‘Name That Airport’ Thread

RyanB

RyanB

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Post aerial photos of an airport and see if anyone can guess it.

<I don’t recall doing this sort of thing here before>

I’ll start with an easy one.

:D

AE471415-302C-44FB-BAF7-56010BC2B92E.jpeg
 
I learned to fly there at MYF, Montgomery Field in San Diego in 1978-79 at National Air College. It is named after John Montgomery who early 1900s a teenager built and flew his own hang glider. His history is not exact but he may have flown a controllable glider as a 14 year old even before the Wright Brothers. He became a professor at Santa Clara college and no doubt shortly after the Wrights had a flying powered plane.
 
5A944DAC-C99B-446D-84F6-857B9B11C8B9.jpeg Probably only one person on POA could identify this airport. It’s not in the US.
 
Well, Tim didn’t say it but he got it.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yeah you. Kadena.
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See at the left of the picture at the approach end of 5L, that's where I sent the Okinawan runway lighting guys diving for cover when I was fighting a crosswind on my first unsupervised solo. At the other end just out of frame of 5R was the engine shop where I worked. Right of picture, middle frame to the right of the tower was the ramp where the Aero club planes were parked. The congested area on the left above the runway (called Kadena Circle) was where they kicked me out of the pattern to hold while the SR-71 did a few patterns before landing.
 
Timbeck2 said:
See at the left of the picture at the approach end of 5L, that's where I sent the Okinawan runway lighting guys diving for cover when I was fighting a crosswind on my first unsupervised solo. At the other end just out of frame of 5R was the engine shop where I worked. Right of picture, middle frame to the right of the tower was the ramp where the Aero club planes were parked. The congested area on the left above the runway (called Kadena Circle) was where they kicked me out of the pattern to hold while the SR-71 did a few patterns before landing.
Click to expand...

An expanded view. Engine shop might be in the frame now. My brother worked on F-15 ALQ-119s there in the mid 80s.

BEC9C592-CB8A-47E1-ADDB-BC83602E6984.jpeg
 
Yep, the white building at the end of the long row of sun shades is the test cell, where I worked. Fun fact...not so fun - those sun shades were where they found some maintenance guys dead and wired to the supports when the wing decided to bug out and leave all the maintenance people during the war. That's why Kadena has the tail letters ZZ.

Also, the top of the picture is what we called the Navy side. The open hangar (top just left of center) near that large pad is where the SR-71s were housed.
 
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Velocity173 said:
Yeah you. Kadena.
Click to expand...

Aghh! Kadena. A C141 driver tried to kill me there. I was in the back with the cargo on the troop seats, sitting facing across the fuselage. Nasty weather, I could feel him kicking rudder all the way down on final. Big kicks. All of a sudden the engines get quiet, we fall a little then bam, hit the runway, bounce up. Then i'm leaning back, way back, big kick of rudder, wings level back up then bam again. Stayed on the runway this time. I would swear that the wing tip clearance from the runway could have been measured in inches. They did a crew change there. The crew gets out pretty quick but the passengers, there were about 10 of us I think, stay on the plane waiting for the passenger dude to come out in a bus to take us to the terminal. That took about 20 minutes. On the way out of the plane the cockpit door is swung open. Not all the crew got off. The pilot was still sitting there in the left seat.
 
luvflyin said:
Aghh! Kadena. A C141 driver tried to kill me there. I was in the back with the cargo on the troop seats, sitting facing across the fuselage. Nasty weather, I could feel him kicking rudder all the way down on final. Big kicks. All of a sudden the engines get quiet, we fall a little then bam, hit the runway, bounce up. Then i'm leaning back, way back, big kick of rudder, wings level back up then bam again. Stayed on the runway this time. I would swear that the wing tip clearance from the runway could have been measured in inches. They did a crew change there. The crew gets out pretty quick but the passengers, there were about 10 of us I think, stay on the plane waiting for the passenger dude to come out in a bus to take us to the terminal. That took about 20 minutes. On the way out of the plane the cockpit door is swung open. Not all the crew got off. The pilot was still sitting there in the left seat.
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How'd ya like that blast of sticky humid air when they opened the door? My first experience was when they opened the doors of the 747. I grew up in Arkansas rice country, I thought I "knew" humidity but that doesn't hold a candle to that of Okinawa.
 
