Now might be time for the brace position! The Himalayan airport so dangerous only eight pilots are qualified to land there

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• Meh, that's nothing compared to the places I flew into during the war. Engines shot out, tail falling off dead stick landing into some god forsaken shitehole in the middle of nowhere......enemy fire from all directions including above... co-pilot's guts in my lap, brains on what's left of the windscreen...

  • Sorry you went through that MGAP.

    Glad you made it back alive!

    May God Bless you for your service.

    • That's the problem wit the interwebz. My twisted sense of humor is often mistaken for fact. I was just jacking around making fun of old black and white movies that had similar scenes of "daring do." I cannot claim to have participated in any wars or daring deeds of aeronautical wonder. My apologies for misleading anyone and apologies to those that have served.

      • I see. No offense taken by me. That is pretty dern funny.

        I once dated a girl, years after the movie Gremlins had come out, and told her and the van full of kettle bell ringers the reason i didn't celebrate Christmas was cuz my dad got stuck in the chimney and died... like from the movie... she thought i was serious! I felt lower than a snake's belly.

• I hear tell there is -or was- some exclusive mountaintop resort here in the States with its own private airstrip and plane (I think it was the only access), and the only pilots they would hire were ex-Navy carrier pilots, just because the runway was so short - like a carrier - and even worse, without the catapult assisted takeoff, there was an absolutely sh## - yer- pants dead drop into the valley before you got your airspeed and lift.

• Eight pilots? Well, maybe eight airline pilots have been checked out to fly into this airport, but, rest assured many more could be qualified if there was a demand. Not too different from other "challenging" airports around the world. Tegucigalpa was mentioned, La Paz is interesting, Vail in a 757, Hong Kong's old airport and dozens and dozens of others. All these airports are in simulators and approaches and departures can be practiced until proficient. At least it is a paved strip and nobody is shooting at them. Talk to some C-130 driver trying to land on a bulldozed dirt strip in the middle of some god-forsaken country while taking fire.

• Reminds me of the airport landing footage at
  Tegucilgalpa Honduras. Check it out on YouTube.
  You'll want a seatbelt for your office chair.

• I'm not a pilot so this is just my speculation... My guess would be landing on an aircraft carrier is still harder than this. If anybody out there is/was a carrier pilot, watch the video and give us your take.

  • I wasn't, but a couple of differences would be

    1. when landing on a carrier, you have to align the plane to the hook that will slow you down (the carrier is MUCH shorter than a "normal" runway). This probably means much less margin for error side-to-side on the runway, and

    2. The short runway means really strong g forces in both landing and takeoff.

    • Also land based runways do not pitch 15 feet up and down.

      • Depends upon how much Jack the pilot's had, though.

        • say what you want. I don't know the last time i ever saw footage of a carrier landing that near a house, or with that tight a turn in the final approach.

          For an even more thrilling POV, click on the snowflake in the youtube border, I'd never seen that before, so i tried it.

          oh yeah, the hillside - top landing in Air America was scarier i think.

        • that secret little spot in Air America was pretty cool! Like a stubby little natural ski jump to oblivion, it was.

• Looked pretty smooth to me...

• smooth operator...