The Red Sea Crossing

This morning is our last day in Egypt, it is also Easter Saturday.  Today we are crossing the Red Sea from Hurgada, HEGN to Ha'il Saudi Arabia, OEHL.  The distance is some 400 plus nautical miles and one of our longest trips todate.  The good news is that unlike the Egyptians the Saudis appear to be more relaxed about VFR general aviation, and will allow us to fly direct routes at pilot discretion altitudes.

The previous nights hotel was pretty basic and the breakfast that accompanied it was similar.  However we set off to the airport having been picked up by the Egyptian Air rep, Amar.  Amar was charing us $15 each way to the airport and back for a total of $30.  We had discovered the night before that we could have got an official taxi for $5.  It may have been nice of Amar to take us into town but we were unhappy that he charged us so much and told him so.  

Passing through security was the usual far, but was completed swiftly.  We passed through the old international terminal which had a scattering of market style shops that looked quaint while the concourse was empty but are probably tacky when the concourse is busy.  Greeting us at the exit of the terminal was a large bus to take us to the helicopter.  It was here that Amar had a change of conscience and dropped his "taxi" price to $20 and gave us $10 back, good old Amar!  

We called for clearance early once again, and again had to wait.  I guess the Egyptians are sticklers for time keeping.  Anyway, clearance obtained we set of from 34L and turned to the east climbing to FL85, which was a density altitude of 10,340ft and coasted out onto the Red Sea passing several dive boats as we did so.  It did not take long before we saw the coast of Saudi Arabia with its hills in the distance.  Our FIR crossing point was Silka.

The Saudi landscape was different to the Egyptian landscape even though both are desserts.  Saudi seemed dryer and it sand had a lighter hue and it rocks a darker tone.  There also seems to be more scattering of dwellings in the desert of Saudi compared to Egypt.  

The Landing in Ha'il was uneventful and the wind was fairly calm compared to our experience in Hurgarda.  In Ha'il nobody was there to meet us as we landed and it was not until sometime that our usual greeting party arrived.  This time is was four army police personnel who seemed fascinated by our presence more than anything else.  Eventually our handler turned up followed by a customs official.  As usual we immediately ordered our fuel.  This however seemed to cause issues, they stated that they were not aware of our purchase order request and thus would not serve us.  After a couple of phone calls and mild threats to inform World Fuel Services, they acquiesced and endeavoured to fill our tanks (or at least try). The first fueler couldn't work the fuel truck and so had to find a Philippino gentlemen to complete the task. 

While we waited the customs official seemed to relax and became friendlier, taking pictures of and in the helicopter alongside some of the army police.  

Clearing customs took some time and a phone call from the boss man, who wanted to know if we had a visa.  After explaining that we were only in the country for 

less than 72 hours and on a General Declaration all was sorted. 

Leaving the airport our now friendly customs officer drove us to our hotel without charge, nice chap!  It seems all he wanted was to take time with some foreigners and some selfies of us in his car.

Tonight's hotel room is a  two room suite, ok but not great. The food was reasonable with me having chicken tikka and rice.  

With dinner eaten and planning for tomorrow completed it was off to bed.  No beer tonight, we are in Saudi.  

On that note, the call to prayer here was more evident and one could here more participation compared to Egypt.  Anyway happy Easter to all.