Drama over the Karakurams

I rather enjoyed your description of the chinese. So matter of fact with not a tinge of judgement. Bravo!

Nazar, a very good write. It was almost as if the story was telling itself.That is the hallmark of effective writing,when the writer disappears from between the written word and the reader.Also, one more thing that impressed me was the use of dialogues-this is not often seen in articles and stories published in chowk. Dialogues give a touch of authenticity to the narrative.
Now,I will be a dick and mention one thing to look out for-semicolons have not been used properly in some places(such errors of commision are worse than errors of ommission ).

mazaa aa gaya...bravo

Nazar Sahib - very nicely written. Although I had a bit of trouble imagining ``pin drop silence`` while having ``constant drone of the engines``.

Good job. And indeed I would be interested in knowing the cause of the oil leak.

- Rakaposhi means ``Shinning Wall``. In local language, it is also called Dumani or ``Mother of Mist``

- Nanga Parbat means ``Naked Mountain``

Nice writeup; very interesting. My Mamoo and Chacha, both in Artillery interestingly enough, went to China for a long (4 months? not sure of the length) conversion course to various Chinese artillery pieces and they also have similary stories to tell about Chinese hospitality. According to my Mamoo, the only way to tell a Chinese officer apart from an OR was by the number of pockets on his tunic: ORs had four and officers only two. Absolutely no other rank insignia at all.

BTW, am curious about two things. I thought that the Uighurs in Sinkiang would have spoken Eastern Turki which is not really mutually intelligible with Osmanli Turkish. Are you sure that some of you could have conversed with the locals? Also, I`ve heard from some PAF acquaintances of long past that the F-6/Mig-19 handled about as well as a brick with wings and especially at lower altitudes handled like a brick without wings. But these were Mirage pilots who lusted after the F-16; maybe they were biased. You seem to suggest differently in your writeup. What is your opinion of the F-6?

Regards.

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Very interesting.

If I remember correctly a few pilots have actually crashed in the mountains, doing exactly what you did, i.e. ferrying aircraft from China. I know of at least one officer, who crashed, while bringing back A-5 aircraft, I think. We were told that his body was found and his face had a beard, meaning he had ejected, and survived for a few days.

The ejection seats on Chinese aircraft never work. You probably know that better than I. PAF puts in British ejection seats into the airplanes, after quite a few people have been killed. The ejection seats end up costing the same price as the airplanes. So its a good thing you did not have to eject. The seat probably would not have worked.

Its funny, everyone who goes to China to get aircraft, always mentions the soup, and how watery it is.

P.S. I have to so your generation really got to see the, ``good days`` of the military. China, Turkey and God knows where else. None of my group had similar opportunities. Judging by your experiences, you should look back at all these memories, fondly.....As a friend who is a chopper pilot in the Army in Skardu, says, ``The pay and locations maybe bad etc. etc. but how many people in the world get a chance to daily get the views of K-2 that I get.`` How true.....

You are lucky man, you should look at your military career with a more positive attitude......Thousands of people write software, write books on democracy and philosophy, travel a world as businessmen (like me), or in airlines (like you do now), but how many get a chance to handle a fuel leak at 35k over K-2? That, to me, is living a real life. Not flying 737s nor living in midtown USA working 9-5.

nazar sahib:

Very enjoyable article. I remember taking the Fokker flight to Gilgit many a time to visit my father who was posted on the Karakoram highway. Rakaposhi is a majestic sight indeed. PIA also had the ``Safari`` flights a while ago that went through those mountains. I guess they had to be discontinued because they become ``safarshi`` flights.

I vividly remember Chinese workers collected in a group, eating dried melon seeds which were heaped in the middle of the road! I believe the highway claimed over 10000 casualties, mostly Chinese.

later
-sac

Beautifully written, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Also learnt a few things - e.g. where Rakapo$h got her name (from a mountain peak!! what is that supposed to mean?? and why was I so ignorant as to have never heard of this peak before?).

Also found some of the chinese names interesting: The aptly named Mao Tai (``death comes`` in urdu) drink, and Mr Hu who spells his name as Mr Nu (Why is that? Why not Mr. Gnu, while he was being creative coming up with a confusing spelling).

nazar:

held my attention till the end...good job

rgds

t

Very well narrated event. Thanks for sharing.

A beautifully narrated, suspenseful article. Was there actually a leak in the fuel tank? Or what? Not that it mattered after your safe and successful landing. But it`s good to know how such a defect remained undetected before the take off. Then again, if this was detected and fixed before take off, there wouldn`t be this story to tell.

Mohammad Gill

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agree with Stuka here. I felt I was the auto pilot in there with you....


PS: any tips how to overcome fear of flying. ( no that fuel leak incident didn`t help ) :)

Thanks for sharing your experiences on Chowk.