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My partner and I were recently in Amazonian Colombia. One of the routes to a small indigenous community was serviced by a DC3. If you're not familiar with Amazo

My partner and I were recently in Amazonian Colombia. One of the routes to a small indigenous community was serviced by a DC3. If you're not familiar with Amazonia, indigenous communities are poor communities of people usually growing a small area of traditional crops, keeping chickens, etc, and lead a life somewhere in between their traditional culture and modern western rural poor -- campesinos. Anyway, it was well known that one of the DC3s had crashed and killed everybody a few years ago on the same route, and even when we were there one had a landing mishap where it started to land on the earth strip but then aborted the landing and took off again. It was hard not to see it as a very poor community with no agency or financial influence, but who nevertheless depended on the flight, being forced to accept a terrifying old plane when they'd much rather have one of the modern models that service the same routes.

snazz 5y ago
> even when we were there one had a landing mishap where it started to land on the earth strip but then aborted the landing and took off again. I was in a Delta-operated B767 in the US that did a touch-and-go landing like this because we bounced hard. If the pilots try to push the nose down after a bounce, there’s a chance that they push it too far and the plane crashes. There’s an Air Disasters/Mayday episode about a particular incident of this and why it’s much safer to go around and try to land again instead of salvaging a potentially doomed landing attempt. It’s a weird feeling but far safer than the alternative.
- da39a3ee 5y ago
  OK, I definitely believe you that it's the right thing to do and that the pilot knew what they were doing (in your case and in the Colombian Amazon), but, my suggestion is that that sort of scare is more common with the very old DC3s. A guy I knew there, who had served in the Colombian army, was clearly pretty scared of having to take the DC3.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  I had a triple go-around the last time I flew, Lufthansa, into to Amsterdam, pretty heavy storm, last flight to land before the airport closed. After the second time I had one of those 'what am I doing here?' feelings, even the pilot seemed super relieved to be on the ground.

snazz 5y ago

> even when we were there one had a landing mishap where it started to land on the earth strip but then aborted the landing and took off again. I was in a Delta-operated B767 in the US that did a touch-and-go landing like this because we bounced hard. If the pilots try to push the nose down after a bounce, there’s a chance that they push it too far and the plane crashes. There’s an Air Disasters/Mayday episode about a particular incident of this and why it’s much safer to go around and try to land again instead of salvaging a potentially doomed landing attempt. It’s a weird feeling but far safer than the alternative.

da39a3ee 5y ago
OK, I definitely believe you that it's the right thing to do and that the pilot knew what they were doing (in your case and in the Colombian Amazon), but, my suggestion is that that sort of scare is more common with the very old DC3s. A guy I knew there, who had served in the Colombian army, was clearly pretty scared of having to take the DC3.
jacquesm 5y ago
I had a triple go-around the last time I flew, Lufthansa, into to Amsterdam, pretty heavy storm, last flight to land before the airport closed. After the second time I had one of those 'what am I doing here?' feelings, even the pilot seemed super relieved to be on the ground.