- If you asked me what was one of my most exciting aviation trips, I would tell you it was a
trip to Pakistan in 2012. (upbeat dramatic music) In three days, I'd flown eight times behind the cockpits,
exploring the whole country. - Hello. (upbeat dramatic music) - [Control] 50. (upbeat dramatic music) 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. - My Pakistan trip started from Dubai. It was organised by my
good friend, Aroosh. He was a PIA pilot at that time. It wasn't easy to go to Pakistan, so security was a big concern for me. - We arranged a tour
of the country together where I picked him up from
Dubai and flew him into Karachi. And then over, just a
weekend, over two days, we did the eight flights
across the country, going up to Islamabad, Lahore, Gilgit, and then back to Karachi. All of that just over the
weekend, a whirlwind tour, where we did some great
sporting across the country and had a good time. Ate some great food as well, and give Sam a brief tour
of what the country was like and hope he can come back soon. (upbeat dramatic music) - [Sam] Having a Aroosh
actually as the first officer on that flight really calms my nerve and I start to feel very comfortable. - Sam and I were lucky
to fly the 310 together, and the 310, if you remember, was a hybrid in between sort
of aircraft from the A300. They shortened it and
put bigger engines on it, so it became an overpowered aircraft, which was sort of a mix of
the analogue and the digital. - On our flight we actually
had lots of labour. They were checking in lots of baggage and some even checking
a bottle of Holy water. We had about an hour delay out of Dubai. We departed a lot of
8480, and 777 out of Dubai around 3:50 in the morning. (aeroplane taking off) - [Sam] So after takeoff, we
were served a late dinner. I was quite surprised there
was no one in business class. The only other passengers
were actually PIA pilots that heading back to Pakistan. The dinner was extremely tasty, actually beyond my expectation, and then to wash it all down, we have a dessert called barfi. And the flight attendant
were also extremely friendly, and I was taken by surprise. Honestly, I was going to a
country very little well known, and there were lots of negative
in the press about Pakistan, but then during the flight,
I started warming up and I started feeling good
about going to Pakistan. And toward the end of the flight we started to see the
sun rise over the horizon as we flying eastbound. And we had a very foggy weather in Karachi just before we land, but
it was a good landing, and I was really glad that
I flown on the A310 again. - [Control] 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. (aeroplane landing) - And Karachi airport
was very typical way, very crowded airport, lots of people at arrivals
picking up relatives. (upbeat Pakistani music) I had a couple hour rest in Karachi before in the afternoon,
getting on my second flight which was a 777 200ER,
from Karachi to Islamabad. It was great at that time in Pakistan you can still fly a lot
of wide-bodied aeroplane, across domestic flights. And we took off around 4:00
PM and landed just after dark. We can see the whole Islamabad
skyline under clear weather. And it was the old Islamabad airport which is extremely small and very much looked like
a bus station, actually. (upbeat Pakistani music) Then I over-nighted at
Islamabad Marriott hotel which was actually famous to
being bombed a while back. So it was heavily fortified
at the entrance to go in, and had really great,
tasty Pakistani food. (upbeat Pakistani music) There are many advantages using a VPN that you don't want to miss out. Personally I use Surfshark VPN
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you will get 83% off, And three additional months for free. This video is sponsored by Surfshark. So the next morning it was the most exciting
part of my trip in Pakistan, flying into the northern area of Gilgit. I had no idea how much of a
thrill was on that flight. - So one of the flights we did with Sam was from Islamabad up into
the mountains in Gilgit, which is a very unique kind of flight because it's all a visual rules flight, which operates every morning. You never know if it's
going to go, basically, because it depends so much on the weather at the destination, which is Gilgit. So literally you rock up to the airport and there's a guy in
the hills above Gilgit who checks the weather every morning, and calls the airport and says, "Yes, the Valley is clear, "I can see in, the aeroplane
can come in today." - [Sam] Fortunately the
flight eventually ran and we got on the flight. It was an ATR 42. He actually has a premium
economy section in front, with one row reverse-facing the other, and then the economy in the back. We took off in the early morning. Within 15 minutes of departure, we start seeing snow-capped mountain, and we were flying really,
really close to these mountains. (upbeat dramatic music) I remember in the cockpit,
the warning from the GPWS, the Ground Proximity Warning
System was coming on nonstop. So the pilots actually
have to turn off the GPWS because it was turning all over the place. It was an incredible clear day of flying, lots of mountains including
the peak of Nanga Parbat, which was the ninth mountain,
highest mountain in the world. It was beautiful to see the top, the snow blowing at the top, and then suddenly the weather changed and became deteriorated. The sun gave in back to the cloud. The captain at that point
has to make a decision, whether we are continuing into Gilgit, or abort the trip and return to Islamabad because there were no instrumental aid, and landing and Gilgit. (aeroplane engine) - You may know that we've
