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Day 1 – Sat 23 October
Had the late afternoon Ryanair flight from Eindhoven to Ciampino, so arrived at the office about 80 minutes before departure to pick up the required documents.
Flight departed on time, and apart from some turbulence over the Alps, it was a straight forward flight. The approach into Ciampino brought us in over the centre of Rome, so I had a great view of the city (including the Colloseum and Vatican), and the ontime arrival meant they got to play that terrible trumpet to celebrate!!
Once out of the airport, it was a short taxi ride to the hotel, and once settled into my room, I popped up the road to the local supermarket to pick up some final catering supplies. The pilots arrived about 90 minutes later, and after getting to know each other over a couple of drinks (softdrinks), we turned in (although I did some final preparations for the following day.)
Day 2 – Sun 24 October
Was up at 0630 to arrange the weather and NOTAMs for the flight, plus file the flightplans. Then shower, dress, pack, and down to the lobby for breakfast and checkout.
Got to the airport by 0815, and were soon out to the plane. Things seemed to be running fairly smoothly (which is always a bad sign), and it wasn’t until about 15 minutes before our scheduled departure time that the problems started.
- Our chariot.
- Crew photo, with the managing director of AirBagan on the left (who came to see us off).
First we had to wait for the final customs paperwork, and once that arrived, we had an issue with our parking position. The spot we were on was a pushback stand, but there wasn’t a suitable towbar for the ATR on the airport. There was plenty of room to either turnaround to do a powerback as we were in the middle of an empty bit of platform, but apparently the airport authorities wouldn’t allow that. By this time we’d missed our slot, and had to delay the flightplan. Finally the airport came out to the plane (with about four guys), and after about 15 minutes , used some common sense, deciding that as there was plenty of room to turnaround it (provided we did it slowly) we didn't need to be pushed back.
- Nice looking G.
In the end we departed about 30 minutes behind our original schedule, although if it hadn’t been for those problems, we would have departed ahead a schedule, which is a real rarity in the ferry business!!
| Blocks Flight | | ----------------------- | | LIRA 0833 Off 0840 | | OLBA 1323 On 1317 | | ----------------------- | | 04:50 04:37 |Self-catering these flights sure beats airline food. Even though the customer arranged for some catering to be provided (the best thing being the many bottles of water), the wife of the Italian engineer (Piero) had fixed up a simple but delicious tuna pasta dish. That, coupled with the tortilla wraps I’d brought, were a match for even the business class meals I’ve had on my travels!!
Beirut was a quick stop, with a block time of around 45 minutes. Plenty of nice looking business jets around, but there wasn’t much time to sight-see as we were off on our last leg of the day to Al Ain.
- Beirut, obviously home of the rich and famous!
- This Bonanza was sparkling in the sunlight, it looked in immaculate condition.
- Lebanese Challenger 800.
- Isle of Man registrations are obviously all the rage.
- A Canadian far from home.
Receiving a couple of direct routings from ATC, plus a handy tailwind allowed us to make up some of the time lost in Rome, and after a nice quiet flight, we were on deck in OMAL at around 2330 local.
- In the climb turning towards LATEB, enroute Al Ain.
Once we’d gotten ourselves (and baggage) sorted out, passed through immigration and customs, and both taxies had arrived, it was on to the hotel, getting there about an hour later. Checked in and dumped my bags in my room, then it was straight down to the bar for a couple of beers before they closed. Once back in my room, it was a room service dinner while having a quick chat online with the family, and then into bed around 0330LT.
| Blocks Flight | | ----------------------- | | OLBA 1405 Off 1414 | | OMAL 1915 On 1912 | | ----------------------- | | 05:10 04:58 |Day 3 – Mon 25 October
Next day (actually the same one) I was up fairly early, as the body clock was still set to Central European Time. After breakfast with the pilots, the rest of the day was spend lounging by the pool, relaxing in my room, and making the necessary paperwork preparations for our departure that night.
In the evening, I ran into our Italian engineer Piero at the restaurant, and ending up joining him for a steak. Afterwards it was shower, change clothes, checkout, and catch the taxi to the airport.
