It was a beautiful morning to fly. At the airport we had to go through two full security screenings again. I say "again" because we had to do this at Mersa Matrouh and Cairo as well. One screening is done by the airport authority and the other by the military. I don't know why, but that's the way it is. In most cases, the screenings are no more than 50 feet apart from each other. To most of us, it seemed like a bureaucratic fire drill.
By 0945 we were still on the ground waiting for paperwork to be completed. Sam told us that at our refueling stop in Luxor we would have time to do a quick tour of the Karnak Temple a stone's throw from the airport. We all looked forward to this concession as we were disappointed to lose a full day and night there.
The Boeing Stearman joined us here in Hurghada late yesterday. It is owned and flown by an Israeli who apparently has a U.S. passport as well. Flying through Egypt, he is planning to only show his U.S. passport. A briefing held on the ramp at 0953 informed us of the necessity of staying in formation on Airway and the proper frequencies to contact Luxor Information (Contril). Yasser cautioned us to be vigilant about following to the letter Information directives and rules. The usual allowed low level altitude for flying over the Nile River is 8500'. They were making a special concession to us to allow us to fly at 2500'. They could cancel this if we strayed out of compliance.
It seems that Cedric and Alexandra's flight at the pyramids with subsequent turbulence and loss of radio out of the cockpit onto the sand below caused a stir with the authorities so we were going to be watched closely.
At started our engines at 1005 and then heard that the Stearman was being delayed for rsome bureaucratic reasons involving it being added to the pre-existing flight plan for the entirre group. So we waited ten minutes with engines running until we were told by Max that the departure clearnace for the rest of us was okayed and we should go. The Stearman was cancelled from our flight plan and would have to work out its own clearance.
We began our taxi and for those of you familiar with ground control taxi clearances, you might find this interesting. At Hurghada airport there are two LONG 13,000' parallel runways: 34R and 34L. The wind was out of the north. (At this time of the morning the wind was picking up causing visibility to be mildly to moderately impacted by blowing dust.) Ground had us taxi north alongside 34R -- which was closed for maintenance -- to the end of that runway, then go left, cross the end of 16L (the reciprocal of 34R) and proceed to the end of the other runway which was the active one.. Then we had to taxi south the ENTIRE length of 16R (the reciprocal of 34L) to begin our take-off on 34L into the wind. There was no allowance for taking off at mid field which would have provided us plenty of length for take-off. This took nearly 20 minutes to get 16 aircraft from the parking ramp to our take-off positions. We lifted off at 1047, 42 minutes after starting our engines.
The flight to Luxor went well and we managed to stay above a lot of the dust going over some low level mountain ranges. At Luxor we were told that because of the delay in Hurghada, we would not have time to go to Karnak as we could expect some moderate delay with refueling and we needed to get on to Aswan to stay on schedule. Sam was right about the fuel. It did take a long time. Many aircraft also needed oil. I have learned that with most disappointments, one has to measure one's response with the question, "Would it help?" I learned this from watching that wonderful movie "The Bridge" with Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. Watch the movie and you'll know what I mean. In any case, we'll leave Karnak and The Valley of the Kings for another visit to Luxor some time down the road.
At our flight briefing before leaving for Aswan, we learned that the Antonov made it to Mersa Matrouh. Good news. -- Bad news: the A boxes were not on it for weight reasons and were in the process of being sent back to Belgium where the headquarters for Prepare To Go (the organizers of the rally) is located!! From there they would be air freighted to Nairobi where we could retrieve them. ----- "Would it help?"
The terrain enroute to Luxor was a daunting reminder that you want to pre-flight very well, make sure your fuel cap is screwed on tight, and that you have plenty of water and munchies onboard!
These friendly ladies from the Luxor Airport terminal came out to offer us flowers and welcome. They also wanted to have a peek at our aircraft and we were happy to oblige.
Very disappointing that the only thing of Luxor we got to see was the parking ramp, the terminal restrooms and the control tower which is quite modern. Some day Nick and I will return to Luxor and have high tea in the lobby of the old Luxor Hotel with its colonial charm before wandering around the magnificent antiquities of Karnak and The Valley of the Kings.
We had Aswan and Abu Simbel awaiting us and we would not be disappointed!
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