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After Oshkosh he returned to St Catharines to spend some time
with his family and meet up with his girlfriend who came over
on a commercial flight. The two of them flew around eastern Canada
including stops in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. After reinstalling
his ferry tank he headed back to Australia still going east.
The weather for the return flight was not quite as good. Canadian
law dictates that aircraft crossing the Atlantic (leaving Canadian
Domestic Airspace and entering Oceanic Airspace) can only do
so on an IFR flight plan. Since Ike does not have an IFR rating
he was forced to fly 3 hours north to Greenland Domestic airspace
to avoid entering Atlantic airspace directly after leaving Canada. From Greece Ike crossed the Mediterranean Sea and entered Egypt, flying down the Nile River to Luxor. He planned to continue on that day and spend the night in Muscat, Oman on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Pennisula. A 3 hour refueling stop in Luxor and bad weather with severe turbulence after crossing the Red Sea forced him to make an unscheduled stop in Saudi Arabia only part way to Oman. This part of the world is very desolate with very few airports. When he landed in Saudi Arabia he was welcomed by many airport staff who had never seen a light aircraft land at their airport before. They offered him a room in the military barracks at the airport. The next morning after Ike filed his flight plan they gave him food and fuel but refused to take his money. The flight into Oman was uneventful. Leaving the capital of Oman, Muscat, Ike flew direct to Bombay, India across the Arabian Sea. This bypassed Iran and Pakistan. From there he flew to southeastern India landing in Madras, a port city on the Bay of Bengal. Weather kept him on the ground for 10 days while he waited for better conditions in the Bay of Bengal. His plan was to take an overwater route direct to Indonesia, bypassing much of southeast Asia. When Ike finally set off for Singapore he was told the weather should be good but half way across the Bay of Bengal cumulus build ups and lightning were encountered. He had been monitoring the commercial flights and radioed a Royal Brunei flight on the same airway for advice. They told him it should get better and twenty minutes later he was back in fine weather conditions. Ike laid over in Singapore one day before heading for Australia.
On this last major leg he was again forced down due to weather
over southwestern Indonesia. Flying out of Jakarta across the
eastern Indian Ocean was difficult due to scattered cumulus and
rain but 1 hour out to sea the skies cleared. His last over-water
leg into Port Hedland Australia was otherwise uneventful. |
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