{"id":48916,"date":"2022-10-10T23:09:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=48916"},"modified":"2024-10-10T00:04:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T22:04:53","slug":"a-hand-built-landing-strip-on-a-mountain-and-not-for-the-faint-of-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/10\/10\/a-hand-built-landing-strip-on-a-mountain-and-not-for-the-faint-of-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"A hand-built landing strip on a mountain and not for the faint of heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are very mountainous countries or territories where having a landing strip is a great help, and being able to land on it is quite a challenge.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/08\/17\/two-of-the-best-mountains-in-the-world-to-see-war-planes-flying-at-high-speed\/\">Two of the best mountains in the world to see war planes flying at high speed<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/07\/06\/the-final-destination-of-an-old-fiat-g-91-gina-fighter-on-top-of-a-mountain-in-northern-italy\/\">The final destination of an old Fiat G.91 Gina fighter on top of a mountain in northern Italy<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One such country is <strong>Papua New Guinea<\/strong>. Located in the north of Australia, it has extensive jungle landscapes and <strong>an important mountain range that runs through the center of the country, known as the Star Mountains<\/strong>, whose highest mountain, Puncak Mandala, reaches a peak of 4,760 meters above sea level. the sea level. <strong>In that mountain range, near the border with Indonesia, is the village of Asua.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Located on top of a mountain, <strong>the inhabitants of Asua built a landing strip by hand to break their isolation<\/strong>. It is a difficult construction and it can take between 5 and 10 years of work in a place like this, as there is no machinery. <strong>The runway is 310 meters long and has a gradient of 21%<\/strong>, so it is only suitable for small planes and pilots with nerves of steel. One of those pilots is the author of the Youtube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Andr%C3%A9Pintoapilotshome\/featured\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">APilotsHome<\/a>, <strong>who published an interesting video a few days ago showing his flights to Asua:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bush Plane Landing on EXTREME Mountain Runway\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ivRYtgZNlAw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Below we can see some screenshots of the video. This pilot has <strong>a Pilatus PC-6\/B2-H4 Turbo Porter single-engine turboprop aircraft<\/strong>, with registration PC-RCY. This very powerful, Swiss-made type of aircraft is very popular with aviators who have to land and take off on short, poorly prepared runways.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52418716576_7102175acf_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The landscape of the Star Mountains is spectacular<\/strong>, but can you imagine how much it must cost to build a landing strip there, and also by hand?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52418716511_0311b318fd_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this image we see the track on the left.<\/strong> It is closed, covered with a soft layer of grass.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52418996554_753df12b41_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The inhabitants of Asua make good use of all the available space in the Pilatus.<\/strong> What I don't know is how those eggs will reach their destination...<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52419227703_3301fea623_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here we see the pilot lying in a makeshift hammock under the starboard wing<\/strong>, waiting for the fog to clear so he can take off.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52418996569_9c26cb4ff9_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The runway, seen from its upper end.<\/strong> Taking off from there must be quite an adventure.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52418203107_a6ea5cd652_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are very mountainous countries or territories where having a landing strip is a great help, and being able to land on it is quite a challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,16882],"tags":[17612,17614,17613,17610],"class_list":["post-48916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-forests-and-mountains","tag-asua","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-pilatus-pc-6","tag-star-mountains"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-30 17:38:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}