CarolAnn's World Flight III: Part 6
November 27….arrival in Tulear/Toliary
First, some history on the orphanage assistance project in Madagascar: A pilot-friend of CarolAnn’s, Hubert, and his wife, Sylvie, from Sens, joined their friend, Regis, in his efforts to provide assistance to a very poor village in southern Madagascar. Regis and his wife had discovered the village when touring Madagascar over 14 years ago and felt they had to help. Over the years the project has grown and receives assistance from the town of Sens, including a local flying club. This year the group consists of 14 people, all of whom bring their own food supply so as not to deplete the meager supply of local food. Every member of the group pays his/her own way and all donations go toward purchasing medications and other supplies for the village.
CarolAnn joins the group this year after talking with Hubert, Sylvie, and Regis in Sens. Since she would be in Madagascar, she volunteered to help fly in school supplies…..paper, pencils, notebooks and chalkboards. She found most of the supplies in the bazaar in Istanbul, some in Izmir, and the chalkboards in Cairo. “Unfortunately, every time I found what I was looking for, I bought out the store! They didn’t have much inventory.”
The group meets her at the airport and they unload the plane and put all the supplies in one of the vans, then visit the nuns in Tulear. The group departs the next morning on their three-day trek to Andorka. CarolAnn sees them off before doing some local sight-seeing.
On a bus to Isalo National Park, she talks with a couple from Belgium who recommend Momo Lodge as a good and reasonably priced place to stay. She secures a small bungalow and a guide for the next day and a half. She even has time to catch up on paperwork and fix her mouse that had developed problems.
November 29….
Today is a walking trek in an area of Isalo National Park. The car drops off the guide and CarolAnn at the entrance to the walk at the foot of one of the majestic rock formations. They reach the top after a relatively easy climb and enjoy a fantastic view of the surrounding area. As they continue walking, the guide tells her about the local tribes and their burial traditions of putting the bones up in the high rock walls.
When they arrive at the first pool and shade area, it is still early and she isn’t ready for a rest, so they continue walking. They reach a camping area, well laid out with cooking areas and stone tables with a thatched roof above. CarolAnn says, “they even had flush toilets! I was expecting pits!”
They continue on to a cascade and more pools. By now she is hot and tired, so dons her swimsuit and enjoys the cooling pools. As this is the start of the rainy season, temperatures are in the low 90s during the day and 70s at night, and tourism is tapering off. In total they see twelve other people during the four hour walk.
November 30….
After another quiet and simple evening and dinner, CarolAnn gets a good night’s sleep and returns to Tulear/Toliary. She arranges with the lodge for a return bus and insists that it be from Antannarivo, the capital, to Tulear, DIRECT, with no stops….. meaning a tourist-type bus, not a taxi Brusse, as they call the local bus packed with lots of luggage and stops at most villages. The woman says the local guy will accompany her to where the buses pass and get her on one. 30 minutes later the first bus comes along. It is a Taxi Brousse , but not packed, and when she asks if it is direct to Tulear, no stops, he says yes. She climbs on.
It is proceeding reasonably well for the first hour and a half, and then they turn off the main road and into a village. They stop and begin untying the strings holding the load on top. 30 minutes later they start up again. An hour later they stop again for another unloading , then start off again. CarolAnn sees small road signs showing the distance to Tulear….54 kilometers….and she decides she can last that long!
On arrival she finds her hotel and is told that air conditioned rooms cost an extra 15,000 Ariay ($40) per day. She pays it, is pleased to find wifi in the room, and settles down to update websites and plan her route to Berenty Lodge tomorrow. She and Hubert had talked by satellite phone and she learns they had arrived in Andorka. She tells him she has checked the charts and learned the village is in a restricted area. She will have to check with the tower in the morning and call him at 7:30am.
December 1st and 2nd…..
CarolAnn awakens early and checks weather, which is a little cloudy, but should be clear along the coast and okay for this VFR flight. In Madagascar most everything is paid with cash as very few places accept credit cards. With their exchange rate of $1 to 2000 Ariary, a lot of 5000 and 10,000 notes are required. She found an ATM yesterday and got 600,000, but decided that might not be enough, so goes back this morning for 200,000 more. Planning ahead and being prepared is essential in this part of the world!
At the airport she checks in with the tower and is told that it is ok to fly through the restricted area. Great! She pays the parking and landing fees of $51, plus three days and nights for the guards at $20 each.
December 1st ….to Andorka and Ft. Dauphin
After checking everything and calling Hubert to confirm her arrival, she back taxis and takes off, enjoying flying VFR at low altitude down the beach. She still has to check in with Tana Control on HF and give 30 minute “operations normal” calls. For a while she is flying over water more than a mile off the coast, and happens to look at her Garmin 430 instrument panel-mounted, certificated, GPS. It is showing her over land. She takes a video from one side of the plane showing water, pans over the GPS showing land, and then over to the other side showing water. She checks the backup, Garmin 396 GPS, and it shows her correctly over water. She is guessing the 430 data base has the west coast of Madagascar depicted incorrectly, and will contact Garmin or Jeppesen (whoever is responsible for the data base).
