rokami93
3rd Mar 2010, 16:48
My DA40 took me and my dog from Spain to Thailand in October 09 where I have stayed now for a couple of month. I am preparing the flight back and just realized I haven't posted the trip details here and some of them might be of interest to you guys who fly these routes in small aircraft:
1st leg: LEMU - EDWC (Muchamiel to Damme)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/lemuspaintoedwcgermany_small.jpg http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/dammeedwc_small.jpg http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/ferrytanks_small.jpg
My home base is Muchamiel, LEMU, next to Alicante in Spain. I had my 2 x 120 l ferry tanks half way installed still lacking of pumps, but hoped that gravity fed I would make it a bit further than usual. Basically an unenventful flight, except that I had to stop in Trier to fill up and check the plumbing because the gas-fumes were quite distracting.
Walked the dog a bit and hopped back into the plane for the last smaller leg up to EDWC, Damme where the DA40 had to get a 1000-hr-revision. Also, I have had my upholstery spiffed up to new leather seats, extended baggage compartment installed plus a wx500 and some smaller things.
All in all I stayed nearly 2 weeks in Damme to get my plane ready. Also, my own intents on the ferry-tank system were not good enough and I had to get some pros to install a pressurization of the tanks, some stronger fuel pumps, getting it all legalized, etc....
Meanwhile I stayed in a rented log cabin right next to the airfield. My dog, who flew with me, liked the rural settings and the friendly mechanics in the shop who didn't seem to care about my strange presence....
Also, Paul, my copilot came to see me a few days before our departue and give a hand to get the plane ready and to discuss some more details of our trip.
2nd leg: EDWC - LOAN - LTAC (Damme to Ankara)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/loanwienerneustadt_small.jpg
Actually we wanted to fly from Damme to Wiener Neustadt on Wednesday afternoon, but the plane wasn't ready in time and we decided to fly a bit more next morning when the friendly couple who runs the tower and administration of EDWC got up really early to treat us for a coffee and to turn on the runway lights.
We took off again a bit late, but had fairly good weather, only 30 minutes of the entire leg in IMC. In Wiener Neustadt LOAN we filled up the first time completely and given the fact that my DA40F has a carbureted engine and a MoGas-STC we filled it up with 270 l of Mogas now being completely loaded. We realized it was about to tip to the tail and we had to move some heavy luggage to the front seats while we weren t sitting there ourselves.
The gentleman who filled up the plane asked 2 or 3 times to confirm if we really wanted MoGas and our entire setup must have looked a bit strange to him. We took a coffee, I walked my dog and the entire stop didn't take an hour until we were airborne again, IFR to LTAC, Ankara.
We burnt off some of the fuel in the wing tanks and started refilling them with the fuel from the ferry tanks. It worked just perfect and we knew we did have the range now to fly to Ankara non-stop. About half of the trip was in complete IMC and we kept picking up a bit of ice which slowed us down quite a bit, not to mention the gross overweight. So we were cruising with 110 kts our way down to Ankara where we were surprised by a bit of thunderstorm in the vicinity and funnily my new stormscope didn't show them as we expected.
But well, we were visual to the ground. The turbulence was hard and short, but we could see the cells and finally reached the airport after being vectored on the ILS. We were received by the handling agent, received fuel immediately and within 30 minutes we were out of the airport in our taxi to the hotel.
First surprise: no dogs allowed in that hotel. I had in mind that we advised that I was travelling with a dog, but it seems that this part of the communication was lost and after some discussions with the front desk we had to find a new hotel. The handling agent made a few more phone calls and an hour later we were on our way to a hotel on the other side of the city...
After a hard day with 1100 nms, IMC and thunderstorms, we really hoped to get some better rest. The hotel was expensive and crappy, but at least they admitted dogs...
3rd leg: LTAC - OKBK (Ankara to Kuwait City)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/okbkkuwaitcity_small.jpg
We left early at 6 o' clock the hotel, got to the airport in time and surprise, surprise: our overflight handling agent (ATSD Dortmund) hasn't received the overflight clearance for Iraq. They said they would have it ready in 20 minutes, so we didn't really bother. But after an hour they still didn't have it and we were getting unpatient, as todays trip implied 1100 nms flying over Iraq to Kuwait which isn't an easy job....
