A Place to Write: YVR Runway 26R

Everyone has a favorite place to read or write. To be inspired enough to write, be it on pen and paper, or on a laptop, usually requires some more effort than reading a proper book. Especially if you need to hold open a book while you do it. A quiet coffee shop may be the perfect place for both. But people are overcrowding coffee shops, occupying every available seat, often only one to a booth, and these places are at their best when they are slow.

Runway 26R, that is, the RIGHT runway at its 260-degree angled direction. There are only four of these, on average, to an international airport's double runways and often two ends are out over the water. Runway 26R is the latest runway, and it is the apex of modern runways. When the double-decker Airbus A380 was doing polar tests, it would frequently land here on its jaunt north.

A Category 3 runway refers to a classification within the aviation industry that indicates a runway's ability to accommodate aircraft during low visibility conditions, particularly in fog or heavy rain, also known as the "Vancouver theme."

Category 3 (CAT III) runways are also equipped with advanced technologies, including precise instrument landing systems, and require specific training for pilots and additional equipment on aircraft to ensure safe landings under such conditions.

At Vancouver's YVR Airport, three runways are inaccessible to the driving (and writing) public, while the fourth (26R) is perfect for watching planes land — and writing beneath them as they thunder down 50 meters overhead. It's aviation porn. It's the main runway used for landing so quite often there will be a long lineup of planes coming in over the suburbs.

It was great for pen-to-paper writing provided you're comfortable in your car. Now I try different coffee shops and so far I haven't found one that works on all fronts. First, to expand my point earlier, the seat must be able to hold your weight for an hour or two. Some places have what I call get-the-f*ck-out chairs that seem to end their bargaining with my glutes after fifteen minutes. I also identify get-the-f*ck-out lighting which is usually super bright and get-the-f*ck-out tables, usually with a wobble all to the tune of get-the-f*ck-out-music.

Libraries are often great places to write, they're quiet, they often serve ersatz coffee now, they have their reference section, and the temperature is often just right.

Now I smoke a pipe, I like to walk outside, duck around a corner, and light it up for a few strong inhales. Normally this is never a problem unless I have to save my table, and bring my laptop with me so it doesn't get stolen. Thieves... I hate them for the inconvenience they caused, whether they are present or not.

I often try out a new coffee shop with my friends to where we can play a few games of chess at. Chess, a game that can be played nearly anywhere there's a flat surface, has become such an oddity that we often have onlookers, fans, people who used to play, and people who want to learn how to play.

It's only about $15 to get a chess set so I'm not sure why we never find anyone else playing this historic game about wonky tables but we don't. And with a new coffee shop comes the test of music, seats, draughts, table wobbliness, and coffee. Every time it's a Venn Diagram of possibilities fighting optimal conditions. I think most coffee shops want you there for about 20 minutes then it's time to leave and let another rotation settle in.

Of the 30 coffee shops we've tried for chess and I've tried for writing, there are only a few I'd ever recommend as a good place for both exercises. However there's no coffee at the runway, it's a bring-your-own-java situation.

You get your seat and you get your unique views of jets a hundred feet up, flying over your head, 24/7, often with scarcely a few moments between landings. So trying to align all the ambiance for chess/reading/writing isn't as widespread as I'd have thought. I certainly see people reading and writing at coffee shops but they seem molded into their seats and limited to a small space. Maybe they fit. There's still the get-the-f*ck-out music though. I say head to the end of your airport's runways and enjoy man's triumph of heavier-than-air machines!