I don’t thick that pic is the right way up, Achim. Look at the house in the foreground.
The house in the foreground is a stone mill in the quarry. It’s probably tilted. Here is a view from short final and from the top. Taking off downhill does take some balls as it looks like you’re going directly into the quarry/forrest. I can remember my wife was screaming from takeoff roll until quite some time after rotation 
It’s really a fantastic experience to fly there. No qualification or anything required, you can just go there.
I’m not sure I understand the problem here. There are no rotors on the top of mountains. There could be downdraft on the lee side, even far above the top, but rotors always form way below the top. These people simply drove off the runway for some reason.
Taking off into that quarry looks pretty scary
He’s the straight version of the other one – slightly less scary
I spend ages straightening out my trip pics… neither Lightroom nor ACDSEE makes it really quick.
LeSving wrote:
I’m not sure I understand the problem here. There are no rotors on the top of mountains. There could be downdraft on the lee side, even far above the top, but rotors always form way below the top. These people simply drove off the runway for some reason.
The ‘numbers’ of rwy 22 at Catalina are below the top of the hill and the threshold is at the edge of a steep cliff.
Koblenz is on my list of places to fly to one day. The 06 approach/landing has quite a bad reputation. Will not be able to compare with Catalina Island, though.
The basis for comparison could be arranged but you’d likely need to buy an airline ticket first
Approaching Catalina from Dana Point on a roughly westerly heading, one way to get visually situated relative to the island is to overfly the field at 1000 ft over circuit altitude then on the far side of the runway make a descending left hand cloverleaf to align with right downwind for 22. Then fly by the numbers, 500 fpm descent etc. If you do end up too high, its useful to be flying a plane than sinks like a stone when needed. The rotor can make that technique useful anyway.
Sonnen looks like fun to me.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
Koblenz is on my list of places to fly to one day. The 06 approach/landing has quite a bad reputation. Will not be able to compare with Catalina Island, though.
Koblenz is one of my favourite places to fly to, the food at the Greek restaurant at the airport is good. Also, I’ve never really had a problem with 06, just recall fondly the first time I came in to land using 24. In order to avoid overflying villages, the turn from downwind to base occurs fairly close to the threshold and then obviously the turn to final puts you on an unusually short final – at least it was for me. Either way, I came in high, remember slipping rather aggressively in the Archer to get down, glanced across and from the corner of my eye saw my front seat passenger, his mouth and eyes wide open, terror showing across his face….. I burst into laughter which only served to convince him that I’d deliberately gone out of my way to scare him. Since then, I ensure I brief passengers about any manoeuvres I am about to do, even warning them about disconnecting the autopilot because an unusual noise can unsettle some guests, the look of horror with a brief “what’s that?” can then be avoided….
@achim, Sonnen – wooohooo! Would love to try that one, next time I’m in Europe!
Oh man, I was actually pondering a trip out to Catalina this afternoon & then I read this thread – damn it!
Looks like he simply ran out of braking power as he landed downslope on rwy 04. Definitely something to look out for. Come to think of it, all my landings have been on 22 so far.
Hodja wrote:
Oh man, I was actually pondering a trip out to Catalina this afternoon & then I read this thread – damn it!
Hey, it’s a great day, go for it! I have landed on 04 once for training purposes, no wind, and it’s, ahem, interesting!
Btw, where are you based? Sounds like quite a few ‘Euro’ flyers are here in the L.A. region, perhaps we can organize a fly-in?