Many, many calls and 3 hours later we had the overflight codes and rushed into the plane, received our IFR clearances and took off. The weather was exceptionally good and our best laughs on our route to Iraq were the waypoints "batman", "pouszy" or so.....
Radio coverage started to get bad and we entered Iraqi airspace trying to establish communications with Mosul, but it took about 30 minutes until we were in contact. They gave us clearance to follow our route as filed until a male military supervisor told us to return and fly a hold, he needed our clearance code. Paul got a bit nervous, took the controls and made an immediate 180 deg turn while I was nervously fiddling around with my tons of papers searching for the code. No joy, I didn't find it, Paul got quite nervous and we were looking forward to a night in military custody in Mosul until the American controller came back and said "Well, we found your clearnance, ahum, proceed as filed."
We were happy and enjoyed since then the weird landscapes of Iraq and while the night was breaking in we watched the burning torches of oil fields, listened to the weird radio communications over Iraq (unidentified object operating at 12000 ft at your 1-o-clock position... a drone?). The controllers were mostly Americans and you would notice they were a bit tense. Don't know why, maybe missing home and having a hard job to do.
We landed late in Kuwait and were received by the handling agent. At customs they first looked strangely at the dog, but as I had all paperwork and permissions ready before, they finally accepted the fact that there are pilots in this world travelling with a dog.
On my list of pet-friendly hotels in Kuwait it turned out they were not as pet-friendly as described and didn't want to receive us. So again to the worst and most expensive of the bad and ugly hotels which I haven't had to be lodged in since the days I ended my studies, but well... .it's all part of the adventure. The hotel didn't have a kitchen, but they were so kind to order some stuff from an Arab fast food chain. The food was exceptionally good and we were so tired we slept immediately until next morning where I had to get up again earlier to walk the dog
4th leg: OKBD - VAAH (Kuwait City to Ahmedabad)
Today we wanted to fly 1400 nms to Ahmedabad, India and I wanted to make sure the dog would have had a nice walk, but in the stony desert of an arab city, it is just not fun for a dog to walk. This was the first time I wondered if I did my dog a favour to have bought a plane in order to avoid putting him in a box and stuffing him into an airliner.
Too late for regrets and after a thin breakfast with crappy industrial bread and just a bit of butter we went back to the airport. Also, I filled a 30 l jerry can at a gas station and walked with my jerry can, dog and Paul into the GA terminal of the airport.
Immediately I drew attention to some of the guards who wanted to stop me from entering the terminal with the dog. But my friendly explanation: "He is like you: police!" must have made him wonder and he finally let us pass (he wasn't worried about 30l of autofuel in a jerrycan in his terminal, though, hehe).
The handling agent presented its 650 Dollar invoice at the plane, I paid and was then informed that also the 200l-barrel of AvGas with a price of over 1100 USD had to be paid in cash and in Kuwaiti Dinars, which I didn't have. So back to the terminal, getting some cash out of the ATM and back to the plane. After counting the money they finally started fuelling. At this price the huge firetruck watching our mad-maxish behaviour must have been included. Maybe I now own it, and just didn't realize what they have charged me 1100 Dollars for.
Finally we were allowed to hop into our plane, but had to ask ground control for permission to push back the plane. Once we have received clearance to push it back, asked permission to start the engine and so on...
When taxing, the controller asked "Please confirm destination: Ahmedabad."
- "affirmative."
- "Confirm type of aircraft"
- "DA40"
- "Well, I was flying a DA40 back in Jordan and I can't imagine it could have this kind of range."
After a bit of friendly chatter he cleared us for take-off and with 30 degrees Celsius and overweight we took off after maybe 1000 metres runway used and climbed slowly with 300-500 ft towards Iran.
The Kuwaiti departure controller already advised that at the first waypoint in Iran we must be on FL150, which was quite hard to reach with the excessive weight. So when we were switched over to the first Iranian controller, he asked us to climb to FL150. Paul bravely lied "unable". Iranian controller: "report back to Kuwait!" Ooooops, we didn't want that either, so Paul lied again: "O.K., Novermber-four-zero-five-foxtrott-papa FL120 climbing 150." We really did our best to climb up to 150 and finally reached, late. But well, they couldn't send us back anymore.
