Stavanger to Ho Chi Minh City

[he1iaviator]

Day 1

Stavanger - Le Touquet - Lyon

I have not flown on the North Sea for years and today we plan to do most of it in one hop!

AS332L2 post maintenance at HeliOne going back to Vietnam. Let's hope the Northern European weather is kind to us.

Watch this space for progress reports.

[SASless]

Do take in the Rex Hotel and the Lemon Grass Restaurant not far away from the hotel!!!

The Rex does shrimp paste on sugar cane that is quite a treat!

[atcomarkingtime]

Well...well....VN8610....
Spoke to you today on Anglia radar from 55N...didn't want to ask too many questions so just spent 10 mins doing a google search...but you were on PPRUNE already!!!
We did get SOB off you and Vietnam...be good to see a few pictures on here so we can see the AS32 we were talking to!!
Cheers!!!!:ok:

[he1iaviator]

Atcomarking, many thanks for your help. It's so wonderful to hear UK ATC.

Here is the team getting ready for departure this morning.

It was a wet and windy day on the North Sea, just as I remember it from all those years ago. We were off from Stavanger just about on time, had a rapid blast down the HMRs, a quick suck of fuel in Le Touquet and are now in the pub in Lyon.

Tomorrow Bastia and Brindisi all being well.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610004.jpg

[atcomarkingtime]

Hey....good to hear you on the radio this morn....you were passed to us on Anglia by Aberdeen ATC ..... which is in the same room! I'm always intrigued by some aircraft we work and your callsign had me wondering!! Hope I didnt ask too many questions....didn't know how busy you'd be!!
Good to see the pic....be good to see some from the cockpit too as you make your journey!!
All the very best...look forward to seeing and hearing more!:ok:

[TiPwEiGhT]

Ah, all makes sense now. I couldn't think of where the reg was from when I saw you lift off this morning. Have a safe and great trip guys! I am jealous.

*Is that a long range tank in the cabin?

[atcomarkingtime]

Glad its not just me being nosey!!! This is why i love aviation.....:)

[gnow]

Have a good flight heliaviator. Hope you don't have to spend a week waiting for clearance at Cairo again! For a "retired pilot" you are pretty busy! Catch up with you when you are home.

[he1iaviator]

Day 2

Lyon - Bastia (Corsica) - Brindisi

We managed to get away from Lyon shortly after 8am and headed south for the Alps. The overcast kept us down to 3000ft initially, but broke up as we approached the high ground and we got up to 9.5 which saw us clear the high ground comfortably. There was some standing wave turbulence, which the L2 hates, but nothing to write home about so it was mostly an easy ride. Marselle Information was still in bed until 9.30 and had a charming message on the frequency which said "We are closed, if you have an emergency call 121.5"

Being Saturday we had a rather "relaxed" response from the Fueller and Agents in Bastia, but the flight plan was already in the system so we got off again after a 45min turn around.

The forecast for the south of Italy was not so good, with CBs and heavy rain showers so we departed Bastia anticipating difficulties once we moved into the mountains. In fact our only problem was managing to talk to Roma Information which was not helped by having to descend to stay clear of controlled airspace. Once we got hold of them all was plain sailing though. The visibility in the mountains once we had passed Naples was not brilliant but once we reached the Brindisi FIR things improved considerably and Brindisi cleared us direct. The SEAP airport handlers had lost the fax sent the previous day warning them of our arrival (as usual it has to be said), but once they found it all was well and the crew were happily shopping in town by 5pm.

The only setback was the discovery, once they got back to the hotel, that the Italian shoes they had bought at vast expense had a "Made in Vietnam" label. :rolleyes:

Not many views from the cockpit as it was raining most of the way, but here's a view of the cockpit passing the Ponza VOR. At last the OAT is starting to look reasonable!

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610PNZ.jpg

[HeliComparator]

he1aviator

Very interesting - if you mananage to keep up a report each day like that, it will be a great record of your trip and no doubt provide useful info for anyone making the trip in future. I flew Gatwick to Singapore in a SA330 but it was 1982, in the days before the internet, and I now regret that my only record is my logbook.

