Please keep the seat belt on at all times on this one - it’s a bumpy ride!
The infamously “most dangerous airport in the world” is our departure point today as we make a small pleasure flight in Nepal as we re-open the now closed Kathmandu route, previously operated by Nepal Airlines, this time using the TBM.
We haven’t even started the single engined turbo prop up yet on the expert server and we are already at over 9,000 feet. Making use of every spare inch of runway, the plane was lined up. Release the brakes, start it rolling and throttle up! Lifting off just in time, we depart keeping it fully manual until at a safe clearing altitude of 18,000. We banked slightly left between the huge mountains and then right once clearing them as we continued on course for the small hop.
Just one other passenger today who paid a lot of money to rent the plane for this one flight and he’s eager to get some snaps to take home with him.
The flight? Short, bumpy, and a great fun approach into Kathmandu. No time to sit back and full concentration was needed at all times. A very mountainous area and even what looked like a large clearing at our destination was surrounded by mountains with a small amount of space to work with. Luckily, the TBM has some very strong flaps so we could keep good control of the speed and we lined up nicely with a bit of work.
We got our guy to his destination. He wants to hire me again to take him on the return route in the future and land him at Lukla. I said yes, but it might cost a little bit more. He said he’ll be in touch soon…
