Kathmandu
I had a nice time in Irkutsk and really didn't really
know what I wanted to fly to Kathmandu, so after slamming a few vodka's with my new russian friends, for some reason I chose
and AirFrance 727-200, now I realize AirFrance most likely does not fly this route, but hey, it's my game.
This would be my longest flight that I had made for some time, 1700+ miles.
As I prepared for my flight, I felt a little sad to be leaving Irkutsk, I really
enjoyed the airport right next to the river and testing the floatplanes, a nice place to hang out and party.
I got the 727 off the ground and set the course towards Kathmandu, kicked on the
auto pilot and sat back with my big ol' world atlas and studied the area I was heading for, The Himalayas, the top of the
world, this was going to be very interesting.
Now the worst thing that I could think of happening would be to lose my IFR contact
and have to negotiate the himalayas and approach into Kathmandu on my own, but here I was perfectly on course over the desert
of western China, AP in perfect control, still 1000 miles to go, what can go wrong now?
So I decided to squeeze in a quick shower, I would only be away from my computer for like
10-15 minutes.
Well guess what happened, (this helps explain why I call my travels 'misadventures')
Just as I am coming down the hall returning from my shower I'm hearing the familiar voice
of ATC, yep, it was ATC cancelling me for not aknowledging a handoff!
I just sat for an hour with no contact and when I slip away for 10 minutes this is what
happens, great! So now I'll have to make the rest of the trip VFR, through the himalayas!
Man, am I screwed!
Then for no reason, my computer shuts off...
and reboots...? That's never happened before.
I later came to the conclusion that one of the cats bumped into a power cord and interupted
the connection.
Well, I wasn't about to fly the first 900 miles over again, so I find the closest
airport to where I was at the time of the power failure, which turned out to be Urumqi China, at leats I had my IFR flight
plan back again, so it wasn't all bad.
I once again got the 727 back into the air and gee, wouldn't you know it, at 28,000
feet my plane does that stupid thing that no one can explain where it pitches upwards at like 20 degrees and there is nothing
I can do about it, I see a lot of complaints on the forums about this problem, and even though there have been reasonable
suggestions as to the cause, I don't believe that anyone actually knows the real reason it occurs, I didn't do anything different
from when I left Irkutsk, but here my plane is freaking out!
So as you know, ATC don't give a crap if you're having an emergency, they just cancel
you for not expediting your climb as instructed, so once again I lose my IFR flight plan and if I don't crash this mother
first, I'll be flying VFR into Kathmandu, not really something to look forward to.
After a while the plane corrects itself, and I finally get to my altitude and make
my way on to Nepal.
I noticed a lot of lakes in the Tibet region of China and remember thinking it would
be cool to buzz around in a floater and land on some of these mountain lakes.
Pretty soon the mighty Himalayas started popping up in the distance, Awesome!
If you want a real challenge, try flying into Kathmadu from the north, in a mid-sized
jet.
As you pop over the mountains at around 20,000 feet, you see the airport down below, way
down below, and not a lot of room to work with because Kathmandu sits in a pretty serious valley.
I managed an okay landing after circling around and dropping way the hell down to
the level of the airport, which I believe is around 4300 feet or so, I came in a littl crooked and landed kinda rough, but
without the help of ATC to guide me down, I think I did quite alright.
I climbed out of the plane and looked around, this place was amazing and I knew
I would be staying a while.
Mount
Everest
There are a lot of very tall mountains around here, and I wasn't sure how easy it
would be to find Everest. I whipped out my atlas and set course in the Kingair to find the tallest mountain in the world,
and I figured I would land at some of the little mountain airstrips in the himamlayas just for the hell of it.
Along the way I flew over several lakes, lakes at 26,000 feet? Okay. I'm not from
here so I guess that just freaks me out a little, I figured they would be frozen anyways.
I knew I had found Everest when I saw the little expedition camp just below the
summit, that was a nice surprise, and now that I think about it, I never actually flew above the summit to see if there were
flags up there or anything, I was too busy taking photos of the camp.
I have a game in my library called "Everest" which is basically a mountain climbing
simulation, where you climb mount Everest, for a fleeting moment I actually thought it would be cool to pull this game out
and play it as though I was climbing Everest while I was here in FS2002.
It's a cool idea, but I have so much going on right now that I really don't want
to try and fit a whole other game into the mix, I've played it several times before and don't recall how long it takes
to get to the top of Everest, who knows, I may still do it.
I made several passes over the campsite before heading deeper into the Himalayas
to find one of those dangerous little airstrips to test my skills or rather the lack of at.
The first one I came across looked to be little more than a mud strip on a mountainside,
no way was I trying to land there!
The next one was a little better, it looked fairly solid and well kept, but there
was little room for error, and only one approach, I would have to come around the side of a mountain for my approach and if
I missed it I would end up flat into the mountainside.
I came around the mountain and realized at that time how short this landing strip
actually was, I was moving way too fast! So I slammed the throttles forward and pulled up as hard as I could and then the
inevitable happened, I crashed straight into the cliff at the opposite end of this runway, it was hard to miss, this little
landing strip was pretty much surrounded by cliffs.
I learned a great lesson that day-Don't fuck with the himalayas!
After the locals peeled me off the mountainside, I was transported back to Kathmandu
in a rescue chopper, where I spent the following week in intensive care.
I sure am lucky, that crash could have been the big one, but I am still alive and typing
this report on my laptop from my bed in Kathmandu medical center, and as soon as the doctors release me, I will be on my way
to India. I wonder what I will find there?
