Is Perth a tricky airport?

[englishal]

In the last 6 months I've been to Oz 4 times, and landed at Perth twice. Both times to Perth it has been onboard a Quantas 767-268 from Singapore, and both times I have had my life flash before my eyes.

1) Left cross wind, Pilot hits hard, plane veers to left and right wing dips 'alarmingly'. Jolt is so violent as to break my mates seat. Takes a few seconds for the aircraft to straighten up and feel 'under control' again.

2) Coming in to land, 400 feet or so (from the in-flight moving map thing) pilot executes missed approach. Comes back round for a try on another runway (opposite direction), lots of manouvering, surprised to see that at about 150 feet on final we're still doing around 300 km/hr. We hit the runway hard and the plane bounces, such a violent jolt the TV projector thing becomes unattached from the cabin ceiling.

Do Quantas use the SIN - PER run as a training route or something, I'm starting to get a bit concerned !

[redsnail]

I believe Perth can be a fun and entertaining place to land at. Perhaps some guys who fly there will answer more accurately. If you are really interested, ask "Checkboard", he flies 737's there.
BTW Qantas isn't spelt with a "u".


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reddo...feral animal!

[DX Wombat]

I have flown into PER many times as a passenger without mishap (Thank God) and in some fairly hairy weather. Perth is prone to winds off the ocean, winds off the hills, winds off the desert and turbulence from all those interesting warm thermals but the QF pilots fly in and out of there with monotonous regularity so know the airport's little foibles well. I think you have just been unlucky.

[englishal]

BTW Qantas isn't spelt with a "u".

Oops, sorry, old habit, U normally follows Q !

[hailstone]

also understand that PER has only far off alternate airports.
what is the closest is PER (and immediate vicinity) is closed for weather ?

[Sunny]

The airports that we use as alternates for Perth are Learmonth (1:30hrs away) and Adelaide (2:30 hrs away).
The crosswinds at Perth make flying in there quite interesting at times, but it's not really that tricky.

Cheers

[Pom Pax]

Why isn't Kalgoorlie used more often? Only 1 hour from Perth. A 767 used it once and the local rag reports they are going to build a sterile area.

[Lurk R]

Don't forget that 767's have wheels dangling opposite way to other aircraft - this tends to give the effect of a rough touchdown.