Leaving the Desert

Muscat, Oman, 

Wed 30. October 2013, 09h15 local time, 32 Degree C, no cloud, sun burning down.

We are on the airfield, standing next to the Mooney, their cowling is off, oil on the tarmac.

When we arrived and they saw us they rushed towards us, their body language showing clearly. Dietmar said, "something is wrong". and than coming closer, as if Dietmar is the expert, "you had a Mooney, maybe you see something". Now all three pilots lying underneath the engine to see where the oil is coming from, no luck, they see nothing.

We have to leave them now, that's always the hardest, to leave them with a problem. We can't do anything, we don't know more than them, we can't really help them. In a last effort I get a whole lot of wet soapy tissues and a dry one for afterwards. They look like mechanics, oil on their faces, arms, white shirts. As we start the engine they are still below their aircraft. We feel sorry for them.

As we taxi we talk about our own take-off, fully loaded, very high temperature, we expect a poor performance take-off. It was ok. Air Traffic Control is again very good, it cannot be better. As we climb higher and get further out we see houses, very far apart and main roads. Otherwise sand and not much else.

We have a four hour flight ahead of us to Kuwait. The outside Temperate is still 20 Degree C at 10,000 ft. Crazy.

We cross the border to United Arab Emirates. Below us Al Ain Airport, nearby we see an oval circle, it looks like a race track. 

We wonder if Car Manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW etc have their test track here in this climate for their test purposes as they have in Upington!?

We approach the coastline, in the distance we see Dubai and the Palm Island. Unfortunately it is very misty and I am sure my pictures will not turn out great.

On our left in the distance we see high rise buildings belonging to Abu Dhabi, again it is too misty for good photos. Below us in the Persian Gulf we see lots of ships, from Cargos to Cruisers and smaller ones too.

We arrive at 13h00, it takes us 3 hours to refuel and clear immigration despite Handling Vultures. It is now 16h00 and we are on our way to the hotel which is beautiful. By the way: not one drop of liquor in the country.