The latest madness that is the KR2 Worldtour. This is going out to a couple of hundred people now. Its only me and not a cooperate website, so you can't click and remove yourself from the list I'm afraid. But I won't write again no doubt till China somewhere if I ever get there. A month or so away.
Cheers CH. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spending 36 days in Nome, trying to secure passage through Russian Airspace, nobody, including myself, really gave much chance of any success. There were too many issues. Not having long Range HF radio, not being able to fly at a minimum of FL200 or 20,000 odd feet. Not having an internationally recognised Certificate of Airworthiness, but a UK Permit to Fly and there being no suitable fuel at the airports for my plane, to be just some. I was prepared to fly back to Anchorage and ship the aircraft in a container to Japan, or China or even back home. The idea is to try and fly around the whole world, breaking the chain of flights by shipping the aircraft in a container really meant a lot to me? If I couldn?t fly all the way around, what was the point of battling on and risking so much? But then at the 11th hour, a strange gift came from someone within the Russian Main Air Traffic Management Agency. To my part, I had written some very humourous letters and built up what I thought was a good repore and had some pleasant banter with the staff on the MATMC. But this offer is or was still unprecedented and seems to be the result of a few kind officials. They bent some rules and ignored some other issues and agreed that I would be able to use lower level domestic airways, normally only available to Russian operators and Russian aircraft, for my transit through Russian Airspace. I also had a Russian friend brilliantly translate my argument for my Permit to Fly. Itzy is not an ?Experimental Aircraft? as per the USA. Itzy has been stringently built and test flown to exacting standards. It just doesn?t have any factory support or maintenance documentation to allow it to obtain a Certified C of A. I can never carry paying passengers, but my plane is as safe as any other in the world. As long as I maintain it correctly. There is no maintenance schedule, I define that. And trust me, Itzy gets a lot of maintenance to make sure nothing unknown is going wrong. I was amazed and everyone else was! The Russian authorities could have just said "Nyet!" I?ve no idea why they agreed to allow my flights? When I got the permission through, you should have seen the faces of the Nome Air Traffic Control, and mine I suppose. I have to thank everyone in Nome for making me so welcome, except one member of the FSS ATC staff, but everyone knows he has mental issues, so he is forgiven. All the Staff at Bering Air who helped gather information of the route and flight plan I would need to file. Ravn Air staff, who?s internet I used to go and steal most days and their maintenance staff for the loan of their hanger and tools. Everyone else in Nome, at the library I often frequented and even the Subway staff, friendly as can be, since I ate their virtually every evening. But on the 28th August I took the chance to fly to Anadyr, Eastern Russia. It was a calamitous flight of mistakes by both parties. Just as I approached the border and had to communicate with the Russian authorities, their microphone button stuck and they transmitted for about 20 minutes none stop. They kept calling me getting more and more irate that I was not replying. On about the 5th call to me, when he pressed his microphone button, it released and I could talk to them again. I was expecting a call to turn back. I had promised myself that I wouldn?t? I suffered strong headwinds on route and used a lot more of the precious Aviation fuel I was carrying for the next flight, than I had hoped. But I landed and couldn?t have been made more welcome. I didn?t have the correct Chukotka Pass, I knew this, but they said I didn?t need it and I was free to walk around town and go and see anything I liked. This was obvious to all my new Russian friends but completely adverse to what I had been told while in America. I lost two of my four fuel bladders due to faulty equipment. I had to order 4 more very quickly. A friend of mine Robby, in Anchorage, stopped work and went to the manufactures there and then and got them on the next flight out to Nome and they arrived on the next Bering Air Charter flight a week later. Or I would have been stuffed!!! Since arriving in Russia, during the time awaiting the new parts, the FATA officials have revised their decision to allow me to use their low level airways and were arguing between themselves and the nice MATMC staff to see if I could continue. I originally intended to fly south east along the coast and into Japan. But the easiest and best option and the option I though would be agreed by the Russian Authorities was a straight line into China. Everything is still very tense here and nobody really knows what is going on, especially me. That is or was the position I found myself in. The winter weather in Anadyr was closing in and the daylight, that I need, was shortening very rapidly. The pilots in Anadyr believe that in another week or two, the first snows will fall. I had to leave Anadyr and head south or be stuck there, possibly over a very long bitter winter. I had not been idle in Anadyr, giving English lessons to young pilots, hoping to improve their language necessary for flying airliners around the world later in their careers. I also wrote two letters for a friend to obtain their Australian Visa?s for their winter break, after the Australian Visa officials started doubting their reasons to visit Australian and were basically being knobish! So, who ever gave me permission to use the lower airways maybe should not have, as it had been revoked. The Russian Authorities refused my flight Authorisation stating an unknown problem between my second and final destination. The pilots at Anadyr then banded together and along with ATC and my friendly handling agent, got my permission granted to at least move on to Magadan, away from the closing climate. Also they could order me back to America from Anadyr. From Magadan, it would not be so easy. So when all was in place and I again had 240 litres of a mix of Avgas and Auto car fuel onboard, I requested permission to fly on to the next airfield of Magadan. The flight was on and off and on again. I eventually left an hour and a half late. The hour I wanted in reserve had gone? The take off was difficult, the plane had little to no stability for an hour, until I could pump in the fuel from the rear most bladder tank to the main tank and move the C of G further forward. I was also hoping on the weather. Something I hate to do. There was a high pressure ridge some 1,200 miles away and I was hoping it would keep the airfield of Magadan, that is surrounded by mountains, clear of cloud for the next eight hours. On the flight I got 20 mph tailwinds and caught up the hour that I lost earlier. I flew over