Elmira is uniquely suited to a finish line, because it in effect is a finish cylinder. If you don't make the finish, you glide down and land in the valley. Few other airports have this lovely circumstance.

Yes and no. From the north and northwest, for sure. From some other directions, it depends on how far out you are when you see you're in trouble. The closer you get, the more Elmira looks like a more conventional site with few or no places to put down safely if you're a mile or two short. If you're willing to bail out before that, there are alternatives. But it's the guys who don't want to give up until it's too late that caused the problems in the past. So for many of the tasks we flew this year, we were back to "fly sensibly". Everyone did. And, yeah, it sure was fun!

Not trolling, BB. Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss something until you get to experience it again unexpectedly.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.