So we stayed for hours and hours on FL150 overflying Iran with its vast sceneries, vulcanoes, craters and never ending deserts. I didn't know that this kind of beauty existed and reminded me much of Utah and Monument Valley which I have crossed half a year before.
Weather was completely visual at all times. We were handed over from one controller to another, flew off one waypoint after the other and quite often needed relays from airliners to contact our control stations. (Thanks to you guys from Emirates and all the others who patiently relayed my crappy communications!)
The only remarkable relay was "Stay tactical". Still can't figure out what they thought what or who we were with our N-registered DA40....
When reaching Ahmedabad it was dark and only fireworks on the ground described our happiness to reach the airport. On the approach they still shot fireworks, and I believe they were aiming at us for the fun of it, but I could sware we have had rockets passing my left wing only a few feet. We were excited to land and I didn't even care anymore that the taxi instructions were worse than ever and we finally ended up parking the plane in some corner of the field where I hoped not to disturb.
A bunch of airport officals came in their stained uniforms and sloppy clothes. Some of them bombarding Paul in a threatening manner: "Why did you land here? Do you have a flight plan? Where is your GD?" I just got Felpudo, my doggy out of the plane and made sure to walk him along the field a bit so he could take care of his necessities, but very much to my surprise, he didn't like the field....
Well, we got our stuff out of the plane and were driven on a baggage cart together with bunch of "officials" to the terminal. What followed was a complete nightmare. NIGHTMARE. NIGHTMARE. I reject to bore you with the details, but having opting for self-handling saved us a lot of money, I paid less than 250 USD for all bribes, taxes and stamps, but we have had a night without sleep, virtually NO sleep and non-stop running from one office to another in the buildings which were even dirtier than a burmese train-stations toilet I have seen in my old backpacking days.
Positive: 200 l of AvGas were "only" 470 USD and were kindly pumped into our tanks.
5th leg: VAAH - VECC (Ahmedabad - Kolkata)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/ahmedabadindia_small.jpg
Uneventful take-off in Ahmedabad, a boring flight, all visual and we were so tired that Paul flew while I slept and vice versa. Again, we reached Kolkata late and hoped to get some better treatment, but no... it came worse. AVOID. DO NOT TRY THIS. IT WAS A MISTAKE.
Will spare out the details, but we were administratively tortured, although we did get some sleep in a hotel that night, which was a big plus. Again, the hotel was complete crap, noisy and cockroaches were bigger than my dog, but well...
6th leg: VAAH - VTCC (Kolkata to Chiangmai)
Next morning our friendly guys from ATSD handling still didn't have the clearance for Thailand. It took them all day, YES ALL DAY, and we took off at 17.00 hrs local. When it dawned we saw some thunderstorms on the horizont and on the stormscope. It looked like they were slightly south of our route. Whenever we came near, they disappeared and we had the darkest night I have ever seen, so we were anciously scanning the sky for clouds as we didn't know how much activity they might have in for us. But we managed to stay clear of clouds until we were 100 nms from our destination Chiangmai. Right over Chiangmai there seemed to be a lot of activity and we were already checking our options to reach an alternate airport.
At 30 nms outbound of Chiangmai we could see the city lights and the clouds a few miles away from the airport. We opted for a visual approach, landed safely and luckily at 23:45 in Chiangmai, Thailand, 15 minutes before closure of the airport. Friendly reception by a security guard who took us on the pickup truck to immigration, where my dog puked in front of the immigration officer. I apologized, cleaned the puke with my hands and ran with the security guard to the bathroom where I cleaned myself. Funnily, the guard excused himself all the time. Thais are just sooo friendly.
Customs was closed already and the guard let us slip through a door to the parking. All taxis were gone, but no problem: the guard organized a friend's car and took us to our hotel and insisted to charge only what a normal taxi would have charged us, too. No tips, nothing else accepted. He would hardly accept my "thank-yous". Yes, that's why I am here and what made the trip worth: the friendliness of the Thai people.