As she reaches the waypoint using Hubert’s lat/longs, she starts to see buildings of the orphanage. As she flies over, she sees kids playing on the playground of the school (there are about 100 orphans). Flying further out and descending, she slows down and turns back for another pass. She can see that the kids are all lined up on the playground this time. They have spelled out “CAROL” and are all standing in formation. WOW! She makes more passes and tries to get it on film….not easy in bumpy air. On one pass she is at 500 ft with gear and flaps down! Finally, she cleans up and waggles her wings and climbs to the east, hoping the kids and the adults enjoyed it.
Another hour and she is in communication with Ft. Dauphin tower and cancels with Tana Control. The wind is 22 knots, but almost down the runway. With the beach in front and the mountains behind it is a very picturesque place. Upon landing, she is welcomed to Ft. Dauphin by the ground personnel who had been notified of her arrival and departure times. All information is sent ahead in Madagascar.
The chief of the ground personnel asks her to follow him to the supervisor’s office where she is again welcomed and asked about her plans…where she would be going and what she would be doing. She explains about getting to the Berenty Reserve and is offered a ride to the Dauphin Hotel in town. There she meets the person who had emailed her the day before and they work out the details. Within an hour of landing she is on her way to the Reserve.
The roads are terrible, and she is told by her driver, Eugene, that there are 2000 potholes in the 90 kilometers between Ft. Dauphin and Berenty. She believes him!! He also describes the various areas they are driving through, and points out the eucalyptus trees along the road. He stops, pulls off some bark, and shows her that it has multiple soft layers which the locals use as toilet paper! Another species of eucalyptus produces citronella, used to repel mosquitoes. They come to an area that is rich in farming and fruit and, while the people work very hard, they don’t go hungry. Several times CarolAnn and Eugene stop and purchase a variety of fruit…bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and litchis. Towns usually have one day during the week set aside as market day, so people outside the villages walk to town to sell what they have and to buy what they need. They see hundreds walking down the road with piles on their heads, returning home. Locals often walk up to 20 kilometers each week. They also notice bags along the road which Eugene explains are full of mica, collected and placed there by the villagers to be picked up by passing trucks. The area is rich in mica.
Finally they reach the Reserve and she is shown to her cabin. After an hour’s rest to wait for cooler temperatures, they set out to search for the Lemurs, who also rest during the hot daytime. They see them just as they are coming down from the trees following their siesta.
CarolAnn writes, “Hubert and I had set 7pm to talk again on the satellite phone. He asked me if I could see that the kids on the playground had spelled CAROL. I said that I could and that I had gotten photos of it. He said it was very moving for the people on the ground. For the kids, it was the first airplane they had ever seen. He said many people were crying for joy. Wow! I was moved doing the flying and knowing the situation down there, but didn’t fully realize what it meant to them. I told Hubert I was happy to be a part of it.”
December 3rd….
It’s time for the evening walk. There are two nocturnal lemurs in this reserve…the mouse lemur, which is very small. They find one and it is tiny and doesn’t move. Then they find the second one, the white-footed sportive lemur. Unfortunately, it isn’t sportive and doesn’t move either. Hmm.
During the normal season this reserve is full, but tonight only three of the 30 available cabins are occupied. After a long and tiring day, it is off to bed early in order to get up and out in the morning before the heat becomes too intense.
More walking and exploring today with Eugene pointing out the points of interest. As they walk, he shows CarolAnn holes in the path which he explains are where the boa constrictors live. (she’s glad it is daytime since they come out at night!) They also see flying fox bats hanging upside down high in a tree. They are the largest bat in Madagascar with a wingspan of over 3 feet!
Finishing off the day, they see the sifaka lemurs “dancing”. They are the only lemur that walk on their hind legs, all the others walk on all fours. With their shorter front legs, they skip or dance along on their rear legs to travel over the ground.
The return trip is another 2 ½ hour ride on the potholed road, but she is glad she went!
December 4th….to Diego Suarez in northern Madagascar
CarolAnn is flying northeast along the coast in clear smooth air, but with headwinds, even though the forecast was for tailwinds. Her departure went smoothly this morning and she was allowed to walk through arrivals and directly to her plane. The “pompiers” (fire engine guys) arrived to collect the extra chocks they had used since it had been very windy when she arrived. After checking the plane she went to the Commandant’s office and paid the $81 fees.
Back at the plane the gas guys arrive and she takes on 193 liters (51 gallons) and learns the fuel price had just changed that day and gone up over 50 cents per gallon. They tell her it always changes on the first day of the month and she wishes she had known that earlier!
She heads for the “tower”, which is simply a normal building serving as a tower. The controller comes in to meet her and is very efficient, taking her flight plan, getting the weather at her destination and transmitting the flight plan by Morse Code to Tana. He confirmed receipt by cell phone.
