Rev Heads East...

Pea Soup x2

The flight from Dyce down the length of the UK to Plymouth was mostly pea soup, and the weather worsened today when I headed east again for France. Weather on takeoff from Plymouth:

Wind: 120 True, 14 Kts Vis: 2495 Meters, 2 SM Clouds: 400 Overcast Precip: Light Rain Temp: 6C Dew: 6C Pressure: 1010 mb, 29.83 inches

I stayed in the muck at 7,000, hoping it would clear. My destination, Aubigny-Sur-Nere LFEH was reporting clear with 6 miles visibility.

The clouds and fog broke just in time for me to get a glimpse of the Channel Islands. I’d love to land and poke around this English pocket of historically French culture. It’s the home of the Guernsey cow, after all. But the weather is cold and wet, and I have a long trip ahead. Just east of the Normandy town of Lessay I emerged from the murky Channel weather into clear albeit hazy sky, but the soup closed in again soon enough and I landed at Aubigny-sur-Nere LFEH in fog and low clouds. ATC had me at 2600 and I had zero visibility, so I took a chance and dropped down to 1800 when the GSP put me a mile for the airport. Luckily the runway was right in front of me.

Not much of an airport, but the town is charming. Off to Nice tomorrow.<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: Rev45, Jan 29, 2009 - 02:27 PM</em><!-- end editby -->

Just for a thought.....I have done several RTW trips in both directions in various planes, but the most enjoyable for me was using a CRJ. A friend of mine has made numerous RTW trips in real life in a Bonanza so it sure can be done. Have a good trip. jim

In single enigine planes, the Bonanza seems to be something of a favorite for RTW flights, based on what I find on the web. I have a payware Pilatus 12C (I think) that I haven't flown much, and I'm thinking about switching to that one. The Caravan is fine so far, though, and sure has a good rep real-world.

Paul (apilot) flew the 2.5 hrs to Nice LFMN with me. Visibility came and went, but was good for the landing at Nice. I think I'm going to get thread the Middle East via Crete, Agaba and Dubai.

Greetings from Riyad, Saudi Arabia, OERK. I got here via LIRK Crete and OJAI Amman, Jordan, then Hail, Saudi Arabia OEHL. The long flights over the vast Saudi desert were only slightly less boring than the over-water legs. Bright spot was the flight over the Jordan River valley.

From here I'll make my way to Dubai, then work east towards India.



<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: Rev45, Feb 06, 2009 - 09:35 PM</em><!-- end editby -->

Leg 20:
What I’m going to remember about flying western India is terrible visibility. Fog and haze, haze and more fog…And probably some smoke and pollution. It clears momentarily, and I can often see lush rural landscape below, but Ahmedabad and Kota have been strictly VFR approaches, whether I flew them that way or not.

Leaving Karachi OPKC for India, I felt like I’ve crawled out of a quicksand of politics and ever-pending violence. Maybe this is nonsense, but that’s how I felt. India seems different; more calming and meaningful. I’m headed to Dibrugarh and the start of the “Hung route” across the Himalayas flown during WW II by the Air Transport Command, and kept open by the Flying Tigers.

The ATC flew mostly C-47s.

The Flying Tigers flew P-40’s against faster, more maneuverable Japanese Zeroes. They used a network of spotters to locate the Japanese, and the P-40’s would dive on the Japs from altitude, then keep diving away and then climb for another attack run. Sounds simple, but I bet it wasn’t. The Zero was an armed flying gas can, with no armor or self-sealing fuel tanks. That probably helped.

Today it’s Kota VIKO to Lucknow VILK. The visibility seems to be getting better as I move NE. This is the winter dry season, so I’m hopeful that it will keep on improving. I’ll be flying up the Brahmaputra River into to foothills of the Himalayas.