!!” is nothing of the sort. It’s just far outside your normal parameters for transportation, and thus feels a lot worse than it actually is. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/51 "2005-07-18T04:52:33Z")
Oh, and while I’m here I’d like to hear more about that VC-10 ride that **Vetch** had out of Kai Tak! I did that once in a C-141 going from Manchester, NH to Washington, DC. We were empty (it was during the election in 1996 - we were carrying the White House limos around and were repositioning with nothing onboard), had a light fuel load and it was cold. Did you know that a lightly loaded C-141 can climb to 10,000 feet faster than an F-4 could? Well, it can, and we got to 10K in **NO** time. When we got handed off to departure control the guy even asked us to confirm what type of aircraft we were. Heh. Just a big ol’ lumbering transport…nothing to see here…move along! ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/52 "2005-07-18T09:51:18Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > Whereas I just love it. I don’t like roller coasters or other carnival rides, but you get me in a huge plane, and I can enjoy the sensation. > > If I remember correctly, another feature of this particular takeoff is that you follow the course of a river until you get to the coast. Is that right, or am I making it up? I grew up under Orange County Airport, now called the John Wayne Airport. Ok, maybe not “under” it but less than a mile from it. A pilot once told me that if they are taking off in a westerly direction, as they typically do, they must use only 50 percent power at takeoff and must climb at a steeper ascent than usual due to noise complaints from residents under its flight path. As a child, if I were talking to a neighbor outside and a plane took off, we would both have to stop talking until the plane was out of range. It was so loud that for several seconds you couldn’t hear each other speak. Even with the regulation in place, it’s still like this. It is not the same requirement for landing, perhaps because those are lower- to middle-class neighborhoods that don’t carry the same clout as tony Newport Beach. The body of water that planes typically fly over is the Back Bay, which IMO is more of a lake. It lies between Santa Ana Heights, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach and leads out to the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/53 "2005-07-18T12:24:12Z")
> [@pilot141](#): > > Oh, and while I’m here I’d like to hear more about that VC-10 ride that **Vetch** had out of Kai Tak! I did that once in a C-141 going from Manchester, NH to Washington, DC. We were empty (it was during the election in 1996 - we were carrying the White House limos around and were repositioning with nothing onboard), had a light fuel load and it was cold. > > Did you know that a lightly loaded C-141 can climb to 10,000 feet faster than an F-4 could? Well, it can, and we got to 10K in **NO** time. When we got handed off to departure control the guy even asked us to confirm what type of aircraft we were. Heh. > > Just a big ol’ lumbering transport…nothing to see here…move along! Sorry if I’ve misled you **pilot141** my Kai Tak and VC10 experiences were two different events. I worked on the VC10 during my RAF days and we were exhibiting the aircraft at Boscome Down (England). After the event finished the captain offered to fly us back to base instead of us having to arrange motor transport. Even with the aircrew there were only 8 of us on board which allowed the pilot to pull out all the stops, especially the take off. You might have enjoyed flying one of these because they were capable of carrying both freight and passengers having a cargo door access to the cabin and I know you have flown both freight and passengers. Later on though the aircraft were further adapted to tankers for flight refuelling. [VC10](http://www.planeboys.de/gww/raf/vc10_xv107.htm) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/54 "2005-07-18T14:00:26Z")
[Anaktuvuk Pass](http://ts.cs.fiu.edu/qGNzLatqEz68.115875qAzLongqEz-151.679549) in the Brooks Range presents a bit of a challenge. I’ve flown in and out from Fairbanks and Prudhoe a number of times and after cresting steep mountain ridges you drop into a steep circular descent, trying to stay withing the confines of additional mountain ridges. Departures are the opposite, climbing and climbing in a tight circle until you’ve got enough altitude to clear the saddle which, hopefully, isn’t obstructed by an all too frequent thick blanket of clouds. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640/55 "2005-07-18T19:56:04Z")
> [@pilot141](#): > > I came back because of **picunurse** ’s description of Bogota (continued hijack: where was your hotel? We used to stay right in the Zona Rosa in some nice red brick hotel). > > But I really wanted to emphasize that what **Broomstick** said is true. What feels like “OMG Exxxtreme!!!” is nothing of the sort. It’s just far outside your normal parameters for transportation, and thus feels a lot worse than it actually is. The brick one in the Zona Rosa was, I think a Hilton. We were visiting locals who booked our hotel. It was back in the '70s, so I don’t remember the name of the hotel. I remember it had a courtyard where they killed the dinner meat, :eek: and it was about 3 blocks from the street of buses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-north-american-airports-entail-particularly-steep-takeoffs/312640.md?page=2)