After about a half hour in rain and clouds, she is in clear air with a beautiful view of the coastline. It’s much greener on this coast and there are farms and towns below as she heads northward. Two hours down, in clear air, she now has a crosswind. The satellite picture showed some weather ahead, but it should be clear for her arrival. She can see forested mountains now with a little over an hour to go.
CarolAnn has been flying at 11,000 ft above a cloud layer. Ready now for descent, she contacts Diego tower and cancels contact with Tana Control, but there are mountains on the south side of the airport and the minimum safe altitude is only 7000 ft. She descends to and stays at 7500 ft until on the north side of the airport where the clouds are more scattered. She can see the sea and islands and descends. At four miles north, she calls the tower again and turns toward the airport. She is shocked to see the hills/mountains so close to the airport, even on the southeast side. As she turns from downwind to final, she is very close to them.
The tower has been telling her the winds are 320 degrees at 16 to 18 knots, then 280 at 14 to 16 knots. She is lining up for runway 30. As she turns final, the tower tells her that the last winds were 160 degrees at 16 to 18 knots. She requests a repeat and he gives the same numbers. She checks her groundspeed and determines that she definitely has a headwind, plus the windsock is showing a strong headwind right down the runway. She announces that she is on short final for runway 30 and lands! Hmm.
After parking, the avgas guys show up and she tells them she needs to wait until next Saturday as she is leaving the country and needs paperwork for tax-free avgas. Her price will be $2.8 per liter which is better than the $3.9 she paid this morning.
She checks in with the tower and prepares everything for next Saturday’s departure. He assures her that all departments, customs, police, health, avgas, and tower will be available at 7am. He also calls the hotel and a car will be sent for her. Yea! A real town!
December 5th to 9th…a week in north Madagascar
CarolAnn receives bad news from Bo today. Yemen is refusing to give a permit through their airspace. She would need to work a diplomatic solution, which she doesn’t want to do. She is very upset. Now they will have to work out things very quickly, so she figures out a flight plan and sends it to Bo right away. It’s worry and wait time! She doesn’t even have Oman or India permits yet. This is where things get difficult and it is going to be an anxious week, even knowing that some countries don’t issue permits until a day or two before a flight.
Two hours later and good news has arrived! No India permit is required as she will be far from their shore, so now she needs just the Omani permit. Whew! Back to documentation.
CarolAnn decides to make a day trip to La Montagne D’Ambre National Park. Only 35 kilometers from Diego Suarez, it is 4500 ft up and in a rain forest. A guide is required…this time it is Charles. They find more lemurs, lots of interesting insects, and chameleons. They also find leeches…..or rather, the leeches find them! At one point, CarolAnn has four on her and three bite into her. Ugh.
On the drive up and back there are definite signs of deforestation, and a few signs of new growth. Their driver had brought with him a plastic bag of donuts, and when he finishes them is about to throw the bag out the window until CarolAnn stops him. She explains how it is not good for the environment to have all that plastic blowing around, and that it doesn’t look good either. She hopes he will think about keeping Madagascar clean.
Back at the hotel, she is hit by lots of emails with bad news from Bo. Muscat, Oman, is being difficult by not approving the dates or arrival and departure times. Bo has gone ahead and made decisions in her absence. She contacts him and they submit an option which isn’t great, but are hoping it will be accepted. Unfortunately, it will mean an all-night flight from the Seychelles to Muscat.
One more day in Madagascar…..in a very beautiful area of a very poor country. They will have elections next year, but people are resigned that not much will change and the corruption will continue.
Saturday…Dec. 10….to the Seychelles
CarolAnn arrives at the airport at 6:30am for an 8:00 am departure. No one is there. Earlier in the week when she was there to install the ferry tank, the place had been very busy in the early morning. Also, she had been told by the tower that everyone began work at 6:am. She needs customs, health and police (immigrations) in order to depart internationally. She climbs to the tower and tells the controller she is scheduled to depart at 8:00am, and he says he will call the required people. She can’t even gas up until she gets the customs paperwork.
She walks out to the plane to get the cockpit organized. Today’s flight is only about 4 ½ hours, but she needs to get everything ready for the 13 hour flight to Muscat, Oman, next week. Earlier in the week she had gone to the airport and put the Turtlepac ( ferry tank), into the back seat and plumbed it into the fuel system. She had tested the system in Florida, but wasn’t planning on using it until the Pacific Ocean crossing. It also allowed her to be prepared for an occasion when avgas wouldn’t be available and she would need it. It appears that now might be that time.
CarolAnn had originally planned to fly from the Seychelles to Salalah, Oman….about a 9 hour flight. She had flown there on her 2008 flight and arranged to have barrels of avgas waiting there for her. When she contacted the avgas people earlier she learned they no longer supply avgas to Salalah Airport. This means she has to fly to Muscat, a 13 hour flight. Thus, the Turtlepac.
