ChrisandCin

In continueing the adventure here is what its like in the 2nd class A/C cabin of the train…

You are assigned a seat/bunk. In the 2nd class section there are 4 people to a cabin, on a hard as rock seat, or you pull down the seat back and you have a hard as rock bed!

Each bunk comes with a set of sheets… look over them before you use them, one in our group got a sheet that was covered in driedblood!

Like old hospitals sheets

The end result...

The carriages are very dirty too, and the 2 trains we traveled on where also full of cockroaches…lots of them!

The trains themselves are actually quite small , and smelly. People are smoking, people are just smelly, but you get to enjoyall the smells. My suggestion is to wear a strong perfume!

Looking down thru the carriage

Airconditioning, I think its full of bacteria but its better than nothing

Smelly

Inside the cabin

Yes that window is that color due to dirt

The inspector, checks your ID and seat (there is one per carriage!)

Always strange to leave one country and climate in the morning and be having dinner in a totally foreign place… I love it, should happen at least once a week I think!

Anyway after a quick Mcdonalds meal we hit the sack and awake at the Crowne Plaza Osaka to see this view from the hotel room…

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Pretty cool hotel, right in the city center and close by everything. The river out front is interesting and as soon as I can get dressed I am off exploring the city alone…

Here is a river boat flying the river and some cool old houses that time has forgotten and also built a huge highway on top of !

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Out back of the hotel is a rabbit warren of streets full of restaurants and little bars, mostly closed though as its early and Monday morning.

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The city itself is a underground maze, there is some of it at street level, and but most of the city appears to be below ground. Which is good as its about 5 C and raining this day.

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But we are here for not long, less than 24hrs, and the fun of exploring the city must end as we have a 7pm departure to Nagasaki, which is going to be fun as a cold front is passing the whole of Japan.

This is our plane sitting on the cold wet ramp at Kansai airport.

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The flight to Nagasaki runs smooth, but my gosh it was bumpy, continuous moderate turbulence for the whole hour flight down to Nagasaki. Its a welcome relief to descent out of the clouds and arrive on the approach into Nagasaki just as the front passes and we find ourselves in relatively clear air.

Now its time for the 45 min, $200 cab ride into the city…ahhh the day is over. Lets find a place for dinner!

Its a nice clear day and the forecast is perfect for flying, just some clear air turbulence over Shanghai and a forecast for a tailwind that will start at 50 kt and end at 160kt!

Our trip out of India and over Bangladesh goes smoothly , or as smooth as it can. Of course as expected we get stuck down low over Bangladesh, today its the normal FL290 .  Thankfully there is a tailwind as this FL290 is to be until we reach Chinese airspace 1.5 hrs later!! Our jet doesnt like to fly at FL290, it burns a huge amount of fuel at this level, so its time to fly at max endurance speed to make it work.

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This is the reason we are stuck at FL290 is we have timed our departure to be perfectly stuck under a Qatar and a Emirates airliners bother sitting 2000ft apart at the exact same speed and suprisingly going to Osaka also (although they can go direct whereas we will have to stop for fuel).

Flying in China is normal, the controllers are easy to understand and have really good radios and radar everywhere, it is strange of course as they do speak Chinese to Chinese aircraft, and they do fly in meters not feet so we constantly have to refer to a table to convert the meters to feet as they plane can only fly in feet.

Our first stop is Wuhan China for fuel, its quick and simple, with just 20 minutes from wheels on ground to wheels up!  Its cold, real cold though and wet, here is the plane while we wait for the refuelling to end…..

But onwards and upwards and soon we are at FL410 with 167kts of tailwind pushing us to Japan…..

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From the front of a plane as the sun sets you see night come, and this is what it looks like….

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But we land at Kansai airport with no drama, its normal its simple and best of all flying in Japan is like being in the USA and they use inches on the altimeter.

Then its off on the airport limousine bus to hitch a ride into downtown Osaka for our night and 24hrs in the city. The bus is 1 hr and costs 2700 yen for a return ticket per person.

We had a nice break from India this month, a 2 week trip from Kolkata to Osaka (via Wuhan), then to Nagasaki, then to Tokyo, then to Shanghai and home via Wuhan and Kunming.

Here is what it looked like on a map…

Like all trips it starts with a lot of flight planning and deciding where to stop for fuel. See our plane can only fly for 3.5hrs and have enough fuel to hold for 30 minutes and divert to a alternate airport 100nm away. This creates challenges in China as there are not a lot of airports in China which is suprising!

So to help us with all this we need handlers to get the ground part organized and also to get us the overflight permits.

