World Tour Leg 21 - Asyut to Shark El Oweinat

The second leg was not too long. But again, I intended to fly following the Nile river. Mainly to enjoy the landscape, but also for navigation. My destination is a small airport in the middle of nowhere. There's no possible reference and the only possible navigation is by a VOR located far away (besides GPS, of course). But, by now, lets board. Two families, 5 PAX in total, and full fuel. Ready to take-off from runway 13 at HEAT.

I quickly reached the Nile river and climbed to 9500 ft. I intended to fly higher than usual on the second half of the trip but, for now, below 10000 ft. was fine and safe.

The landscape was invariant. A huge desert divided by the green fields along the Nile. After 90 nm I arrived to a large hairpin of special interest, since Luxor, Thebes ruins and the Valley of the Kings, one of the most famous archeological sites in the world (in part due to the tomb of Tutankhamun) are there. I descended a bit and reduced the KIAS to enjoy this unique historical location.

Once I left Luxor behind, I climbed to FL125, following the Nile towards Aswan Dam. The second Dam, built between 1960 and 1970, improved the industrialization and economy of the country, preventing uncontrolled floodings of the Nile surroundings. However, up to 22 monuments had to be moved towards safest places, to avoid being flooded. Such is the case of Abu Simbel temple, that I hope to visit in a couple of legs.

But now it's time to head towards the west and enter into the desert. In front of us, 240 nm of flat desert without references. Only 2 VORs behind us (Aswan and Abu Simbel) and the Thoska lakes as visual landmark are the only systems I can use to navigate.

By the time I flew over the lakes, I still detected both VORs, but few miles later, I lost all connection, due to the distance. I decided to keep the high altitude and the heading, scouting the horizon until finding the green patch that should indicate the location of the farms I was flying towards.

And, after some minutes of incertitude, I could find not only the farms but also the airport. There was no METAR, so after a quick view to the windsock I decided to enter on right downwind to runway 01.

Another long leg. I try to avoid them, but the landscape was worthy. In any case, I hope not to spend too much time on this place and head towards Abu Simbel this evening, on a pretty short leg.

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Technical details:

HEAT - HEOW

NILE LUXOR ASWAN TOSHKA

Distance: 470 nm

Average GS: 200 kt

Average alt.: FL125 ft.

METAR:

HEAT 261200Z 01010KT CAVOK 27/09 Q1016 NOSIG
N/A