“You know how to fly, don’t you?” “...Unhhh, no. Do you?”

Indiana Jones
;)

Dog Star, are you Sirius? ;)

At his age, should be even be driving a car on busy roads let alone flying a high performance aircraft ?

'course - you are never going to age and want to keep on driving, or flying, are you ?

If he passes his routine medicals and biennial flight checks who are you to deny him to any age ?

I maintained a CPL until age 75, not for some remuneration but for the qualification required for the voluntary task I wished to perform, and still hold a recreational flying licence, and no, my doctor isn't a "special friend"

and .... how many of those other drivers hurtling towards him on "busy roads " have ever even seen a doctor - have you ?

https://s8.postimg.org/kr4xxzshx/SNA_Approcah.png

"Approach" view of SNA. From left, 'taxiway' A (light colored tarmac adjacent to terminal), taxiway C, 20L (both medium toned), and a dark asphalt 20R, and taxiway B (medium toned, adjacent to GA facilities and control tower).

The fact that this pilot landed successfully on a "runway" only 10m wide - about the wing span of his aircraft - with the added distraction of a large passenger jet unexpectedly taxiing underneath him when he was about to flare, would indicate that he is not past it just yet.

When he gets his "please explain" letter from the FAA(because this is all this minor incident warrants really), I would recommend that he asks them to tell the airport operator to mark their runway more clearly - at the moment there are no piano keys or even gable markers or cones in use - see previous picture(and just because it is a VFR runway is a pretty weak excuse not to do so).

20R piano keys could do with a repaint too if this hasn't happened already!

In return, he could promise to use all the resources at his disposal before he flies e.g. study Google Earth's representation of the destination airport(s) and work out what each approach will look like etc., and this should be the end of the matter.

As has been mentioned in previous posts, there is plenty at this airport to confuse a pilot and a runway that is hardly distinguishable from its next door taxiway is not helpful.

@ Metro Man high performance aircraft?! It was a Husky! Lol perhaps you were getting confused with the Millenium Falcon? ;-)

Husky!? High performance? :ok:

From the picture of vapilot I hardly get he should have missed the runway. He flies there frequently and he flies a lot and will know that airport very well. If you don't see the numbers on short final, you go around and so will he most probably. Was there a young blonde Indyfan on right seat?

My dad was flying until 81 years.

At my local field we have a 92 year old that flies on a regular basis and is mentally more alert than the average 60 year old.

I hope we are not going to make this into an age thing
I remember Harrison Ford flying into a small UK airport a long time ago he is a true aviation enthusiast

Making a mistake like that is not unique not even to airlines
I remember only too well the Ryan air mistake at Londonderry where a 737 approached and landed on a nearby disused airport

The PAX had to be bussed out but the disused airport obviously wasn't identified as such by either the professional Captain or his FO

In a basic aircraft like the Husky it is a pure visual aircraft and hence much more likely that a visual mistake was made
I also ask where were ATC in this ?
Surely they should have told him to Go around as he was landing on a taxiway?

I very much doubt ATC would be able to see the difference until the wheels just about touch the tarmac by which time it is over and done with.

All over the news!

I'm with Pace. Plenty of airliners with two highly qualified "younger" F/D crew have landed/taken-off on the wrong piece of tarmac, or even landed at the wrong airport. Circumstances can confuse anyone at any age. His name, not his actions, is what has made this a headline event.

Re post 32, for the record the "Ryanair 737" was an Eirjet A320 operating a Ryanair flight. Landed at the former RAF Ballykelly instead of City of Derry Airport.

Did they charge him the landing fee? :}

Of course you do know what's going to happen if they paint a set of piano keys on that small runway - he'll accidentally land his 737 on it (does he even have one, maybe some other Harrison wannabe will have a crack at it).

And didn't Dan Air land at the former RAF Nutts Corner on approach to Belfast (Aldergrove) back in the eighties. Again, there were a number of incidents when pilots confused the runways of RAF St. Athan and Cardiff (Rhoose) which had parallel runways a few miles apart, the visual clue was the cement works in between the two, so for St. Athan they needed to be on the right. Also I have a feeling Air Malta had a problem at Gatwick over confusion between the runway and parallel taxiway, again in the eighties.

Alan

Thanks for the detailed correction you are correct

He was attempting a landing on 20L at approximately high noon (12:06pm) in February. This would have put the sun due south somewhat to his left and overhead, but not high overhead.

Those lighting conditions are different enough from the photos we've seen that I wouldn't rely on them to determine the apparent shades of grays.

Also, when comparing the image provided by vapilot2004 to Google, Google shows the grass as brown not green, and 20L as a closer color match to 20R than to taxiway C.

The mighty BA managed to attempt a landing at Bermuda some years ago on a disused runway. Only one actual runway there but a couple of stubs left over from US Navy days. Approaching from London you can see one runway from the intercept heading to the other which is obscured by a chain of low hills. Turned onto approach that one and shortly after startled that end of the island with a go around when they realised, actually that doesn't really look like its 10,000 feet long.

So any one it seems can do it with the right circumstances and its abit unfair on old Han Solo to make such an issue of it. Clearly it is an issue to be investigated by the authorities but in the US there are probably half a dozen a day like it