August 8, 2006.

Pictures taken while on a trip to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In case you were wondering, Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras and is pronounced "ta who see gowl pa." A challenging airport to fly into, as the city and airport are surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Description/caption of each picture is immediately below the picture.




From 43,000 feet, that is the coastline of the northern shore of Costa Rica.


Tegucigalpa, Honduras airport terminal building (looking northwest). What's that? A Church's Chicken restaurant in Honduras?? Well, there is also a Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, KFC, ... you name it American fast food chain restaurants. Lear 60 (left), Dash 8 (center), 737 (right).


Zoomed in on airport terminal building. Toncontin is the name of the airport.


Looking north. This is what you would see when taking off from Runway 02. Tail of an AA 757 (left) and a couple of DC-3's far down the ramp.


Looking northeast. A rainshower in the distance.


Looking east. You have the TNT: Toncontin VOR in the center and a military installation towards the right. So that's where all the DC-3's went to rust away?


Looking southeast. More military installation (and more rusting airplanes).


Looking south-southeast. Ironically, behind those trees, is another graveyard full of rusting airplanes.


Looking south. That is the mountain you would see (and need to clear) when approaching to land straight into Runway 02.


Looking southwest. A Piper Aerostar (left) and an Embraer Bandeirante EMB110 (right).


Looking west. Honduras Aero Club (general aviation exists in Honduras). Cessna 150 (left), Cirrus SR20 or 22 (center), Cropduster (right).


A Copa Airlines 737 on a short final approach to Runway 02. To land at Tegucigalpa, you must first overfly the runway, turn left and circle the airport, all the while staying within the peaks of the surrounding mountains. You keep circling left until you can descend to the runway. Your approach should look like this one.


Tegucigalpa, from overhead and to the east of the city, from about 18,000 feet.


A bit hard to tell, but that is the Costa Rican (left side) and Nicaraguan (right side) border at the Pacific Ocean. The body of water towards the bottom of the picture is actually a lake within the country of Nicaragua.

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