For a trip like this we need overflight permits for the following countries:

1. India YA exit and entry permit (yep need permission to leave your own country!)
2. Bangladesh overflight
3. Myanmar overflight
4. China overflight and landing
5. South Korea overflight
6. Japan landing permissions. (no overflight or entry permission needed suprisingly)

These are easy to get as we have a handler in each country who can help us out. In China we always use JSC, or Jet Service China Success www.jscchina.com and in Japan we use Aeroworks Intl… http://aeroworks.jp .

China thankfully has become less restrictive in the last couple of months, and now it takes just 3 days notice to get permits to overfly and land. For a country like China they are also very helpful at allowing planes to tech stop for fuel.

Lets start with the boring part, the planning…..

Its actually quite hard to plan an international flight, there are rules to be read, research of visas and airway routes to be done, then you have to ask around to other pilots to make sure there is no tricks in the foreign airspace and going into and out of these countries.

Here is the plan for the trip over a 12 day period:

1. Kolkata to Bali (fuel stop in WMSA, Kuala Lumpur) – 6.5hrs
2. Bali to Singapore (WSSL, Seletar airport) – 2.3 hrs
3. Singapore to Seoul (fuel stop at RPLL, Manila) – 7 hrs
4. Seoul to Singapore (fuel stop RPLL again) – 6.5 hrs
5. Singapore to Kolkata (fuel stop in VTBS, Bangkok ) – 4.3hrs

This one is going to a challenge as the Manila to Seoul leg puts the plane right at the limit of its endurance. See a Learjet 40XR is advertised at 1716nm with reserves to get you to a alternate at 100nm away… great sales point but not a practical reality, as this means when you roll off that runway at the alternate 100nm away the engines will stop as there is NO fuel left in the tanks! Salespeople always tout the fuel range of a jet in the sales pitch, but in reality its never a real world number. For the Learjet 40xr you are really limited to 1475nm if all goes as planned, and then you are still landing with a scary fuel figure in my mind….more on this later.

So I do all the planning for the trip, in this case it means organizing 2 separate overflight permits from:

1. Myanmar
2. Thailand
3. Malaysia
4. Indonesia
5. The Philippines
6. Taiwan
7. South Korea

Plus landing permits for :

1. Malaysia
2. Indonesia
3. The Philippines
4. South Korea
5. Thailand

Of course in addition we need the Indian permission to leave and re-enter the country, its called a YA number, which required the same information as a overflight permit.

Some countries don’t need a overflight and landing permit, they are Singapore, and Japan.

To get a overflight permit is pretty straight forward actually, and I don’t really know why companies pay handlers to do it and get charged about $15000 extra for a trip like this. So to get these I use the international AC-U-KWIK guide, it lists the handlers for each country, these handlers can also get you a overflight permit. Of course apply myself to the country aviation body via email, AFTN or fax, but like always we are only given less than a weeks notice for the flight, so a handler helps a lot in these cases. Most can get the permit in the same day!

To apply for a permit you give them the aircraft documents, the flight plan, timings, and route through their airspace with pax details, its that simple! Well not really as you have to get all the routes and timings, that will hurt your brain, and you can make mistakes!

Overflight permits generally last a minimum of 24 hrs, some last 72 hours, so if you are a little early on your times you are good, but putting a later time is a problem as you wont be able to use that clearance.

I also have to book the hotels, so use Tripadvisor.com to find a suitable hotel. Of course we are booking late, this is a problem as its the Australian holiday period as well as the Muslim holidays, so hotels are booked solid nearly everywhere!

Here are the names of the great agents we used for this trip:

Myanmar

Ohn Myint
Managing Director
Wah Wah Company Limited
No.11A-2, Maylikah Road, Ward – 7,
Mayangone 11061, Yangon, Myanmar
Mobile : 95-9-5006344 (24/7)
Tel : 95-1-664004   Fax : 95-1-663471
Email : wwskysupport@myanmar.com.mm
wwskysupport@gmail.com

Myanmar is a problem child as there is no way to send money to them easy at all, and you need someone on the ground to get the clearance for you. Normally we do the overflight permit through a 3rd person, this ends up costing $150 + per trip, but this time I found Mr Ohn who could get the overflight clearance for us without the need for the middle man, he is quick and efficient. Great service.

Thailand

Royal Airport Services Co.,Ltd.

We went to the new airport, VTBS on their advice, and it was surprisingly efficient, there is great flow control into the airport and we were on the ground and out of their in no time. These guys were again exteremely efficient, and ready to help. The only thing I wish I knew about was the fact you needed to pay for fuel in Baht, not USD and this delayed things a little as someone had to go and convert the money… but it wasnt a big delay. But they can get you a overflight permit too in hours..impressive!

