Flying into Europe's Most Challenging Airport - Funchal, Madeira
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2021
- I have been wanting to go to Funchal, Madeira airport in Portugal for a long time, as I have heard so much about the scary and challenging landing there. I flew on a TAP Air Portugal A319 from Lisbon to Madeira in the morning. The pilot explained why Funchal, Madeira is a difficult airport to land. The variable wind on the final approach and the draft from the mountain has created tough conditions for planes to land.
After landing in Madeira, I went planespotting with local plane spotters. There are a lot of amazing locations to spot planes arriving and departing. I also went underneath the runway pillars, where the runway has been extended.
The next day I flew back to Lisbon on a TAP Air Portugal A321neo, with Retro Livery. I met with first officer Patricia onboard and she shared with me her aviation story. Check out her landing into Lisbon. Find out more from the video.
The fact that you were allowed to put your camera in the cockpit shows how chill the Portuguese are. Not many pilots would allow that. Neat video!
I’m Portuguese and yeah most pilots Portuguese do it
Hate to be a party pooper here, and I might be totally wrong, but this would not have been a "let me film in the cockpit, plz" while in mid-flight, it would have been absolutely pre-arranged long in advance with background checks etc etc etc. I work in film, and while have never shot anything in the cockpit during flight, an airline kindly gave us an empty, grounded (literally had its engines removed) A350 for a project I directed. The amount of checks we had to go through just to go airside and board a plane that was going nowhere took three weeks to clear.
But as I say, I might be totally wrong, and Sam might have simply asked and was granted.
@@bazil83 Pretty sure you are kind of right, this must have been arranged with the airline itself. still very cool
@@bazil83 depends who the pilots are like
@@bazil83 Yeah, plus Sam Chui is a huge name in aviation journalism. He has a team working for him to make these videos possible. I think at this point commercial airlines WANT him to make videos on them since he has such a huge following and authority on this subject, so it's free marketing
Soo many places to plane spot in and around Madeira Airport. Absolutely stunning!
Best place on Earth to spot planes!
@@michaeldatrindade1702 see one, then see the island.
Really beautiful 1st officer there at the end. Sam was smitten 😃
Been there before. Loved the airport and the island is one of the most beautiful and cleanest place i have ever been to. Portugal is just a stunning country!
thank you and cumpliments
Have you been to Spain?
Been To Madeira and Portugal, loved both countries. No regrets
@@SxpticFlxsh What did you like about Portugal?
@@SxpticFlxsh Today I learned that Madeira is a country xD
What makes your site Sam so much more professional from the others is the fact that somehow you keep getting permission to go and chat with the captains and first officers and are able to leave the cameras in the cock pit throughout the flight. Your footage is absolutely stunning and I really look forward to your videos. Outstanding work Sam. Thank you.
Viva Portugal 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 seu povo bondoso e trabalhador🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 suas imensas riquezas naturais como VOLFRÂMIO nas minas da Panasqueira, minas de Tungstenio e Litio em Brangança🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 imensas reservas de Gas Natural no Mar do Sul do Algarves, Terras fèrteis e clima ideal para producao de Trigo e Centeio nos campos do Alentejo, a maior reserva de pescados de toda Europa🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 usinas de energia eletrica limpa por força das Ondas no Mar Portugues🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 maior plantaçao de CASTANHAS em areas montanhosas da Europa 🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 maior e mais estrategica Base Militar Aerea no meio do Atlatico Norte nas ilha das Lajes nos Açores🤺🇵🇹🤺🇵🇹🤺 muita segurança nos Transportes Aereos com a TAP Air Portugal 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 8°maior reserva de Ouro💰 do mundo no 🏛Banco de Portugal🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 integraçao e amizade com todos os povos da EUROPA🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 Viva Portugal 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 viva as naçoes amigas e irmãs USA🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 UK🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 EUROPA🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺
I can recommend Plan Mania if you want real docu
I’ve seen a few videos of flights to Madeira but this is the best. We go to Madeira every year, such a beautiful island, excellent food and hotels and very friendly. Thanks for filming and sharing this.
