Originally Posted by
dr dre
I agree. Skiathos 02 LDA is 1570m. That's not much room in an A321 with over 240 people behind you. There's plenty of flight deck videos on YouTube of 737/320's from a variety of different operators approaching onto 02, the common factor is the aiming point and touchdown point seems to be well short of the 500' marks. Sometimes it's between them and the piano keys. Enough so that I'd say it's probably an SOP to have a short aiming point on this runway. In this case the main gear touchdown looks to be right at the start of the piano keys, well short for a normal runway but only marginally short for this one. Don't want to overrun, there's a steep drop off beyond the opposite threshold.
It isn't the fault of pilots that airlines are wanting them to fly bigger and faster aircraft onto runways originally built for much smaller aircraft. If anything the road in front of the threshold should be blocked off and an extension to the bitumen made all the way to the water. Maybe a boom gate system to stop traffic passing, or block off the road entirely? No pedestrians or spotters at all, it only takes a slightly low approach and a bit of thrust out the back for a serious injury.
If the aircraft’s normally conservative performance computation says it’ll stop in the distance available (using conventional approach techniques), then it’ll stop in the distance available without having to resort to unconventional techniques. If the performance computation says the aircraft won’t stop in the distance available (using conventional approach techniques) then it has no business being there.