In a world first, Polish pilot Luke Czepiela has successfully completed an incredible landing on Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. Using a customized fixed-wing CubCrafters Carbon Cub STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) airplane, he touched-down on the supertall skyscraper’s helipad at a height of 212 m (695 ft) above the city, stopping with just a few meters to spare.
The helipad was a tiny target for Czepiela to work with. His “runway,” such as it was, provided a length of just 27 m (88.5 ft) to land and safely come to a stop. After two unsuccessful attempts on the morning of March 14, he pulled it off on the third, stopping in 20.76 m (68 ft). Following a short pause for celebration, he then took off again successfully, despite the limited space available.
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“The biggest challenge was the lack of any external points of reference, which is usually found at an airport where you have hundreds of meters of runway,” explained Czepiela. “Normally when approaching a runway, I see how high above it I am, and I can easily control the approach path. Today the helipad disappeared over the nose of the plane and my periphery was reduced. I had to rely on my practice and instincts when my last few references went away if I wanted to come to a stop before running out of space.”
Read more: New Atlas