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/felpudo2_small.jpg
If you guys want to see the pictures, please checkout THAITRIP (http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/trackedroute.jpg
1st leg: LEMU - EDWC (Muchamiel to Damme)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/lemuspaintoedwcgermany_small.jpg http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/dammeedwc_small.jpg http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/ferrytanks_small.jpg
My home base is Muchamiel, LEMU, next to Alicante in Spain. I had my 2 x 120 l ferry tanks half way installed still lacking of pumps, but hoped that gravity fed I would make it a bit further than usual. Basically an unenventful flight, except that I had to stop in Trier to fill up and check the plumbing because the gas-fumes were quite distracting.
Walked the dog a bit and hopped back into the plane for the last smaller leg up to EDWC, Damme where the DA40 had to get a 1000-hr-revision. Also, I have had my upholstery spiffed up to new leather seats, extended baggage compartment installed plus a wx500 and some smaller things.
All in all I stayed nearly 2 weeks in Damme to get my plane ready. Also, my own intents on the ferry-tank system were not good enough and I had to get some pros to install a pressurization of the tanks, some stronger fuel pumps, getting it all legalized, etc....
Meanwhile I stayed in a rented log cabin right next to the airfield. My dog, who flew with me, liked the rural settings and the friendly mechanics in the shop who didn't seem to care about my strange presence....
Also, Paul, my copilot came to see me a few days before our departue and give a hand to get the plane ready and to discuss some more details of our trip.
2nd leg: EDWC - LOAN - LTAC (Damme to Ankara)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/loanwienerneustadt_small.jpg
Actually we wanted to fly from Damme to Wiener Neustadt on Wednesday afternoon, but the plane wasn't ready in time and we decided to fly a bit more next morning when the friendly couple who runs the tower and administration of EDWC got up really early to treat us for a coffee and to turn on the runway lights.
We took off again a bit late, but had fairly good weather, only 30 minutes of the entire leg in IMC. In Wiener Neustadt LOAN we filled up the first time completely and given the fact that my DA40F has a carbureted engine and a MoGas-STC we filled it up with 270 l of Mogas now being completely loaded. We realized it was about to tip to the tail and we had to move some heavy luggage to the front seats while we weren t sitting there ourselves.
The gentleman who filled up the plane asked 2 or 3 times to confirm if we really wanted MoGas and our entire setup must have looked a bit strange to him. We took a coffee, I walked my dog and the entire stop didn't take an hour until we were airborne again, IFR to LTAC, Ankara.
We burnt off some of the fuel in the wing tanks and started refilling them with the fuel from the ferry tanks. It worked just perfect and we knew we did have the range now to fly to Ankara non-stop. About half of the trip was in complete IMC and we kept picking up a bit of ice which slowed us down quite a bit, not to mention the gross overweight. So we were cruising with 110 kts our way down to Ankara where we were surprised by a bit of thunderstorm in the vicinity and funnily my new stormscope didn't show them as we expected.
But well, we were visual to the ground. The turbulence was hard and short, but we could see the cells and finally reached the airport after being vectored on the ILS. We were received by the handling agent, received fuel immediately and within 30 minutes we were out of the airport in our taxi to the hotel.
First surprise: no dogs allowed in that hotel. I had in mind that we advised that I was travelling with a dog, but it seems that this part of the communication was lost and after some discussions with the front desk we had to find a new hotel. The handling agent made a few more phone calls and an hour later we were on our way to a hotel on the other side of the city...
After a hard day with 1100 nms, IMC and thunderstorms, we really hoped to get some better rest. The hotel was expensive and crappy, but at least they admitted dogs...
3rd leg: LTAC - OKBK (Ankara to Kuwait City)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/okbkkuwaitcity_small.jpg
We left early at 6 o' clock the hotel, got to the airport in time and surprise, surprise: our overflight handling agent (ATSD Dortmund) hasn't received the overflight clearance for Iraq. They said they would have it ready in 20 minutes, so we didn't really bother. But after an hour they still didn't have it and we were getting unpatient, as todays trip implied 1100 nms flying over Iraq to Kuwait which isn't an easy job....
