Waking up to clear blue sky for the next leg of our flight

The morning brought clear skies again and we all assembled in the lobby of the hotel around 7am to meet up with the coach and our guide again for the trip back to Nevsehir Airport. It took around 45 minutes to drive back, passing some of the places we had been on the previous day. The weather looked good, with clear skies and the thermometer was already rising.

Erzurum was going to be a fuel stop on the way to Armenia. The flight time was only a couple of hours or so, then from Erzurum to Yerevan, Armenia another hour or so. We had to use Erzurum as a fuel stop due to there being no AvGas fuel in Yerevan. Hans had arranged from a tanker to come from Ankara with 3000 litres on board to top off the tanks of all the aircraft. The previous day, during the flight briefing, we had all been given our fuel allocation for the sector, and there were a couple of aircraft that would have been short. We needed a couple of hundred litres more fuel in the tanker. After a series of phone calls, Tufan, who is Turkish, managed to secure additional fuel in the tanker, so we could all top off our tanks to the max.

We arrived at the airport and after the usual removing of anything metal from our persons, dumped our luggage and belongings onto the conveyor belt to disappear inside an Xray machine and we all ligned up to pass through the metal detector arch. Apart from the odd coin left in a pocket we all passed through without any problems and headed out across the apron to our aircraft.

We had to wait until 8:30 local until the tower opened before we could depart, so as any group of pilots do when together, they wander about like a heard of cats drifting from plane to plane (If you want a group of pilots to do anything, it is a bit like trying to round up a group of cats single handedly…. unless you say “EXPEDITE” loudly, then we tend to take notice!)

A couple of other ground delays later and we were ready to depart. The first aircraft to depart was Bill Hall in G-BIRT. As he was cleared to line up on the runway Sergey & Pavel were cleared to taxi to the hold for 08. Peter and Rodney had started up and were waiting for clearance to taxi as Bill was given clearance to depart. Sergie & Pavel were then cleared to line up and hold…… and hold……. and hold…. eventually after about 10 minutes they were give clearance to take off. What was happening, although we didn’t know at the time was the tower was waiting for the first aircraft to report being ten miles from the airfield then handing them over to ATC before clearing the next aircraft to take off. Rather than sit there burning fuel, we decided not to start up till the last aircraft had been given clearance to backtrack and line up, so it was about 10:00 before we started up. It was my sector to fly and Feroz to handle the radio and navigation. We taxied up to the hold and I went through the pre departure checks and after a couple of minutes we saw Will and Mike in G-ZLOJ speeding down the runway and lift off just where we were holding. That gave us a good marker as where we should be lifting off as G-ZLOJ is a Bonanza the same as us with a slightly smaller engine. Backtracking and turning to line up in the starter extension for the runway, we now had to hold until Will & Mike were 10 miles away.

Climbing to FL120 after departing Nevsehir Airport, Cappadocia

After about 5 minutes we were given clearance to take of and bearing in mind the airfield altitude of 3000 feet and the tempreture, we checked that we were getting full power indications and I kept an eye on the airspeed indicator, watching it progressivly increase, holding off rotation a little longer than normal waiting for an extra 5 knots, 722P came of the ground cleanly and we both guessed a little before where Will and Mike rotated. Trimming for a gentle climb we followed the line of the vally and eventually turned onto our first waypoint “MARTI” on an airway and were handed over to ATC.

The flight to Erzurum was straightforward, with only a little cloud dodging to be done during the climb. The stormscope showed very little activity, although we did have some turbulence, but this was down to mainly thermals from the hills and the wind across the hills. Climbing to FL120 put us on top of the turbulence and gave us spectacular views of the hills and mountains of central and eastern Turkey.

Keeping an eye on the terrain on the MX display.

After about two hours we were within 25 miles of “ERZ” and were given clearance to start our decent. We did not have far to go down, as Erzurum is situated in a big open valley with the runway being at 5800 feet altitude. Although we became visual at 15 miles out, we had already set up for an ILS approach… and we were cleared for an ILS approach to 08 Left.

As we were the last aircraft to arrive, we could see the others all lined up in front of the terminal building and the refueling truck already filling the second aircraft, so we thought that this would be a fairly quick turnaround.

Unfortunately, it was not going to be  quick turnaround. The fuel tanker could only deliver fuel at a very

Erzrurum terminal with all the aircraft lined up

slow rate, I’m not sure if there was a problem with the tanker, but over an hour later, there were still five aircraft to fill. As this was a “Technical Stop”.. ie for fuel only, we couldn’t go into the terminal building for anything to eat or water, we could use the airside toilets that the baggage handlers used though. I followed Helmut into the VIP building and used their facilities… mainly because the were air conditioned!

Eventually the tanker was due to fill Will and Mike, who had received the same fuel allocation as us, 240 litres. I think Will managed to squeeze in almost their 240 litres, so we were fingers crossed that there was enough fuel on the tanker for us after all the others had topped off. Joop and Jaap in the PA46 (N22CU) had taken on an additional 50 litres and Alf in the PA60 had also taken on additional fuel. We need not have worried, there was plenty of fuel. I filled the right main and tip tanks with Feroz keeping an eye on the fuel delivery gauge, then moved round to the right and topped off the right main then tip. We had already decided if

Refueling was a long long long process

there was any fuel left that we would take on an additional hours worth of fuel in the reserve tank inside the aircraft. Back in the UK we had already done the weight and balance calculations for just this eventuality and knew that we could carry additional fuel without exceeding our load or centre of gravity limitations.

As we finished fueling, Bob & Bob in the C182 (N182VE) started up and taxied out to the hold. It was Feroz’s leg to fly and we did our checks and started up, Will & Mike had were already running and as the radios powered up we herd Bob’s American accent come over the radio as he requested departure. He was cleared to backtrack for 08 left. I had asked tower for taxi and was told to hold. We then herd the tower tell Bob there was a problem with his flight plan and return to the apron… this could be a long wait, we guessed that we had exceeded the flight plan delay time and we expected that we would also have this problem. Feroz decided to shut down so as not to burn fuel and overheat the engine. I grabbed my hand held tranciever to follow the ensuing “conversation” between Bob and the tower…. I opened the door to let some air into the aircraft and hear the tower say “N722P Taxi to the old for 08 left” I have never seen Feroz move so fast! he started up and we were rolling to the hold as I was putting my shoulder harnes straps back on!

I heard either Mike or Will on the radio asking for taxi as they had been given startup clearance before us! As we taxied out, the tower instructed Will & Mike in OJ to follow us. We bactracked 08 left and part way down were asked to cross to 08 right, Will and Mike continued to backtrack 08 left. The tower asked us to report when we were ready for departure, so I replied “722P will be ready on reaching”. Feroz turned and ligned up on 08 right about the same time as Will and Mike were doing so on 08 left.

“N722P CLeared takeoff”….. power up to 2000 rpm, release breaks and feed in the power gently, we were rolling along 12500 feet of concrete. At that altitude, takeoff performance is reduced so Feroz let the aircraft accelerate and lift in it own time, we were in a gentle climb passing 200 feet as we hear over the radio ” Oscar Juliet there is a problem with your flight plan, return to the apron”

I will leave you with some of the views of the flight into Erzurum…

As usual, resume own navigation and watch for traffic

S