Today, she plans to put about 15 gallons of avgas in the ferry tank and run that for over an hour to make sure everything is okay. She needs to move the life raft into the front right seat for weight and balance purposes and to make it easily accessible. Next, she moves more weight in front of the right seat to reduce the load in the luggage compartment. It’s a bit congested, but that’s what she wants to test on today’s short flight.
Once the cockpit is organized, she heads back to the tower. The controller has been able to contact only the police. She sees the avgas guys out by the plane, so she heads back there. The chief has talked with customs who says that he can go ahead and fuel her plane. When he is finished, a lot of paperwork is completed and CarolAnn gives him a big tip.
The customs guy has arrived so he starts stamping her General Declaration forms and the gas guy’s paperwork. The police arrive and take her passport for review and stamps. Finally, the health guy arrives and stamps the health section of the General Declaration. All the paperwork is done, but they say there is a “prestation” for their work, and make the sign for money with their thumb and fingers. “They hem and haw and I ask how much. Normally, 60,000 Ariary per department. (about $30 each times 3 departments) I pull out my money and happen to have one $100 bill and three $20 bills and three $10 bills. I ask which they want. They choose the $100 bill. I’m fine with that as I know I won’t be able to use it anywhere else and the $20s and $10s will come in handy. So, I remind them (with a smile) that they must share as I give one guy the $100 bill.”
Everyone is happy and they want to come out and inspect the plane, so they all troop out and she opens the baggage and points out her luggage, the life raft and extra tank, etc. When everyone is finished they head back to the terminal , she shakes hands, thanks them and heads to the tower.
Finally, three quarters of an hour late, she is ready. She starts up and runs the engine from the rear tank to be sure there is no air in the lines before switching to that tank in the air. She ran the engine for over 10 minutes without a “hiccup”. Actually, she would have preferred a bit of “coughing” just to prove that the air was out of the lines.
The coast is magnificent, just as it was on her arrival. Absolutely breathtaking with mountains and cliffs and azure blue/green bays. Ah, she thinks, it is so good to be flying again! So nice to be up here away from it all!
After leaving the tower frequency, she is in VHF communication with Tana Information, giving the estimates to intersections and her destination. As soon as she reaches cruise altitude, she switches to the rear tank and monitors the fuel flow. She reels out the antenna and makes sure she has HF communication with Tana Control. All is proceeding well. Before the FIR boundary, she switches to Seychelles and they give her a VHF frequency. They do the next few communications on VHF, 350 miles from land, then go back to HF.
As soon as she enters the Seychelles Approach area, things start to get busy with many planes approaching. She finally gets through to the tower and gives him her position and arrival time. As she begins her descent, she tells him she can take a visual approach. “I came in visually over some low hills and some bays on left base and turned final between the hills and the bay. What a beautiful approach!”
CarolAnn lands and taxis to the ramp and parks by the marshaller, knowing she cannot exit the plane until the health person comes out. The woman appears in a short time and hands her an aerosol can through the pilot’s window and tells her to do a short spray and stay inside for ten minutes. After a few minutes she is handed paperwork through the window. The customs woman comes out and gives her more paperwork. (CarolAnn says she did it all while roasting in the cockpit!) The marshaller signals to her that she must relocate the plane to the north ramp. The immigration is quick and she is soon calling her hotel for pick up.
After a long walk she enjoys a delicious home-cooked fish meal with a fresh salad. As she has been afraid to eat salad for several weeks, it is great to have fresh vegetables again!
DECEMBER 13th…..SEYCHELLES TO MUSCAT, OMAN
“One hour down and all is proceeding very well. I’m running on the rear tank. I put 45 gallons in there, and with full mains that will give me 18 hours endurance for a 13 hour flight. Plenty of extra in case I need to deviate around storms. It’s also a good test before the Pacific. I have more weight in the plane now than I’ll have for the Pacific and I moved as much forward as I could. It was a smooth rotation with no problems at all. I turned out on-course and climbed slowly to FL 070 (7000 ft).
I gave the controller the estimated times to the first few waypoints and was told to call again at BOMOB, 200 miles away. Ok, I’m on my own…no checking in every half hour. I’ve got the HF antenna out and can hear the others pretty well.
Wes has set up a schedule for talking on the HF radio, and it starts in another hour. It’ll be good to talk every once in a while to keep me going. I just went through my first cloud for the night….first there were a few bumps then I could see the strobe lights. I shut them off until I was out the other side. There was an almost full moon and early on a relatively clear sky. I could see the first storms as they were building or declining and was able to deviate around them visually.
A friend, Bill, is in touch by satellite phone and giving weather updates and recommendations as I am flying.
Now there are a lot of clouds and lightning strikes on the storm scope. Bill’s recommendation is to circumnavigate these to the east. I have to deviate about 35 degrees northeast around the first big storm, then turn north again when I’m clear. Then there is another one. I could see that it spreads out quite far to the east, so deviate further and further west. I finally get around it and can return to a northbound direction. I get a few more bumps but am out of the worst of it. Bill confirms this from his real-time satellite views.