Awesome video today! What an amazing airport, and such a beautiful island. Thank you so much Sam! 👍
I miss Portugal so much. What beautiful footage of the retro 321. One of your best, Sam.
Hi Sam, great video from our beautiful island Madeira. Thank you for your small interview at minute 4:37, it was an amazing pleasure and coincidence to have meet you in that flight. Hope to see you in the future again and enjoy your journey on Earth.
The best pilots ever!! Maneuvering a gigantic creation with ease ...hats off to you guys!
I'm always amazed at how much access you have to the cockpit and crew. Thankfully for us!!
Yep! My thought is this oriental guy is VERY WEALTHY MAN and have a lot of connections....
Great video, stunning locations, stunning pilots, thank you!
FNC is my favorite airport! Love the approach! Thanks for the share, Sam! Interesting to see what is underneath the runway! 👍🤗 OBRIGADO
What a great video! Sam really did a great job on this. Mission accomplished!
Been many times to Madeira, beautiful place, lovely people and always enjoy our flights into Funchal Airport, thanks for sharing this fabulous vlog, 👍 much appreciated 👍
runway extension under pillars- first ever i seen. looks amazing
below the airport there's few sports fields (like voleyball, football, tennis courts) and a small skate park, as well as a long way where people usually run
The runway was originally only 1600m long, it's now almost 2800m. It's the place of the only fatal aviation accident of TAP air where TAP 425 in 1977 ran out of runway when landing
Sam the cockpit views are spectacular! Congrats! Also a great contribution from Madeira Airport Spotting!
Incredible! Amazing Sam, how relaxed you are!
I know a few months old but this has got to be one of your best Videos ever! Thank you!
I have actually flown TAP but from LGW to Porto.
Personally I think TAP is great - excellent Pilots....
Sam absolutely love your channel. Ive watched everything 2/3 times. Great content man absolutely love you
My 1st flight ever when I was 9 years old was into Madeira. Captain Ibarra let me into the cockpit while cruising and because I was so curious about everything and showing so much interest, he asked me if I wanted to land there on the jump seat behind him! Best experience ever!!
On the return flight to Porto, I took off and landed in the cockpit as well. We ended up being friends after that :)
Cool story bro
Brilliant video thank you. Madeira is our 'happy' place, we've been there on holiday seven times in the last ten years. It's a beautiful island with the added excitement of that approach into land. Great that you met up with Pedro too and gave us a bit of a behind the scenes look at his work. Madeira Airport Spotting is one of my favourite channels.
I've started going there since I was 3 years old, I'm now 19. Also lived there for 6 years, from 6 to 12!
Going in January for our first time, worked with someone from madeira and it looks stunning!! Very nervous about flying and the landing in this airport in particular but I'm sure we'll be fine😊 the island does look very interesting and there seems to be alot of things to see?
Great photography and crew interaction. Well done!
Wonderful airline, wonderful people, thanks for sharing, take care to all.
What an engineering marvel that runway is 😍 Thanks Sam👍
Congratulations, Sam! Great video! Fantastic views! Madeira Airport is unique! I have been in Madeira a couple of times and it is a very nice place for holidays. Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil.
Espectacular landing e take-off. Parabéns
Been in many times in the B757 and have never know such a smooth calm day as that at this rather entertaining airport from a pilots perspective.
I love TAP and Madeira! Great video Sam!
Just been back from Madeira. True, this is one of the most amazing approach and landing. But so far the one that was the most thrilling for me was Queenstown airport in New Zealand.
And also, Madeira is a gem of an island. Stunning in every way.
Gotta say your travelogues are excellent, Sam. I really enjoy them. Impressive how you get cameras in the cockpit like that. Thank you for a great viewing experience.
@Madeira Airport Spotting, I think I haven't ever seen your self. Thank you for showing Sam all those spots that you use and nice to know your favourite one.
Sam thank you for the video.
I already flew there myself onboard an Condor A 321 during good weather conditions, it was still thrilling. What a great destination!
