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ANOTHER BOOK
AROUND THE ONLY WORLD
New pictorial monograph was just published at www.didakta.si Dimensions: 27x22 cm, 186 pages, 190 colour photographs, hard cover with dust jacket
Order: zalozba@didakta.si
NEW BOOOK
AROUND THE ONLY WORLD
New book written by Matevz Lenarcic. So far only in slovene.
13x21 cm, 390 pages
Order: zalozba@didakta.si
Flight detailes
•Flying days: 21
•Distance: 17800 km
•Averrage speed: 217km/h
•Fuel: 1679 l JET A1
•Consumption: 20,4 l/h
•Flight levels: 500 feet AGL – FL 185
Ljubljana
Wednesday, 2.November 2005
Morning a bit better but no VFR condition to Ljubljana. IFR at 8000 feet luckily between and above the cloud to avoid icing.
Going home
Tuesday, 1.November 2005
Over Adriatic sea the weather improve. Very good support from Albania controlers. They transmitte prohibition to enter Serbian airspace. So we have to fly via Italy airspace in the middle of the Adriatic all the way to Split. After Zadar the weather turn bad. IMC all the way to Ljubljana. IFR is not possible for me as we have no deicing. So descending through the thick clouds and deviating to Lošinj island. A few minutes before landing we came out of the clouds. Stressful.
Over Greece
Monday, 31.October 2005
Western side of the Greece is in the clouds and rainfalls are strong. A little window is straight over the sea to Milos island. But after and abeam Athens the weather becom very bad. After Corint channel the rain is strong, and cloud base going down to the surface. Following the coast few metres above the sea I loos ground contact and autopilot trim-fail. Luckily I get vectors form Corfu controler and safely land on wet runway.
Across the sea
Sunday, 30.October 2005
The wind is strong and weather in Crete bad. But forecast for the next days is even worse. So what can we do. IFR departure request 3000 metres over Alexandria before we can jump over the sea. The wind is coming from the north very fast, 75 km per hour. So we are flying 75km/h slower. Crete is cover with clouds, strong down-draft on the southern slopes. The wind is still strong. It was so strong today that they close all feryboat lines.
Egypt desert
Saturday, 29. October 2005
Early in teh air, calm, visibility unrestricted, patterns of the desert. One of the highlights of the trip. Again Alexandria. The weathwer deteriorate again. Yes winter is coming to Europe.
Dakhla archipelago
Friday, 28.October 2005
Mr. Kashav, director of the airport and CAA is very helpful person. He has huge plans with airport developing and a lot of energy to complete those plans. We get permission to fly across the sea to Dakhla islands and after north to Sudan.
The islands are so beautiful, no words to describe. Coral reefs all around and all the way along the Sudan coast. Port Sudan, we land there just for refueling but lost a lot of many. Very unfriendly place. With sunset landed at private airport Marsa Alam in Egypt.
Massawa
Thursday, 27.October 2005
Around old town. A lot of bombing remains. You can feel the war. Between Etiopia and Eritrea is at the moment vrry fragile peace agreement. UN is on the border which is not defined yet.
Djibouti
Wednesday, 26. October 2006
Almost 30. degrees, altitude 2400 m means density altitude more than 4500 metres what is problematic for even more powerful aircrafts. Luckily the runway is almost 4 km long. We use a good portion of it before wheels leaves concrete. Again into Great rift Valley and follow all the way to Djibouti former French colony. Djibouti is like tampon between Etiopia and Eritrea. Because those countries don't have diplomatic relations it is not possible to fly direct between. So landing in Djibouti is a must. In the aftrenoon proceeding along the Red sea coast towards Massawa, an anciet Eritrean town. Nice weather but IMC because of coastal mist.
Adis Ababa
Tuesday, 25.October 2005
Mr. Abdis from CAA Etiopia is the only guy who can help. The airspace nort from Adis is closed for foreign aircrafts. We are able to fly only with soldier on board. Because of high altitude there is no place for another persone.
