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High class accommodation for the night<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>With the guys from MENA<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Back-taxiing for take-off in Bahrain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Bahrain airport departure<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Land reclamation in progress<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Departing from Bahrain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nWe had another car ride around the airport perimeter, back to the MENA hangar. As well as commercial flights, the Bahrain airport hosts a DHL hub and a US air force contingent. It was interesting to see the military helicopters and other aircraft being worked on as we drove right past their maintenance hangars. GASE had filed our flight plan for us already, picking up and correcting my rather naive routing error; I’d forgotten that most countries here need overflight permits, and had routed us over Qatar. A short deviation corrected that issue. No fuel was needed here, as we had plenty left over despite our 950nm flight the previous day, so we pre-flighted and set off east before turning south down the center of the Gulf. As we departed from Bahrain, we could clearly see the huge amount of land reclamation that was going on, with tonnes of sand being dumped along the coasts to expand the country. What were previously beach-front villas were now well inland. I would not have been happy if I’d bought one for the sea views!<\/p>\n\n\n
Climbing out east of Bahrain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Shallow waters around Bahrain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Goodbye, Bahrain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Oil platforms through the haze<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The island of Sir Abu Nu'Ayr<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Artificial island near the UAE<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nWe were out of sight of land for the majority of the flight, but that didn’t mean we were devoid of sightseeing. An array of linked oil platforms stretched down the Gulf, with tankers and support vessels shuttling to and fro. We even flew over what was clearly a very small artificial island; we couldn’t begin to guess at its purpose. ATC took us off of our route onto radar vectors, and brought us ashore a little east of Abu Dhabi over large shipping facilities that were being expanded still further. Everything was done on a very procedural basis here and we were directed to fly the DME arc to the ILS approach for landing in Al Ain, a much longer endeavour than a simple visual approach. ATC passed the time asking us about where we’d flown from; the controller was American and surprised to see an N-reg Cessna 182 so far from home!<\/p>\n\n\n
Coasting in over the UAE<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Port facilities in the UAE<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Industry in the UAE<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The highway to Abu Dabhi<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The highway towards Dubai<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>A strangely located airport<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nThe apron in Al Ain was mostly empty. We parked up next to a couple of private jets with cockpit covers on that looked like they hadn’t moved in a while. Given the heat, we decided to fuel on departure, and covered the aircraft up in anticipation of a few nights stay. The last-minute change of plans for the next leg into India meant that we were expecting a couple of days delay, waiting for the permit. A very reasonably priced taxi took us to the Radisson Blu where we tucked in to some room service, before receiving notification from GASE; they’d managed to get the India permit in place for plan B quicker than expected. The routing might be changed, but at least the schedule was secure. The bad news was that our expected day or so of rest had turned in to a 2am wake-up, for a very early take-off to Nagpur the next day! With the help of GASE I took care of the flight plan, and went to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n
Approaching Al Ain airport in the UAE<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>An Antonov 124 parked up at Al Ain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>A lazy dinner in Al Ain!<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The view from the hotel in Al Ain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
When the alarm went off, it felt like I had barely slept. Outside was still pitch black. I rolled out of bed, dressed, and met Gavin in the lobby before taking a taxi to the airport. We waited for a short time in departures for the handlers to turn up, and Gavin took full advantage of this time to noisily empty the vending machine (to the chagrin of a nearby policeman who was trying to sleep). The hotel had been unable to offer a single snack, despite having a menu of them (“Oh, we don’t do those any more”), and we did not want to take off on an 11-hour flight with no breakfast, and nothing to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n
Fueling, early in the morning in Al Ain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Preparing for departure from Al Ain<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Climb-out at dawn<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Dawn over the UAE-Oman border<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nThe handlers that GASE had arranged were efficient, and we were soon back at the aircraft and fueling up. For this long a flight we took on 3 50-gallon (200 liter) barrels of fuel, in addition to the 25 gallons (100 liters) or so that we still had on board; this left us with 175 gallons (660 liters). The stock aircraft only holds 88 gallons (330 liters), so this gives an indication of quite how much extra fuel capacity we have available; we weren’t even close to being full! Although coming from drums, the fuelers had a quick and easy electric pump setup, so things were much less painful than the fiasco with the Egyptian military. It was still pitch dark, and relatively cool, as we rolled down the runway and lumbered into the air on the standard instrument departure.<\/p>\n\n\n