Super cool video from Madeira 👌👍 My wife and I enjoyed watching it on our big screen TV. Especially cool to see my spotter friend Pedro 🥳👏👍 Huge like from me!
Fantastic video and great to see you teaming up with Pedro!! Awesome!
Absolutely stunning footage of the cockpit!
I need to visit Madeira!! Thanks Sam.
I hope you are enjoying your stay in Portugal, my homeland.
Woow. Espectacular!! 😍✈️🇵🇹
Another very nice vídeo, this time in my Portugal.
Did not know about the skate and go kart spots under the runway.
Thank you.
Beautiful and superb landing, on beautiful Madeira!!!....miss it soooo much❤️🇵🇹🌴
And beautiful firts officer in the return flight!!!!!
Do you have roots to Madeira?
Love Madeira,been many times,landing can be a bit dicey at times. Hubby and I watched the airport being built,lovely to see it finished.
Your visit was wonderful Sam!
it was fantastic to meet you.
I hope in the future you visit Madeira again
Wow that final turn towards the runway...super awesome 👌👏💙🙌🙏
The pillars that supports the runway and the room its creats for parking and sporting activities..loved it 💯❤️
The engineering is amazing. Those pillars look to be about 200+ feet tall.
@@Sovereign_Citizen_LEO A wee bit more, 70 m (230 ft).
Just came back to Italy after 8 days of travel. We did an amazing landscape photography tour and we came back with amazing images! I’m quite scared of flying travelling after I had two bad experiences but landing and take of from Madeira was very well done. Funnily enough after landing in Madeira they told us it was the first flight of our captain! Also driving under the airstrip is really strange, it’s an interesting airport.
This is my favorite video of u Sam,really good stuff!
Wow ! The take offs and landings of the captain very very perfect.....
Awesome to see Madeira cross wind landing ......Wow what a view.....Loving all your videos ....Lots of love from India
That's seems good only for watching nah!! Its terrible in reality 💯🙏
@@Demir_Sonmez thanks for the mention mate💯
I fly into this airport all the time. It is amazing 🇵🇹✈
A lovely trip. Beautiful weather and island. Terrific video under the runway - I've never seen that before, or the views form near the airport. Wonderful to have places like that to watch the planes from.
Impressive flight journey and useful comments thanks for sharing 👌👌👌
Lovely video Sam ! It is interesting to see a an amazing female pilot landing a plane ❤️ we are so proud
Great camera position for capturing take-off and landing. I've never seen that before. Thank you for filming, editing, and posting.
Wow plane spotting is amazing and up close there!
I've seen a lot of videos of planes landing at this airport but this video is the BEST so far.
*Good to see your landing*
I love ur content
you're* and changed the whole meaning
Sam I learned to fly in Kansas. My instrument checkride was in 40Knot winds! It gave me a great base with which to never stress about winds! I’m a retired airline pilot. I teach pilots to fly the Cessna Citation X now! Love your videos!😎👨✈️🥂
Pls do moonwalk
@@thrustasymcomp9145 😂😂😂😂
Michael Jackson the biggest problem here (Madeira Airport) isn't just the strong winds but the strong cross winds. Imagine landing an airplane where 3 miles before landing you have strong winds from any direction (or not wind at all) and then just before landing you have a completely different situation, strong winds from 2 or more diferent directions
@@guidopestana9003 I've dealt with that...it's called windshear!
When I was in the airlines I had a really bad windshear experience. So I do know what that is....
I'm not saying it's not bad there. There are places all over the world with such problems
@@michae8jackson378 windshear and cross winds are two different things. And as I said here in Madeira we have both of that at the same time many times all year.
Our geography is basically cliffs and gorges/valleys. And the airport was built in a sea cliff between two valleys which makes it prone to this double problem.
For some reason is considered 1 of 10 most dangerous airports in the world.