Just one point - in the cockpit picture the pressure altimeter strip looks all but blank - is it faulty or is it just glare from daylight on the screens?

HC

[he1iaviator]

That was my first ferry too. Redhill to Singapore in 1979 in the second 330J to go to Miri, G-BFNF and only one pic to show for it. Here we are in Pasni (Pakistan/Iran Border) where one had to fly twice around the town (about 10 miles from the airport) to alert the refueller and immigration guys to come to the airport.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/Bristow/G-BFNFPumaatPasnionPakistan-IranBor.jpg

We have tons of fuel on this trip though, so Oman direct to Karachi is well within our capabilities...assuming the Pakistan Clearance comes through!

The altimeter is a trick of the camera, it must have just been refreshing the screen when the shutter clicked. The clock however is not working if you are going to go through everything with a fine tooth comb :p

[Solar]

Very interesting ferry flight.

I'm working out of Vung Tau and probably will be on VN-8610 at some stage as SLF. Can anybody explain the logistics behind ferrying as opposed to shipping, is it costs or just to ensure all is well after major maintenance?

[Brilliant Stuff]

Cost my dear chap i would have thought, since sticking it in the back of an Antonov for these sort of distances can cost easily $250.000.

[TheMonk]

Brilliant Stuff,

Couldn't they ship it like other cargos coming to the US from China? Doesn't seem like shipping price is all that expensive considering that Chinese goods are still so even after factoring in shipping costs.

Granted it will take a week or three to arrive.

Monk

[unstable load]

Monk,

Granted it will take a week or three to arrive.

That is the exact problem. A week would be great, but 3 could mean penalties and all sorts of contractual nausea. Besides vessel sailing dates may not have been favourable for departure.

UL

[he1iaviator]

Day 4 Brindisi - Iraklion - Alexandria

We had put a couple of extra days in the plan for Europe in case the weather held us up so we arranged our Middle East clearances accordingly. Since we did not get delayed by the weather we had a day off yesterday while waiting for the Egypt clearance to come through.

The weather was excellent this morning and we departed Brindisi a bit heavier due to the many pairs of shoes in the baggage compartment. We climbed to 7500ft and headed south. Greece seems to operate a system where VFR aircraft fly on QNH, even above the transition altitude, while IFR flights use 1013..seems like a receipe for disaster. The Greeks also really want VFR aircraft to use VFR reporting points. If flying in to Irakion you need to know where Deer Island is. We had a good tailwind and so arrived well ahead of schedule, had a quick refuel, and then set off for Egypt.

Egypt insists that one follows published routes and the minimum altitude is 8000ft. At the FIR boundary we climbed to 9500 and still managed a very healthy 155Kts ground speed. They cleared us VFR to Alexandria but on arrival instructed us to report established on the VOR/DME approach, a trap for the unwary!

We eventually got fuel and put the aircraft to bed for the night parked on one of the runways.

We have our Saudi clearance so we are off to Jeddah via Luxor tomorrow.

[griffothefog]

He1i,

I thought Greek atc or handlers were on strike? It certainly curtailed one of our deliveries last week. Enjoy Jeddah :p

[he1iaviator]

Day 5

Alexandria - Luxor - Jeddah

Don't ask me about the theives that serve as agents in Egypt, but needless to say having disagreed with them over whether I would pay the hotel direct or they would pay, things did not go smoothly on our departure from Alex! A 15 minute start delay while waiting for the agent to finish his work was followed by 30mins running on the ground waiting for traffic (3 fixed wing arrivals). Our clearance was "Flight Planned route FL110" but eventually they settled for FL95 VFR.

We were vectored for an ILS at Luxor and then had to clear immigration which we should have done in Alex, so we were a couple of hours later out of Luxor that planned.

FL95 to Jeddah was smooth and a night ILS to 34R uneventful.

Nice hotel at Habitat close to the airport.

Off to Riyadh now.

