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Agra - Kolkata - Bangkok (VIAG
- VECC - VTBD)
Our scheduled departure time
is 9:00 a.m. local and we taxi out at 0335Z, just about perfect,
since that is 9:05 local. We had arisen early, had breakfast
delivered to the room, and checked out of the lovely Amarvilas
Hotel, riding to the airport with the car and driver that
had been "assigned" to us during our stay in Agra. Our handler,
Sukhvinder Singh, meets us at curbside but we have to kill
a few minutes until the security people assemble at this early
morning hour. In short order we are at the airplane, meeting
the Indian Oil truck who will fuel us. They take the "Air
BP" card, the first time that the "UV Air" card has not been
the preferred one.
With Flight Information Center
and Air Defense Clearance (FIC & ADC) authorization numbers
in hand - numbers that were never requested by the controllers,
by the way - we call for start-up and ATC clearance.
Why is it that the ATC clearance
over here is a last-minute secret? We have come to expect
that the last thing we will be provided as we are just about
to take the runway is the clearance. This is so different
than in the USA! At home, before you taxi, you already know
the ATC clearance limit, the route, the initial altitude,
the departure procedure…the whole shooting match. There is
plenty of time to examine it, compare it with what you had
requested, and get ready to depart. But in virtually all countries
we have visited thus far, these details are not passed on
until the last moment. Perhaps the reason is that the local
tower controllers don't coordinate as well with the enroute
ATC management. Also, with much less air traffic over here,
maybe the worry about being denied a clearance or having a
big amendment is not as great. In fact, we have never received
any routing different from that which Universal selected and
filed for us. Maybe there is a totally different reason that
I am not aware of, and perhaps a reader can enlighten me.
Still, we find it a bit disconcerting that what we are going
to do after takeoff is not known until seconds before we go.
Thank goodness there have been no surprises! As a matter of
fact, we have heard the departure controller tell an airliner,
after he contacted departure after takeoff, what departure
procedure was expected! Odd.
The weather remains great. It
is a lovely morning as we follow the progressive taxi instructions
that take us to the departure end of Runway 5 and then back-taxi
the entire length to get into takeoff position. There are
not a lot of taxiways at Agra!
We have learned in India that
the traditional Hindu greeting gesture - hands pressed, palms
together, over the heart, back kept straight, head bowed -
is accompanied by the phrase "Nomascar." (I am sure that I
am not spelling this right, just making a stab at what it
sounds like. The "-car" ending means the formal; "Nomasteh"
is used in the more friendly, intimate, setting.) Aware of
that now, it is very noticeable that the majority of Indian
pilots on frequency begin their initial contact with either
the formal or informal version of the greeting, so I do too.
No one laughs at my (mis)pronunciation; instead, they seem
to appreciate it. I also notice quite a few other country's
national airlines use the phrase as well while in India.
It is surprising how much of
India has rather limited enroute radar and VHF radio coverage
and we almost resort to the HF radio again, but instead a
kind passing airliner crew tells us another VHF frequency
to use, and we re-establish radio contact using it. We are
suddenly given an unexpected re-routing that involves about
a forty-five degree left turn for sixty miles before picking
up a more northerly routing into Kolkata.
Kolkata. Yep, we all know it
as Calcutta. But, as is happening a lot it seems, spellings
are being slowly changed to reflect more what the locals think
is a more correct interpretation of their word when translated
into English, and now it is officially Kolkata. Likewise,
Bombay is now Mumbai.
We give a "We're coming!" notification
to Kolkata radar a little before we enter their airspace,
but it is probably unnecessary. We are provided with radar
vectors for the ILS to Runway 19L from nearly a hundred miles
out. The wind is nearly calm, a few clouds are at 1,800 feet,
visibility is being called 3,000 meters, but is a lot better
by the time we arrive, and the temperature is 28 degrees Celsius.
Pressure is 1013 hectopascals…standard.
As we get low enough to observe
the terrain, it becomes immediately obvious how much greener
and more tropical it seems than that we have seen thus far
in India. A lot of fields are flooded with recent rainwater.
Yes, this could be more like the jungle we expect from viewing
old movies of India.
Pam squeaks it on nicely and
we shut down on a not-very-busy ramp two hours and forty-six
minutes after we started. The usual gaggle of people - handlers,
customs, security, refuelers - are there and the paperwork
begins. Pat & Ashley use their Iridium satellite phone to
make a couple of calls to their children. Thanks to the work
of the handlers, all goes easily, but we do have to wait quite
a while after the refueling is completed before all forms
are returned to us and we get our new ADC number and departure
time slot. For this leg, I'll be in the left seat.