cloud, with holes or mountains sticking out the top of them for about three hours, hoping that as I approached the coast, the cloud cover would end. I flew out to sea for about 2 hours with the coast just in range. Air traffic were wonderful, they mostly left me alone and I had good communication via relays from airliners some 30,000 feet above me. As I approached Magadan, the clouds cleared as I had hoped and I could carry out a visual approach to land. 7:58 hours, 942 miles in mega cruise mode. I landed with two hours of fuel left on board and before I took off, I had worried about having to land short. The Russian people are viewing the little plane with open mouthed amazement. Everywhere I land, people are holding their sides trying not to giggle or gasp when they see the plane, with the thought of, "What the??? How have you got that tiny plane here?!" Even I wonder at times myself. Magadan is in the middle of nowhere. It?s where Lenin and Stalin sent all the dissidents. The Gulag camps of Siberia. I?ve been to the Museum. The history is grave but pertinent? Humans and what they will do to each other??? There are still cloudy skies ahead though for me. If I did stress, I would be... My doctor probably would not advise me to continue. Progress is not good for the nerves or my health. At sometime my luck will run out, I just hope that when it does, my experience will pay dividends and allow me to somehow continue. So I'm just past half way through Russia and half way around the world. With one more flight to the Chinese border. On the flight to Anadyr, the little W turned to an E on the GPS and the longitude started winding back down from 180 degrees instead of up to it? A monumental moment for me actually. Oh and I lost a day. That flight to Anadyr was technically the longest flight by any UK homebuilt aircraft. It was a 29 hour flight across the date line... I took off on a Tuesday morning and landed on Wednesday evening. The issues ahead seem to be due the lack of lower airspace available on Airway A803. It ends at Ekimchan NDB (FA). It seems that the Russian FATA will not authorise a flight to Blagovenshensk UHBB and I must now see if they will authorise a flight to Khabarovsk instead. I have proposed this route to the MATMC for consideration by FATA when they returned to work after the weekend. I hope to have a response by Tuesday or Wednesday. I can't see why it won't be favourable, as the route is all now lower airway routes to Khabarovsk. And if they refuse my authorisation, I?ll be stuck in the Gulags!!! Literally! While here in Magadan, I have been unbelievably well looked after! The pilot?s community of pilots. I?ve been given my own flat to stay in and it looks like I have been offered a 205 litre barrel of Avgas. Expensive but so good for the engine as now there is mostly just car fuel in the tanks. The idea was to take off and throttle back immediately to save the engine from possible detonation while running on lower octane car fuel. But it takes full throttle not only to take off but to climb when so heavy with fuel for the long flights, the idea of throttling back is definitely not an option. So this Avgas will be warmly received. I'll be happy to run full power, even if the engine isn't! Now a barrel of Avgas, big 205 litre barrel of avgas, if you kick it you will break your toes. I struggle to move them. You can push them over and roll them along the ground and then it?s my absolute limit to stand them back up again. But a barrel of Avgas is going into my plane along with me and those 20 foot, 6 meter wings lift it all up to 10,000 feet, at 120 mph with a 75 hp motor on the front. I look out at my wings constantly and ask myself, ?How are they doing that???? So in a few days time I might arrive on the Chinese border. There are many problems with this event as well. Mainly that, since I thought it would never happen, I'm totally unprepared. Seriously, I so thought the plane was going in a container to Thailand. I've given myself 5 days if I get to Khabarovsk. There is a Chinese Embassy there, to get my Visa issued. I might need an invite letter, this I will try to obtain from the organiser of Airshow China, Zhuhai Airport, 1st - 6th November. It would be good to attend it if I am close by anyway. I have a special event in Thailand, which I'm holding close to my chest, which if happens, I'm so looking forward to. The Airshow China invitation may open up many avenues to fly my aircraft through China. If the official Air Show of China, the only state endorsed Airshow in the annual calendar invites me to attend, then any restrictions to my flight might be removed. Of course, there are always issues. This airshow is for fighter aircraft and weapons of war and destruction and multi billion dollar Airbus and Boeing contracts. So I don't expect they will want to even make what little space my plane takes up for me. But you never know, it is quite quirky and an International visitor. Funnier things have happened. As for the aircraft?s Chinese flight permission? I sent the necessary information to the Chinese Aviation Authorities by AFTN, international Air Traffic messaging system, 18th August from Nome, but never got a reply. This I am not that concerned about. I will file a flight plan and head for China, I can't see a reason why the flight plan will be rejected. As yet, they have no idea what a KR2 is and I'm in no rush to tell them. The difficulty is always getting into the country. It took us 42 days to get to fly thought Saudi Arabia, but once inside these countries, normally any issue can be resolved. The Chinese AIP is woeful and very lacking in content and detail, but this is to my benefit. It doesn't say or ask much and therefore I believe Itzy complies with it in all respects. China does not look easy to fly through, but all the 6 flights are no longer than 500 miles. The legs to Magadan and to the border are twice that distance and hurt me and the plane. I'll try and get to the border and take it from there. I'm going to say nothing and simply file a flight plan to Harbin, see what they say when the smallest aircraft to have flown in China turns up next to the Boeing's and Airbus's. People saying "They will never let you!" Well that's what 99.9% of the world said about the Russians. So these statements of negativity I have to ignore and keep moving on. The Russian?s have been simply amazing so far, as I thought and hoped they would be? We have to re-write the knowledge books about them if I am allowed through to China. If I can only get to Thailand? I have flown England to Australia before, so if I can get to Thailand I?ll pick up that old route, it should be so much easier, the plane will know the way home, but we might miss out Syria this time. Best regards, Colin Hales. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: World tour logo.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 137363 bytes Desc: World tour logo.jpg URL: <http://list.krnet.org/mailman/private/krnet_list.krnet.org/attachments/20160905/90b76ef4/attachment.jpg>