Etiopia
Monday, 24.October 2005
A swarms of colts are invading UN base Lokichogio with first light. After a huge ravens coming to eat all of them. Call to Germany to FSI solves all problems. Etiopean permission is granted so I am able to fly again. Close to the border I lost all contacts with controlers and was able to establish again only one hour before landing in Adis Abeba. This was the most turbulent flight so far with strong cross-wind on the landing. So far I have no complains, Diamond Super Star is very nice and reliable aircraft.
Lokichogio
Sunday, 23. October 2005
No permission for Etiopia so far. Have to wait. The weather isn't good anyway.
Lake Turkana
Saturday, 22. October 2005
Nairobi is more then 1700 m high and 1,5 km runway is hardly enoug long. I have to be very careful. The most common accident around here is because of the density altitude. Climbing is painful slow. After the ridge the aircraft drop into Valley of life. The weather improve and above Lake Nakuru it is almost clear. Further north to Lake Turkana the land is one of the wildest places I have flown. No vegetation only vulcanos and poisonous rivers and lakes. Here nobody can survive.
Pemba, Tsavo
Friday, 21. October 2005
Coral reefs are all around Zanzibar and Pemba. To bad te weather is not perfect. Abeam Mombasa the VFR flying is hardly possible. But is improving inland towards Nairobi. Extremly turbulent approach to Willson airport ends among many GA aircrafts. Nice place with friendly people.
Masai Steppe
Wednesday, 19. October 2005
Flying over southern Serengeti, over Olduvai gorge where one of the oldest remains of human ancestors were found. Ngorongoro crater was in the clouds, so I have to climb almost to 4000 metres. Over Lake Manyara descend again and remain very low over ground in bad and rainy weather. Tarangire National park is empty like the rest of Masai steppe. Very tense flight end on the Indian ocean coast crossing the sea strait to Zanzibar.
Serengeti
Tuesday, 18.October 2005
Low cloud are lying over East Africa. I don't want to fly above clouds over such a beautiful country. Around noon clouds are getting to melt.
Over Arusha with cloudy Mount Meru on the right, I am heading direct to Lake Nakuru which lie close to the Kenya border. Nice colourful patterns instead of blue lake. In October should start the rainy season in this part of the Africa. But it looks is late this year . Everything is dry. Even Serengeti national park which should be full of wildbeasts in these periode, is almost empty. Lake Victory is a second largest fresh water lake on the world. It has its own climate with afternoon tunderstormes. Luckily they are missing today, so landing in Mwanza is uneventful. The lake is on the almost 1200 m altitude.
Kilimanyaro
Monday, 17. October 2005
Early in the morning we can see white snows of Kilimanyaro. But soon cloud cover it. Extremely fast we are air-borne, climbing through the last hole in the clouds up towards the Kili summit. The engine has only 125 HP but is turbo-charget so it can climb quite high. Approaching 6000 m the view is fantastic. Kibo and Mawenzi are bathing on the sun, the rest of the Africa is cover with low clouds.
Great Rift Valley
Sunday, 16. October 2005
The weather is nice but turbulent. The Great Rift Valley is real gem. Vulcans, semidesert land, round villages. I feel privileged to be here so low. You can see any detail on the ground. Tle lake Turkana is on the left in the clouds. Abeam Nairobi I got clearence direct to Kili airport which is situated on the southern slopes of Kilimanyaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Of course it is in clouds as most of the year.
South Sudan
Saturday, 17.October 2005
Rainy season isn't over. Havy rains all the night.
Morning is fogy but dry. Should be clear above the low clouds. Over the airfield I made some circles just to be sure the I have proper fuel in the tanks. It looks OK, so direct through the cloud to the sun. An hour into the flight, the white cover got the holes and huge swamp is coming into sight. It is real wild down there, no way to survive emergency landing. Juba the biggest city on the Sudan south is full of UN airplans. They are coming from Kenija from UN base in Lokichogio. Landing only for custom. After direct to Lokichogio. Afternoon is and full of tunderstorms around. Avoiding to the north and happy landing in UN base.
Nile River
Friday, 14. October 2005
I know now. If I want to be air-borne at sunrise I have to be on the airport in the middle of the night.