lost a number of aeroplanes in that area due to the high terrain. The flight itself starts with only the departure station weather
and the destination weather. In between the high mountains, there is no meteorological
reporting there. So the aeroplane took off, if the weather en route
was bad, we come back. - [Sam] So fortunately the
visibility was still good to allow us to make all
the way into Gilgit. So we continued the flight, and that was really an exciting flight because it was flying so
close to all the mountains. I remember coming into Gilbert,
we made a huge left turn to avoid the mountain top in front, and then we started to do a
steep descent into the airport. And talk about the
airport, I didn't see it. While we were on final approach, I still didn't see the airport. It was actually hidden in the
fog behind a line of trees. Only about three or four
seconds before the touchdown, we finally saw the airport runway. It was that close and that tricky. (aeroplane engine) - [Pilot] 40, 30, 20, 10. (camera clicking) - [Sam] And then we have
to quickly land and reverse because it was a short
runway, it was a thrill. Let me tell you this, it was
like nothing I've experienced. I remember after we landed, we were actually given
a tour to the ATC tower with the tower guys, who
had very simple equipment. We had tea and biscuit with them, and talk about aviation in general. Later of the day, the
PIA local station chief were actually giving us
a tour around Gilgit. He took us to Serena Gilgit's
hotel to have breakfast and to look around the Rift Valley where lots of suspension bridges. - The surprising part to most
foreigners about Pakistan is the Northern area. There is tremendous potential there. It's beautiful and it's untouched. It's worship area. - [Sam] Beautiful area,
just like Switzerland. I can't believe it. And it's time to leave Gilgit,
our return flight has landed, and then we got on board, and the weather was all clear
on this time of the day. And then we see all the
beautiful, spectacular snowy mountain on our
way back to Islamabad. (upbeat dramatic music) - Islamabad is a beautiful green city of the foothills of the Margallas, which is a modern city,
very well laid out, sparsely populated compared
to the other cities, and really worth a visit to Assam. So within an hour, you
can be up in the mountains about 6,000 feet altitude. In the winter it's snowy there. There's some snow and lovely
resorts there as well. - I have to admit, I really
liked the food in Pakistan. I love the grills, all the meats, and also they have a special version of Chinese Pakistani food which is very close to Chinese food. So I love the hospitality
of the people in Pakistan. They treat you like royalty. There were very, very few countries that people were so interested in you and any foreign tourists, any Western foreign
tourists going to Pakistan will instantly get
treated like celebrities. They were just so warm heart people, would invite you to go to their house and they love having a good time with you. - For his flight back
from Islamabad to Karachi, he got a little delayed enjoying
the food up in the Hills and he got to the airport 10 minutes before departure time of the flight. And the captain was
waiting outside the airport at curbside to pick Sam up, and grabbed his bags for him, rushed him through security and took him straight onto the aeroplane, and the flight departed ahead of time even despite all that. So that's how well people
get treated over there. (upbeat Pakistani music) - [Control] 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. (aeroplane landing) (upbeat music) - [Sam] So the next day,
another exciting trip ahead. It was flying the 747 300. At that time, PIA 747 were mainly doing Saudi Arabia Haj Amra charters, and also they were doing
ad hoc domestic runs between Karachi and Lahore. I was expecting probably a quiet flight, a hundred passenger, and I was wrong. Almost 500 passengers
rocked up to the flight. And then the entire boarding
process took about an hour, about half of the length
of the flight itself. In fact, that entire
jumbo was economy class. The upper deck has better leg room, they had the economy plus section on it, and then the entire lower
deck was mounted with very large overhead bins
because of lots of luggages. I was sitting behind
Captain Safar on the 747 and watching him training
other junior pilots on the right-hand seats. (aeroplane engine) - [Sam] I had a quick turnaround at Lahore at Allama Iqbal airports. I really liked the
architecture of the airport. The red coloured building at the airport. One thing on PIA I realised,
they pay lots of respect to the flight crew, the captains. They were actually giving better food to the captains and the flight deck crew, than to the passengers. You can see the amount of food was insane. (aeroplane engine) When I land back at Karachi, and I was then given a tour
at the PIA maintenance site, and then there were lots and
lots of old aeroplane part up, and then lots of 747 at
that time were dismantled. It was really sad to see the states, lots of Avery 10's, Tupolev 154, BAC 111, Shaheem 737 200 were all there. And then to end the day, we went to a young engineer's house. His name was Zane, and
then we had a good time spotting at his rooftop. (upbeat Pakistani music) Well that was my trip eight
years ago to Pakistan. I loved everything on that trip, the people, the food, the hospitality, and of course aviation. And I only know one thing, I will be back (upbeat dramatic music)
