Indias North-Eastern provinces are often hit hard by these tropical storms coming from the Bay of Bengal.
After such a disaster the roads are washed away but now the weather has cleared and help from the air is being organized.
A. Meghalaya State…
… has a long & steep vertical escarpment facing south, with dozens of huge waterfalls.
Take one of the 100 Indian National Cadet Corps Zenith 701s and make difficult landings in village squares close to the border. Radio to HQ about the ground situation so IAF Caribous can airdrop supplies accordingly. Is the famous Burma road open and are there no avalanches at Dhapa Bhum Peak (15.000ft)?
… are the 24 official “high-altitude-glacier-strips”. Today only a handful of pilots (about 50) have a license to land on those unique ice & snow spots. They have a great history of rescuing thousands of climbers, dating back to the pre-chopper days.
Four fields (LSPB, LSVD, LSVK, LSYI) have been souped-up at the .to, but even without its great mountain flying and challenging landings - here are all them strips GPS-coords:
GR
Alp Trida 46.9775 10.374444
Arosa Bei ARA 46.775278 9.684444
■■■■ Sogn Gion 46.837222 9.213333
Fuorcla Grischa 46.515278 9.787778
Madrisahorn Sattel 46.931944 9.865833
Vadret del Corvatsch 46.418333 9.824167
VS
Aeschhorn-Rothorn 46.060278 7.711389
Alphubel 46.051111 7.875
Bec de Nendaz 46.160833 7.281944
Glacier de Breney 45.988611 7.450556
Glacier du Trient 45.988333 7.0425
Glacier de Tsanfleuron 46.313889 7.221944
Langgletscher 46.453611 7.922778
Monte-Rosa-Sattel 45.941111 7.851111
Petit-Combin Gipfel 45.983889 7.266111
Rosa-Blanche Grat 46.060833 7.354722
Theodulgletscher 45.934167 7.71
Unterrothorn 46.020556 7.7975
…contain the largest remaining old-growth temperate rain forest in the Northern Hemisphere.
Its the home of the Sibirian-Tiger and Amur-Leopard which had been poached almost to extiction but have recovered due to strict protective measures.
To address recent human-tiger conflicts you fly a Tiger Response Team from the “Inspection Tiger” to several hamlets for discussions with locals. Land the AN-2 on village- roads & -squares.
Then continue deep into the National Parks to track the signals of radio-collared big cats hiding in the foliage. Land on UHHO at the banks of the Amur.
COLOMBIA: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (19.000ft) …
… located just 25 mi from the Caribbean coast, its the highest coastal range in the world.
It was off-limits for many years due to guerilla- and drug-activity. The government still forbids helicopter operations there and access needs the the permission of local indigenas tribes.
We managed some flights:
A. First Hang Gliding - from Pico Cristóbal Colón.
A pilot who is normally serving caribbean islands with his old PC-6 Floats-Porter is willing to bring the team to the Laguna Naboba @ 14.500ft, from where access to the peak is straight forward.
B. Jump-start with your free Wills Wing Falcon and glide silently north to the surf & sandy beaches, then follow the rugged coastline of Tayrona NP west and you should make it to SKSM Simon Bolivar Airport.
C. These isolated mountains have a unique vegetation, its Páramo (high moorland above the treeline) holds many unknown species. Fly with a Tundra Savage Gravel from SKDJ to a number of possible landing spots around the massif to collect specimens, ending up at SKDK.
Unfortunately, at this point, 1 hour 38 minutes into the flight, MSFS 20204 froze and had to be killed in task manager due to a memory leak (RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64) - Fault bucket 1319398611004222688 if the test team reads this - so I never made the last ~60 NM to Osh.
Rather ironic considering the inspiration for the original flight.
1949 Pakistan acquired about 100 Sea Furies which soldiered on into the 60s.
We use the excellent free model from DSD for a flight along the northern borders. You easily climb to summits and dive into valleys, having the power of a big radial.
An example is the Ruphal face (the highest mountain face in the world, rising 15.000ft) of Nanga Parbat (26.700ft)t: before it was an embarrassing assortment of FSX-tiles - now its looking quite good:
Twenty-two nautical miles further is the village of Aknoul. There is no airstrip here, so you’ll need to choose your own landing spot. I chose the an open gravel area by the side of the small river:
Before descending to our next village, Issaguen. This village also does not have an airstrip. You need to choose your landing spot with care. The open dirt (brown) areas are ploughed farmers fields. Land in those and your gear will sink into the dirt & your aircraft will flip. It’s better to land on the grassy area north of the village:
Back in the air, we continue north. This is a gap in the mountains that road 98K-006 uses to get to Sasyr. We’ll use it & follow the road to Myaundzha Airstrip (UMYA).
