Although today’s flight was quite short, Phil was anxious to meet up with his family who had arrived on the night flight from a cold and snowy London, so we made a prompt start and were airborne at 0530Z – 9:30 am local time.
Close mountain tops with Oman beyond
Essentially we were routed direct but with high intervening mountains to cross, FL150 was required, which was a bit of a struggle for Juliet Bravo in the heat.
Once over these, the Indian Ocean appeared with a let down and straight forward approach into the airport. We had had some difficulty in persuading the airport authorities to let stay there for a week; not quite sure why this was as there appeared to be acres of empty tarmac to park on.
Juliet Bravo parked for the week at Muscat
Entry formalities were quickly completed and then we were off in the limo to firstly drop off Phil to go and find his family before depositing us at the start of our Omani tour.
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.
Pilots with Echo Alpha at Aqaba
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.
Cultivation circles in Saudi desert
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.
Bahrain at sunset from G-PTEA
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.
The day dawned fair with the remnants of the by now rather weak cold front out over the Aegean island.We had two sectors to complete today so it was an early 0610Z departure from Corfu. As expected we picked up a little icing as we traversed the front but this soon sublimated off once we reached clear air beyond. Phil was soon ahead of us and sent us weather updates as he was to do for the remainder of our trip.
An hour and a half on the ground for refuelling and a bite to eat and then off for the rather longer flight to Aqaba. The weather continued to clear as we flew south and east. We waited with baited breath as we made our first call to Cairo; would they hear us and let us in? Well yes, they did! Cairo control were efficient and clear in their instructions; the route did include a longish dogleg to avoid Israeli airspace but in due course Aqaba appeared and we completed an ILS approach to land shortly before sunset. A cursory inspection of our spare parts by the customs people and then refuelling before we were off in our pre-arranged car to Petra for the night.
After a night of rain and gales, it was an easy decision to cancel today’s flight as VFR under cloud was not an option. We managed some sightseeing and general preparation for sectors ahead, and a visit to the airport Met Office promised encouraging weather for the next day.
Corfu on a winter’s stormy day
Luckily we had built a bad weather day into our programme so onward clearances through Egypt and Jordan were still valid.
Day 4 dawned wet and we wandered around a largely deserted Corfu town. Around 2:45 pm, we heard the sound of a light aircraft and saw an unmistakeable Piper Malibu on base leg for runway 35 at Corfu. Not long after, a slightly stirred Phil arrived at the hotel having flown through the cold front over Italy with embedded CB’s at FL250.
Miranda and Phil in a stormy Corfu
The forecast for the following day was not good; said cold front would be over Greece generating ice at my flight levels and effectively keeping me grounded.
After a day’s sight seeing in Pula – there are interesting Roman remains to look at but otherwise the city is quiet on a Sunday in early February, we set off for Corfu, climbing up to FL110 through thin cloud. This cleared quite quickly to give us splendid views of the Adriatic as we travelled southwards through Croatia, Montenegro and Albania before landing in fine weather at Corfu. Having looked at the weather map and seen the forecast for bad weather approaching from the west, we should have refuelled and set off for Rhodes. But we were due to meet Phil here the next day so set off for our hotel in Corfu town instead.
Our journey started at Lydd, a day earlier than planned to take advantage of good weather and fly over the Alpes at FL150 directly to Pula in Croatia. We had flown there from Gloucester Airport the night before having collected the aircraft from RGV after a 150 hour check. A longish flight – 800 nm but in good weather and completed in a time of 4 hours 45 minutes.
This is the first long range trip to be made in G-TRJB. After purchase in 2011, long range tanks were fitted giving a still air range of 1350 nm and a comprehensive avionics refit undertaken giving twin Garmin VHF COM/NAV and GPSS sets, a Sandel 3500 EHSI and Avidyne EX600 MFD with satellite weather download, retaining the Garmin 330 transponder, King KN64 DME and KR87 ADF.
The trip comes about as a result of a wish to visit the Oman and will be made in tandem with Phil Caiger in his Piper Malibu. This has a shorter range than Juliet Bravo so legs have to be planned accordingly but Phil can go faster and higher. This will be useful as Phil will arrive first and can arrange for fuel to be all ready and waiting when we arrive.
We have decided to meet up in Corfu and then travel on together to Rhodes, Aqaba in Jordan, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and finally Muscat. There Phil will meet up with his family for a half term holiday while Miranda and I go on a week’s travel round Oman. We will then foregather a week later for the return trip by essentially the same route.
Apart from a thorough check of all aircraft systems, other equipment we are getting include a hose and fuel pump in case refuelling from barrels is necessary (in the event, this was not used) and a satellite phone which can be wired through the aircraft intercom system. This proved most useful in advising handlers of revised ETAs. My Jepp subscription has been extended to include the Middle East so that all required landing charts will be available on the Avidyne MFD.