You can find many videos on CZcams about the airport and how difficult (sometimes) is to land and many of those times the airplanes are diverted to other airport (canary Islands, porto santo Islands or even back to Lisbon)
I'm not saying it's always bad. Actually I've landed here dozens of times and only once felt a bit worried.
But the best thing you can do is came here (Madeira Islands) for a week. You will love the Island and if your lucky you might experience this "special" landing.
Just don't forget if you really come here to let me know so I can take you to some places around the island 🙂🍻⛰
Sam, love watching your reviews! Awesome insight into air travel. I would really like to see you redo the same legs but in economy and share!!!
wow, great filming angles of cockpit, pilots, and landing.
great video Sam. What a nice mrs. pilot :)
I was on a flight there this March, we landed perfectly during a storm; the day before planes were put on holding or even detoured to Gran Canaria due to poor weather. The island is magnificent, great views, good food, good alcohol ;)
😀👍👌 poncha
Beautiful flying to beautiful Madeira & Lisbon.
Nice one SC, this definitely inspires me to visit here for plane spotting, thanks for this awesome vlog
A place with such vibrant nature like Madeira had to have a special welcoming entrance. ✈
... and then spoil it with a statue of Cristiano Ronaldo.
@@hb1338 Indeed, I am Madeiran and it is just so embarassing 🤦🏻♂️
I have always been against it, but everyone goes to the sculpture to take a photo 🤦🏻♂️
@@DiogoF. i am also, last time i went to visit my family i thought they changed it??
@@ojcarre2432 Yes, the sculpture looks different from the original now.
@@DiogoF. yea, i think it would be nicer to have a sculpture depicting other parts of the islands history,
Welcome to Portugal Sam, Madeira is a paradise and its airport not everyone has nerves of steel.
Great airport, very chilled. Loved Madeira, hugely underrated.
Excellent video. When you have crosswinds landing can be very challenging and the approach can be scary. TAP pilots always try to land, it is amazing for us spotters.
That retro livery is just so delicious. Looks so cute.
It was used from 1946 to 1980 and to me it remains the most beautiful Indeed. Then they used another until 2006 which was ok, and I find the current one the worse of all. Namely it creates visual drag.
I'm from Madeira and pretty much 98% of landings went ok. A few go-arounds, aborted landings.
TAP pilots are more consistent overall. Had about 4 or 5 really hard landings due to wind conditions. I'm talking about people screaming and kids crying.
One time a french mid age lady seated next to me grabbed me by my forearm and literally scratch me pretty bad.
4 ~ 5 out of how many? It's not good if it is out of 10 times lol
@@SaadAltuilaai he said 98% of the landing were ok so im sure its not out of ten
yep I’m from Madeira too I had to go to Faro because of wind on 21st July 2022
And did you write down her Hotel and room number?? Obviously there is a subtle message in all that scratching from a middle age French woman! 💪😀
Hi, how is the climate in Januar? We want to visit Madeira with our kids. :)
Wow ! One of the best Sam Chui productions.
Amazing footage, thank you!
And that’s why we clap and thank the wonderful pilots for landing us safely in Madeira
🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
hope you stay some time in Madeira, Sam, and enjoy it :D
check the old photos of the airport with the shorter runway.... only one deadly accident there in the 70s, the single one in TAP's history
Coolest airport I have ever seen. Thanks Sam
LPMA was my first aviation experience, it was and still my yard , used to be an Aeroclube’s Madeira member and I did my PPL between 2005-2007 on Cherokee C PA28 as well as the TB10, the Christiano Ronaldo had been best and the most challenging airport I ever had as private pilot, in now days I’ve had some experience like Madeira in my career as a Comercial pilot around the world but nothing compared as Madeira. Thank you San Chi and Madeira airport Spotting for show us the magnificent airport that Madeira is. I wish you all the best. Regards
Fun fact until recent times, English companies that landed in Madeira only had Portuguese Pilots cause they are the ones who know it better and have enough experience to land like you showed in the first images (completely sideway)
@ThatScottishBusGuyツ and that’s pretty recent … he is mentioning like really back in the days, pre 00’s or even pre 90’s
Sorry, but you have been listening to the wrong people. I worked for British Airways for 10 years (1991-2001) and in that time they did not have a single Portuguese pilot flying for them. I know this because one of the systems I looked after was the one which sends crew details to their destination airport to facilitate quick immigration.
