Day 10
Muscat - Karachi - Ahmedabad
A good start to the day in Muscat saw an on time departure from Muscat with a climb to 7500 and VFR routing towards Pakistan, keeping well clear of Iranian airspace.
On arrival in Pakistan airspace the first 'glitch'; "How can you be VFR over the sea?" I took that to be a retorical question. We were told to change to an IFR level so descended to FL70. I do not know what sort of IFR service Pakistan provides flying at FL70 under an airway for which the minimum useable level is FL240, but I think it is safe to assume that we were IFR but responsible for our own separation from other flying objects! We did not mention that we are a helicopter as that would probably have resulted in an order to head for the nearest land. One wonders why one has to file a flight plan and spend a month waiting for clearance when the declared flight plan is changed on entering the airspace.
We had a good turn around in Karachi with the fuel truck turning up soon after our arrival and the (sent by email in advance) flight plan in the system. When we called for start there was a delay while the General Declaration (also sent by email in advance but obviously not filed) was cleared. We were soon on our way after a very commendable 55 minutes on the ground.
En route to Ahmadebad comms were not too good on leaving the Karachi FIR. We relayed a message through a passing Emirates flight and continued on our weary way. Landing 45 minutes before sunset.
The fuel bowser was waiting for us on arrival; "wonderful" we thought! No so fast; this is India. First we had to wait for the customs officers to come and inspect our arrival fuel contents, which took 15 minutes. (We have to pay tax on this imported fuel!!). "OK let's refuel"..not so fast, the fuel nozzle on this bowser does not fit in a standard helicopter gravity refuelling hole. The other bowser is busy....
All in all it was not too slow, and we were out of the airport an hour and a half after landing having declared our watches and cameras on the customs form.
Next across India to Kolkata (Calcutta in old money).