Another long day. We had originally planned two nights at Petra but because of bad weather, our visit there was condensed somewhat as we needed to be back at Aqaba by the evening of 13th February to allow an early start the next day.
All went smoothly; we were collected by our handler from the hotel after a quick breakfast and formalities completed, were in the air at 0530Z for the flight to Riyadh at FL110. As with the last flight, a bit of a dog leg to start with but then essentially direct to OERD. Saudi ATC was efficient and always gave us the next frequency in advance in case comms were lost meanwhile. The desert comes in every hue from orange sand as you imagine it to be, to rocky outcrops to large cultivated and irrigated circles of crops with the very occasional road and even more occasional airfield spotted. To start with, there was a thick haze below us but visibility gradually improved as we neared Riyadh.
As expected, Riyadh was a busy airfield but we were efficiently marshalled onto the GA apron. Avgas took a while to arrive; it needed to come from an airfield around 50 km away but for some reason, got stuck just outside the entrance gate to the apron. Very frustrating! It was also the most expensive avgas of the trip. Yes, said the refueller when we asked about this. It has to go to Europe for refining and then back here!
All this meant that we were running late on departure and with a less than optimal SID given, which added considerately to route miles flown, it was obvious that a night arrival at Abu Dhabi would be necessary.
Miranda had covered herself with a long scarf during transit at Riyadh, which kept everyone happy, and was offered a limousine transit to the VIP area at Abu Dhabi but declined this for the crew bus.
It started to get dark as we crossed the Persian Gulf inbound to Abu Dhabi and it was good to hear Aussi air traffic controllers looking after this airspace and very busy it was too. We refuelled on arrival as usual and were more than ready for our steak and beers when deposited by our handler at the overnight hotel.
Aqaba to Riyadh: 754 nm in 4 hours 25 minutes
Riyadh to Abu Dhabi: 430 nm in 3 hours 5 minutes.