A surprise and an exciting flight

November 21, 2012

A the very last moment we discovered that Izmir, at least according to the Jeppesen systems, did not belong to Europe, nor to Eastern Europe, nor to Africa. To avoid a delay in our flight we changed our destination to Heraklion, Greece. From there we will proceed directly to Cairo, Egypt.

We left Locarno in good weather and joined IFR in Odina (a virtual waypoint in the air) and we proceeded direction to Heraklion.

Bettina surprised us with extremely nice sandwiches, coffee and chocolates.

The flight went very well so I started to check the Garmin 496 (score 10) and the Canon printer connected to Sony Vaio pc (score 9). Urs checked the Iridium phone and listened to the voicemail of Aerolocarno.

Then closer to South Italy the weather turned quit sour and we had to make many avoiding manoeuvres in order not to fly through CB’s (Cumulus Nimbus which can be at times quite  dangerous).

Locarno-Heraklion: active weather…..

Urs looked carefully at the weather radar. Shortly before Heraklion we had a clear sky on the radar, though flying in IMC (Instrument Meteorogical Conditions, for normal people it means you simply see nothing, just clouds over all), but all of a sudden strong drafts, heavy rain, stall warnings (for normal people a warning that you may fall from the sky). We fell about 1000′ just like that.. We got all under control again and continued our flight like nothing ever happened. I was quite happy to have been with someone like Urs on board.

Normal landing at Heraklion, no sign of Anastasia at Swissport. Taxi to the hotel, dinner etc.

Heraklion: first leg completed….

Today we will fly to Cairo where we hope to meet one of the youngest Pharao’s in Egypt, my good friend Mr Milad Abou Saif. He must be the 600th generation of the Toetanchamon Family.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tutmask.jpg

Will be continued