Rotor and Tailplane

The sun wakes me up early this morning, we are further north than we have been for awhile, so it rises earlier than expected.  There was no AC in the room last night so I had the windows open.  Open windows meant a cold morning rise.   At breakfast we discussed the flight ahead and noted the local airport weather reported fog! How could this be, it is a glorious day outside.  We soon find out why when we driven to the airport, the city is clear but the airport is in the soup.  Looks like we not make our planned departure time.   The fog lifted quite suddenly and we were only 45 minutes behind schedule.  We took are personal airplane bus to the helicopter and proceeded on our way. In Russia they like us to fly high and they clear us to FL100, 10,000ft on QNH 1003 hectapascals.  Luckily today is a clear day so this is not a problem. Our flight up the spine of Sahkalinsk is quite spectacular and we enjoy the beauty of the mountains....

An early morning today, it is a double hop to try and catch up a day, so we fly to New Chitose and make a technical stop for fuel and CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine), before flying onto Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. We take the,taxi to Akita airport, this time the driver does not take the express way.  Hey it isn't much longer and seems to save $25 to $30.  This would have save us $75 to $90 over the last few days.  The route is also a bit more scenic, but one can get fed up of paddy fields. We are met my a man from the handlers,  this really is a waiste of money.  We had all the paper work from pan Luping and knew are way around, but hey if that is how they want to play it, it is there money.  He was a nice guy so, so be it. We are off quickly and fly north.  From the air we see how extensive the paddy fields are and how every flat piece of surface, or any surface which can be flattened is for paddy fields.  This country has loads o...

Well, after posting yesterday's blog we discovered that the handlers wanted to charge us a cancellation fee of ¥130,000 plus another ¥30,000 charge for something or other.  That is nearly $1,600.  We'll I almost went nuts!  It was them that called us back to Akita and it was because of them that we were unable to make New Chitose.  So I struck Kaori of the flowers and chocolate list and chundered for sometime. Due to this cancellation fee there was no way we were going to risk a cancellation in air today, so having looked at the weather we decided to wait another day until Monday.  This gave us a chance to sort out the cancellation fee mess.  It looks as if this may now be waived, let us see. After breakfast and a morning snooze we walk around the local area and general took in the fresh air. Not a lot too see around here, outside of the city there are plenty of paddy fields which are fascinating to look at but that is all there is around here.  S...

The weather as predicted does not look great today and we wait till 10:30 to make a go, no decision.  We decide to go!  So it is going to cost us another ¥15,000 to get to the airport!  Once there we met with Pan and set off.  All good.  10 minutes into the flight tower says that our handlers have requested us to return to the tower, why we ask, the tower does not know. So we head back, I get out and talk to Pan, he tells me the operations team are concerned about the weather in RJCC, our destination.  I tell him so am I and that is why we need to be on our way in order to get the good weather when it arrives.  They aer still not happy and it looks as if someone has hijacked the tower ATC as they will no longer give us clearance.  What has happened to pilot discretion and the Pilot being the one in control and responsible for flight decisions! We trundle back to the airport and arrange passes for tomorrow and possible Monday as Pan will not b...

Down for breakfast at 8:30.  This consists of a bowl of rice and orange juice. Not exciting.  After breakfast I have a snooze until i am woken up by housekeeping wanting to clean my room.  So while they clean my room I decide to wash some clothes in the hotel washing machine.  This cost me ¥340, not bad! Because breakfast was so poor I decide to find the supermarket and buy some yogurt, ready for tomorrow.  The supermarket is is only 4 mins away and is the Gran Mart.  They have yogurt but am unable to find any cereals, so opt for chocolate and coke instead! Dinner is at the same place and after dinner drinks at the Rush Bar.  Tonight is Friday so the bar is a little busier, but we are flying tomorrow, weather permitting and I head home early.

We wake up to rain this morning.  I was expecting this.  The good news was that Man Utd. won the Europa Cup.  That now completes the clubs European trophy cabinet, and we are back in the Champions League, seeded above Tottenham, City, Arsenal and Liverpool. Because of the rain we decide to delay / cancel our flight and start looking for a hotel to stay in.  Our current hotel will not gives us the same rate we had last night.  Eventually we find the Bali Hotel and Resort just around the corner thus avoiding a ridiculous taxi fare.  Our checkout time at the current hotel is 11 am, so I get to have a snooze. At 11 AM the weather looks much better and we spot a window of opportunity, in fact it would be better to go now than to wait for tomorrow.  So that is what we decide.  First we have to cancel our hotel booking. so we have to walk to the hotel and do this at a cost of $30 each.  Next we tell Tomasc of our plans and arrange to meet him i...

It is a shame to leave Kagoshima, Kagoshima is a beautiful spot with a fabulous bay next to an active volcano.  While we were at the Senegal-en gardens we saw bags of volcanic ash which is swept up from around the gardens and city after the volcano does its thing. It is because of this volcanic activity that the surroundings of Kagoshima and large areas further afield are so lush and great, a really bountiful greenness.  The forests resemble healthy cauliflower.  Where man has planted trees you can see the dividing line from the natural forest it is truly spectacular. Yesterday we had a sunny day, today it is overcast which unfortunately makes for less impressive pictures.  But they will suffice.  It is an uneventful 3 hour trip to Osaka to the north and we land at A3, reposition to A6 only to be told to push the helicopter 100 yards to the hangar,  more exercise i guess.   Here we pay are extortionate handling fees and argue about the co...