[atcomarkingtime]

Fabulous log so far......I have been tuning in daily but thought I'd leave it a few days before making comments again!!! Be good to see daily pics too....can't believe its nearly a week since we spoke in Uk airspace!!!! Keep the log going......all the very best!!!:D

[he1iaviator]

Day 6

Jeddah-Riyadh

Apologies for the missing log yesterday.. No Internet in the Riyadh Sahara Hotel! A bit of a tired hotel, but very convenient to the airport and the beds are huge.

Jet Aviation were efficient and we were airbourne just about as planned. 7500ft was not as comfortable as it might have been. The L2 hates that sort of turbulence so we had to reduce speed and there was also a significant head wind so our planned 3hrs 35mins turned into 4hrs 40mins. We had planned for this contingency so were not embarrassed for lack of fuel. For most of the route we were out of touch with ATC but they monitored our progress and already had us identified when we got hold of Riyadh.

They accepted our request for a visual approach so we did not have to waste any fuel on long downwind ILS legs.

Jet Aviation had arranged fuel for our arrival so we filled her up to the gunwales in anticipation of our longest sector Riyadh - Muscat.

[he1iaviator]

Day 7

Riyadh - Muscat

Not a very happy start to the day! Part of the pre-flight planning was to be leaving Riyadh on a Thursday or Friday so that the military ranges to the east are closed and airway A415 to Doha open during the day. We checked this out with ATC before filing the flight plan and all was agreed. However, when we requested start-up we were told to return to flight planning and re-route as A415 is only available to traffic inbound to Doha and they had refused to accept us. You would have thought they could have made an exception..... anyway 45 minutes later we started-up and staggered NORTH East in to a horrible headwind. Just under an hour was added to our planned flight time..anyone know why? For the first couple of hours things looked rather sad, but once we turned the corner around the north of Bahrain the speed picked up and the likelihood of having to divert for fuel became a bad dream.

We flew down the Gulf at 7500, talking to Bahrain, Doha, and UAE, coasted-in at Abu Dhabi and after the Oman FIR routed direct to Muscat, where they really seem to know what VFR means!

Airborne time was 5hrs 35mins, fuel remaining on landing 1hr 10mins. As I have said previously; we are rather well endowed in that department!

Muscat is a planned day off, but it's going to be at least two days as the Pakistan and India clearances have not come through yet, despite being applied for a month ago. We can't really complain since the Muscat Grand Hyatt is certainly comfortable. The wallet is going to take a bit of a bashing though!

I'll post some photos over the next couple of days.

[pa-18]

Hi, im dropping by the log every day now. Interesting to watch your progress. I have worked for Heli-One at Stavanger for about 5 years, and changed my this summer for CHC HS, so it is nice to follow your trip.

Keep posting pictures.....

PA-18

[Stitchbitch]

he1iaviator, great log. In Muscat try the 'Omar Khyam' Returant in Ruwi. They used to do a mean 'sizzling' steak and the lime juice 'lumi' is hard to beat. Good luck for the next leg :ok:

[Gabra1]

Looks like you are making good progress. I am in Yangon at the moment. Will you be routing this way? Otherwise we'll have dinner when you get back to KL. Can't remember whose turn it is to buy! :ok:

[he1iaviator]

Mr Gabra, we should be through Yangon on 14th, but just for a quick refuel. However, no firm plans until some clearances come through!

My turn to buy, but it will probably be in KL.

[Farrell]

he1iaviator:

Only saw this thread today.

Have PM'd you my phone number if you fancy a look around Muscat.

Best Regards

Farrell

[he1iaviator]

Not Rosh standard, but a selection of en-route shots:

Approaching Corfu
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610001.jpg

Greek Mountains
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610004-1.jpg

Iraklion Tech Stop
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610008.jpg

Alexandria Parking
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610012.jpg

Pyramids in Cairo
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610014.jpg

Small Fry In Jeddah
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610015.jpg

Moutains of Oman
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VN-8610019.jpg

We have the rest of our clearances now, so should be on our way to Karachi and Ahmedabad on Sunday.

