Since my last report, the popularity of the Dornier Do 228 within Mudspike circles has increased significantly, with @BeachAV8R’s Mudspike Air Cargo doing a trial and @chipwich’s Pawleys Island Brewery using one for their Christmas Flight.
As usual, I am replying to my previous report so as to link the story.
My fellow Dutchmen had apparently just left to get a cup of chai just before departure, but starting up the Dornier proved very easy. Cold and Dark, but no Challenge. I flipped all the electrical switches: batteries, master switch, inverters, generators. Then on the starter panel: ignition to start, starter switches and the engines roared to life!
Don’t forget the smart lock on the propellers! Luckily I had read up on that so I knew I had to push the throttles to reverse briefly to unlock the propeller pitch.
The only thing I couldn’t get working was all the fancy nav gear: radios, GPS, and FMS were still dark.
Just before my flight crew arrived, I found the Radios master switch on the center pedestal just above the flaps.
After punching in a quick direct fix to Lukla, we left for the runway.
We had to evade a suicidal truck driver on the platform. Apparently the rules of Indian city traffic also apply to airports. All the more reason to get away as fast as possible!
The outskirts of New Delhi…
Soon disappeared behind us as we were now flying over flat lands crossed by rivers with water from the Himalayas…
For a while we kept the mountains to our left and the rivers to our right…
But as we were approaching Kathmandu, the clouds got thicker…
Somewhere in these valleys is Lukla, let’s hope for a hole in the clouds so we don’t have to divert to Kathmandu
At the entrance to the valley was this murk:
But luckily, the clouds were lower around the town of Lukla
Don’t forget to set ignition to continuous for landing, especially in these circumstances you wouldn’t want a flame-out…
A bit high, let’s do a little sideslip…
Load up the packages! We made it!