Timbeck2 said:
How'd ya like that blast of sticky humid air when they opened the door? My first experience was when they opened the doors of the 747. I grew up in Arkansas rice country, I thought I "knew" humidity but that doesn't hold a candle to that of Okinawa.
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It wasn't sticky humid this flight, but yeah, I've gotten that. I went through Kadena about three times I think when I was over there. Biggest shock I ever got was cold though, stepping out at Elmondorf in December and windy. "Cold" doesn't describe it. Another rough approach, took him two tries to get down.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Yep, the white building at the end of the long row of sun shades is the test cell, where I worked. Fun fact...not so fun - those sun shades were where they found some maintenance guys dead and wired to the supports when the wing decided to bug out and leave all the maintenance people during the war. That's why Kadena has the tail letters ZZ.

Also, the top of the picture is what we called the Navy side. The open hangar (top just left of center) near that large pad is where the SR-71s were housed.
Click to expand...

For some reason I forgot to reply to you in an old thread about the 152s there. Yeah, N95925 was there (1998) amongst a few others. Can’t find my logs but probably had 5 hrs in 925.

EC86982B-F945-4E58-B588-6723921F2DC9.jpeg C788FAC7-6F1A-4653-BF97-173B278A2277.jpeg 2AE411EF-9CEB-468F-8310-5F34E34EFAC6.jpeg 8D61AB2E-4FE5-4854-B7C4-941D317EFF10.jpeg
 
Timbeck2 said:
How'd ya like that blast of sticky humid air when they opened the door? My first experience was when they opened the doors of the 747. I grew up in Arkansas rice country, I thought I "knew" humidity but that doesn't hold a candle to that of Okinawa.
Click to expand...

Lol! Man it’s funny you mentioned that. We took a Tower Air 747 from Kadena to Thailand and it was the exact opposite. Kadena was beautiful when we left but as soon as we stepped off the plane in Thailand, unbelievable heat / humidity. I joked with our ATC det cdr that we’d be doing PT in the AM, thinking ain’t no way he’s gonna PT us in this mess. Sure enough, he had our a** out there at 0600 running on the ramp. :(
 
295898D0-C04F-48E1-AE67-2C5FCF76A300.jpeg I’m sure Luv knows this one.
 
Timbeck2 said:
See at the left of the picture at the approach end of 5L, that's where I sent the Okinawan runway lighting guys diving for cover when I was fighting a crosswind on my first unsupervised solo. At the other end just out of frame of 5R was the engine shop where I worked. Right of picture, middle frame to the right of the tower was the ramp where the Aero club planes were parked. The congested area on the left above the runway (called Kadena Circle) was where they kicked me out of the pattern to hold while the SR-71 did a few patterns before landing.
Click to expand...

Did you get an FAA Certificate there? Or did you have to do some kinda conversion when you got back?
 
Velocity173 said:
For some reason I forgot to reply to you in an old thread about the 152s there. Yeah, N95925 was there (1998) amongst a few others. Can’t find my logs but probably had 5 hrs in 925.

View attachment 79488 View attachment 79489 View attachment 79490 View attachment 79491
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Oh -my-God! I have NO pictures of those planes and I flew all three of them. My first solo was in 95925 and it was brand new. I have a few hours in the other two. Where did you find those pictures? I know 925 was sold to Australia and 862 (I think) was sold to someone in Arkansas for aerial photography. If you have those pictures I'd like them. I'll pm you my phone number.
 
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luvflyin said:
Did you get an FAA Certificate there? Or did you have to do some kinda conversion when you got back?
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Not sure what you mean but I didn't finish my PPL there. I had 18 hours when I rotated back to the states and didn't pick it up again until early 2015. I wasn't a controller there either, I was a jet engine mechanic.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Not sure what you mean but I didn't finish my PPL there. I had 18 hours when I rotated back to the states and didn't pick it up again until early 2015. I wasn't a controller there either, I was a jet engine mechanic.
Click to expand...

PPL is what I meant.
 
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