Now it’s just a matter of staying awake for the last 7 hours. That is difficult! I keep as busy as possible, stretch, massage, eat cookies and candy, and drink water. Unfortunately, the HF propagation is not good and I am unable to speak with Wes, but it keeps me busy trying different frequencies. The last two hours were relatively easy as I was in VHF contact with Muscat and had more to do. It was the three or four hours in between that were so difficult.
But, I didn’t nod off and I made it! That was one of the most difficult crossings that I’ve had!”
CarolAnn describes the approach as fascinating with the sun just coming up behind her. She came over the last mountain at 11,000 ft and was descended to 9000 and then 4000 ft very quickly to get down to the ILS final and 3000 ft, then straight in and land.
The reason for the night flight was their requirement that she get in by 7:00 am, before their busy period. It was the only way to get the permit to land in Muscat, Oman. In two days she has to depart by 8:00 am, again their requirement for the permit. She will need an early departure for the six-hour flight to India, so is hoping everything goes smoothly for her departure from Oman.
December 16, 2011….Muscat to Ahmedabad, India
The nice taxi driver, Suleman, who showed CarolAnn and her friend, Judy, around Muscat yesterday, is sitting outside the hotel waiting for them with his usual smile. (Judy is joining her on these next few legs to learn as much as possible before her 2013 world flight.) They load the trunk and speed to the airport.
Arriving at the operations office, they find that they know that N220FC is departing today. Settling the bills is relatively efficient, then the operations person walks them through immigration and to the exit gate and another person escorts them to the crew bus. CarolAnn keeps repeating that they need to go to the briefing office to file their flight plan and is told that dispatch will meet them at the plane. That doesn’t happen. She begins loading the plane after telling Judy to stay on the bus so the driver won’t leave.
Some American pilots and crew for a plane parked next to hers show up, so CarolAnn walks over and asks what they did for the flight plan. Universal Weather had taken care of their handling and entered their flight plan. However, their handler shows up and drives her back to the briefing office where the women enter her flight plan with a friendly smile and the handler drives her back to her plane. They let the bus driver go and finish loading the plane.
Startup, clearance, taxi and departure all go smoothly and they are climbing to 11,000 feet and headed to Pakistan airspace. The hand-off to Karachi Control goes smoothly with only a slight change in routing. Only four hours to go! They are close to the Pakastani coast so all communications will be VHF today. Over India the land is very dry, but as they proceed inland they see more green, then farmlands.
CarolAnn has been watching the weather and knows that all three airports in India have bad weather and are IFR most of the time due to low ground fog and very poor visibility. The planned first stop, Ahmedabad, is usually marginal VFR, and the second stop, Patna, is low IFR all day, every day. There is no way she can land there. CarolAnn contacts Saudimini, the India Airways pilot who helped her with the India flight planning for her 2008 flight, and gets great information. Patna is definitely out of the question, so she contacts Bo to change the India permit. The alternative is Calcutta, also IFR, but better than Patna. Unfortunately a big airport is NOT what you want in India as the paperwork is unbelievable.
They listen again to Ahmedabad weather and are pleasantly surprised to hear they have 5000 meters visibility. This may be easier than expected!
CarolAnn plugs the arrival procedure and approach into the GPS and asks for lower, as they have been flying at 11,000 ft. They continue down to the final intersection on the arrival, then the ILS approach. CarolAnn stays on instruments while Judy looks ahead for the runway. She finally sees it about 2 miles out in haze, but visibility is not as bad as expected.
After landing and parking, the first bus shows up in a short time. Two customs people want to know how much avgas is left in the tank and other people want to offer their handling services. When CarolAnn says she understands that handling isn’t mandatory here, he departs. The customs guy says immigration will be out to see them, so they re-pack, clean up the cockpit, and wait.
Another bus shows up and the immigration people check passports and request that they accompany them to the terminal. Customs asks if they have any other equipment on which they need to pay duty, and CarolAnn says she doesn’t think so. Their final bill for customs is $16….a lot of time and paperwork for not much return!
The nice man who has been helping them had called the hotel and they are sending a bus to pick them up. He also drives them to the domestic terminal and shows them where they need to go for departure in two days, and they pay for a receipt for the bus back out to the plane. When CarolAnn thanks him and asks who he is, he tells them he is the Airport Manager for the international terminal and that he is happy to be of assistance and that it is his duty. They take pictures with him and thank him again. He was a huge help! Overall, the process took 2 ½ hours, which isn’t too bad for entering India.
The half hour bus ride to the hotel is eye-popping for Judy. She has never seen such chaos on the streets nor heard so many horns blowing! But, they make it to the hotel and enjoy a wonderful chicken curry dinner. Unfortunately for CarolAnn, their hotel is in a “dry” area and they do not serve beer. She was really looking forward to her evening beer as she had not had one for two evenings in Muscat. So, no beer tonight but a store will be open tomorrow and she will have a beer sitting in the fridge for tomorrow evening! Yea!
More from Calcutta.
