3rd last Day

Thursday, 31st October 2013, 08:44 local time, outside temperature 25 degree C

We have received our departure clearance and we are half an hour early. We knew what to expect this morning and true, a group of headless chicken, handling agents, everybody getting involved in everybody else's task on hand, every sum had to be calculated between 3 and 8 times, they did not get one crew organised. But... eventually we were out of their offices. The first crew, the Redaktions Flugzeug, arrived @ 05:15 and left @ 08h00, it took them three hours to get their invoice sorted because there was a dispute. That is exactly how it works, eventually you pay because you want to leave...

The climb performance is much better today, the 5-10 Degree difference in temperature makes all the difference! First time since a while we are able to fly at a highter altitude. Now the outside temperature is minus 8 deg C. 

Our flight to Kayseri, Turkey will take around 6 hours, we have crossed the border into Iraq, we must under all circumstances avoid flying above Syria or Iran. The view gets better in Iraq and we see lots of agriculture along the river 'Tigris' and it looks as if they channel the water.

Residential areas are huge. We also see a huge huge military base, 2 runways, hangars, monition storages etc. Really huge. We are in contact with Baghdad approach all the way. Winds are good and our flying time has shortened by an hour. Below us high mountains full of sand dunes, around them tracks, but mostly we see flat land. We are getting closer to Kirkuk.

And now we are overflying Mosul. We see freeways with trucks and cars and we see rivers.

We overfly mountainous terrain with huge water reservoirs and a city with stadium, freeways and one big tar-road leading over mountains going north. That must be the road leading into Turkey. This area, the nort-east of Iraq looks really interesting.

We are crossing the border into Turkey and we are talking to Ankara. Mountains around us are to 11 000 feet high and have snow on top. Below us the town 'Siirt', and its airport.

Our aircraft is in top-form, we cruise at a groundspeed of 195nm. We arrive early afternoon and it took us one hour to get organised. As we leave the aircraft we mention to each other how lucky we were on the whole trip with our fuel leek on the left wing. When the plane is not parked dead straight the fuel pours out of the wing. For that purpose Herr Mueller provided us with a special device like a car jack and that device helps us to bring the wings level or rather the aircraft.

We leave for our Hotel.