At last our fuel has arrived. Four lovely 200 litre metal drums of
AVGAS. It came in the same helicopter which brought me here 10 days
ago, and has come all the way from India. We are in business!
Barty and I were at the airport earlier in the day during the 'rush
hour' between seven and nine when anything up to 15 Twin Otters and
Dornier aircraft can arrive and depart to Kathmandu. There is only
parking for four so the turnaround is very rapid, some only stay for a
matter of minutes. Even then the parking is only just big enough and it
is extraordinary to watch the 'planes manoevering within inches of each
other. 'They've never hit one another yet' I am told, but to fly in
here in such relatively large aircraft requires very skilled pilots, we
are at 9100ft, there is 200ft height difference between one end of the
strip and the other and with a rock face at the uphill end of the strip
there are no second chances.
The main purpose of our visit this morning was to let Sydney Spider
inspect Lukla air traffic control and get a stamp in his passport.
Sydney Spider is a well travelled creature belonging to my son Hugo's
class at school. Amongst other places he has been to Dominican
Republic, Canada and Morocco, but surely this must be his most exotic
journey yet!
After our fuel arrived the weather was still good (for a change, it is
usually very murky or even raining after lunch) so we went back to the
airport to rig my microlight. Our parking place is the 'old' one in
front of the Police post. It is not often used by the aeroplanes which
land here, but is regularly used by the big MI-17 helicopters. These
machines weigh up to 13 tonnes so they make a very considerable wind
when they take off and land; not exactly the ideal place to park a
microlight, but there is no alternative. They don't fly in the
afternoon, or get here before about 8 in the morning (if they come at
all - you never know) so we can fly from here in the two hours or so of
light before 7 or after about 11 if the weather holds up. Between 8 and
11 my machine must be tighty fixed down with several tons of sandbags or
it would be completely destroyed by a helicopter. The same applies to
Angelo's glider.
This is one of the main reasons why we want to move up to Syangboche as
soon as possible. The place is apparently much bigger and only rarely
used by helicopters. Pilatus Porters are the only kind of aeroplane
capable of using Syangboche and the last one of those in Nepal was
crashed five or six years ago. It was flown into the side of a mountain
in poor weather not far from here, apparently you can still see the
remains.
While Barty and I rigged my machine, Angelo went for a fly in his
paraglider. He has made several flights in the last few days from a
rather unpromising launch point near our hotel. It has attracted an
enormous amount of interest from the local people and when it looks like
he is about to land you can see school children running from far and
wide towards the spot. On this flight he approached to land at the
airport on runway 24, surely the first aircraft ever to land in this
direction at Lukla, right over the police afternoon parade. It was a
most spectacular sight!
By the time my microlight was rigged, double and triple inspected,
fuelled with some of our lovely new AVGAS and ready to go it was too
late to fly. The huge crowd that had gathered the other side of the
fence were disappointed - tomorrow morning perhaps.
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