December 18….Ahmedabab to Nagpur to Calcutta
CarolAnn writes…“What a morning! It’s 1:30 pm and we’ve been in the air only 30 minutes. We left the hotel at 5:30 am and began the exit process before 6 am in the Airport Manager’s office. The rest was pure torture…..”
They receive the pass to enter the ATC office and tower for the paperwork, only to be told they need a customs stamp on the flight plan, even though this is a domestic flight. CarolAnn walks to the international terminal, gets through security with her pass and locates customs who stamps her flight plan. She asks if she needs immigration or anything else while she is there and he says no. She walks back to ATC and climbs the tower. The tower guy starts doing her paperwork in between his other jobs. At 7am the next shift begins and they go downstairs to complete the paperwork, with pilots and others walking in and out asking for information. Finally he starts the paperwork. CarolAnn knows it will be a lot of time and paperwork for little pay. It totaled $35 which she happily paid.
Now, with all the stamps and paperwork, they return to the domestic terminal for the bus to return to the plane. In the Airport Manager’s office he calls for the bus. She asks about avgas and he starts calling the operators. After four phone calls he announces that no avgas is available. She says that is not possible as this is the airport where all piston engine planes stop because they have avgas. They work on this from 7:30 to 8:30 am and their departure time is 9:00 am. Their only option is to fly to Nagpur and get avgas there. They head through security and their driver will meet them airside.
Getting through security is also pure torture. Even wearing their Captains’ uniforms, they are made to wait in line while their bags are searched. They finally make it to the gate and the driver is waiting. Then, the guard stops them at the gate and says they are missing the immigration stamp and approval. CarolAnn explains that she was told it was not necessary for a domestic flight and they are going to Calcutta. The guard talks with his boss, then the Airport Manager shows up and explains that airport activity is halted due to a Minister who is departing, causing problems and extra security measures.
Finally, he accompanies them back to the ATC office where they are told they cannot fly to Nagpur as it is their alternate, and must file a new flight plan. The change in the flight plan is not easy as Nagpur is not on their permit; they had listed it as a technical stop and it had been accepted. They are now behind schedule, so must pay for more parking and for more paperwork. With the flight plan approved, they are taken to the plane, shake hands all around, and thank them for their help.
They preflight the plane, jump into the cockpit and call for startup only to be given a startup time an hour and ten minutes later. They get out, assume the hold is due to the Minister, and see that the ramp is empty with no noise and no planes starting, taxiing or landing.
They see people walking toward them….first a security guy who leaves in a few minutes, then two more security guys who leave when a guard shows up. Obviously, he has been assigned to stay with them. Since the re-fuelers are only a short walk from the ramp, CarolAnn walks over there to talk with one of them. He confirms no avgas, but says it is available from Indian Oil, off the airport. He calls and she talks with the handler. He is coming to the airport to look after another plane and can supply a barrel of avgas if she can download it. She assures him she can. This is terrific news!
It is their start up time and the airport is open again. The guy with the avgas has not shown up and they decide to wait another hour so they could skip the stop at Nagpur. She goes back to the fueler she talked with and learns that he cannot obtain fuel today as it is Sunday, but does confirm that they can obtain avgas at Nagpur. They will fly to Nagpur.
They call for startup and head out. Whew!! They are on their way at last, not to Calcutta, but at least to where there is avgas…..and half-way to Calcutta!
Now, flying at 9000 ft, the visibility is good…almost 10 miles, and they are only an hour and a half from Nagpur. The peace and quiet feels wonderful!
Nagpur turns out to be another difficult time. They are third in line with three planes landing and Nagpur has no radar. All three planes are giving position reports and the tower is giving descents and approach clearances. During the arrival, the tower asks their intentions at Nagpur. CarolAnn responds that it depends on avgas and weather, but their intentions are to depart that evening to Calcutta. Their permit does not include Nagpur, and Ahmedabad allowed them to depart to Nagpur only as a technical stop. They are told they must pay landing and parking. They have to hold, then do the full ILS approach. After landing and parking, no one is around so she starts walking to the tower only to be intercepted by airport authority and security. They tell her she must go through immigration to get to the tower. She explains that this is a technical stop and she is not supposed to go off the ramp. Also, she cannot do the flight plan in the tower until she is assured of avgas and weather, so avgas has to be first. He calls Indian Oil and they come quickly. CarolAnn knows it will be a 55 gallon drum, but she has the syphoning equipment. They begin the process, which goes smoothly, they pay the bill and start working on the tower issues.
It is now 5 pm local time, and with a four-hour flight, they would arrive at Calcutta around 9 pm when visibility usually starts to deteriorate. They begin to consider not departing.
The avgas guy says he can get her to the tower and back….for a price, so off they go. Getting off the ramp and into the tower is not the problem; getting back to the ramp is. After being assured by the avgas guy that he can get a pass to bring her back, they drive to the tower to begin the painful process of tons of paperwork. She prepares the flight plan as the controller calls Calcutta for the forecast for her arrival time. He will call her on the radio with the new forecast. They head back to the ramp.
