The Chittagong airport is not a 24-hour operation, and Mohammad had let us know that an 0700 takeoff was about the earliest that could be managed. We therefore planned to meet at 0630 at the airport. We’d been assured the previous day that there would be no problem getting an Uber in the early morning for the ride from hotel to airport. This turned out to be inaccurate, and in the end we took help from the hotel staff to…
My alarm blared out at 0430, and by 0500 we were leaving the hotel. After the short drive back to the airport we were greeted by our handlers from Dnata who led us quickly through the airport formalities to Gate 8, and a waiting minibus to speed us back across the tarmac to Planey. Pre-flight went smoothly, and soon we had powered on the avionics to call for engine start and ATC clearance. This took a bit longer than usual…
We called a Careem and arrived at the airport a little before 5am. The hassle continued; the handlers insisted on charging 260 KWD (almost 850 USD) of “passenger fees”, despite the fact that they agreed we were not passengers and had also charged crew handling fees. The customer service agent present did not have the authority to remove the fees, nobody who did have authority was around at this time, and they would not allow us to leave without payment,…
I woke at 0615, and our Uber dropped us off at the airport a little earlier than planned, just before 0645. Our handler had suggested we arrive at 0700 for our intended 0900 departure. The bemused gate guards invited us to wait with them in their office (the airport is also a military base) until our handler met us ten minutes later and escorted us through the airport and out to Planey. The Avgas truck arrived, but parked with the…
We were up a little after 4, and arrived back at the Skopje airport just after 5. During the drive I had noticed frost on most of the parked cars, and I was hoping this would not be an issue on Planey. We waited for a few minutes at the airport information desk for them to call the handler, who showed up and pointed us in the direction of immigration, then disappearing again. This was unusual; usually we’d be escorted…
Planey spent a couple of months comfortably tucked away in the Flight Cal hangar at Shoreham, kindly looked after by Andy from the Flyer forums, while I returned to the real world of work and the like. I spent this time preparing for the next part of the journey, which would be by far the most logistically challenging. Everywhere after Slovenia would require a flight permit for landing or overflight, and fuel would need to be arranged in each stop….
Today was a day off from flying, which we spent exploring the town of Cascais. Juvy and I would be parting ways later in the day, with her spending a few days in Lisbon before flying on the airlines back to the US and me continuing with Planey as far as the UK. We slept a little late, and then rode in an Uber to the other end of Cascais to enjoy brunch at a restaurant by the marina. Just…
As is usual before a particularly long and adventurous flight, I slept fitfully, not helped by the fact that the wind against my room on the top floor of the hotel sounded like it was doing its best to blow the building away. I am never comfortable leaving Planey without tie-downs, all the more so in weather like that, and I can never understand why so many airports don’t take the very simple step of providing a few tie-down rings….
It was an early start to the day, as befits the beginning of any big adventure. I was at the airport at around 0530am, pulling Planey out of the hangar and performing pre-flight checks. Over the previous days and weeks Shane and I had been working hard to prepare Planey for the trip; we completed a thorough annual inspection and did our best to eliminate every little squawk on my running list, however minor. A new battery and Emergency Location…
Although I had planned a flight for the next day, it was to be a short one; a hop across southern California to the mountain town of Tehachapi. I slept late, and after waking Dad and I drove out for a true American breakfast at the International House of Pancakes. Now well fed, we returned to the hotel and made our way to Planey to prepare for the day’s flight. The first task was to open up the empennage and…