SNA's other problem is it's location. Perpendicular to the ocean, and a bunch of NIMBYs who live under the departure path. It requires approaches from over the smoggy land, and some rocket fueled departures to quickly gain altitude. Did an Alaskan 737 out of there and the pilots do warn you about what is about to happen. The stand on the brakes. Push the engines wide open. Accelerate, rotate, approach the maximum angle of attack up to about 3,000 feet and then cut the throttle back to just above idle as the plane passes over the the homes of folks who moved there AFTER the airport was built. Otherwise I'd nominate ORD for runway config (so many intersecting runways) and LGA/DCA for "nice airport" but "bad location." Matthew On Jun 8, 2004, at 8:32 AM, damiross2@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > SNA has 2 runways: > 1L/19R is 5701 feet long > 1R/19L is 2887 feet long > > While the larger aircraft obviously can't use 1R/19L, it does take > some pressure off of 1L/19R by separting smaller general aviation > aircraft from the longer runway. > > David R > > >> At 03:13 PM 6/7/2004 -0700, Clay Wardlow wrote: >>> Hello everyone, >>> >>> What's everyone's opinion as to the (worst) airfield configuration >>> for a >>> major airport? >>> >>> I've heard that SNA and BOS are pretty bad. Where else do you all >>> think? >> >> I'm not particularly familiar with BOS. SNA has the same limitations >> as any >> single runway airport; you could just as easily name LGW, London >> Gatwick, >> which probably gets more traffic. >> >> Personally, I'd use SFO, San Francisco International, as an example >> of "how >> not to do it." Yes, it has two sets of parallel runways -- but >> they're too >> close together for dual operations in ILS conditions. Maybe they were >> far >> enough apart for contemporary planes when the runways were built, but >> now >> they're an embarrassment. >> >>> Clay - SEA >> >> Nick (IAD)