Aircraft: Mitsubishi MU2K, SGAS = Silvia Pettirossi Intl, Asuncion Paraguay, SGLP = Loma Plata, Paraguay.
Stoney and I had flown to Loma Plata the day before to take a couple of the land development folks there. The airport is a 7000 foot by 100 ft wide clay and dirt runway in vey nice condition. That day we didn’t stay as we needed to get back to run another trip. The passengers stayed there for pickup the next day.
The morning of the trip, the weather had turned a bit wet with scattered showers, but great visibility, and a reasonable 3000 foot ceiling. The normal route to the North to get to Lomo Plata was to go to a fix 50 miles from Asuncion, report the fix, and ATC would cut us loose, as there was no radar in the country. This meant that we were responsible for checking visually for traffic, and what few other aircraft might be around reported their positions at certain fixes.
The day before, the landing had been uneventful, as the runway was dry. This morning it was Stoney’s turn to fly, and our arrival was anything but routine. It had just rained at the airport. We could see the shower over the airport and watched it move away. There was an obvious mud puddle at the end of the strip, so we elected to land past it.
We are dealing with an airplane that, although one of the fastest turboprops around, also had unreal short field capabilities. So landing a bit long was not an issue. All was fine until the touchdown, and the mud started flying. I suggested that we not do reverse, but Stoney still had to come to beta mode (flat pitch props) to slow us down. The brakes had become useless, as we were just sliding in the muck.
As soon as the props went to beta, the mud started flying up from the surface and coated the windshield. By this time we were most of the way down the runway, off to the side and sliding. To Stony’s credit, he kept us on the strip and came to a slow taxi at the end. I said to keep us moving while we turned around so we wouldn’t get stuck. When the airplane stopped, we just left it in the middle of the runway at the end.
WOW what a mess. There was mud everywhere. In the gear, the flaps, the engine inlets, and all over the fuselage. This was going to take some time to clean, and there were no facilities there to do it. We decided to just fly the airplane back home with everything hanging out, and we would clean it up in Asuncion.
In the mean time we were invited to tour the Mennonite town nearby. Very impressive how clean and orderly everything was. We visited a general store in town, and my biggest impression was the large refrigerated tank that sold fresh whole milk. The ladies from the town would bring their jugs and containers to the store and fill them up from this stainless steel drum. Our guide asked if we wanted to try the milk. OMG, the freshest, sweetest, creamiest, coldest milk I have ever had. I sometimes dream about that milk it was so good.
When we returned to the strip, the mud had dried out and was now concrete. The gear and flaps on the MU-2 are run by electric motors turning jackscrews. Raising the gear or the flaps would have just ground up the bearings and screw followers, so we flew back with it all hanging out. We found some rain showers on the way to start getting some of it off. The flight back took us about thirty minutes longer, but that was OK,
We started with a small pressure washer to clean the mud off, and that was a three hour task to get most of it off. Did some maintenance procedures on the gear and flaps before running them. When we sold the airplane a few years later, they were still finding dirt and grime in strange places all over the aircraft.
