Talk about on a wing and prayer.
East of Mount Everest and the Himalayas is one of the world’s most notorious airstrips — one so treacherous passengers typically applaud at wheels down.
Paro International Airport in Bhutan, situated between 18,000-foot mountain peaks and nearby residential areas, provides such a challenge to pilots that only 50 jet jockeys worldwide have been deemed capable of the necessary last-minute maneuvering to land.
The smaller craft-only, 7,431-foot-long landing strip requires special training and proven knowledge of being able to land without the assistance of radar. Even the slightest miscalculation could land a plane on a nearby house.
Category C qualified pilots get to strut the spot like they are Maverick from “Top Gun.”
“It is challenging on the skill of the pilot, but it’s not dangerous, Captain Chimi Dorji of Druk Air, a local carrier, told CNN.
“In Paro, you really need to have the local skills and local knowledge area competence. We call it area competence training or area training or route training from flying from anywhere into Paro.”
In the nation that’s 97% mountainous — Paro is also 7,382 feet above ground — thinner air means a faster moving craft as well, Dorji said.
“Your true airspeed will be the same, but your airspeed as opposed to the ground is much faster.”
Even if you finagle through the narrow window to land properly, there’s another fierce factor in the remote Asian kingdom — the weather.
The next variable to consider is weather.
“We try to avoid operations beyond noon because then you get a lot of thermal [winds], the temperatures rising, the rains haven’t come in yet,” said Dorji. “So land is parched and you get all these up drops and get all these anabatic/katabatic winds in the valley in the afternoon. Mornings are much calmer.”
Still, golf ball-sized hail-filled monsoon season can be an entirely different beast, where special accommodations are made.
“You have these northwesterly, northeasterly winds that come in from across in China. And you have these periods where you have rain for days,” the pilot said.
And, since radar doesn’t do much good in the area, there are no night flights allowed at any time.
Oh, and of course there’s the risk of crashing into the surrounding mountains, too, which Dorji plainly called “obstacles.”
