If there is one thing you don’t ever want to see or hear as a pilot in command of an airplane, it’s the terrain approaching warning going off like a panicking five-year-old. Not that the noise itself won’t scare you half to death, but the repetition of it blasting in your headphones while you try to remain calm and fly will tap-dance on that mystical “last nerve” like you wouldn’t believe. Now, normally, you shouldn’t hear the terrain warning in the States, excepting for a couple of radical locations in the Rockies or if you’re in Alaska. Elsewhere in the world, however, there are some inbound and out-bound paths to airports that will have you grasping for a hand-hold with both hands and possibly more body parts.
If you are a pilot flying into or out of Chagual in Peru, you don’t have a choice of using a gentler and safer route in…the approach and departure routes wind through some of the rougher points of the Andes mountains before making a left turn to the runway. My description will be wholly inaccurate for what is actually going on here, except to say that the pilot who is in control of the aircraft either has nerves of steel, skill at the top 10th percentile for a pilot, or has made his peace in life and isn’t concerned about the dangers anymore. We’d need sedation, and that’s just getting to Chagual. Leaving is even better: the taxi out includes a left turn on the runway and the hope that you gain enough speed before lifting into the valley. We’d be asking for an MD-90 for the sheer power of the turbines, not some random King Air that may or may not have the oomph to get halfway up into the valley.
Who’s willing to bet that the pilot is the kind of person who likes to randomly belt out, “Oh, no…” for his passenger’s “entertainment”?
(Courtesy of Flight Club)
I doubt that a cabin full of half-ton bags of Peruvian Marching Powder will be too bothered!
Let me tell you all a story. Years ago my father was deathly afraid to fly. When one of his buddies told him”If its your time to go.Then its just your time to go” . And my father replied .I have no problem if its “my time”. But if its the pilot’s time. I aint going with the SOB!!! Nuff said. I’m gona just drive were ever I have to go. And then maybe have to fly into,and back out again from someplace like this . Nope . I’ll drive thanks all the same.
I’d say going into and out of Lukla airport (Mt Everest) is the toughest in the world, check those videos out.
You can tell the airport is at high altitude based on the extremely long distance it took the plane to take off. No thanks.
As hairy as this approach appears just imagine that this is in the middle of the day in perfect weather. Imagine trying to land here in a storm with reduced visibility and high winds! I would have to imagine that traffic would be stopped at night and/or under reduced visibility/severe rinds. No way you could do this approach via IFR (instruments only). Would have to be VFR (visual).