The weather has not improved, with a high chance of rain, and snow & icing conditions above 10,000 ft along our route. So far, though, its looking good:
I scrub the planned landing at Ust-Nera Airport (UUSR) as visibility drops to near zero. Instead, we head for Moma Airport (UEMA), which has a longer, wider paved runway. Despite the poor visibility, I’m pretty close to the centerline on touchdown:
You are firefighting with your venerable DC-4 Airtanker, fires (from “Aero Fire Global”) are on WPs with “!F”. After each drop refill borate on successive airstrips (on CAV4 you are restricted to 3000 l).
A TV-crew flies with you, they make a movie about the last Piston-Old-Props, take them over some prominent peaks and show off a landing on Williams Lake Emergency Airport.
Here you fly it into India’s western Himalaya, largely unmapped at the time. From hill station VARD to VIBR, the interesting part is to climb with the Anson higher than 6000m and stay there.
You need the altitude to pass noted Mount Shivling (pic) plus many unnamed peaks. Descend twice to Kedernath monastery, Gangotri temples and the source of holy river Ganges.
you can land on both altiports and glaciers, of course, with the right type of plane. you are a mountain flying enthusiast and I will show you an Italian map of the Valle d’Aosta region with all the shelters and altiports marked.
The monsoon season before June results in rising air from the Arabian Sea along the western coast of India.
This creates perfect ridge lift conditions along the the Western Ghats - a mountain range that stretches 1,600 km along the western coast of the peninsula.
The 1980s saw the swan song of the L-1049 Constellation (and the DC-6, DC-4…) - in the Caribbean.
Here we fly a freighter with a load of frozen fish, mangoes and eggs to MMJA Mexico.
You have bought a Connie hulk at the famous Tocumen Boneyard in Panama (MPTO, today only a shodow of its old-prop past, pic).
Start there in a cloud of exhaust fumes, first stop is Toncontin (Honduras).
Minutes after takeoff all Nav equipment stopped working.
No problem for you: with countless VFR-flights over the years you have memorized bearings and distances from one volcano to the next using them as visual beacons:
Mt. Everest was first overflown in 1933 (by Westland biplanes) and 1945 (by a PR Mosquito).
In the same year, India managed to salvage 40 B-24s from WW2-scrapyards in-country and was using them until 1969.
When in 1953 climbers Hillary and Tenzing were about to reach the summit, it was decided to take aerial pictures of them planting the flags. An IAF Liberator was launched on the day of their summit attempt, with several press photographers on board.
After the B-24 was well on its way, there was a sudden fear that the thunderous noise of its four engines could start dangerous avalanches and the aircraft was recalled.
So pictures of Mount Everest and other peaks were taken on a later B-24 flight - and thats exactly what we do.
A. Southern China 1949
The gig is up for the Kuomintang, you take a CIA “Flying Tiger” C-46 with the national treasure to the last outposts in the south. The situation is chaotic, you are constantly re-routed by radio.
From ZTII fly low between the endless but always changing karst cones to ZWEE:
you are hunted by all the Communists hotchpotch assortment of fighters (P-51, Ki-84, La-9, Mosquito).
Victorious Mao wants to seize the gold at all costs!
B. North Vietnam 1966
The “Happy Road” (NC-4C) is a spectacular way thru the Nam karst - completed 1959-65 with only shovels and hammers. Today its a prime destination by adventurous motorcyclists because of its passes and canyons.
After a brutal Typhoon we fly an AN-2 over it: look for landslides and land near villages to bring much needed support. Always follow the road, sometimes its difficult to find in the maze.
The country has been all over the news recently, its a little known fact that is has high mountains.
During its better days, we fly with our wing VAF OV-10 Broncos (in service 1976 - 2012) on a public aerobatic display around the city of Merida, at the Día de la Independencia.
WPs are (beside some national parks) the highest cable car worldwide and the most prominent peak, actually in walking distance from the top station: Pico Bolivar, unfortunately its glacier is gone for good now.