Malaysia

SKYPARK FBO MALAYSIA

These guys have I think the best western style FBO in Asia. Its at the old KL airport, Subang WMSA, which is a great place to take your corporate jet. Its within spitting distance of the city center, and they have great services. When you land they will be waiting with a GPU ready to connect and a fuel truck on standby, even though you are a international transit your passengers can go in to the lounge have free coffee and snacks and stretch their legs, they also can get you overflight and landing permissions really really quickly and they have the most cheapest prices in Asian for this service.

Indonesia

IndoAsia – : indoasia@cbn.net.id

Amazing service, 24/7 from this handler, within 2-3 days they can get your a Indonesian overflight and landing permit, and they can handle everything on the ground simply and cheaply (ie $20 for crew transport to hotel in Bali !!). If you ever have to visit Indonesia these guys will be your lifeline, we have used them a couple of times now and they impress us each time.
Singapore

Jet Aviation – WSSL Seletar airport

Extremely efficient, and helpful people. I was impressed when the line guys waited beside the plane for 45 min whilst we were hit with a huge thunderstorm that delayed one of our departures.

The Philippines

A. Soriano Air Corporation

A tech stop in Manila RPLL was needed and after getting prices from all the handler there (they all were the same) I used Soriano based on a recommendation from the website www.propilotworld.com from a fellow aviator. And yes these guys were good,  we had a little issue with the fuel truck whereby it pumped our fuel at 20psi into the plane and totally screwed up the fuel distribution, needing a engine run for 15 min to move the fuel around which was a pain… but this was out of their control. The catering they got us was the best food I have even had in my whole career, I would go their again just for the catering!

Taiwan

Asian Business Aviation Services
Mobile: +886-910-828-573
Tel: +886-3-301-8631
Fax: +886-945-671027
E-mail: Ops@abas888.com

Found these guy in the guide book as we have never overflown Taiwan before, but within 1 day we had our overflight permits in hand. Really easy to deal with.

South Korea

YUN WORLD TRADE NETWORK, INC. (YWTN)

TEL 82-32-743-4395/4396

FAX 82-32-743-5498

SITA/ARINC SELAVCR

E-mail : ywtn@chollian.net

On advise we landed at the old airport here, RKSS, Gimpo Intl, which is much better  as its a 15km drive to downtown versus 50 km from the new Incheon airport!

On the ground we had a nice experience, all very very efficient , as you ask it all appears within minutes. One thing that did get us by suprise was the cost of ice, 5kg of ice cubes cost $160 !! I was told thats because there is no caterer at this airport, and that all catering has to be brought over from the new airport 50km away… weird as this was a busy airport with lots of big jets flying.

Been flying and travelling a lot lately so here is a update on one of my trips!

We had a owner flight planned to go initially to Shanghai and Beijing, but unfortunately Beijing was dropped from the plan, so it was Kolkata – Hanoi (fuel stop) – Shanghai and opposite for return.

Flight times are Kolkata to Hanoi 2hr, Hanoi to Shanghai 3hrs, return posed some challenges for the aircraft and its endurance as the headwinds would top out at 167 kts!  Plan return was Shanghai to Hanoi 3hr20min (turned out to be 3hr 47min) and Hanoi to Kolkata is 2hr 30min.

Here is the map of the trip:

Of course you can see this isnt the most direct route, and it means we fly through the airspace of 5 countries as opposed to 3 countries on the most direct route. But on looking the cost of a fuel stop in Kunming on the direct route was huge, the handlers cost $2000+ , the fees are high and the cost of jet fuel there is high, so looking elsewhere we found that stopping in Hanoi as the cheapest option, even though it is off track and adds 40 minutes to the total trip time.

To get through all these countries airspace you need overflight clearances. Now most countries you can get these yourself as the numbers are listed in the books and also on websites, but we chose to keep it simple and use the services of our handlers, they are:

Bangladesh overflight (and if ever you have to land here use these guys although its expensive to go to Bangladesh due to fees imposed to keep people from flying private aircraft to here) :

ZUNAYED ISLAM

MANAGER

AVIATION SUPPORT LTD
OFF – +8802-8815575 / 8817741
FAX – +8802-8817558
GSM – +880-1678010328

email; zunayed.asl@gmail.com

Vietnam (handles overflights also for Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand)

T&T Aviation Department

(T&T Company Ltd)

Tel:     +84.8.39256 331        Ext: 405

Fax:    +84.8.39256 332

24hrs: +84.938 170 812

SITA:  SGNTTUV       AFTN: VVTSYUYX

Email: thanh.lh@tnt-vietnam.com

Website:   www.tnt-vietnam.com

And China, we found these guys to be the best priced…

Jet Service China Success (JSC)

