Question for pilots- approach angles/speed in Africa
 

Hi guys,

I have a question for you pilots out there. I went to Africa this summer and flew to Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Victoria Falls.

It seemed to my passenger butt that they use steeper approaches into the airports than they do in the US. I recently flew Dallas to Boston and back and it seemed as if we are descending forever into both airports. I realize that Joburg is around 5,000 ft, but it seemed as if our approach angle was steeper as well.

Was I imagining things or does their less congested air traffic allow them to speed things along?

Thanks,
Neil

Steeper angle = harder to hit with machine gun or missile.

noise restrictions over populated areas?

The busier the environment, the earlier you will start descent. During quiet times it can be left to the pilot/FMS to initiate the descent (Top of Descent). This could result in very high descent rates as the optimum profile tends to delay the descent as long as possible and than fall like a stone.

here's a combat approach in a c-130:

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here's a bad landing, with a 5.5 degree glideslope:

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Lucky that C130 wasnt loaded wouldnt want that jeep to come up to the cockpit for a visit

re the C130 landing, I couldn't do that in a 150 Cessna. Hat's off to those pilots, whatever they get paid it isn't enough.
Jim

Have flown all over Africa, including some places where you were not really friendly with the locals, and unless you are expecting ground fire you are shooting the approach at normal descent rates that you would be using anywhere in the world.

Two places that come to mind that are not this way are London City Airport and Samadan (aka St. Moritz) that both use a much steeper glidepath. Oh yea, various places in Iraq and Afganistan, but doubt that you guys are flying there often.

Regarding the video on the C-130 approach, its a lot steeper in real life "in country" but this video was the pilots showing what the airplane can do for the airshow.

A flight attendant friend of mine has flown into Baghdad a few times. She says they do a downward spiral before landing and an upward one after taking off.

Correct. The bad guys know that you usually will fly a final approach to the runway into the wind, and sit underneath the approach area waiting/hoping for a chance at a shot.

You do a corkscrew overhead and roll out right on a really really short (if any) final to the runway. Its not a lot of fun for the people in back but better than being hit with something.

I have a friend that was a FAC pilot in 'Nam. He had the opportunity to fly in the right hand seat of a C130 a few times and experienced what is shown in the video, first-hand. He described it as an eye-watering experience. Coming from a former FAC pilot, that said something. They made some landings onto hastily prepared "strips" that he swore were too short to land on, even for one of those. On some take-offs, they did a little tree trimming...

JR