The vast majority of modern international airports are designed and constructed with 'safety' a primary consideration. After all, airlines would have a very difficult task building strong customer bases if their aircraft kept falling out of the skies on final approach - definitely not an attractive way of maintaining market share! With that in mind, it is probably fair to say that most commercial and domestic airports are rather bland affairs uninteresting and boring slabs of reinforced concrete runways lying on huge areas of cleared flat real estate. Airlines like it that way, insurance companies demand it that way and fare paying passengers feel safer that way.
But from a pilots point of view that doesn't mean to say that these airports are undemanding, or indeed, as tame as their appearance might indicate. It would of course be totally irresponsible and a gross overstatement to suggest that all airports are dangerously difficult to land on - that clearly is not the case. But the truth of the matter is that some airports are far more difficult to land on than others, therefore pilots are required to have a high degree of flying skill, and must regularly go through rigorous training schedules to keep them at peak performance to enable them to handle every conceivable situation.
Approaches can be difficult in many different ways. I'll only cover a few instances here. For example, runways can be unsafe due to shoddy repair work. Ongoing construction can also present safety issues; you may remember a couple of years ago a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 crashed and burst into flames on take-off with a large loss of lives. The reason given for the aviation disaster was that the captain of the aircraft unknowingly took off from Taipei International Airport from a runway that was under construction during a night flight. The aircraft hit machinery that was parked on the runway. It could have happened just as easily on an approach. Another danger is intrusive terrain encroaching on a flight path particularly that of a final approach. Then there's obtuse entry angles where aircraft have to make sharp turns onto very short final approaches. The list goes on an on, which includes all types of bad weather conditions, malfunctioning instruments and equipment including engine failure, poor ATC communications, fuel problems, payload difficulties, fire, sickness, etc. The list is too extensive to repeat here, but I'm sure you get the message
Then there's extremes like terrorism. Imagine being the pilot of an aircraft that had a terrorist onboard. As a pilot, you'd be as jumpy as all hell, wouldn't you? Thankfully, the simulator world is free of terrorists we've got hackers instead but hang on a minute, aren't they terrorists too? A worm in your simulator could bring your aircraft down in the sea off Hong Kong just as easily as a real terrorist onboard a real aircraft could do the same! But back to the real world; what if there was a bomb onboard your aircraft.? You sure wouldn't be singing 'Happy days Are Here Again,' if you knew that an explosive device was primed to go off in the cargo hold any tick of the clock? Or what about a passenger going berserk on an aircraft (it does happen). All these things affect a pilot's performance. And here's one that is rarely mentioned at all pilots themselves can make even the safest approaches dangerous. How? Inexperience that's how! Look at the evidence, there's thousands of accidents at small airports all over the world every year, which are largely caused by new and inexperienced pilots.
I've mentioned all of this to encourage you to appreciate some of the difficulties and dangers involved in bringing an aircraft down to earth safely. The next time you fly your simulator you might remind yourself of these facts and fly a better approach due to your greater awareness.
You will find that I have included in these volumes quite a large number of international airports for you to practice on. I must confess that some of these are relatively straight-forward approaches and perhaps do not rightfully deserve a place in Doherty's Difficult and Dangerous Approaches. However, I have included them for two reasons. The first is that they bring balance and harmony to this collection of approaches, otherwise these volumes would be lop-sided and contain nothing but light aircraft and small jets, and I strongly feel that simers would eventually come to be dissatisfied with that mix. However, I haven't just thrown any old international airport into this collection hoping that they'd be accepted by simers without question. That would be foolishness on my part, because I know only too well that simers are a hard bunch to please, and being one myself I recognize and empathize with that fact. I have I believe, sought out some challenging airports that will satisfy most of my critics. But please bear in mind about what I said at the beginning of this article 'the vast majority of modern international airports are designed and constructed with safety a primary consideration.' I guess what I am trying to say is this: it is very difficult to find truly difficult and dangerous commercial international airports. But some do exist and you will be introduced to these progressively throughout the series. Please don't expect them all to be as complex as a Chinese wooden puzzle, that's stretching our relationship too far. You may or you may not agree with my selections, but I have done my best, and if that does not please everyone, then so be it.
The second reason is we must not forget that we have a growing number of new simers joining the world of flight simulation every day, with many of them struggling for the first time with 'heavy' jet aircraft. Some of these approaches may be too much for them to handle initially, but with a little practice, especially with the approaches in these volumes, they'll be flying like pro's in no time at all. So, these airports have been included for new simers, they need the practice and are usually hungry for the experience. But if you're a case-hardened flight simulator veteran who have flown everything, including a broomstick, don't shy away from these simple commercial airport approaches; they are really quite challenging, good fun and very rewarding to do. Anyway if you are anything like me, you find all approaches interesting and testing.
Finally, I regret having to say this, but do not apologise for doing so. There are some people in this world that are dissatisfied with everything they go through their entire uneventful lives moaning, groaning, and generally complaining about everybody and everything on the planet. Their sole mission in life seems to be to make everyone else as miserable as as they are themselves. I personally know a number of developers who have released freeware only to be blasted with thoughtless, rude and sometimes obnoxious emails from the very same group of people that I have just described. Sure, they had good responses too, that cannot be denied, but it was the cruel and unkind comments that lingered the longest in their minds. It was the stupid comments that made them wonder if producing freeware was worth their effort. I have tried to convince them that it was. All developers should expect a little criticism from time to time, one grows as a result of it, but there is nothing clever by being discourteous, bad-mannered loud-mouthed or rude,it only turn developers away. Think about that for a moment can you afford to allow that to happen to our hobby?
So now it's my turn in the torture chamber. But some of the idiots have written to me already! They sure didn't waste any time! No doubt I've probably got many more to come. They're out there in large numbers, believe me! I'm sure they work in gangs! Yeah, the silly letters keep on arriving with monotonous regularity and I keep on transferring them to the trashcan with same amount of rhythm.
Look,If you don't like Doherty's Difficult and Dangerous Approaches, that's fine, I can handle that, I don't set out to please everyone. But you are wasting your time making a big production number out of it because I'm tone deaf. The solution to your problem is very simple. Uninstall DDDA and don't download anymore. It really is that simple? Then get on with your life that way I can get on with mine too. Is that too much to ask?
On the other hand if you enjoy Doherty's Difficult and Dangerous Approaches and you have an intelligent questions to ask, or plausible suggestions to make,and yes,even if you have a bit of good natured criticism to offer, I would be delighted to hear from you.
I have also received a great many very pleasant letters from all over the world and it has given me a considerable amount of pleasure responding to them.
Happy siming
Doherty's Difficult and Dangerous Approaches: Written, produced and distributed through nominated websites by Michael Doherty.
Email:doherty@cytech.com.au
