May 2011 - The STANS

After landing the wood and paper aeroplane just a few metres off from the actual location of the first English Channel Crossing I had taken the train to London where I cooled my heels and enjoyed the history for a couple of weeks.
Prior to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton I received notice from Brad that we'd be flying some "Mountains in Central Asia." At this point I took the Flight Club's 747-200 (Remember I vowed to use only Flight Club Aircraft to commute this year?) from Heathrow to Delhi, India. (pict1) Next up I took the Flight Club's BAe-146 east to the Indian Holy City of Varanasi, along the Ganges River. (pict2) (pict3)
Come May 1st Brad had us starting off in Islamabad, Pakistan. I loaded up Tony's Cessna Sovereign and made the flight early in the morning. (pict4) (pict5) After paying a quick call to my long-time simming friend Ali, I loaded up the Flight Club's Red Dash-8 Q100 for the short hop over to Kabul. (pict6) (pict7)
Next I switched into a Private Livery EMB-190 for the over-mountain flights to Dushanbe and continuing on to Tashkent. There are lots of snow-covered, tan-colored mountains here, some rare NDBs and that's about it. (pict8) (pict9) (pict10) (pict11) (pict12) (pict13) (pict14) It seemed that this would be a fun navigation to do in some classic propliners - kinda like the "Flying the Hump" that we did in January 2008. Finally I flew an A-321 to Almaty for a couple of weeks. (pict15) (pict16) (pict17) (pict18) (pict19) (pict20)
I knew I had to get to Rio for June so I took the Flight Club's Britannia on an NDB-hopping route south to Mumbai. (pict21) (pict22) (pict23) (pict24) (pict25) (pict26) Somewhere after Pakistan I began having issues with engine number four. Somewhere around Jaipur I had to shut it down. (pict27) Arrival was challenging but the landing was oh - so - smooth! (pict28) (pict29) (pict30) Finally I caught a 777 non-stop to Rio.
In years past I was tempted to take us to the "Stans"; THANKS to Brad for actually doing it, I enjoyed my tour!