Another iconic leg, that I also flew on World Tour I. From the parking I can see the Annapurna and the crest over which we have to fly. I intend to get to FL195 over Jomsom and then cross over Tilicho Lake to the East, leaving Annapurna on my right. Then I'll follow the valley of Manang towards Manaslu, and from there to Kathmandu. It should be easier than during the previous World Tour, thanks to the pressurized version of the Baron. However, I'm worried about the takeoff.
There's no wind. At least that's good. Let's say I takeoff heading south. There are no houses and the terrain goes flat, so I could have time to get speed and climb out of the runway. However, that would put me on the narrow valley through which I entered towards Jomsom on the last leg, which means that if I don't turn around before (and I don't think I'd manage...), I'll end up doing several miles towards the south and then back. In addition to this, the runway has that slope up that could slow me right before the rotation instead of launching me into the air, causing problems.
If I takeoff towards north, there are houses and a big mountain wall right in front, but a passage easy to catch on the right. Plus, the slope down of the runway could help me to reach the Vr sooner than usual. So I decided to takeoff north. I'm very careful with the checklist, the pressurization system, etc., and I place myself on the top of the slope, ready to run. I accelerate to TOGA, I release brakes and... at the very last second, I manage to rotate and turn right. Literally one second later and I would have crashed. What a takeoff!
I manage perfectly the climbing speed, flaps and performance, being able to climb comfortably till FL195.
And I head towards the lake and the valley leading to the Manaslu (8,163 m, 8th highest on Earth).
From here, I descend south, fighting a bit with VOR navigation to find MANKA and DARKE fixes. I also didn't find a good combination to use the ILS at Kathmandu, so I decided to perform an approach via VOR designed for night landings, in which I have to manually descend at about 2,000 ft/min, between clouds and fog.
This approach requires to see the runway at 2 nm from the VOR. I literally saw it at 1.9 nm, when I was starting to accelarate to follow the missed approach procedure. So, I reacted quickly and made a quick turn, flying manual, to touchdown without problems at Kathmandu.
On the last WT, Kathmandu was also foggy. It's a huge city (the capital of Nepal, actually), with around 3 million people between the main city and surrounding areas, sunk on a large valley. I hope the weather for the next leg will be more clear, so we can see all its extension from the air.
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TILICHO-TAL ANNAPURNA-III MANASLU MANKA IFR MANKA1D VOR-A 02
VNKT 252130Z VRB02KT 8000 FEW015 SCT030 BKN100 23/21 Q1011 NOSIG
VNKT 252200Z VRB02KT 8000 FEW015 SCT030 BKN100 22/21 Q1011 NOSIG
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