Construction and repair work happening at Lukla air strip in Nepal. Tractors, manual labourers (beldar and masons), trucks and cement work in progress. See a red and white wind sock flying in the wind...
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, also known as Lukla Airport, is a small airport in the town of Lukla in Khumbu, Solukhumbu district, Sagarmatha zone, eastern Nepal. Lukla means place with many goats and sheep, however these days, one is not likely to see many roaming around. The airport is popular because Lukla is the place where most people start the climb to Mount Everest Base Camp. There are daily flights between Lukla and Kathmandu during daylight hours, in good weather. Although the flying distance is short, rain commonly occurs in Lukla while the sun is shining brightly in Kathmandu. High winds, cloud cover and changing visibility often mean flights can be delayed or the airport closed completely. The airport is contained within a chain link fence and patrolled by the Nepal armed police or civil police around the clock.
Lukla Airport is the usual jumping off spot for those adventurers that are heading off to tackle Everest. The pilots flying into and out of Lukla are adventurers in their own right, for just landing and taking off out of this place! The airport's paved asphalt runway is only accessible to helicopters and small, fixed-wing, short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, such as the De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter or Dornier Do 228. Tara Air also operates two Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter aircraft, that visit Lukla on a charter basis. The single runway is 1,500 feet (460 m) long, 65 feet (20 m) wide and has a 12% gradient. The elevation of the airport is 9,100 feet (2,800 m).
Aircraft can only use runway 06 for landings and runway 24 for takeoffs. Due to the terrain, there is no prospect of a successful go-around on short final. There is high terrain immediately after the northern end of the runway and a steeply angled drop, of about 2,000 feet (610 m) at the southern end of the runway, into the valley below.
The apron has four stands and there is one helipad located 450 feet (140 m) from the control tower. No landing aids are available and the only air traffic service is an Aerodrome Flight Information Service.
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