<\/p>\n

Are you kidding me? These actually exist? Travel and Leisure Magazine <\/a>did a spread on some of the wildest runways around the globe. Let\u2019s just double check that all our tray tables and seatbacks are in the locked and upright positions.<\/p>\n

Discussed in the article are the\u00a0many variables in landing a plane to start with. Then you add in shortened runways, unique atmospheric and meteorological conditions, heavy air traffic, or a combination of those and you have yourself a white knuckle thrill ride . . . at least for some<\/em> of the people on board (we won’t mention any TheExpeditioner.com contributors or anything).<\/p>\n

Tom Claytor, a pilot with experience flying in and out of the Matekane Air Strip<\/a> in the small African country of Lesotho, talks about taking off from this short strip of concrete sitting inches from a vast couloir at 7,550 feet high, \u00a0sometimes \u201cyou shoot off the end of the airstrip, then drop down the 2,000-foot cliff face until you start flying.”<\/p>\n

The picture above was taken at Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of\u00a0St. Maarten, where pilots\u00a0are required to have additional training to fly there. Regardless of training or amount of Dramamine,\u00a0I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some seriously colorful language heard in these cabins (or cockpits).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you kidding me? These actually exist? Travel and Leisure Magazine did a spread on some of the wildest runways around the globe. Let\u2019s just double check that all our tray tables and seatbacks are in the locked and upright positions. Discussed in the article are the\u00a0many variables in landing a plane to start with. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2561],"tags":[3277,974,975,973],"yoast_head":"\n