[Rosh]

Not Rosh standard, but a selection of en-route shots

Rosh standard? Is that similar to sub-standard!?

Great pics, especially the one of the pyramids.

Since my name has been mentioned, I'll hijack the thread for a second!

Just ferried an S76 from Norwich to Ghana. It took 7 days.

Uk - France - Spain - Morocco - Western Sahara - Mauritania - Mali - Burkina Faso - Ghana.

Photo taken in Kiffa, Mauritania at an unconventional fuel stop. Unfortunately we were not well as endowed as the AS332L2 in the endurance department!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v513/rjaypalan/DSC06215.jpg

I'll post more on the Bristow Photo thread when I get a spare minute.

Good luck with the rest of the trip he1iaviator. Keep the pics coming.

Catch up with you over a beer next time I'm in KL.

[Gabra1]

Hel1aviator, I'm flying back to KL tomorrow. Will text or skype you soon.

Rosh, when do you plan to be in KL again? Make sure you give me a call, ok?

[tophelios]

hel1aviator, great pictures, nice trip....it's good to see the desert from KL......here we still get our daily afternoon thunderstorm...
see you soon aroud there....in the SUN cafe, langkawi, for exemple...
enjoy your trip and continue please your reports....

[he1iaviator]

Planning for Sunday

Here are the planned flights for tomorrow. The first and last stops in India need to be night stops if at all possible due to the unbelievable amount of paperwork which can take hours. It is very difficult not to be Captain Grumpy after an hour and a half at the airport at the end of a long day flying..and that is with the agent working flat out as well!

Sunday Overview
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/Sunday.jpg

Muscat to Karachi
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/OOMS-OPKC.jpg


Karachi to Ahmedabad
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/OPKC-VAAH.jpg

The Sun Cafe in Langkawi could be just a few days away!

[TheMonk]

he1iaviator,

Most excellent thread. I'll be in SEAsia next year (mostly Laos), but will visit VN, Kmer, Siam, Phama, and Chene also. I'm not sure if you are just ferrying the ship there or will you be driving her while she's there also?

Anyways, if we can meet up, Pho and LaoLao is on me.

Monk

[atcomarkingtime]

Excellent update on your flight...its just over a week since we spoke on Anglia Radar as you broke south of 55N enroute for Le Touquet.....
Love the pics....and then the BHL S76 turns up on here too...another aircraft we guys on Anglia work daily...and spoke to leaving EGSH!!!!

[he1iaviator]

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).

[he1iaviator]

Today's plan

Monday Overview
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/MondayOverview.jpg

Ahmedabad to Nagpur
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VAAH-VANP.jpg

Nagpur to Kolkata
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VANP-VECC.jpg

[he1iaviator]

Day 11

Ahmedabad - Nagpur - Kolkata

Not a complicated day's flying. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, a slight headwind, minimum turbulence and reasonable ATC. However we clocked up close to eight hours flying in a noisy machine and all feel tired and ready for a rest.

We departed Ahmedabad on time having gone through the security and flight planning hoops. Quadrantal cruising levels in India, so FL 75 was our cruising level. On arrival in Nagpur we were parked on a disused apron in the middle of the airport next to a dilapidated Boeing 720 (707?). Who knows why since the spanking new main apron was empty except for a couple of movements while we were there.

Ancient and Modern
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610%20Nagpur/VN-8610008.jpg

Slightly Less Ancient
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610%20Nagpur/VN-8610003.jpg

Beauracracy at Work
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610%20Nagpur/VN-8610012.jpg

Carbon Paper - India Lives on It!
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610%20Nagpur/VN-8610014.jpg

To be fair everything was well organised by the handlers and our time on the ground was only about an hour. A long and tedious drone on to Calcutta was completed without incident, and we refuelled on arrival and headed for the hotel.

The Hyatt in Calcutta is one of the nicest on our route, which is fair after the longest day! We must be getting close to home now as discussion over a few beers was back to issues at home.

Tomorrow Yangon and Bangkok we hope.