The avgas guy now tries to double his price. CarolAnn says no, that the agreement is $100. He argues and she gets out of the car. He asks her to get back in, and she pays half and will pay the second half when on the ramp. With the permit, she proceeds through the guards and luggage screening. At security, it is again a full screening (on the women’s side) with a review of all paperwork. Finally on the ramp, three security guards are between her and the plane and they also are looking over the paperwork just as the gas guy shows up in his vehicle. She is allowed to continue and gives him the second $50 in the car.
They get the plane ready, preflight, and get into the cockpit to review the weather. Current weather shows poor visibility and only a two-degree spread between temperature and dewpoint. That was the limiting factor….it is too “iffy” and could deteriorate enroute, so is a “no go”.
It is 7 pm and dark outside. What to do?! CarolAnn has the permit to get back into the tower, but it is only for today’s date. Best to go to the tower and get all the new paperwork done tonight. Neither of them want to repeat the hassle they experienced yesterday, so both opt to sleep in the plane rather than a hotel….the hassle factor is simply that bad.
CarolAnn gathers up all the paperwork, heads back to the tower, and is grateful for an easier entry. Up the steps and with a smile she again greets the tower controller. She tells him they are staying the night and will depart the next morning. He tells her he has not received her clearance through Mumbai and that he cannot let them depart and she responds that it’s okay, they aren’t leaving anyway, but need to get it cleared up before tomorrow. He asks how they had departed for Nagpur when they had no permit to come here, and the questions and explanations continue for 30 minutes or so. He calls other agencies and finally receives approval for their flight to Calcutta. Now they can do the new flight plan and parking invoice. He approves the flight plan.
CarolAnn asks if the next shift will have the information showing they have approval to depart and is assured they will communicate all the necessary information. He tells her they must relocate the plane to a night parking area and she responds no problem, tells him goodnight, and that she will call for startup next morning. She reaches the plane and finds Judy stretched out across the two front seats, updating her blog report. They taxi behind a “follow me” truck to the new parking area and shut down. It is 9 pm and both are ready for rest, so they rearrange the cockpit, find makeshift pillows, and try to relax. Within a few minutes CarolAnn receives a call from a friend asking if she needs help. She assures him that they are okay and departing Nagpur in the morning. Just as they settle in again, three men arrive in a jeep and come to the window to ask if they want to go to arrivals and a hotel. She explains it is a technical stop and they have an early departure time so staying in the plane is easiest and best for them. The men wish them a good night and leave. They settle down again to rest.
Judy sleeps off and on and CarolAnn gets a solid four hours between midnight and 4 am, so she is feeling fine. Both are a bit stiff but have time to walk around and get ready for the flight. An hour and a half prior to departure , she calls the tower and is told they are preparing the clearance and to call back in an hour. They call back an hour later and are given the ok and the forecast for Calcutta….2000 meters visibility and a ten degree spread between temperature and dewpoint. Good to go!!
Just before engine start, another person shows up to get more information for his paperwork, then leaves. One arrival and they are off….aahhh!!
Now, just an hour and a half from arrival at Calcutta, they have not been able to reach Calcutta control, but have relayed their position and arrival time. Hopefully all will proceed peacefully!
December 20, 2011…..Calcutta, India
The landing at Calcutta went well with an arrival procedure and ILS, 01R approach and visibility of 1800 meters. After shut down about noon, local time, the representatives from Indian Oil Aviation arrive and CarolAnn asks for avgas. It is available, but pumped slowly by air pressure, and they leave to get the avgas. CarolAnn and Judy clean up the cockpit and wait…and wait. An hour and a half later another representative shows up and asks what they need. When they explain the situation, they are told there has been a shift change and it takes a while to obtain avgas, but it will be here. Then the first representative shows up (without the avgas). Off they go to get it. This time the avgas arrives on a trailer. One guy holds the air pressure on the barrel while another guy holds the spout in the airplane wing tank opening. Finally, the drum is empty and she pays the manager and they walk to the terminal.
CarolAnn knows they have to get to the tower to pay fees and file tomorrow’s flight plan, but the question is how to get there! They go through international arrivals and locate the immigration officer, tell him who they are, that they had just arrived, and needed to get to Air Traffic Control to pay fees and file a flight plan for departure. Well, that started another 2 ½ hours of waiting and explaining. At one point, they had seven people listening and advising! Finally, one person seemed to know what to do and insisted they must first complete all the required paperwork . At 4:30 pm it was done and she could go to the ATC office. There she is told that she needs to get the final security-stamped paper back to the ATC office or they cannot depart the next morning. They work it out finally and head for the taxi stand and the hotel which is only 12 miles away…..but it is expected to take 1 ½ hours to get there. They sit back and witness more amazing driving with the horn blowing over 50 % of the time.
Next morning at the airport: With all the paperwork in hand, security allows them to enter the building. They head for immigration, stop at the first desk, present their paperwork and are asked for their boarding passes. They start the explanations again and he takes their paperwork and asks them to wait. Within 15 minutes he returns with the approval, but keeps some of their paperwork and insists that he needs to keep the flight plan. CarolAnn insists that they must have the flight plan. He makes a copy for her and keeps her carbon copy, stamps the General Declaration papers, and they are good to go. Now, off to Customs.
