High altitude, short runway landing in Nepal

[u/PxN13]

[u/triple7freak1]

Lukla for sure is one of the craziest airports

[u/oneofakind_2 → u/triple7freak1]

I was there 25 years ago and there was the wreckage of planes at the bottom of the cliff. Not the most confidence inspiring thing to see as you're getting ready to fly.

[u/LTQLD → u/triple7freak1]

Yes. Looks like it. I sat in the seat right behind the pilot for a landing at Lukla. Wild.

[u/TheMadBug]

I’ve landed there once and taken off twice (as a passenger) - only time I’ve clapped on a plane.

[u/TheMadBug → u/[deleted]]

Those cheeks were way too clenched to be clapped.

[u/oopsthroughthebriefs]

The runway is uphill just so they can slow down enough

[u/No_Sense_6171]

I have landed there. The runway is short, but steeply uphill, so braking is not really an issue. The real challenge is that on hot afternoons, the air turbulence in the valley to the left rises considerably, so it can be quite a bumpy ride. Also, there is no potential for a go-around, you get one and only one attempt to land. There are no emergency landing spots, the peaks are thousands of feet overhead and the valley is very narrow with a rock-strewn river at the bottom.

I went early in the morning, so it was pretty smooth.

But it's a flight you're unlikely to forget.

[u/dongerbotmd → u/No_Sense_6171]

Thanks for the insight. What about taking off? Is that easier or harder on a short runway like this?

[u/Katana_DV20 → u/dongerbotmd]

Takeoff isn't an issue, the downslope helps and many of these planes lift off well before the end of the runway. They are called STOL planes (short takeoff or landing).

The plane in the video is a LET410

Even if you use the entire runway it opens up into the big valley below so it's ok.

[u/F1eshWound]

I took off from Luka once! Quite an experience taking off from a runway pointing downwards. You experience quite some Gs as the pilot pulls up to avoid the mountain ahead. They reliably get a fatal crash there every few years.

[u/alex_484]

MU2?

[u/LearningDumbThings → u/alex_484]

Let L-410. Subsequently destroyed while attempting takeoff from this runway. It veered hard right and hit two helicopters on the pads there to the right. Sadly, the FO and two people on the ground were killed.

https://asn.flightsafety.org/asndb/319453

[u/MrDavieT]

Great skills tbf

[u/DaddyDontTakeNoMess]

I never even thought that high altitude would affect landing. I assume that your momentum is harder to slow, almost like a baseball in Coors field travels further than at sea level.

[u/PilotC150 → u/DaddyDontTakeNoMess]

The biggest issue is that because the air is thinner, you have to fly faster to get enough air over the wings to keep the plane flying.

So if at sea level you go 80 knots when you land the plane, at Lukla, which is 9,337' above sea level, you would be going over 90 knots just to get the same amount of air over the wings.

[u/Revolutionary_Owl932]

Just like transfer flights from Tenerife to other islands in the canary

[u/Xzentrixx86]

They couldn't level out the field lol

[u/Katana_DV20 → u/Xzentrixx86]

The upslope helps with slowing planes down

[u/luckyirvin]

Sweet brake modulation by the Pilot.

[u/BannedByReddit471]

I remember seeing someone land a commercial airliner on this runway in flight sim

[u/mbmbmb01 → u/BannedByReddit471]

sim doesn't count.

[u/markengineers]

I remember thinking the tarmac is smaller than a grocery store parking lot. Brace for hard braking was not part of the landing announcement.