Post by Kai » Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:33 am

Knowing that today's leg would be shorter, we scheduled a relatively late departure for 9 a.m. local. When we arrived at the airport, the local agent's office was closed and the only phone number I had, wasn't answered. So we were quite late once the handling agent found us and guided us through the airport.Karachi Intl. airport is full of security checks even way before entering the building there are military-style security guards. Fortunately, they fear dogs and waved me and Felpudo through other gates which were far away from them, haha.Within the airport we were stared at by security guards, airport-personal and at one checkpoint the security guard didn't forget to mention that he "just loves Germany. DEEP from my heart. They have a great history and did better things the Arab world ever managed to do." Knowing at what he was aiming I politely thanked him and tried to hide my embarrassment but he went on: "But I hate the American people, I hate America." Again, I nodded politely waving to my US-American friend and co-pilot we should quickly move on before this guy would have gotten more insulting.We must have gone through 5-10 checkpoints before we finally got to the crew bus which took us to the remote area where NovemberFoxPapa was parked. The handling agent came with the next surprise: he had no AvGas, but has some from a local flight school, we just needed to taxi there. Of course, the tower didn't give us taxi-permissions for another 30 minutes because the handling agent forgot to hand in our GenDec. Finally we received progressive taxi-instructions to a wide gate, stopped, and went on once it was open.Then we had to stop again in front of the next gate while the gate behind us was closed. On the right hand side of our position were smaller boothes with guys with machine guns on stands behind sand sacks. They were definitely looking at us and I wondered what this was going to be.The gate opened, we rolled on and stopped in front of the third gate while the 2nd gate closed. It was all not understandable and I felt like taxing into some jail or secret compound. It was so incredible that there was just the flight school located a bit after the third gate, that I still can't believe it and don't understand what they need all this security for.At the flight school, we were suprisingly well received by chief-pilots, training pilots and the owner of the flight school. They all were eager to hear our story and while we were busy explaining, aboutto their gas-station. It took them ages to open the barrel, tilt it and fill the fuel in smaller cans and take them to the wing tanks. But I was used to it and quite enjoyed Schon-Air's hospitality.After settling the handling agent's exaggerated invoice, we were bid farewell from each of the pilots and the flight school invited me to sleep in their flight school and enjoy their hospitality next time I would stop in Karachi. I am not sure if Karachi will ever see me again, but the flight school would have made the stay a lot easier.We taxied through the magically opening and closing gates, while the guards and other took pictures of us with their mobile phones' cameras. I taxied straight to the holding point, and was cleared for take-off. Unfortunately I received a different departure than the one I requested, but confirmed to be able to do it and the took another one.... I messed it up completely, the controller corrected me and my co-pilot even worse.After apologizing to the controller and getting vectors, Paul and me found out that the problem was that we really didn't have a clear agreement on who takes which part of the job. We definitely have learned the lesson and the rest of the trip, we didn't fail again.After departure we have flown for quite a while along the Pakistani coast and it is amazingly beautiful, deserted coast where there were no signs of Tourism or even civilization at these never ending beaches. Despite of some disappointing remarks at the airport, I learned that Pakistan is a beautiful country with very friendly people and it might be worth stopping for a bit longer (and without my furry friend).The routing to Fujairah lead us for a few hours over water, mainly to avoid Iranian airspace which costs $0.50US/nm and an overflight permit, which I haven't had this time.Eventually we hit land again, the coastline of Oman and were vectored for a straight in approach to Fujairah, a freight hub for the Middle East. The landing was uneventful and the Skyline of Fujairah looked like any other modern, western city. We taxied right to the ramp of, a place where an English engineer promised us to sell us AvGas at very reasonable prices. Keith came right up to our plane which was parked right in between a couple of other DA40s and a DA42.Keith, the british engineer, was as friendly as on the phone a few days ago and attended all our needs. Especially he helped us to refuel the aircraft and we had an interesting conversation about his job in UAEs ruler's own flight academy and why they were still with Thielert-propelled DA40s. To make things short: he will have a job as long as they have DA40s to be equipped with 2.0 engines.We then walked over to the international arrivals area to clear customs and immigration while Keith wanted to wait outside to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Unfortuantely, we didn't get very far: the immigration officer said I have a problem. The problem is called "dog" and I would have to wait until the vet arrives. The vet who came some 20 minutes later said it wouldn't be a problem, if the dog had a passport. I showed the astonished vet Felpudo's passport and he said "Everything o.k. I just need to look at the Veterinary certificate." No problem from my side and showed him the certificate. "Ahh.... verrrryyyy good. But I will need to see the lab's analysis of the blood."Also, no problem from my side as I even had that on me. I could see the "vet" veins on the forehead swelling while he tried to make up another excuse to not let me pass with Felpudo. "Thank you, but your certificate is too old. You need one from this year."Well, discussions went on and while I considered sleeping in the transit area, the vet still wanted to put Felpu into quarantine. Obviously, I objected and told him, if they wouldn't let us in, I would just fly on. Paul couldn't believe what I was saying but I was determined to fly with or without co-pilot rather than leaving my dog with these "persons".I told him that I was open to any solution and would fully understand that at this point he might be better off getting an airliner. But after his surprise has passed he said "Yeah, well, better two pilots than one. I can't let you fly alone." If I would have known how right he was, I would have staid in Fujairah anyway, but the worst was yet to come.So we walked back to the Flight Academy, called up Keith, who already expected that something weird must have happened and assured us it wasn't the first time they had friends being rejected by immigration fir the strangest reasons.I then went to the flight planning office to file the flight plan. It was more complicated than I thought because of a Notam, a lot of military activity and the fact that my overflight permission for Saudi wasn't valid until 0.00 a.m. local, so I had to fly either slow or wait another hour.At this point I should say that Fujairah airport is probably the best organized airport I have seen. The flight planning office right next to the Met office and the met-office right next to the administration and cashier. The attendance was perfect, they even printed the routing from their own Jeppesen charting program and gave detailed recommendations how to handle the complicated and dense airways in the gulf.I filled the water bottles and we walked off to NovemberFoxPapa who must have been surprised to see us back this quickly.See all the pix of this leg on http://405fp.com/3-OPKC-OMFJ/index.html