Today, I wished to explore a bit the Ecuadorian Andes mountains, by a flight which almost felt like threading a needle, because of having to navigate through the close proximity of endless series of volcanic mountains, that literally littered my planned route from Cuenca airport (SECU) all the way to the airport (SEQM) in the capital city of Quito. SECU and SEQM, with elevations of 8,300 ft and 7,900 ft respectively, are high altitude airports, though not as high as the world's highest elevation (13,325 ft) international airport at La Paz, in Bolivia. 

Regarding Quito, it's to be noted that the original (aka: old) Quito airport (SEQU) was closed in 2016 and is now converted to the biggest urban park in Quito. On its 2-mile long (former) runways, instead of jetliners, now-a-days, pictures show bicyclists and joggers speeding down the same runway...Anyway, the new Quito airport is SEQM, that was purpose-built at an elevation 1,400 ft lower than the old (Quito) airport.

The most remarkable landmark, on my 300 miles (straight-up-north) route, is the (fearsome but fortunately inactive) stratovolcano Mount Chimborazo with a summit of 20,500 ft. This mountain was long mistakenly thought to be the highest mountain of the Andes, which honor actually goes to Aconcagua of Argentina (visited virtually in one of my previous posts). Here is a curious fact about Mount Chimborazo: Its summit is technically the highest point on the Earth. It's true that Mount Everest, at 29,000 ft, is higher as measured from the sea-level, but, due to the Earth's equatorial bulge, when measured from Earth's center, Chimborazo protrudes 7,000 ft deeper into space (closer to Sun by that much, so to speak) than Mount Everest...Oh well...In any case, Chimborazo is a spectacular mountain worth visiting for sure... (see, below, this mountain looming up on the close-up (synthetic vision) shot of my Garmin PFD in shot #9, and then in the sequence of pictures, shot #s (10-14), as I gingerly pass by its (impressive) glacier-clad peak...) ...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images, of my King Air, travelling in the heart of the Andes highlands, and finishing with a touchdown on the (new) Quito Airport (SEQM) Runway 36.

Thanks for viewing.

Great shots, P_7878 !

Thanks for chiming in, bernd...🙂...Cheers...!

Great choice of flight path...for a mountain lover! 🙂 Meanwhile, I was departing at sea level (also in Ecuador) from Guayaquil. Lots to see down there too!

Very nice trip P_7878 !

cheers 😉

Nice shots! 😉 

Folks: Thank you for the comments...🙂...!

 

4 hours ago, John F said:

Great choice of flight path...for a mountain lover! 🙂 Meanwhile, I was departing at sea level (also in Ecuador) from Guayaquil. Lots to see down there too!

John: Hope, your experience is better, but I am (frankly) not impressed by the S.A. land-class textures...surely not up to the standards of what I see for the EU and NAR regions...I see so many Updates (Optional but Free) for the other regions, but none for S.A. It needs some attention for sure...being a most remarkable (but so-far-neglected) part of the world to explore, that we know much less about, than the other parts of the world...virtually speaking...of course...🙂...