As I’d allowed plenty of time between leaving the hotel and scheduled takeoff time, the final preparations for departure weren’t as hectic as usual, and we made a leisurely ontime takeoff.
Flying through the night to Nagpur was quiet (I actually managed to get 2 hours of solid sleep in), although some altitude restrictions between Oman and Pakistan negated the tailwind advantages, putting us in India just after sunrise.
| Blocks Flight | | ----------------------- | | OMAL 1924 Off 1930 | | VANP 0050 On 0045 | | ----------------------- | | 05:26 05:15 |Day 4 – Tues 26 October
On the apron in the early Indian morning.
In Nagpur we ran into problems. I’d already filed the onward flightplan in Al Ain, payment of the landing and enroute navigation charges up at the tower was quickly completed, and although immigration was a little late, the main problem was customs.
Piero was leaving the flight in Nagpur (he was staying in India), and had booked himself a flight on Jet Airways 2.30 after our arrival. In the end, he departed before us!
- The first of the morning rush.
- Piero's ride to Mumbai.
We’d requested customs on arrival, but they apparently didn’t have anyone available, and we couldn’t refuel the plane until they’d signed off on it. Our fueller was very helpful, and made a few phone calls to try and speed things up, but that was a lost cause! The earliest that customs could be there I was told was 0900 local, and it was a good twenty minutes after that before they actually showed up! I was getting a little antsy at this point, as I was booked on a flight from KL to Perth at just before midnight, and the delay was eating into the buffer that I had.
- The Air India version of the two A319s I saw (the other was in Indian Airlines colours).
In the meantime I had to go back up to the tower to pay parking fees, as we’d overstayed the free period during our wait, and we got a few visits from the crews of a couple of flights during their turnarounds. It’s always nice to see the enthusiasm of fellow aviators and aviatrixes (as there were a couple of female Indian pilots), and chatting with them helped the time pass faster.
- King Air that arrived with local holy men onboard.
Once the customs people had finally arrived, I filled in the paperwork as quickly as possible, we got the plane fuelled, and started off on the final leg of the ferry. The first takeoff attempt was aborted at low speed due to a transient takeoff configuration warning (stab trim was on the limit, and the vibrations of the engines at takeoff power was jolting it in and out of limits), but the second one was no problem, and we were on our way to Kuala Lumpur.
Instead of having pretty much zero winds enroute (forecast as 5-10 knots tailwind for the first half and 5-10 knots headwind on the second), we had a fair bit of wind on the nose (as much as 35 knots at one stage), which dragged the flight time out by an extra half an hour. Otherwise the weather was OK, with only a few cloud formations causing some light chop enroute and as we approached the Malaysian coastline, night began to fall. As we started the approach, I did spot a couple of flashes of lightning in the distance, but nothing nearby.
| Blocks Flight | | ----------------------- | | VANP 0421 Off 0429 | | WMSA 1145 On 1140 | | ----------------------- | | 07:24 07:11 |After landing, we taxied straight to the hangar, where we were met by the customer and personnel from Malaysia Airlines Engineering. With only 4 hours until my flight was scheduled to depart (from the other international airport of KL, 65km south), I was of course intent on getting everything squared away as quickly as possible.
Immigration turned into a little bit of a hassle, as although the pilots and myself were able to get visas on arrival, the prearranged visas of the two engineers from Air Bagan (the future operator) had expired, and it took a lot of convincing to allow them to enter the country. We then went back to the plane, collected our baggage, and were then brought to the (thankfully) nearby hotel where the pilots would be staying at. There I arranged for the payment of their rooms while they checked in, and found a taxi to take me to KLIA (the main international airport of Kuala Lumpur).
Although I’d been told the drive would take approximately an hour, my driver (who would probably make a decent racing driver) did it in 35 minutes, getting me there 45 minutes before checkin was due to close (in other words, no problem!!).
It was then AirAsiaX (in premium class) down to Perth, managing to sleep for most of the flight down (something I hardly ever manage to do on the plane), for 4 ½ days of R&R with family.
Another plane delivered, and this time with minimal grey hairs!!
Yorden
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