World Tour Leg 27 - Riyadh to Dammam

After spending the night in a hotel in Riyadh I went back to the airport. The oil of my Baron had been refilled and there were 2 passengers waiting to travel to Dammam. Their plan fitted perfectly fine with my idea of reaching the Persian Gulf today, so I accepted flying together.

After accomodating their luggage on the rear trunk we took off from runway 15L and climbed to 9500 ft.

By following highway 40 we would reach our destination quite easily. Just in case, I also set the VOR navigation. Worst case scenario, I could fly towards the sea and, once there, use the coast for orienteering.

After few miles, we reached the characteristic orange sandy wave that it's well seen from satellite images and crosses Saudi Arabia near its half.

I saw few farms, small villages and scattered buildings that allowed me to estimate the distances and confirm that I was flying in the right direction.

Finally we reached Dammam. Its history is interesting, since Dammam was founded in 1923 by a tribe that moved from Bahrain, first stablishing in Khobar, then in the actual Dammam. From that date, the population has grown to more than 4 million people. Nowadays, Dammam is one of the most important cities in the country, expanded thanks to the oil and fishing industry. Its sea port is the largest of the Persian Gulf and the second in traffic.

But both Dammam and Khobar are a bit far from the airport, so I focused on doing a VOR approach to runway 34 L, quite simple considering the path on the ground leading from the VOR to the runway.

 

A full hangar just for my Baron. i took advantage to make a revision. It looks like the oil filters will have to be renewed soon. Besides that, nothing weird. It has been a long time I don't have mechanical issues. I want to believe that the money I invested during the first legs in maintenance will be worthy for the rest of the trip. We'll see. Now let's take some rest and get ready to leave Saudi Arabia towards Bahrain, Qatar and UAE, some of the most attractive air spaces in the world.

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Technical details:

OERK - OEDF

KIA KFA

Distance: 200 nm

Average GS: 200 kt

Average alt.: 9500 ft.

METAR:

OERK 082200Z 14005KT CAVOK 27/04 Q1013 NOSIG
OEDF 090000Z 28005KT CAVOK 24/08 Q1009 NOSIG