9N-AKE as it came to its parking bay, it would have to make a tight right hand turn, how could the pilot shut down the left engine? He needed to apply some right brakes and a lot of left engine power to pull through this last right hand turn ... I am a retired pilot, had flown 2500+ hours on twin turbo prop
awesome video as we can understand the high capacity of pilots to take off or landing with a 500 m. runway no possibility of go around even with the abilities of these wellknown twin otters STOL... respect...
I tried Lukla in several simulators, and oh boy, did it go wrong several times. At first, it was in X-Plane 11. I picked a flight from Kathmandu, got a lovely Cessna C172 Skyhawk. Great plane. The only issue is that the mountains surrounding Lukla are a tad higher than C172's service ceiling. I stalled several times trying to get over the ridges, eventually smashing it into the last one. Next time i tried it in the lovely (but for the purpose of VNLK way too fast) Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet. This time i made it to the general area without issues, but before i got there, a bit of cloudy weather came in, and Lukla doesn't exactly have an ILS. So i circled around in hopes to catch a glimpse of the runway or at least the village, and eventually saw SOMETHING. X-Plane isn't exactly known for great scenery, much less in these remote regions. I did install some orthotextures and freeware VNLK, but any sign of human life was barely recognizable. So i aimed at the place where i HOPED the runway to be, only to find out i'm way off to the right and almost ate the rock again. I somehow managed to avoid the cliff ahead of me, did a turn and after that i finally saw the runway proper. I managed to get myself somewhat oriented, but i was nowhere close to the speed required to make it, managed to touch down around the middle of the runway, obviously couldn't brake in time and smashed into the wall at the end. The little jet burst into flames, but i survived, somehow. When MSFS came, i decided to try again, but this time i did a bit of research. What planes actually fly there, what the approach parameters & procedures are etc. Did another flight with Pilatus PC6 Porter and actually managed to land that time. I was still way too fast, touched down too late, and had to slam on the brakes to not hit the wall, but that made the airplane stop before i made it to the level part of the airfield, and the plane started sliding backwards. After alternating between putting in full throttle and slamming on the brakes, i managed to awkwardly zig-zag upwards the rest of the slope and finally made it to the aprons. Then i started training by doing the departure, climb, few circles around the area, back to landing, and eventually got to the point where my spatial orientation and energy management got good-ish enough so i could land at proper angle & speed and use the remaining energy to get to the apron without stopping too soon (or too late). It's fascinating how hard it is to actually find the airstrip from the air, even on a day without clouds. I wonder if it's like that in real life as well. There's an airport like that in France. Also sloped short runway, "ski-jump" departure, one-way only. Courchevel. But unlike Lukla, Courchevel strip is visible from far away. I always have trouble initially finding the airport and orienting myself around Lukla. No matter how detailed the surrounding scenery is in the simulator. There's just something confusing about these enormous mountains. And when i see it, i'm always shocked again and again, how small the tiny airstrip is. Learning is fun.
@@nicholasgilroy2539 I would love to visit great many places, including Lukla, unfortunately it's out of my financial means. And i'm not 20 anymore to just wing it and go anyway.
We were trapped for a fortnight due to the fog. No planes in or out. I heard that the record for no flights was well over a month. We organised a helicopter to get us out and then after that it was closed again for at least some days. While we were waiting I went for a walk around the whole runway. It was somewhat concerning to see the bottom retaining wall was partially constructed from pieces of crashed planes.
How is the oxygen level at such height point?. I mean, for those of us who are used to sea-level oxygen abundance traveling to Nepal may well be a challenge itself.
Certainly there are oxygen issues the higher you get and Nepal has several mountainous regions. The elevation at Lukla is nearly 3000 metres - I found this ok and I didn’t go above 3000 metres when treking in that region. Just prior to making this clip - I had been running up some steep steps to get to that viewing point - so a little out of breath I recall…….
Not quite accurate commentary regarding possibility of a go-around. An Otter did a successful go-around in May 2016. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8LD5JhGMxow.html
In winter1980 I hiked in from Lamasungu about 80 miles away from Lukla. After viewing Everest from Kala Patur I hiked back down to Lukla for the flight back to Kathmandu. The landing area was just a grass field with grazing Yaks.
With a very sad heart I'm making this comment that the 2nd Plane Landing, 9N-AET of Tara Air, the 43 years old Twin Otter of De Havilland, Canada, crashed yesterday morning, 29-May-2022, shortly after taking off from Pokhra. The Debris of the plane found today, 30-May-2022 and all the 22 onboard were confirmed dead.
yes - I heard about the accident - great shame. Incidentally - my travels in Nepal took me to Pokhara as well as the Everest region - but I never got to the Mustang region in the west - where this aircraft was heading. RIP to all.
very much enjoyed that.. your very good at pointing things out ..like they turn port engine off ..i wouldn't have noticed that ..can i ask why they don't fly fixed wing in after 12 is it low clouds ?
Hi Rick - thanks for the nice comments - regarding no fixed wing after 12 - I think that is very much a generalisation I made - all commercial passenger flights tend to be in the morning - there may some in the afternoon - but not usual I was told by ATC. The weather has a habit of changing quickly up at Lukla and low cloud and wind can/may develop as the day progresses. Better flying conditions are usually in the morning......
