Sam Chui

Join me on an exciting vintage Boeing 727 flight from Colombia to Venezuela. The Boeing 727, known for its versatility, is a true workhorse.

Aerosucre is a cargo airline from Colombia that currently flies the B727. I joined the three-man crew in the cockpit to see how they fly the 43-year-old trijet. Our takeoff used almost the entire runway at Bogota. During the gear-up retraction, an unusual, loud vibrating noise was heard. The captain later clarified about the unusual noise.

Unlike modern airplanes, the Boeing 727 carries a flight engineer who has a workstation behind the pilot. F/E Guillermo talks about his work as a flight engineer. After 1.5 hours of flying, we landed safely in Caracas, Venezuela. The cargo was offloaded quickly, and we took off empty like a rocket ship on our way back. On the return leg, the young First Officer with just two months of 727 flying experience is landing the plane!

As of April 2025, just 14 Boeing 727s are still in commercial service. What a great privilege to experience some of the finest yesteryear aviation has to offer.

Join me on an exciting flight to Europe’s most extreme airport: Courchevel in the French Alps.

We started from Buochs, Switzerland, where Pilatus makes its famous PC-12. Captain Alexandre from JetFly joined me on the flight deck. It was a bright and clear day. En route, we saw many mountains, including Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. The scenery was out of this world!

Courchevel has a very short runway of only 537 metres and a gradient of 18.6%. Due to the surrounding mountainous terrain, there is no go-around procedure for landings at Courchevel. Captain Alex explained the landing procedures while we circled above the airfield. It requires precision landing to avoid the terrain in front.

The airfield primarily sees use by smaller fixed-wing aircraft such as the Cessna 208 Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, as well as helicopters. The runway has no instrument approach procedure or lighting aids, making landing in fog or low clouds unsafe and almost impossible.

The airport is considered dangerous, as it features a difficult approach, an upward-sloping runway, and ski runs in the adjacent area. It ranks as one of the seven most extreme airports in the world.