What a bad day!

I feel almost free when flying. I try to take care of everything flight related, but I cannot overcome the silly political and administrative problems. It is interesting to realize that also most of the mentioned problem don’t exist if you pay for it….

Early get up, and arriving at the airport at 0530 am. When I tried to enter the passport control, I was rejected, even if the day before, the same police told me to keep the General Declaration they issued me, for that purpose. Dubai airport has two ground handling enterprises: Executive and Dnata. It is a kind of Mafia, together with airport staff.

Executive was the one that wanted me to pay them $100 if I wanted to leave the airport. Now, Dnata wants the same. I have been told that the airports charges are around $15. To pay them, check the weather and fill the flight plan, I have to enter the inside of the airport. For that, I need a " departing" G.D. Well, or I pay the $100 fee both handling request, or there is no way to get that paper. Immigration, Airport public relations, Air Civil authorities (Director of OPS Mr. Mohammed Abdullah), every one diverted their responsibility to the mentioned ground handling Mafia. Four hours were spent there, (I even tried to get to the ramp by myself), but I wasn’t able to get to my airplane.

It is my aircraft. I have complied with all the regulations (international and UAE), and I am not allowed to come back to it if I don’t pay a fee to somebody that it is not part of the system (oh, sorry, it is!)

I finally had to pay the nice bill, just for that paper… but the day is lost. I needed almost all the daylight duration to get to Karachi, and those expended hours make it impossible.

Weather prediction is also fair, with big thunderstorms in the Pakistan area. Tomorrow it should be better, but just slightly. I will try to take off at 0600 am and I hope getting the permissions. Pakistan never answered the many overflight requests that have been sent. Another problem is that I cross also the Iran FIR, and also need to contact the Pakistan and Iran ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone). I don’t know how everything is going to end up, just let you know that if some reports are missing some days, be patient, I do my best.

It is really hard to be alone and do everything here. I can really tell that my rest is when I fly. Also I have to tell that I haven’t been able to see the web page since I departed. I know there are some questions and I am sorry not answering them. Maybe I can do that when away from these special countries. Finally, I am not communicating via HF, at least till now. Frequencies I have are: 14375, 21475 and 6875