The day dawned fine and sunny and after a prompt breakfast, it was off to Heraklion airfield to refuel for the shorter of our two flights today. Fuel came quickly and we were airborne 15 minutes after our planned departure time.
During our climb to FL270, some CB activity was seen off to the east towards Turkey; the weather grew hazy as we neared the Egyptian coast and a cloud layer below us formed as we traversed the Western Desert with the odd green patches of cultivated land to the east. We were given a minor diversion south of Cairo but with a very good tailwind approaching 100 kt, we could not complain. Transferred to Hurghada radar, we were vectored for the RNAV approach to runway 34L in increasingly turbulent conditions. The main instrument runway 34R was closed and barricaded off for no very obvious reason so a long taxi round to the terminal.
There our handling agent met us; there was some delay in getting fuel because BP had apparently not sent the required fuel release but with much telephoning this was sorted after a while, flight plan filed and Phil took over for the afternoon flight to Abu Dhabi after a turn round of about an hour and a half.
This was planned for FL310 to get the best from the tailwind with maximum fuel economy. Cloud with forecast tops of 22,000 ft over Saudi turned out to top at around 32,000 ft above our ceiling, so much of this flight was in slightly bumpy IMC. We had a late lunch and then tea (Tracey’s fruit cake!) as it got dark over the Persian Gulf before our second night landing of the trip at Abu Dhabi’s business airport. What a difference to yesterday evening; here we had vectors to an ILS approach and saw the runway several miles out, landing in a balmy evening temperature of 23ºC.
The airport is getting ready for an AeroExpo starting on Sunday but otherwise was quiet; fuel came quickly, we managed to persuade the immigration that Miranda was ‘crew’ and after that, it was off to the hotel and a much enjoyed steak and beer.
We discovered that there is a two hour time change between Hurghada and Abu Dhabi but at least that means we can start an hour later for India tomorrow morning.
Heraklion to Hurghada 667 nm in 2 hr 45 min
Hurghada to Abu Dhabi 1,156 nm in 3 hr 50 min