White Knuckles Over The Andes

By Bill Smith (26 July 2004)

I must confess to being seriously caught out during my attempt to complete the May 2004 "Flight Of The Month" (FOTM) devised by fellow FS enthusiast Brad Quiring.

Could it be that all long-term residents of Peru have adopted a nonchalant attitude to flying into high altitude airports? Take it from me, it's not as easy as it looks. You will see for yourselves the trouble that I got into during my travels through Peru when you read my "Postcards from Peru". These were posted up at www.toomuchfs.com in the first week of June.

After completing all legs of the May FOTM, I thought I could safely fly down to Lima, a nice low altitude airport on the western seaboard of Peru. Unfortunately, there is no ATIS at Lima, so I was down to 200 feet ASL on short final before I realized that the dense fog shrouding the airport just wasn't going to allow me to see the runway.

I initiated a go-around and attempted to land again..twice! If I had been flying one of the default 737s, I could have happily used the "autoland" feature, linked to the runway's ILS. But I was flying an old "clockwork and steam" type 200 series and the autopilot would not even lock onto the glideslope, never mind initiating the flare and closing the throttles at just the right moment.

On my third attempt to land, there was a departing Learjet parked at 90 degrees to the runway threshold, so at least I had that plane's landing lights as some kind of visual reference for the end of the runway. (The fog was so thick that I could not see the VASI lights at all.) I think I closed my eyes for the actual touchdown. When I brought the plane to a halt, a small break in the fog allowed me to see that I was no longer actually on the runway, but had veered off onto the grass. And before you ask, no I did not have any alternative destination information pasted into my kneeboard's "notes" page, so I had to land at Lima come what may.

A couple of days later, still in Peru, I used the flight planner to devise a route from Cuzco (SPZO) heading 108 degrees to URC (115.60), then 143 degrees to JUL (115.5),and finally heading 121 degrees to PAZ (115.7). The total distance to La Paz (SLLP) was only 288 nautical miles. This time, I took the precaution of pasting in the Cochabamba airport info as an alternative to La Paz, prior to my departure from Cuzco. Not that I was expecting any problems, as I had successfully landed at La Paz many times before, but I was determined to play it safe.

The high altitude takeoff from Cuzco went well and by the time I was over Juliaca (JUL 115.50) at 28,000 feet I was pleased to experience a little clear air turbulence, which just added to the realism of my flightsim experience. The turbulence increased the closer I got to La Paz. 'Bring it on!' I thought.

At 75 DME from La Paz, I was instructed to turn to 080 degrees and prepare for a visual approach into runway 28. At this time, I had the seatbelt signs on, as the turbulence was a little more severe. By 60 DME, the plane was being rocked from side to side. At 35 DME, I was descending in extremely turbulent air down to FL 240. At flight level 200 the indicated airspeed was all over the place and the autopilot was struggling to maintain the heading input. (Near La Paz, 20,000 feet is effectively only 7000 feet above the terrain.) Now heading south, with the airspeed reading anywhere between 200 and 250 KTS, it was not safe for me to extend the flaps. I tried disconnecting the A/P to see if I had a better chance of assuming manual control over this Boeing "bucking bronco." No such luck!

At just 23 DME, with the main fuel tanks still half full, I decided to cancel IFR, abandon the approach and climb out of trouble. Even at FL 290 there was still some turbulence, but as I neared my alternative destination, Cochabamba, things started to settle down a little and I was able to successfully land there.

Now this kind of adventure may be the norm for Brad Quiring, but it is simulated suicide for the rest of us "flat landers". (There are no high altitude airports down where I live.) So unless you want to leave you mark in the side of some Peruvian mountainside, you may want to skip the May "Flight of The Month" altogether. Instead, set you GPS coordinates for Ethiopia to try your hand at the June FOTM.

Actually, I've only just noticed that the airport elevation at Addis Ababa is 7626 feet so I could be heading for trouble yet again!

Bill Smith
Perth, Western Australia
leesmith@ca.com.au