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AVIATION HISTORY
"I have made two such microlight flights, once around the world, and once to Australia" Message from Brian Milton:
The best route is down the east coast of Italy, island-hop via Rhodes to Cyprus, and then find some way to Jordan (you have a problem with Israel). Then there's a good route across the Saudi desert via Ar'ar to Dhahran, Al Ain in the UAE, Muscat, Gwadar, Karachi, some way across India (we took Ahmadabad, Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur to Calcutta), Mandalay, Luang Prabang (Laos), Hanoi, then Nanning in China, Macau, Hong Kong, and up from there to Beijing. It's politically possible all the way to China, and if you have got Chinese permissions, then it's the easiest route. Going via Iran and Iraq is asking for trouble, especially for British and American pilots, and I presume you want those. >Route index
Of the other countries from Paris, France loves microlights, Switzerland bans them, Italy is scornful of them and it's best to do the route via microlight fields rather than grown-up airfields, Greece is OK but can be difficult in some places (Crete, for example).
Middle East
There is a real problem crossing the Middle East because of Israel, and the necessity to enter either Syria (...) or Egypt (...) to get around Israel. It's possible, flying east west, coming from Saudi and Jordan, to over-fly Israel, but not possible the other way.
Rudi Luchmann October 13, 2003
I don't know if my recent experience is of any interest to you, but I last week flew with my German-registered Tecnam P-92 (UL) from Athens to Amman, Jordania. The routing was via Milos, Rhodos, Adana, Gaziantep, over Syria non-stop to Amman (Marka). I have not encountered any problems on the was, and the Syrian ATC was very nice with me and treated me like an IFR flight, since I had received prior permission (3 days) from the Syrians and the aircraft has a mode A/C transponder. Jordan is very nice with light-type aircrafts, and I know that King Abdallah is very supportive of general aviation. So, if any, my piece of advice would be to route through Jordan, and then Saudi Arabia, which should not be a problem at all. This way you could avoid all the hassle in the Middle-East. Cheers, Rudi Luchmann; October 13, 2003
Jordan Saudi Emirates
Jordan is fine, Saudi can be one way of the other, the Emirates are good but expensive (Muscat especially), and Pakistan outside Karachi is OK but fuel is difficult to find. There are agents in Karachi who will get pilots on for $200/each.
The most friendly of the UAE States is Al Ain, about 50 miles
east of Abu Dhabi. It has all facilities. I don't know the sheik there, but we
were made very welcome on the 1998 world flight.
It it is possible to miss out Muscat, do so, because it's very expensive
India
India is a bureaucratic nightmare, and needs careful thought.
Bangladesh
Try and avoid
Bangladesh, which is even worse.
Burma
As long as money changes hands, Burma is OK via Mandalay. Laos has to be sorted out in their embassy in Paris, but Luang Prebang fine.
Vietnam
Vietnam was OK for me but that'd because the British embassy there was terrific.
China?
Are you sure of your permissions in China? China is an enigma.
I was part of a Land Rover/microlight expedition www.lsoexped.com last year that routed through Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, SE Asia and onto Singapore and Australia. Sadly the microlight only got as far as Pakistan. It was trailored through Iran and impounded on entry into Pakistan. Take Brian Milton's advice and steer clear of Iran where private aviation is banned.
Barry Davidson, Civil Aviation Authority, UK
Barry advises that the Hong Kong CAA might not be in favour of Ultralights. We hope to get an exemption or enter China via Kunming instead.
