This was our longest day’s flying with 9 hours 15 minutes in all. We started off with an Abu Dhabi departure at 0420Z for the flight to Riyadh which all went smoothly apart from the head wind we encountered as we flew westward. Fuel was waiting for us this time and we thought we would manage departure for Aqaba in less than an hour; ground checks complete, embarkation done and passenger door shut ….. except that the door would not shut. The locking mechanism had jammed. Screwdrivers out and the trim removed, we could see why the mechanism had jammed but not work out how to unjam it.
On arrival, we had briefly met up with a UK commercial pilot to whom we had chatted and he had given us his mobile number in case anything went wrong. We tried the mobile but no answer – it turned out he had gone off for the day flying his owner’s biz jet; another call to Stuart at RGV but it was difficult to explain to him exactly what was wrong and even more difficult for him to suggest a solution from three and a half thousand miles away. Eventually a local Cessna engineer turned up, looked at it and with a well aimed mallet blow freed the mechanism. Gingerly we replaced the trim, climbed in and …. yes, we could shut and lock the door.
Fortunately the air temperature at Riyadh airport is modest in February so we did not die of heat and finally we were off some two hours late to Aqaba making another night landing inevitable, especially we were now meeting stronger headwinds. However sunset over the desert was a marvellous sight and eventually descent clearance came, late to keep us clear of the mountain range delineating the border between Saudi Arabia and Jordan followed by a procedural ILS. Once again a customs check then a further taxi to the GA apron for refuelling and off to our hotel for the night.
Abu Dhabi to Riyadh: 435 nm in 4 hour 5 minutes.
Riyadh to Aqaba: 754 nm in 5 hours 10 minutes.