Do pilots have favourite airports?

Landing is a busy time for pilots, yet they do get to glance out the window from time to time, and if there's a chance to demonstrate their landing skills, that's icing on the cake. Set on the edge of a lake and ringed by mountains, New Zealand's Queenstown airstrip requires a snaking approach through sharp hills above pastures and vineyards and down into the trough of the Kawarau River Valley, with the possibility of strong downdraughts and a relatively short runway to focus pilots' attention. Christchurch is another favourite flying east from Australia, the wild and unruly snow-capped peaks and glaciers of the alps ramping down to sheep pastures in billiard-table green. The airport at Lord Howe Island has a superb approach over a coral-studded lagoon against a backdrop of forested volcanic peaks, and at just 866 metres, it's a skills test for the Qantaslink pilots. Sydney also rates high, especially when the flight path takes the aircraft over the harbour west of the city centre, and better still at dawn or dusk. It's the captain, sitting in the left seat, who gets the postcard view of the Opera House, the bridge and the harbour all the way to the heads.