Operations                            ZBAA Ground Handling          ZSPD Ground Handling

Tel:  +8620 3618 0046            Tel/Fax: +8610 8448 6728       Tel/Fax: +8621 6610 8819

Fax: +8620 3618 0067             MB:+86 1350 1135 899          MB: +86 1381 7591 451

24 HR: +86 139 2213 9599       beijing@jscchina.com shanghai@jscchina.com

SITA：HKGJSXH

ops@jscchina.com

www.jscchina.com

Now overflight clearances are easy to get, just hand over a wad of information about your aircraft and operation and within 3 days they will be issued. China overflight and landing is another story!

China needs you to be sponsored by a local company to take a private plane their, they also are quite restrictive about routes and altitudes, and of course the routes given are never what you want or need!  China took just 1 day to get the permit but they advertise you should have the application in 7 days prior to flight.

The flight;

Leg 1 Kolkata to Hanoi

Lucky this isnt a fuel critical leg as we are kept typically low as we transit Bangladesh airspace. Bangladesh is the only country in the region without radar still, its also hard as on both sides its surrounded by India, and generally the phones lines between the atc centers are out of service so you must do the co-ordinating via radio to get higher altitudes and conflicting traffic, as Kolkata has the radar which subsequently shows all of Bangladesh on it! So as you fly across Bangladesk expect to be talking to Bangladesh ATC as well as Kolkata ATC…all at once.

Its also busy, as 6 minutes after take off you are entering another countries airspace. But funnily enough as soon as you leave India the radio communications get more standard, the quality of the controllers are better, the radio reception is better and the range is perfect so you can talk to atc at any point, unlike India!

Once you leave Bangladesh behind we go into Myanmar airspace and talk to Yangon. These guys are good, they will facilitate your climb by giving radar vectors and get you  above the airline traffic and on your way.  After Yangon we go into Vientiane, which is Laos. I should look up one day why its called Vientiane not Laos!.  Here we are on the moving map over Laos

Descent and landing into Hanoi is uneventful, there are no clouds today, but a lot of haze and smoke, it seems the whole of Myanmar is on fire.

As we descend into the smoke and haze layer…

Here is Hanoi International airport;

Old russian planes lieing idle

The terminal at Hanoi

The yellow follw me car taking us to our spot

The stop in Hanoi is super efficient, they take me and passengers into the terminal by bus , while ranvir stays at the jet and gets the onwards clearance and setups the plane for departure whilst its refuelled. I go in and file the flight plan and go pee pee, while the passengers stretch their legs. 25 minutes engine stop to engine start is all it took, amazing!

Leg 2 Hanoi to Shanghai (Pudong airport)

Within 25 minutes of take off from Hanoi we are entering China’s airspace. Again we are kept low as there is a set altitude for crossing the border, I think it was 27 000ft , now of course 27 000ft sounds high but for a Learjet its not a happy place as to go fast here would chew through the fuel, so we slow ….

The next big drama is the conversion of feet to meters, and for 10300 m they say 10 thousand 3 hundred meters when they give you a level… so we have this chart help us out as like most all the planes in the world, we are calibrated in feet not meters so a conversion table is a must.

Conversion chart feet to meters

As we go further into China some storms appear near Nanchang, but thats ok we will miss them.

For some reason unknown to me in China they don’t like you flying directly along the airways, instead they make you fly 3 nm offset to the right, so you fly parallel to the airway. Strange! Lucky the planes computer can do this for us, otherwise it would make for a long day!

About half way into the trip we are given the final climb to altitude!

Then is starts into Shanghai…its annoying though as the route we have to fly takes us north of Shanghai and then we turn back to the south… what a waste of fuel!

I am sitting there with my new stick on by static electricity sun shades that I bought in Walmart the week before and realize the irony, they have made in china on them!

We descent into the bumpy air and clouds of Shanghai, unfortunately it got too busy and dark to take any more pics…

Shanghai airport is big , we thought it was going to be hard to find our way around, but no it wasnt…

Pudong airport

We easily found parking spot number 509!

We land and our ever efficient handlers, take our passport, the passengers and their luggage and get them out and on their way, we then get our passports returned to us, and after cleaning up the plane and putting it to bed for the 3 day rest it will have we we are taken out of the airport, no customs no immigration nothing, its all predone and cleared and we have a stamp in our passport.

Just now its a 1 hr drive into the city to our hotel!

Here is the hotel and view from my rooom I see when we arrive….

More on this adventure shortly….