World Tour Leg 28 - Dammam to Qarnayn

The maintenance I did on my Baron the last night was totally worthy. I didn't feel any weird vibration or feeling during this leg, that took me from Dammam to Qarnayn, a tiny island of UAE, next to Abu Dhabi, by flying over Bahrain and Qatar. I made this trip alone, since no passangers were interested on flying to such a remote location.

I took off from runway 34L, with headwinds of 10 kt, and quickly headed towards Al Khobar, south of Dammam, to turn towards Bahrain by following the King Fahd Bridge.

I quickly saw, between few clouds, the skyscrappers of Manama, capital of Bahrain. This location was the place where the Dilmun civilization settled during the Bronze Age. It was later ruled by Assyrians and Babylonians. They quickly converted to islam, thanks to Muhammad and, after being ruled by Portuguese, Persian and British, they finally got the independence in 1971. Manama, its capital, was designated as capital of the Arab culture in 2012.

I decided to fly over Bahrain Int. Airport, to remember those old times in FSX in which a highly saturated ATC asked me to go around until the ground was cleared. It's 2020 and still no ATC is able to provide that experience. Anyway...

I headed south, following the eastern coast, till Durrat Al Bahrain, a bunch of characteristic artificial islands, focused on leisure and tourism. From here, a short hop across the sea towards Qatar.

After crossing several miles of flat empty desert, I distinguished the Shahaniyah Camel Race Track, announcing that Doha was nearby. First signs of civilization here dates back to 50.000 years ago, during the Stone Age. Similarly to Bahrain, they converted to islam thanks to Muhammad. Later they belonged to the Ottoman and British Empires, getting the independence on 1971. Doha is the capital, the biggest and largest city, hosting 80% of Qatar population.

And the difficult part of the trip started here. From Doha I followed VOR navigation towards the tiny islands at the north of UAE. First, I arrived to Diynah and, heading 090, I reached the lovely and tiny island of Qarnayn.

I decided to do a go-around to scan the surroundings and get a feeling of the wind, that was quite strong. Not METAR was available, but the windsock showed intense winds. When the runway is short and surrounded by water, one has to be extremely cautious and ready to abort.

Finally, I landed on runway 31. I secured the plane next to a hangar and decided to take a short walk and a bath on the sea. Awesome landscape.

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Technical details:

OEDF - OMAQ

AL-KHOBAR BAH AL-DURRAT HAWAR DOH DIYNAH

Distance: 215 nm

Average GS: 200 kt

Average alt.: 5500 ft.

METAR:

OEDF 100100Z 33010KT 9999 FEW040 28/13 Q1009 NOSIG