(This post as well as the last one are late due to no communications. I am committed to try and share as often as possible but we do not always have comms, power or left over “want to”. I hope you will understand. Thanks)

I love to fly. I have a couple of planes including a tandem seat aerobatic plane. But nothing compares to flying into Lukla, Nepal. To start the runway is only 1,800 feet long. I can’t remember ever flying into a paved airport in the US that short. Our shortest runway here at Columbus is over 3,000. On top of that the airport is at over 8,000 feet high which makes it one of the highest in the world. Altitude affects engines and wings just like it does climbers. Many of the smaller planes in the U.S. fleet would not be able to take off on warm days from that altitude. On the positive side you are not going to run off the end of the runway because there in a 20 foot high stone wall and a mountain at the end of the pavement. You probably will not be able to use the plane again though. Going the other direction is a cliff. On a positive note the runway is so steep that a lot of people would have a hard time pedaling a bicycle up it. Landing are made uphill toward the mountain and take offs downhill toward the cliff end. The planes do not so much as climb away as just fly of the end of the cliff. A friend of mine was telling me about watching two ladies who were obvious nervous flyers taking off from Lukla. The small twin turboprops the airlines (which include “Budha Air” and “Yetti Air”) use are open to the cockpit. These two ladies were watching over the pilot’s shoulder out the front window when the plane flew of the “cliff” and one promptly turned and threw up in the aisle. He was glad to be sitting in the back.

This time our plane of choice was Dornier 228. A rugged plane build for no nonsense use and short takeoffs and landings. Want an aisle or a window seat well you are in luck because each seat is both. The airlines take advantage of every ounce and inch on these short hops. We stood on the ramp while the ground crew (at least I hope they were the ground crew as they were in jeans, t-shirts and non-OSHA approved sandals) took out the unneeded seats and stuffed in cargo. You assist in that process as you carry your back pack on board and then hold it in your lap during the flight. The stewardess, chosen partly for weighing 70 lbs in high heels, (more weight for cargo) makes the trip down the aisle handing out hard candy and cotton. The candy is to suck on because the plane is unpressurized. The cotton is to stuff in your ears because it is extremely loud inside. It is always amusing to see first time flyers’ expressions. You can tell because the stewardess (I struggle to refer to her as a flight attendant because she never gets out of her seat in flight) gives them the universal “stick it in your ear” sign.

Still despite their lack of polish the pilots have shown great skill in operating in mountainous terrain with limited on board instruments (my personal traveling plane is better equipped) in unpredictable weather. There has not been a fatal crash there since last year. Although I did see a plane that had been landed so hard it was permanently closer to the ground. They had already scavenged the engines and I expect in a few years all the usable parts will have found their way back to KTM. In any case we had an uneventful flight and were soon beginning our ten day hike to base camp. It was good to finally be moving under my own power.