Many, many calls and 3 hours later we had the overflight codes and rushed into the plane, received our IFR clearances and took off. The weather was exceptionally good and our best laughs on our route to Iraq were the waypoints "batman", "pouszy" or so.....
Radio coverage started to get bad and we entered Iraqi airspace trying to establish communications with Mosul, but it took about 30 minutes until we were in contact. They gave us clearance to follow our route as filed until a male military supervisor told us to return and fly a hold, he needed our clearance code. Paul got a bit nervous, took the controls and made an immediate 180 deg turn while I was nervously fiddling around with my tons of papers searching for the code. No joy, I didn't find it, Paul got quite nervous and we were looking forward to a night in military custody in Mosul until the American controller came back and said "Well, we found your clearnance, ahum, proceed as filed."
We were happy and enjoyed since then the weird landscapes of Iraq and while the night was breaking in we watched the burning torches of oil fields, listened to the weird radio communications over Iraq (unidentified object operating at 12000 ft at your 1-o-clock position... a drone?). The controllers were mostly Americans and you would notice they were a bit tense. Don't know why, maybe missing home and having a hard job to do.
We landed late in Kuwait and were received by the handling agent. At customs they first looked strangely at the dog, but as I had all paperwork and permissions ready before, they finally accepted the fact that there are pilots in this world travelling with a dog.
On my list of pet-friendly hotels in Kuwait it turned out they were not as pet-friendly as described and didn't want to receive us. So again to the worst and most expensive of the bad and ugly hotels which I haven't had to be lodged in since the days I ended my studies, but well... .it's all part of the adventure. The hotel didn't have a kitchen, but they were so kind to order some stuff from an Arab fast food chain. The food was exceptionally good and we were so tired we slept immediately until next morning where I had to get up again earlier to walk the dog
4th leg: OKBD - VAAH (Kuwait City to Ahmedabad)
Today we wanted to fly 1400 nms to Ahmedabad, India and I wanted to make sure the dog would have had a nice walk, but in the stony desert of an arab city, it is just not fun for a dog to walk. This was the first time I wondered if I did my dog a favour to have bought a plane in order to avoid putting him in a box and stuffing him into an airliner.
Too late for regrets and after a thin breakfast with crappy industrial bread and just a bit of butter we went back to the airport. Also, I filled a 30 l jerry can at a gas station and walked with my jerry can, dog and Paul into the GA terminal of the airport.
Immediately I drew attention to some of the guards who wanted to stop me from entering the terminal with the dog. But my friendly explanation: "He is like you: police!" must have made him wonder and he finally let us pass (he wasn't worried about 30l of autofuel in a jerrycan in his terminal, though, hehe).
The handling agent presented its 650 Dollar invoice at the plane, I paid and was then informed that also the 200l-barrel of AvGas with a price of over 1100 USD had to be paid in cash and in Kuwaiti Dinars, which I didn't have. So back to the terminal, getting some cash out of the ATM and back to the plane. After counting the money they finally started fuelling. At this price the huge firetruck watching our mad-maxish behaviour must have been included. Maybe I now own it, and just didn't realize what they have charged me 1100 Dollars for.
Finally we were allowed to hop into our plane, but had to ask ground control for permission to push back the plane. Once we have received clearance to push it back, asked permission to start the engine and so on...
When taxing, the controller asked "Please confirm destination: Ahmedabad."
- "affirmative."
- "Confirm type of aircraft"
- "DA40"
- "Well, I was flying a DA40 back in Jordan and I can't imagine it could have this kind of range."
After a bit of friendly chatter he cleared us for take-off and with 30 degrees Celsius and overweight we took off after maybe 1000 metres runway used and climbed slowly with 300-500 ft towards Iran.
The Kuwaiti departure controller already advised that at the first waypoint in Iran we must be on FL150, which was quite hard to reach with the excessive weight. So when we were switched over to the first Iranian controller, he asked us to climb to FL150. Paul bravely lied "unable". Iranian controller: "report back to Kuwait!" Ooooops, we didn't want that either, so Paul lied again: "O.K., Novermber-four-zero-five-foxtrott-papa FL120 climbing 150." We really did our best to climb up to 150 and finally reached, late. But well, they couldn't send us back anymore.