Landing in Madeira is not particularly difficult, certainly not to the point where any pilot has to be specially certified or even undergo special training. The occasional day when it is blowy is something which all professional pilots cope with easily.
@@hb1338 it’s not particularly difficult… in recent times, after that massive extension was built. It was a rather dangerous airport before and, as a matter of fact, the only fatal accident TAP ever had was there, because the runway was too short and the plane just overran it and crashed on the beach below.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAP_Air_Portugal_Flight_425
And yes, it *did* require special certification. And even today, it’s not an airport where less experienced pilots are just thrown in willy-nilly. Do you think the young first officer landing the plane in Lisbon instead of taking off from Madeira is a pure coincidence?
Calado eras um poeta
@Aaron Marques - Maybe after that accident?
I never had a problem flying into Madeira. Fortunately good weather each time :)
Lucky you took me 2 days to make it and in the second day the landing was sketchy
Only best pilots are allowed to fly to Madeira
@@ejusius We had to be selected then fly with a trainer the first two times into Madeira to become qualified
Thank you very much for this very impressive trip to Madeira! :-)
Great video !Thanks for making it
Sam I am not sure everybody that watched this video realizes the amount of editing that went into this video. It
was seamless and flowed. It seemed to me this was done at or near a professional level , great job , great video.
Everywhere you go, you have an amazing viem from the airport, definitely it's a beautiful island!!!
Have you been to Madeira?
this is a interesting video, beautiful pilot. Thank you!
Thank you Sam - this made me real happy
It's nice to see Pedro from Madeira Airport spotting 6:41 . I love to watch his videos !
"Chegamos fodasse" 4:16
o típico foda-se
Ahahahah 😂 não apanhei essa mas depois de mencionares, adorei!
Na realidade o que foi dito foi: "Ground Spoilers"!
ground spoilers
@@mariobento1191 Agora com essa informação... ja consigo ouvir isso.. até este moment era só o "chegamos fodasse" :D
The background music was awesome!!
Everything in that video was beautiful… how rare. ❤️
Incredible engineering behind building this airport
I saw you on Madeira Airport Spottings CZcams Story, hope you had fun!
same
So beautiful plane spotting areas.
Really exciting.👍
Amazing spotting visit to Madeira, you should try other visit with more emotional winds. The sympathy of Tap crew , the panoramic terrace and a retro delivery return flight, what a day ! You should return for the levadas, the amazing food , the sunrise at pico do areeiro. Madeira have everything and for sure that the plane trip makes also part of the experience for any visit to Madeira
I love how your almost always allowed to place cameras in the cockpit and that the crews are appreciating our all love for aviation 🤗🤙
Pilots should only be focused on flying. This is not safe. Mayday episode on its way.
@@TheActionStack don’t be ridiculous, the plane landed already
its called 2.6M subs privileges.... As a portuguese im ashamed of TAP for allowing this
@@p.6267 epá... esta merda ainda não é américa em que a malta tem de ter medo da própria sombra! já agora, Peter Peter é um nome portugês como o caralho!
@@p.6267 I agree the subs allowed him to do this. This is pretty much a promo for TAP so the pilots went along with the joke and the crew put in their best smiles and behaviour. If I asked to talk to the pilot about something (I play flying simulators) they would shut me down. Ill try tho since I have a flight in 2 days.
Nice video Sam! Interesting TAP still using paper charts…
The runaway underneath is amazing ! So cool !
Great footage Sam! Can't wait to visit Madeira!
I’ve landed in Funchal a few times before, I used to live there
It´s the most .... imagine 40 years ago, when it was only half the size. I landed there in 1975 in a 727. I still remember the (almost) extreme braking.
Awesome video Sam. Thanks!
Just magnificent Sam!