But of course, that alone doesn't make it the legendary place it is in the minds of every aviaton fan. It's the fact that the airport of Paro is located in a deep valley that wiggles its way through the Himalayan mountains below the majestc 18,f peaks around it, a fact that makes it impossible to land there the way pilots usually do.
In the 21 st century aircraf computers use ILS systems to automatcally align with the designated runway and gently descend untl they safely touch down on an airport that can usually be seen miles and miles before touchdown. Here in Bhutan aviaton is far from the assets of modern technology. And to make things worse — a lot worse in fact — the valley is so narrow it was impossible to build an airport in a way that you could approach it in a straight line, no mater how steeply you descend or from which directon you try to land.
It's obvious you need a special instructon and certficaton in order to be allowed to steer a passenger airliner jet into that valley. As of today, only a selected eight 8! Re: World's Challenging Approaches -5 VQPR Z Post by SHM » Sun Nov 19, pm Details on the App The one thing that makes Paro such a dangerous place for every aircraft is its location high up in the mountains, but still deep in the valley, with steep slopes on both sides of the river that runs through it — in numbers: 7, ft above sea level but still more than 10, ft below the highest peaks that surround it!
At most times, winds at Paro blow up the valley from the southeast, so the usual active runway is The most common approach to Paro is for runway 15, and this one is even more difficult to learn. The aircraft passes directly above the airport, allowing the pilots to look down to check weather conditions.
This is when they decide if a landing is possible or not. If they cannot see the airport because of clouds of limited visibility, they execute a missed approach procedure and return to their departure airport. Note that they do not use their compass for this last part of the approach, instead they completely rely on the surrounding mountains for orientation.
As soon as the aircraft gets close to the gorge between the mountain slopes the pilot makes a steep right turn while descending from 11, ft down to 9, ft. The aircraft gets really close to the mountain ridge and will have less than 2 miles for its degrees turn if it doesn't want to crash into the mountains on the north side of the valley.
It is very important to watch the altimeter on this turn as pilots are likely to lose control of the climb rate on steep turns like this.
If the turn was executed well the aircraft is now 2, ft above the river facing Paro Dzong, the big temple above the river. And this is where things get really interesting The aircraft will be now facing Paro Dzong with the mountain ridge very close on the left.
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