Second of August, the race to Oshkosh is over, even by airline.

Russia is another world. The more towards the north, more difficult is the situation. Airports are sparse, and they just don’t have anything. They even close on weekends, so flying under those conditions is really hard.

This morning we managed to take off from Okhotsk, much later than scheduled. Everything is slow, and I have to be happy to have a good weather. This airport has two parallel runways, a soft one (gravel) and a metallic one. I decided to land and take off from the soft one as the metallic is made of planks fixed each other to one another, with a result, even good for large aircraft, really painful for my tailwheel.

The sky was not clear, it was like hazy, so visibility wasn’t good. We climbed to 7000 ft, and cruised at 80 kts GS. About one hour later, visibility improved and again I was looking at what I really wanted: huge unpopulated areas. No cables, no roads, no homes, just wild forests, lakes and rivers.

It is the salmon time, and this zone is loved for the different types of salmon going back to their birth places just to give life and die. It is really fascinating the way instinct plays. This flight for me is a kind of that, instinct mixed with dreams.

Communication between Alex and me is much better, and pushes become softer…!

I enjoy the moments he has an emergency. As he has his bag and fuel tank over him, he cannot move, so I have to take everything and get the "bottle" ( the time I do everything is not short, and you know what somebody feels when he is about to do it, but not yet..)

The bottle wasn’t there, so I had to try to find the second one as Alex became more stressed. Finally, a big grin indicated that the operation was over.

Yesterday dinner was nice. The crew of the Nikolaevsk Airlines Yak 41, was really kindful and hosted us with everything. They fly for nothing…, that means, since one year, they don’t have got a pay. This way , they keep their license. Really hard times for Russia.

At the airports or cities, people are not happy. The sensation is that a general sadness is in the air. Many cities even don’t have fuel ( as one of my next stops…). Everything is deteriorating!

After a short 3 hours flight, we were in short final at Magadan runway 11. The place is beautiful, with plenty of mountains around. Just a strong headwind at landing time made the approach less enjoyable.

Soon we were parked, we were attacked by a crazy customs lady.

She wanted documents, papers, everything. It was like she was trying to find an excuse to fine me.

Finally, I gave her a coffee candy, trying to sweeten her a little bit. I failed !, she took the candy and instead of relax and enjoy, she put it in a pocket. What a pity for me….I have lost one candy!

Next came somebody from immigration or alike. He asked me what I love: a GD ( General Declaration).

I think that even if he doesn’t speak English, he understood my answer. Alexander was afraid of my reaction, but it worked fine. A few minutes later everybody disappeared.

Now came the bad news: Events and Chaibuja were closed due to weekend- we have to stay at Magadan all the day….and another day lost!

After any of those airports ( tomorrow first destination), comes Markovo. Chaibuja doesn’t have fuel (city and airport), Events ( we don’t know yet) . Markovo closes the airport early, so if they don’t wait for us, we will lose another day (not forgetting the fuel problem).

Next point is Anadyr, from where I plan to fly to Nome. Problem is that Anadyr has Immigration but not customs, and may be I am forced to wait another day or to fly to Providenya ( difficult airport where a 10km visibility is required for take off).

Other problem is the power of controllers: they are the ones that clear the flight. If he doesn’t like the conditions or whatever, as pilot, you cannot decide. For instance: you already know that the weather conditions are good at the destination . Until they don’t get the weather report of the concerned airport the same day, they don’t allow to take off. Now that there is almost no night, I cannot take off , let us say, at 6am, because next airport don’t open till 09 am, and his weather report doesn’t arrive before 0930 local.

Also they close early, so the chances to flight a lot one day are quite impossible due to the above conditions. A two legs flight is almost impossible.

Results:

I don’t know when I will get into the USA. If weather is bad (now clouds means icing…!) I will just have to be patient and try not to become angry.

My wife and kids have just departed Spain to Oshkosh to wait for me and greet me. I hope that their trip is worth and we can meet each other.

Any way, the flight in administrative difficult ( and expensive) zones is about to be over. I hope to get to Nome with my dear KF, and after Oshkosh, fly it from Nome, to Oshkosh and Chicago or New York.