Hai Phong

Hai Phong is the working base. It is the port for the whole north, which means freight in the hold more often than not, and it is close enough to the capital to absorb the overflow whenever Hanoi goes below minima — which, in the first months of the year, is often.

Nobody picks Hai Phong for the destination. They pick it because the flying is honest and the weather teaches you something.

Low, flat delta ground a few miles from the coast, with Ha Long Bay and its limestone islands immediately to the east. There is no terrain to speak of and no performance problem; the difficulty is entirely visibility.

From February into April this coast sits under crachin — a fine, persistent drizzle with cloud on the deck that can hold the field at minima for a week without ever becoming a storm. It is the most reliably marginal weather in the country, and the reason a Hai Phong pilot gets comfortable with approaches that the rest of the board only sees occasionally.

A short domestic network with a regional leisure edge, and a cargo bias that shapes the days: earlier starts, later finishes, and a load sheet that is rarely the same twice.

The duties are the shortest on the network. You will be back at base more often than anyone, and you will have landed more times to get there.

Mixed loads and marginal weather is the combination that produces diversions. Holds, alternates, and the fuel decisions that come with them are the routine here, not the exception.

When it goes wrong it goes wrong on approach, and the question the record ends up asking is whether you committed to something you should have broken off.