[he1iaviator]

Tuesday Flights

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/TuesdayOverview.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VECC-VYYY.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN8610/VYYY-VTBD.jpg

[Bigt]

Excellent posts re journey of a lifetime.....yep thats a 1961 Boeing 720-025 parked up there. Started its career with Eastern and spent some time in Europe with Conair. Abandoned by its Indian operator about 18 years ago

[atcomarkingtime]

Almost home now eh!!! This has been such a great report of your flight....:ok:

[he1iaviator]

Forgive me, dear reader, for not reporting on progress yesterday. A late arrival followed by a couple of beers and dinner resulted in your reporter falling straight in to bed and sleeping soundly until the alarm rang this morning.

Day 12

Kolkata - Yangon - Bangkok

A rather difficult departure from Kolkata is perhaps a diplomatic way to put it. Our flight planned route had been carefully thought about. The onshore weather was likely to include large build-ups and heavy rain and these would be full of mountains, so we planned to remain offshore as much as possible. Our flight plan was accepted, and when we called for start we were given immediate clearance, unheard of on that continent! It was once we were already taxiing that things went awry. Our clearance bore no relationship to our planned route. We entered in to discussion on this. They were not swayed by our argument that we did not have enough fuel for this route, and said that VFR is not permitted more than 100nm offshore in India. The argument that once we were 100 miles offshore India we would only be 50 miles from the Bangladesh or Myanmar coast was also dismissed. Not wanting to be called back to the office we accepted our take-off clearance and set off in the wrong direction. Once airborne we declared that we were unable to comply with our clearance as the MSA was 12,400ft for part of the route. With that we were directed back on to our originally planned track and a small cheer went up in the cockpit as we entered the Yangon FIR some time later.

As hoped the offshore weather was fine and we had an easy flight. Once we crossed the Myanmar coastline there were some build-ups but we easily avoided these. Yangon's clearance was "direct to Yangon VFR" and they were very helpful throughout. We landed at Yangon in light rain, which stopped soon after we landed and the fuelling and formalities were fast, efficient and friendly.

We had an easy flight to Bangkok, sliding down the ILS at Don Muang shortly after sunset. The handlers and fuel were waiting and we were on our way to the hotel in no time.

A couple of photos follow when I can get them uploaded.

[he1iaviator]

Day 13

Bangkok - Ho Chi Minh - Vung Tau

A slap-up breakfast at the Silom Sofitel was followed by a traffic free (!) drive to Don Muang. Immigration formalities were swift and painless at the eerily empty airport and we were at the aircraft half an hour earlier than planned. There was a ten minute delay on our taxi clearance, but once we got airborne the routing was as planned. The weather did not present any problems and at 7500ft we managed to avoid getting shot down over the Thai / Cambodian border.

As an aside, our overflight permission from Cambodia proved difficult to get. It seems that their fax machine is unable to send International messages so the long promised clearance fax never arrived. Luckily, a friend in the Cambodian CAA was able to send me the number by sms text message last night. Our hopes of an extra night in Bangkok were dashed!

Arrival into Ho Chi Minh was easy and smiling faces waited. We cleared immigration and customs and then positioned the aircraft to its home base in Vung Tau where more smiling faces and lots of cans of 333 beer were a very welcome sight. The view of Front Beach from the Palace Hotel is as lovely as ever.

Still can't upload photos..watch this space!

[John Miller]

This has been a great thread he1iaviator. Have been following it from my home in Johannesburg and office in Dubai - look forward to seeing more pictures. thanks for taking the trouble to write the trip up. It would make a great magazine article!

[MrR]

Nice trip he1aviator.
Loved the cross section of the route showing hard parts and ATC stuff. Can you tell this luddite where you got those from? Don't tell me, probably from an Amazon DVD ROM.

[eman_resu]

I agree with John Miller, this has been the first thing I look at when I get into the office on a morning.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us...

[Bravo73]

MrR,

They look like screengrabs from one of Jeppesen's flight planning programs. FliteStar (http://www.jeppesen.com/personal-solutions/aviation/flitestar-computer-based-flight-planning.jsp), at a guess...