First light is coming into cockpit, but there is not much to see. Dust in the air,sand on the ground. Dry bush s getting greener more to the south. There is ebven grass, first broun but later green. The deset is staying behind as well as good weather. After Malakal which I thought before is quite a big city, is actually a little dirty village. It is raining now. Cloud base is to low for safe flying over one of the most inaccessible place on the Earth - Nile swamp. Climbing up ends also in clouds and IMC. Big aircrafts are reporting very stormy weather further down to Juba and marginal conditions at airport. As there is no stormscope on the aircraft, the only decision is 180 back to Malakal. Malakal is uncontrol airport with no fuel. Afternoon is evry stormy with strong winds. But at the evening the old 200 l drum with JetA1 is miraculousness faund.
Sand and heat
Thursday, 13. October 2005
Aswan is very nice and clean city. What a pity I don't have more time. For such a flight 3 months is not enough but I have only 4 weeks.
The huge red ball is coming out of the yellow lake. I have new digital Nikon D2x with me which is very fast and 2GB CF is soon full. After an hour Abu Simbal is here on the shores of Nasser lake. Have no contact with Sudan control so I feel a bit nervous. This is wild coutry. The war on the South finished just recently, still have problems in Darfur and with Eritreans. On the right must be Nuba country, but not much to see as the visibilty is getting to zero. IFR approach into Khartoum. After 3 hours fuel Jet A1 is in the fuel tanks, bills are paid, and I am on the way to the hot and dry city.
Direction South
Wednesday, 12.October 2005
Many dollars later the aircarft is slowly climbing in smooth and calm air to 9000 feet what is MEA (minimum enroute altitude) over Cairo. Weather was fine, no cloud, but visibility poor due encounter of weat cold and dry hot desert air. Before Luxor the visibilty improved and got some nice photos of Nile river and desert patterns. Many military airports around so I had to keep high and on the airway. The Nile with its green belts is like a vision in wild desert. One can not survive down there more than a day without water. Almost 20 degrees upherem, should be 40 or 50 on the ground. No cloud as far as can see. After 5 hours Nasser lake coming into view and shortly touched down on the almost new airport. Hot, hot....
Finally Africa
Tuesday, 11,October 2005
The forecast was better than is actual weather in the morning. I called Meteo in Alexandria but could get very few useful infos.
After one hour in flight following the Crete coast I lost ground contact and autopilot. As I was very low and forecast didn't help I just made 180 back to Iraclion. Got some instruction from Diamond Austria regarding autopilot problems and was back in the air in the late afternoon with slightly better weather. After two hours finally flew into smooth and clear air over the sea. 500 km later the African coast got into view with blue green sea and many building of Alexandria. 28 degrees C is nice temperature, but the rest of the things werentso nice. A bounch of teh people around aircraft with only one mission. To get as much money from you as possible.
Crete
Monday, 11.October 2005
I hoped to have good weather over Greece as this is my first visit of this country. But we have rainy night. It looks the cyclone didn't move away from Peleponnese. After take-off the air was quite turbulent. Clouds and rain all the way down to Crete. Iraclion is the biggest city on the island with 200 000 souls which are not satisfied with such weather. Tourist are stll coming because the October should be sunny.
Towards Greece
Sunday, 10.October 2005
Everything is OK except weather which isn't perfect. I will get passanger for some portions of the flight. This is a filmmaker Joze Lenic. Until the Croatia coast the sky is cloudy, visibility bad after over Adriatic sea the sky is clear all the way to Dubrovnik where I encounter rain and IMC all the way to Greece border. Over Corfu the conditions are better.
Preparations
Saturday, 8. October 2005
We finally got all necessary permits, even Sudan known as problematic country due many conflicts and wars gave up. Only Etiopia is still missing, but we got promise for nex week. For this trip we are working with Flight Service International from Germany and so far their work is perfect. Mr. Kajetan Bajt whose company Dr.Nemo lend us aircraft for our project did very good job organising all necessary insurances and they also arange installing long range fuel tanks what will help for safe flying. The weather for tomorrow, when we want to start the flight, doesn't cooperate, but we hope for the weather window.
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