What a beautiful day. I have enjoyed it quite a lot.

Beginning was hard, and after a first look outside the window, I was disappointed: I was standing just in the middle of thick fog. Fortunately, when being driven to the airport that was at a lower elevation, visibility for take off was good. Then came the next big problem: Ayan is an airport that is used to be closed due to weather. Every 4 or 5 days there was the chance to land there, and….today, it was one of those days. We might had proceeded to Ojotsk direct, but Russians don’t allow water overflight …how would I cross Bering straight …?

Once the airport taxes , fuel and navigation were paid, we were able to take off. The fuel was Russian avgas, and I was not very confident on it (also it is not unleaded). Final result was good, very good (much better than the Chinese unleaded 93 mogas). Engine did run smoothly and we had no heart attack.

Alexander is the perfect guy for me. Quite helpful and practical. He knows the job and knowing something means to be able to do or not to do that thing… I just can tell you that in the middle of the flight…..we shake our hands!

The country is really beautiful. Finally I got to see what I wanted to see: several hundred kilometers in a rich land, uninhabited. Everything as it was in the beginning, unspoiled. Again I was flying looking through the side window the land passing by…I was happy!

Just a few "pushes " from Alex made me actuate as a robot, pushing the PTT switch. Just a few because radio contact was soon lost. Some comments in a written paper and almost the answers in the same one.

What is the minimum speed of the aircraft? he wrote me.

With a large grin, at looked at him, and with the hand, I made him a signal to wait and see…

I pulled the stick back, making the KF to climb in a 45 degrees position. I throttled back the engine and looked at him. He was not well!

Aircraft full stalled soon, and, at that nice moment, I showed him the speed indicator!

I am trying to show Alexander what sport aviation is, the joy of flying just for fun and doing ( more or less) what you want. We flew close to the mountains, opened the doors for a better view, , turned around and interesting view, sideslip the KF, and so do on.

Later came an emergency… he didn’t want to use the bottle I had, so we used a Russian mineral water, converted in a funnel as fuel…! A few minutes later, he was another man.

Ayan came in view, what a wonderful view. It is a very small city, with the runway heading the sea, and several trees around, in hill to mountainous area. Visual approaches are prohibited here, so we followed a special pattern for the approach. The prevailing wind was normal to the runway and some windshear was expected. So I had decided that if windshear is strong, I would fly to Ojotsk. Another cue was the fact that the GTFlyer, had an accident in the same place. Landing was nice (after circumventing some mountains) , into a gravel rwy.

We did refuel fast, and had a tea together. After paying the $ 150 fee, we were cleared to go.

Take off was also interesting. In a short gravel rwy, that extend in a beach and people in it, I used full length, ¼ flaps setting, static take off and a roll to t/o . Everything went right and after a quick acceleration, we climbed to our low cruise altitude onwards Ojotsk.

Again a three hours pleasant flight, with many written comments and an approach direct UHOO, closed this day flying.

Ojotsk is also a very nice place; has two runways, a soft one and a metallic one!

I did select the soft one. The metallic one is OK for large airplanes, not a KF (at least mine with a small tailwheel). After landing on the soft and taxiing on the metal one, I was happy on my decision.

I enjoyed a good dinner (at a kind of resting place for crewmembers), and now ready to be dismissed!