U.A.E.
The first
order of business upon leaving Afghanistan would be getting off the ground, you will recall from Part 11 that the runway in
Kandahar was pretty much non-existant. Apparently I added some scenery somewhere along the line that totally F'd up the airport
and all there was for a landing strip was desert. The airport is there with lots of military activity going on, but no tarmac.
So, I wasn't sure if I would be able to get my Saudia Arabia Airlines 737-400 off the
ground, I had already chosen Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as my next destination, if I could get airborne everything
would be cool.
I set up the flight and got my clearance to takeoff, I revved up the motors and
headed down dirt which served as a runway, I don't know if I overshot the actual runway due to the lack-of, but I did eventually
take to the air.
As I climbed up to 20,000 ft, I realized there was a problem, I switched views
and it was apparent that my landing gear were stuck down, at first I thought it was a graphics glich, but I was having a hell
of a time climbing and very soon the plane wanted to go into a stall.
Well, of course ATC cancelled my flight plan, I started looking at the GPS for
a place I could make an emergency landing, Zahaden, Iran was the only airport remotely close to my location, so I headed in
that direction, it was a ways out yet and my plane was acting very crappy.
I got things a little more in control when I reached a lower altitude, but I was still
going to land at Zahaden and have a mechanic take a look at the gear situation.
I managed a good landing in Zahaden but the nose gear apparently collapsed and
the front of the 737 was slightly buried into the ground therefore keeping the "Misadventures" tradition alive. Something
always has to go wrong or I would have to change the name to just "Adventures" and that would be rather boring.
The airport here was much nicer than I expected, after getting some repairs
and a little first-aid, I was ready to give it another go.
I departed Zahaden, Iran and the gear went up just fine this time, I reached
cruising altitude and set course for Abu Dhabi. Southern Iran is just one big ol' desert.
Soon I was over the Straits of Hermuz, I could see the sand hills of the Musandam Peninsula of Oman, very cool.
Over this part of Oman I didn't see any cities or airports at all, just a lot of sand
hills. I could see the Perian Gulf to the north and it wouldn't be long before I would be making my approach into Abu Dhabi.
The radio was quite busy around Abu Dhabi, kind of nice after all the remote places
I have been recently, I made a perfect approach and landing.
I had finally reached the middle east! This was a big deal to me, after all, you
can't avoid seeing this area of the world on the news everyday, I would explore this area for a while and then I will head
for Europe.
I decided to split up my visit to the middle east into several parts, because
there are a lot of places I want to see while I'm in the region. I hooped into a Cessna 182 and cruised around Abu Dhabi,
nothing to see here folks.
I thought about stopping in Qatar and Bahrain but figured it would be a waste
of time, so my next stop would be Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. This leg of my trip would take me across the southern Persian gulf
and south tip of Qatar.
Saudia Arabia
All I can say about this area is that it is very flat, for the longest time there
were no hills or mountains.
I was still using my Greatest Airliners 737-400 in Saudia colors, just seemed fitting
while traveling in this area of the world.
The approach and landing into Riyadh went perfectly, this was the busiest airport
I have seen since adding the AI traffic program, the radio was non-stop and the sky was full of activity, there were tons
of aircraft lined up for takeoff, landings and many go-arounds due to the ATC's inability to space approaching aircraft properly.
I sat and watched for quite a while, every other plane had to go around, it seemed like they always came in for landings two
at a time, instead of evenly spaced.
I took a cruise around Riyadh and there was not much to see, the airport was definetly
the best part about being in this city because it was so active.
I chose to fly a UPS 767 to my next destination which would be Taif, from there
I would take a small plane to Mecca and Jeddah, UPS seems to have planes parked everywhere I go so I thought I would help
them out and take the next load to Taif.
Once into the air and on my way across the desert, I crossed several rivers and
lakes, I never realized there was this much water in Saudia Arabia, I have learned so much on this trip. Seemed weird to see
water in the middle of this great big desert.
As I neared Taif, I began to see some hills pop up in the distance, most of my trip over
Saudia Arabia was over very flat terrain.
For the approach into Taif, ATC took me out over a small mountain range, and turned
me back towards the airport while descending. I have to admit I was a bit nervous putting my trust in ATC, but I carefully
followed their instructions and they guided me perfectly down onto the runway.
There was nothing to see here so I jumped into a Kingair and hopped over the mountains
to visit Mecca, I was quite disappointed at what I found. I had always thought Mecca was some major important city, so I kind
of expected to see a temple or something, but there was nothing but the boring old default city scenery.
So I headed for Jeddah, nothing special here either, but the airport was every bit as
busy as Riyadh, cool!
I flew around the city a few times in a Connie, 747's seemed to want to race me
to the runway when I was given clearance to land. I hung around the airport a while watching the action and then got back
into my Saudia 737 and headed for Medina.
I landed perfectly in Medina, there was nothing to see here and the airport was
not busy at all, there were a few other Saudia 737 parked at the gates, but that was about it.
At this point I whipped out my atlas and started debating on where to go next,
I decided on...
Kuwait
I was looking through my hangar and came across an Iran air
747-SP, you know, the little stubby 747's, so I thought it would be cool to fly this one into Kuwait City.
The flight was boring, so that meant everything went well, however the approach was rather
exciting.
I was given clearance to land, "You are cleared to land", but while on my final
approach I got into a race with a Kuwaiti 727, I would either have to go around or beat this fucker to the runway, I floored
the 747 and managed to get ahead of the 727, I touched down just ahead of him and ATC told him to go around, AHAHAHA!! BEEYATCH!!!
Unfortunetly I touched down at around 250MPH and ran out of runway, I eventually came to a stop
out in the Arabian desert, but no crash, so I turned 'er around and headed for my gate.
Later, as I buzzed around Kuwait City in a small plane I realized that I hadn't
seen a single oil well since I have been in the Middle East, WTF??
I expect the presence of oil wells in the Middle East has been neglected just
like the Great Wall back in China, oh well, can't have it all I guess.
I am going to stop here, although I have already made the trip to Tehran, Iran,
I think I will combine my visit to Tehran and Iraq into the next istallation of Misadventures.
It shouldn't be too long until I add part 13, I found some awesome scenery for Tehran
and I haven't actually made it to Baghdad yet, but you can expect some great photo's from these locations. I have
already taken quite a few photo's in Tehran, and will be heading for Baghdad next.
