Something you won't see very often

We flew to Beirut this afternoon, very nice day. They were using runway 16 for arrivals which means you are over the water but basically paralleling the shoreline all the way down the approach. That runway is built out into the Mediterranean. The weather was clear, winds were about 240 at 4 gusting to 5 (for the taildragger pilots out there). The Med was about as flat as I’ve ever seen it.
We were about 9 miles behind an Airbus 330 on the approach. At about 3 miles from touchdown we could see where the wingtip vortexes from the Airbus were hitting the water in front of us. They were really stirring things up, in fact there were two tiny mini waterspouts being kicked up vertically. I doubt they were over 10 or 15 feet high but there was defiantly airborne water.
And I didn’t have my camera.

John

Very nice
Its always when you haven’t charged the camera batteries or its just out of reach when really cool things are seen. (Nessy, bigfoot,)

I’m watching the Mumbai situation on CNN as I type this John, stay safe over there.

Flash Earth satellite here’s your runway.

Beruit Airport very interesting!, history.

PHOTO

and your photo!! Smoking Speys!!!

Rolls-Royce Spey

We are back in Jeddah now so I just have to watch out for the idiots on the road.
Nice links robbreid. The microsoft view is an old picture, it looks like the land for the FBO mentioned in the wikipedia article is just being cleared at the north end of the airport, but it’s been open for about 3 or 4 years. The runways were renumbered a few years ago, now 16/34 and 17/35. The rest of the article is pretty accurate, although they still need to repave the taxiways.
I never seem to have my camera when we visit the beach in France either. Those would be disgusting pictures I couldn’t post here though… 8)

sigh

John

I grew up in Lebanon and still have fond memories of flying in and out of there from the earliest 70’s to 79; my last trip out from there. It was the old airport I believe, the one that got all its runways bombed and cratered :frowning:
Last time we flew out, April 1979, being a lifelong airplane aficionado I took a bunch of pictures on my little 110 camera. We flew out KLM to Athens (again… the old Athens airport).
I took tons of pictures that I had up to about 1987 or so and they’re all gone.
Next time you’re over Antelias, Beirut, Bourj Hamoud, Sin-El-Fil, Jounieh, Casino Du Liban, Baalbek, Aanjar… you get the idea, just say a silent hello from me…
Maybe some day I’ll go back and see a totally different country.

I’ll be glad to wave hello for you. Like most of the world I doubt you would recognize it.
When I first flew into Beirut, maybe…7 or 8 years ago, there were still quite a few buildings around south and west Beirut that had bullet holes (big ones) in them. Lots of unfinished construction around too. Now 99% of the holes are gone and the construction has been rather amazing, lots of money being pumped in from the Gulf states.
The airport is still the same one you remember, there are quite a few spots where the concrete changes a lot from one square to the next. I suspect from old holes being repaired.

John

Yes the bullet and shrapnel holes… we hade quite a few of those on our house. Broken windows too. As a kid there, we used to collect bomb shrapnel, spent bullets and casings and display them at home. What a hobby!
I looked at Google maps and you’re right, I hardly recognize the city. i had a hard time finding the building we last lived in; I had to go find some landmarks first (big curch nearby). looks like 3 other buildings have sprung up on the same lot now and our makeshift soccer field is gone.
Thanks for sending my mind back there, I wish you well.