I’m a pilot – this is what it’s like to make one of the hardest landings in the world

Talk about an arm and a prayer.

East of Mount Everest and the Himalayas is one of the world’s most infamous airstrips – one of the treacherous passengers who usually clap their wheels down.

Bhutan’s Paro International Airport, nestled between 18,000-foot mountain peaks and nearby residential areas, offers such a challenge to pilots that only 50 jet riders worldwide have been deemed capable of the necessary last-minute maneuvering to t sat down.

The smallest aircraft-only landing strip, 7,431 feet long requires special training and proven knowledge to be able to land without the aid of radar. Even the slightest miscalculation can land a plane in a nearby house.

Qualified Category C pilots can advance in the country like they are Maverick from “Top Gun”.

“It’s challenging for the pilot’s skills, but it’s not dangerous,” Captain Chimi Dorji of Druk Air, a local carrier, told CNN.

“In Paro, you really have to have local skills and local knowledge domain competency. We call it area competency training or area training or on-the-fly training from anywhere to Paro.

In a country that is 97% mountainous — Paro is also 7,382 feet above the ground — thinner air also means a faster-moving ship, Dorji said.

“Your true airspeed will be the same, but your airspeed relative to the ground is much faster.”

Even if you fit through the narrow window to land properly, there’s another harsh factor in the far-flung Asian kingdom – the weather.

Another variable to consider is the weather.

“We try to avoid operations after noon because that’s when you get a lot of thermals [winds]the temperatures are rising, the rains haven’t come yet”, said Dorji. “So the ground is dry and you get all these drops and you get all these anabatic/katabatic winds in the valley in the afternoon. The morning is much calmer.”

Still, a monsoon season filled with golf ball-sized hail can be an entirely different animal, where special accommodations are made.

“You have these northwesterly, northeasterly winds coming from all over China. And you have these periods where you have rain for days,” said the pilot.

And since radar doesn’t do very well in the area, no night flights are allowed at all times.

Oh, and of course there’s also the danger of crashing into the surrounding mountains, which Dorji clearly called “obstacles.”