So we stayed for hours and hours on FL150 overflying Iran with its vast sceneries, vulcanoes, craters and never ending deserts. I didn't know that this kind of beauty existed and reminded me much of Utah and Monument Valley which I have crossed half a year before.
Weather was completely visual at all times. We were handed over from one controller to another, flew off one waypoint after the other and quite often needed relays from airliners to contact our control stations. (Thanks to you guys from Emirates and all the others who patiently relayed my crappy communications!)
The only remarkable relay was "Stay tactical". Still can't figure out what they thought what or who we were with our N-registered DA40....
When reaching Ahmedabad it was dark and only fireworks on the ground described our happiness to reach the airport. On the approach they still shot fireworks, and I believe they were aiming at us for the fun of it, but I could sware we have had rockets passing my left wing only a few feet. We were excited to land and I didn't even care anymore that the taxi instructions were worse than ever and we finally ended up parking the plane in some corner of the field where I hoped not to disturb.
A bunch of airport officals came in their stained uniforms and sloppy clothes. Some of them bombarding Paul in a threatening manner: "Why did you land here? Do you have a flight plan? Where is your GD?" I just got Felpudo, my doggy out of the plane and made sure to walk him along the field a bit so he could take care of his necessities, but very much to my surprise, he didn't like the field....
Well, we got our stuff out of the plane and were driven on a baggage cart together with bunch of "officials" to the terminal. What followed was a complete nightmare. NIGHTMARE. NIGHTMARE. I reject to bore you with the details, but having opting for self-handling saved us a lot of money, I paid less than 250 USD for all bribes, taxes and stamps, but we have had a night without sleep, virtually NO sleep and non-stop running from one office to another in the buildings which were even dirtier than a burmese train-stations toilet I have seen in my old backpacking days.
Positive: 200 l of AvGas were "only" 470 USD and were kindly pumped into our tanks.
5th leg: VAAH - VECC (Ahmedabad - Kolkata)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/ahmedabadindia_small.jpg
Uneventful take-off in Ahmedabad, a boring flight, all visual and we were so tired that Paul flew while I slept and vice versa. Again, we reached Kolkata late and hoped to get some better treatment, but no... it came worse. AVOID. DO NOT TRY THIS. IT WAS A MISTAKE.
Will spare out the details, but we were administratively tortured, although we did get some sleep in a hotel that night, which was a big plus. Again, the hotel was complete crap, noisy and cockroaches were bigger than my dog, but well...
6th leg: VAAH - VTCC (Kolkata to Chiangmai)
Next morning our friendly guys from ATSD handling still didn't have the clearance for Thailand. It took them all day, YES ALL DAY, and we took off at 17.00 hrs local. When it dawned we saw some thunderstorms on the horizont and on the stormscope. It looked like they were slightly south of our route. Whenever we came near, they disappeared and we had the darkest night I have ever seen, so we were anciously scanning the sky for clouds as we didn't know how much activity they might have in for us. But we managed to stay clear of clouds until we were 100 nms from our destination Chiangmai. Right over Chiangmai there seemed to be a lot of activity and we were already checking our options to reach an alternate airport.
At 30 nms outbound of Chiangmai we could see the city lights and the clouds a few miles away from the airport. We opted for a visual approach, landed safely and luckily at 23:45 in Chiangmai, Thailand, 15 minutes before closure of the airport. Friendly reception by a security guard who took us on the pickup truck to immigration, where my dog puked in front of the immigration officer. I apologized, cleaned the puke with my hands and ran with the security guard to the bathroom where I cleaned myself. Funnily, the guard excused himself all the time. Thais are just sooo friendly.
Customs was closed already and the guard let us slip through a door to the parking. All taxis were gone, but no problem: the guard organized a friend's car and took us to our hotel and insisted to charge only what a normal taxi would have charged us, too. No tips, nothing else accepted. He would hardly accept my "thank-yous". Yes, that's why I am here and what made the trip worth: the friendliness of the Thai people.
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/felpudo2_small.jpg
If you guys want to see the pictures, please checkout THAITRIP (http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP)
http://www.405fp.com/THAITRIP/trackedroute.jpg