Here I am , at Dubai (Dubayy), after a very tiring flight. Nothing special, just heat, and more heat. My full body was loosing water and I had the feeling that a cloud was developing behind my dear KF. It took me four hours to find the way of getting trough immigration, as my aircraft is not an airliner, and Skystar hasn’t provided me with General Declarations sheets. After the great communication this morning that the fees I have to pay at Riyadh were only $500, special friend price, when I arrived at Dubai, as soon the next Ground Handling pirate approached me, I told him that I didn’t want their " services".

They arrive at the airplane, like airport administrator or something similar. A hot welcome, a drink, kindly offering everything, handling the immigration, helping everywhere, in other words, preparing a nice bill!

This time, I parked the aircraft asking the tower; I also requested from them to call the refueling truck. The handling guy was angry…. But was calm: he would kick me later (at least, try).

To go through customs, it is requested to present a general declaration. This document is nothing, but requested. So, when I did refuel the aircraft, the happy team that suffered the game at 100F, were kindly enough to drive me to the terminal. There, I was locked in, no way to exit…and my dear pirate came with a nice smile, offering me the sacred document and making me understand that this document was considered ground handling and I had to pay the small $100 fee.

So, after a long story, I managed to overcome this and was able to exit. What I felt was good, really good. Tomorrow, I will see!

Riyadh take off was at 0558 local. B52 roll, and anemic climb. Soon the controller realized that I was about to collapse all the traffic, he was kind and gave me the vector to make me disappear as soon as possible.

Riyadh is located at 2000 ft, but low pressure and high temperature converted the airport elevation to a mere 4500 ft density altitude.

Climb was better with the new prop setting ( 5300 static), but cruise still suffers too much (70 mph at 5200 rpm). I have to keep this setting until I get to higher latitudes, where I hope to find nicer temperatures.

The desert showed me a new image: sand bars perpendicular to my track, golden painted by the sunrise .

From time to time, a white large tent showed far away from anywhere, some dirt tracks signaling them.

A car was racing across one of those tracks: a large funnel of dust was elevating behind it and running away by the low level winds. Who is it ? Where is he going ? How does it navigate? A lot of questions were raised and then disappeared with the car.

One hour later, first thermals started playing around, but fortunately, were tired soon. Cabin temperature was signaling 112F and oil temperature indication went inoperative. Speed was incredible: just 65 KT…!

Now, a strange sensation: there were like sun rays coming from the sand, beautiful! Wind was lifting some sand and producing that effect (but the same wind was killing my speed and that one, I didn’t like it).

As I was cleared to fly at 5500 ft, I lost soon radio contact with controllers, and was never relayed by airliners (….maybe not an habit here!). I kept tracking everything alive along my path, just in the case my aircraft wanted to land there. This zone was a huge landing place, and with my king size wheels, It should be easy. Survival after might be another history, and that was the main reason of keeping my eyes working.

Approaching Dhahran, very few trees appeared, and from there desert changed again. After passing that city, I entered the other big one blue beast: the sea. There the ride was smooth, but not cooler.

Horizon disappeared and I had to be confident in my attitude indicator. Sometimes I got a little bit of spatial disorientation, but soon remembered that we have to trust what our eyes see, not what our body says. What a nice idea was installing it.

Now my eyes were looking for ships. Should I have a problem, I would fire the aircraft recovery chute system at a safe altitude, to be sure of entering the sea in a flat position that might help me to evacuate the craft and use the emergency inflatable boat I am carrying.

Temperature was rising now topping the 114F (47 C) and I wasn’t feeling comfortable. Engine was not always running smooth, and I think the reason was the mogas fuel I loaded. They only use a leaded fuel at Riyadh. From times to times I made the engine going from cruise to idle and then to cruise, three or four times, to quit the plugs from fooling. I think the system worked, as after that, it was again smooth.

"ECYOY, Bahrain control, ….are you a helicopter?" (what a question for a speeding KF!)

"Negative Bahrain, I am light aircraft. EC YOY"

"YOY, confirm fixed wing?"

"Right now, yes sir!"

A warship was heading the same routing and navigating fast. However I got to overcome the frigate and when I was approaching her, she cut the engine down, turned right 90 degrees and presented me all of her guns on the left side. I knew I was being tracked by the shooting radar, as it is a common procedure I saw when flying P3 Orions. May be it was a coincidence, but I stared at her and checked if anything was leaving her deck!

Of course, I blind transmitted my position and altitude to the UEA (Union Emirates Arabs) control, just everybody knows I am a civilian aircraft following an airway (even if the cargo pod looks more aggressive) (Michel's cargo pod looks like a bomb).

Now I was 100 NM from Dubai and 118F temp. Ground speed was 63 KT, so I asked permission to descend at 3500 ft where weather report expected a better wind. When granted, I went down just found a 2 or 3 KT better component, but heat was unbearable, so I came back again to 5500.

Dubai city looks nice, the most modern and European one since I entered the Middle East. Runway in use 30. Temp 37, Wind 320 / 18 , QNH 991mb. .

Cleared for a right base, I landed after a B727, and was taken by the follow me car.