Transit Routes to and from Turkenistan

The journey home started with a typical delay. We arrived at Turkmenbashi Airport before sunrise to prepare the aircraft for a dawn departure, but the President’s security protocols required a completely sterile airport until he and his entourage had departed back to Ashkabad, so we were spirited away to a back-room to wait and wait.

The 5 hour delay cost us the best of the forecast tailwinds across the Caspian Sea, and when we finally got underway our progress was too slow to make Tbilisi in Georgia, and we diverted to Ganga in Azerbaijan where the Airport authorities robbed us by holding the Twisters to ransom for extortionate landing fees.

After that unpleasant episode, the journey back through Turkey seemed easy going. Our first bad weather encounter threatened to block our passage over the Pindus Mountains of Northern Greece and then the Adriatic, but we escaped the low cloud and rain half way up Italy, and were finally rewarded with a crystal clear crossing over the Alps and the Berneses Oberland into Switzerland.

The final hurdle was the Ash cloud from Icelenad’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano drifting over UK and Northern Europe. The NOTAMS were all doom and gloom but the flight to UK was uneventful, VFR flights in uncontrolled airspace being unaffected.

The only evidence we encountered was a long brown cloud trapped by a low inversion over the English Channel that smelt sulphury, but could have just as easily come from a Supertanker or Power Station rather than a Volcano.

Total Flight time was just over 54 Hours with over 5600Nm flown across Europe and beyond – All for one 5 minute display!

Thanks must go particularly to UL Power for the UL260iSA engines, that did not miss a beat. Also to Silence Aircraft, Jeppesen, Funkwerks and GA Buyer, Nigel Lamb and Marie Yildiz.

Italian Dolomites

Bernese Oberland

Bernese Oberland

English Channel

Bernese Oberland