[Ned-Air2Air]

Heliaviator - Great to see you out doing some work for a change, and not being lazy on the boat in Langkawi :=:=

Looking forward to next visit to KL as lunch at that open plan restaurant near the airport was awesome :ok:

Cheers and safe flying.

Ned

[he1iaviator]

Mr R. That is correct, for flight planning I use a Jeppesen product called NavSuite. It allows flight planning of routes and has the ability to print-out airport approach plates etc. It also get's the route weather from the Internet automatically and uses that to calculate fuel requirements, has a flight log printout, and as a final trick squirts the route down a wire into my Garmin 296.

[he1iaviator]

Hangar 7 at Kolkata where they usually park helicopters
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610001.jpg

Yangon International Airport
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610004-1.jpg

Build-ups over Myanmar
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610008.jpg

Sunset / Moonrise on the way into Bangkok
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610009.jpg

Don Muang Ghost Airport
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610010.jpg

Final Approach to Vung Tau
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z78/he1iaviator/VN86102/VN-8610018.jpg

All questions are very welcome. If you need any mored detailed information do not hesitate to PM me.

[ToTall]

Reading your post is a joy and know why I joined the world of helicopters.

Thanks :-)

[RavenII]

Now that's what i call a proper trip!!

Thanks for sharing!

[atcomarkingtime]

:D excellent....cheers for the past two week's entertainment....:ok:

[206Fan]

Yea amazing thread.. Thanks for sharing indeed!

He1iaviator.. Did yous get any footage recorded on the trip or just photos? Cheers:ok:

[TheMonk]

Who ever said that this would be a great magazine article was right. You should submit this to a mag (Flying, Travel & Leasure, Rotor & Wings...etc). I think someone will publish you.

[Brilliant Stuff]

Thank you very much for typing it out.

That is now the third round the world trip in as many weeks I have heard of. I am getting jealous.

Did you have to deliver the aircraft to Stavanger for it's maintenance or did your company buy it only recently?

[he1iaviator]

A little background on your correspondent!

I was a Bristow South East Asia man for many years. I did my first ferry flight between the UK and Singapore in December 1979 in a Puma J and flew an L1 from China to Aberdeen in 1997. I left Bristow in 1999 and now work part time for a European helicopter manufacturer based in Malaysia. Wearing that hat I have done five L2 delivery flights from France to Malaysia / Vietnam over the last four years. I also do some freelance work and this flight was working with a UK company that specialises in arranging helicopter ferry flight clearances around the world. We assisted the Vietnamese company in taking an L2 to Norway this time last year for a major inspection and bringing back a sister ship this time. I worked in Vietnam from 1991 to 1997 and the guys I was flying with on this trip have been my very good friends for many years.

[oleary]

Sir,

Thanks so much for the great report of your recent trip. What an elegant way to ease into retirement!

It brought back so many memories of the challenges of long distance helicopter ferry flights. I just wish I had taken more pictures and kept better notes.

I should honour all of them - the 55, 58, 61, 76, 204, 205, 206, 212 and 214ST. All of them brought me home safely, and they were all their very own adventure.

Thanks again,
j

[212man]

Fascinating as always, and glad it went without problems.

I look forward to your account of the first RMAF EC-725 ferry flight - should make for an interesting comparison:ok:

Note to self - must get my a**e into gear and get over to KL for a beer with you.....

[he1iaviator]

For those interested in the fine details here is the flight viewed in Google Earth. With a bit of luck you just need to click on this link, download the file and, if you have Google Earth installed, double click the file and all will appear. You should be able to see the planned route with all the waypoints, the actual track over the ground, and if you zoom in enough even where we parked.

Don't ask me what ATC were thinking when we departed from Heraklion!

The Garmin 296 threw a wobbly in Bangkok, so the track stops there!

VN-8610 Ferry Flight Norway to Vietnam.kmz (http://www.mediafire.com/file/omyjmzf1dzf/VN-8610 Ferry Flight Norway to Vietnam.kmz)