The customs guy knows what to do, stamps the General Declaration documents, finds the entry paperwork from yesterday, and explains about security, upstairs. She says she knows that they need that important paper and stamp in order to depart. Another Customs person says he will meet them at the ramp to remove the customs tape used to seal the plane last evening. They go upstairs to what should be their last stop before the ramp.
The security guard has them speak with the manager, who has four stars on his shoulders. He looks at the paperwork and says they need the airport manager’s stamp on the ATC document. Absolutely could go no further without that stamp. He gives her an escort to return to the Airport Manager’s office. They go back through customs and immigration to the main terminal and the office. The Manager looks at all the paperwork, announces that she will not sign because there is no ATC stamp on the ATC paperwork, and orders them to go to ATC and get that stamp. They go outside the terminal and along the road to ATC. There, the person behind the desk looks at everything and explains to CarolAnn’s escort that ATC doesn’t have a stamp nor do they stamp their paperwork. The signature is sufficient. They troop back to the Airport Manager’s office and are told they have to pay parking. She explains that she was told to do that at Apron Control after passing customs and proceeding ramp side. They complete more paperwork and she pays $30. Now, back to the airport manager’s office to have the paperwork signed and stamped as required by the security person. The customs person finds them in the terminal and gives permission to remove the seal and enter the plane by herself.
With her escort she heads back to security. They pass screening and the chief asks for the security paperwork. She explains that she thought he provided it. He says no, he stamps it…the airlines provide the paper. They go to his desk and he shows her a paper. He doesn’t have any copies but gives her blank paper and she writes the document with carbon paper, two copies. He approves, stamps, and signs the paper. She explains that ATC had told her she can leave the security document with Apron Control and they will pick it up. He says she has to carry it back to ATC. With her escort, she proceeds one more time backwards through customs, immigration, the terminal, and outside down the road to ATC. She hands the paper to the person behind the desk, asks if everything is okay, he checks her number in the book, nods and says yes. They return to security, and with smiles and handshakes all around are sent though the door and out to the ramp.
They preflight, climb in the cockpit, call for startup and get approval right away. Then more fun and questions: What is their take off minimum? CarolAnn says 200 meters. Legally, in the US it would be zero zero, but she doesn’t think they will accept that. What are their landing minimums? She gives the number from the approach chart. Visibility now is 750 meters, and they wait while ground control asks more questions and reviews the rules. Finally, ground control says that non-scheduled flights require a minimum of 1000 meters visibility to depart and they can shut down. He will call when visibility improves from the present 400 meters. They shut down, watch the few departing planes disappear into the fog, and wait. And wait. Visibility comes up to 500 meters, then 750 meters. It’s after 10:00 am. Finally, he calls and gives them startup approval. They start up, take the clearance, taxi to the end of the runway and take off. When they reach 4000 ft they are above the clouds and the climb is easier. They level off at 9000 ft and set everything for cruise. Whew!! The torture is over!
They are headed out over water right away. Unfortunately, the engine isn’t settling down to its normal “hum”. CarolAnn adjusts the rpm and mixture and finally lets it run with a little higher fuel flow to keep the vibration down. They leave Indian air space and start talking with Bangladesh. The signal is very weak and he relays through another plane that they are not permitted in his air space. She gives their permit number which is relayed back to him. In 22 miles they will be clear of his airspace and they continue on. Now clear, they contact the next controller, and cruise along with a ten knot tailwind. After a few hours the engine settles down to its normal hum and she can back off on the fuel flow.
Over Myanmar there is a long distance between reporting points so the controller starts asking for time “abeam NDBs”. As that takes time and calculations, she is glad when they can use the GPS and report time to the next intersection. Finally, Yangoon control gives them a “direct to FIR boundary” which puts them 1 ½ hours from landing. The landscape over Myanmar is interesting…along the coast it is flat in the area of the 2008 tsunami disaster. Further east, it climbs to 7000 mountains.
With the beautiful valleys and rivers below, it is really gorgeous to fly over. As they pass over the mountains and into Thailand, they talk with Bangkok control and are in radar contact for the first time since leaving Calcutta. He hands them over to Chiang Mai approach and they start their descent. In no time they are on the ground and taxiing to parking space 15. The AOT (airport of Thailand) representative asks if she wants to be tied down and wheels over huge cement tie-down blocks. Since it’s always better to be tied down than not, she gives the okay. He then drives them to the terminal, takes them to Immigration, and then customs. He shows Judy where she can change money while CarolAnn finishes the customs paperwork. Since they landed after 4:30 pm, she has to pay 900 Thai Baht ($30) for customs.
From the time they landed to climbing in a taxi and arriving at their hotel it is less than two hours.
Ahh!! At last!! Dinner, a beer, and a good night’s sleep!!
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