Don't go here on your PPL!
Okay, these aren't exactly eligible for Kelley's 'Which airport is this' series, but I thought I'd share a couple of approach pictures with you (including a way-hairy one!) from an RAF C-130J sortie I hitched a ride on last week.
The above shot is on finals to Kabul, Afghanistan in what can only be described as British-style weather conditions at the end of our sortie; not a good thing when your runway is above 6,000ft and you come out of the cloud at 10,000ft surrounded by mountains some 3,000ft higher. We had departed Kabul over five and a half hours earlier on an ISAF mission which sent us to Meymaneh, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat, spending no more than 15 minutes on the ground at any location, with the engines running throughout.
Without question, the highlight of the flight was our arrival at Meymaneh, a gravel strip used to support a contingent of Norwegian troops and just about long enough to get a Hercules into. You can just about make the strip out in the below image if you look above and left of the fluffy dice - nice touch, Herc mates! Thankfully we got in and out okay and I didn't need my helmet and body armour, but better safe than sorry!