We are stopped for one hour and
twenty-three minutes - not bad, overall -- and soon are airborne
for Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is seven hours ahead of Greenwich,
meaning we lose 1.5 hours today. We are airborne at 0755Z,
2:55 p.m. in Bangkok. There is an airway, A349, that goes
all the way from Kolkata to Bangkok in a fairly direct path
and that's how we have been cleared.
We topped the tanks and 982GA
struggles up the last few thousand feet to FL270 since we
are in thin clouds and I've got all ice protection systems
turned on. The computerized flight plan from Universal indicated
that the wind would be basically neutral on this leg, and
so it is. The ice vanes being deployed are costing us about
20 knots of speed and we must revise a couple of waypoint
estimates a couple of times. A little over an hour after takeoff
we burst into the clear, retract the vanes, and pick up our
speed. Although isolated big thunderstorms were forecast,
they never developed and we have, once again, just about perfect
weather the rest of the way into Thailand.
We relay one position report
through a friendly American voice flying what sounded like
"Diva" or "Neva" 676. Thanks, whoever you are! We fly from
Kolkata Control into Myanmar Control as we transit the country
of that name, the country that used to be known as Burma.
Most of our flight is over water, over the Bay of Bengal.
We establish radio contact with "Yangoon" as we pass over
their airspace. It's another of those "new" names; used to
be Rangoon. We hit land and fly over a part of Myanmar before
crossing the border into Thailand. It is a water-soaked land
below, a big river delta. The sun sets and the cockpit and
cabin lights come on. We sit warm, safe, and happy in our
pressurized cocoon cruising through the night sky over the
invisible terrain below, a little classical music playing
on the CD. The airplane has performed virtually flawlessly
all the way. What a nice traveling machine!
A clearly-understandable female
voice announces the ATIS at Bangkok: ILS 21 approach in use,
wind 100 degrees at 4 knots, 10 kilometers visibility, few
clouds at 2,500 feet, temperature 29 degrees, dewpoint 26,
altimeter 1009. We pick up the distant glow of the city of
ten million inhabitants while still over a hundred miles out.
Bangkok control asks us to tell him when we want to descend,
which we do, and are approved as requested.
Ask any pilot the hardest part
of navigation and the answer most commonly received, I think,
is "Finding your way around a strange airport at night." Pam
and I briefed the likely taxi route carefully and it worked
out easily, with good help from tower and ground personnel.
We are directed to parking stand number 102 where we are met
by the expected contingent of helpers and a big bus for the
ride to the terminal. Pat and Ashley and their bags depart
in the bus while Pam and I secure the plane and then ride
with the handler lady and driver for what is a surprisingly
long drive to the terminal unloading door. It is a big place!
The lady gets "chewed out" by security for trying to have
us "sneak" in a side door with the baggage, so we detour through
the normal international arrival lounge…where neither our
bags nor our passports are inspected! (It's nice being crew!)
We then run into P & A who had taken much longer to get checked
into the new country. We all share a ride in the hotel van
and thank goodness it is a big one, because we have unloaded
all four golf bags this time, in addition to our normal pile
of stuff.
The contrast between modern Bangkok
- bustling, bright, clean, busy, freeways into town - and
backwater India could not be greater! We are glad to be here.
We arrive at the Oriental Bangkok,
a famous hostelry that is celebrating its 125th year of operation.
Again, very, very, beautiful surroundings with friendly, efficient
staff. We find that it is common in Asia to be escorted to
your room by a young man or women who shows you around the
amenities of the room and then fills out your registration
form right there in your own room. And he/she even does it
for you! They copy the passport information onto the form
as needed and all you have to do is sign. This is a neat idea
and makes you feel very special. We have a spectacular view
from our 15th floor window of the river and all of its exotic
traffic.
Before leaving on this trip,
India was my biggest worry. As you have read, I loved the
experience of being in India and wouldn't have missed it for
anything. But now it is past and it feels that a weight has
been removed from my shoulders. I see a lot more fun in our
future, not so many museums, temples, and churches to visit.
It is amazing how we have stayed
on the scheduled that was made long before we ever left Arizona.
At Bangkok, we shutdown at 6:59 p.m. local time. Our itinerary
said 7:00. Well, I guess we still have some work left to do.
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