I don’t’ know how Roger Krieger got my name or contact, but there it was sitting in my Inbox….a call to the Wild. I let it cook there for several days before venturing to write back to Roger, the call to the Wild too strong to resist. Spoke to Roger once on the dog and bone and I kind of figured if I put my rambling thoughts to all of you like minded folks who have responded to the call of adventure, we might experience some things together….like a bottle of cold Champagne delivered on camel back while enjoying a desert sunset, contemplating a broken axle or two on our proposed aerial camel train enroute to Cathay!!

Down by Venice way (Oh no not that way by LAX!) in the Old World, the brothers Polo, Nicolo and Maffeo sat by their hearth fires, stroking their fine beards, thoughts turned Eastward ho. Well they should, for they were merchants of experience and repute, their thirst for profits mingled with their like minded feel for adventure.

Word had it that far eastwards lay treasures. In their rudimentary map data bases, the area was identified as Cathay.

In their immediate circle of hangers on was a young and able axle fixer and general grease monkey who ably tended the Corporations wheeled caravans. Being the total caravan nut that he was and aided by his proven track record, wise in the merits of various lard compositions for optimal greasing, he was soon made a valuable part of the team preparing to go East.

How do I know?

Well in another life I was the total caravan nut, now re-incarnated as the Total Airplane Nut!!

It’s a long story and it goes like this……

The brothers Polo left Venice, Italy ( then the chief entreport in Europe for eastern trade) in 1260 via Constantinople and the Crimea, leaving behind Mamma Nicolo Polo, with young Marco . They traveled to Khanbaligh Tatu ( Peking), which Kublai Khan, grandson of the Mongol Empire’s founder, Genghis Khan, had made the capital of his dominions.

After an absence of nine years, the adventurers returned to Venice. Being the first European traders to have made the acquaintance of the great Khan, he had extracted a promise from the two to return to China, bringing back some friars from whom the Khan wished to enquire about the Christ. Needless to say their travels had been a great commercial success.

Rather sad news awaited the Polos on their return, for mamma Nicolo had died leaving young Marco with an uncle and aunt. Marco was fifteen. They left for the Khan’s court again in 1271, this time accompanied by Marco, now seventeen, highly intelligent and a strapping young man ready to face the world with dad and uncle Maffeo.

The party and their caravans went by boat to Acre (present day coastal Palestine area) picked up two friars as per the Khan’s request and proceeded North to Ayas (now Banias). From there, the rest of the journey was overland to the fabled courts of Kublai Khan.

The Marmaluks controlled the turf north of Ayas,the friars’ courage failed them, and the Polos continued without the holy men. From Ayas North to Erzincan (Turkey), Armenia,Southwards through Persia passing Tabriz, Kasvin, Saveh, Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, right down to Hormuz on the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The idea here was to take a boat along the coast to India and proceed overland via Tibet. Experienced merchantmen and familiar with trading ships, they were totally unimpressed with the coastal tramps they encountered at Hormuz. So, back to the Overland route, north-north east then veering to east- north-east. They climbed the mountains north of present day Afghanistan to altitudes of up to 16,000 feet, suffering the effects of altitude on their hike. They then crossed the plain of Pamir crossing the Tartar’s famous river Oxus flowing into the Aral sea. All of the preceding terrain the Polos had traversed thus far was new country, the elder Polos on their previous trip had taken the Northern route north of the Caspian Sea and east towards Samarkand.

Now having crossed the plain of Pamir they arrived at Samarkand, familiar territory again, from their previous travels. The Gobi desert awaited them testing their resolve to the utmost. Forty days journey out of the Khan’s domain, the Polos were met by a Royal escort and taken to the great Khan’s Court.

They arrived at Khanbaligh in 1275…….four long years of strenuous travel behind them. A further twenty years of service in office of the Great Khan as envoy followed, punctuated by experiences that left Marco with a dubious nickname given him by his unbelieving countrymen on his return to Venice in 1295…..Marco il Millione ( Marco of a Million experiences )

Ser Marco Polo’s enduring monument, is his book The Travels, dictated to a certain Rusticello of Pisa, who like Marco, was incarcerated in a Genoese prison following a trade war between Venice and its arch rival city, Genoa.

Marco Polo was seventy years old when he died. Few, if any men or women have ever seen as much as he did in his allotted ‘three score and ten’. Many famous men have had memorable dying words attributed to them, but those for which Marco is remembered have always been accepted…..as a perfect epitaph .

The story goes that his friends urged the dying man to take back some of the most obvious exaggerations he had made about his experience, lest he meet his Maker with lies on his conscience. To which old Marco murmured:

‘I never told the half of what I saw’……..

Adapted from various sources

An incarnation or two later, there I was at 6000 feet, position not quite certain, somewhere between Turaif, H1 and Gurait and accompanied seemingly by two angels of doom…… a pair of Dassault Mirage F1’s , hovering either side of my Cessna 402 , at max alpha, white wingtip mounted sidewinders ( or some local variant ) glinting in the harsh desert sunlight. They looked at me , I looked at them (sheepishly} with me desperately trying to raise Amman Control and at the same time shouting sweet surrender on 121.5 and nobody talking to me…..

Bad moment, I don’t know what got to me, but all I could think of was to wave, and pull out my trusty Olympus and shoot off several frames of the Mirages….God, what a stupid thing to do. They monkeyed around a bit, barrel rolled over and under my ship and disappeared Northwards, like the proverbial bats out of Hell.

Amman came up on the horn and we landed at Amman’s Marka Airport, still shaking

The photos later identified the bogies as coming off Main Street Baghdad. True and I still have the pics. to prove it……

Today’s problems of aviating across the World poses not a problem for equipment or navigation even for Ultralight airplanes which have proven capabilities. It all boils down to being able to ‘Winning Friends and Influencing People’ in the right places to get your trusty craft through successive political hoops to your destination I’m sure Marco had his times too, but then he was a consummate diplomat and thought nothing about staying a year or two, making friends before hitting the road again.

There is enough documented material on several latter day Alcocks and Browns’ adventures for any one contemplating a voyage to the uttermost parts of the earth and I refer you to the ‘Earth Rounders Club’, members of the fraternity of modern day long distance aviators. I’ve met some of them and their stories are fascinating. I can refer you to the EAA’s ( The Experimental Aircraft Association ) web pages for links to these wonderful stories of aviators. Try www.eaa.org

Looking at the currently proposed route for this Air rally by Ultralight aircraft I beg to share some thoughts with all of you .

It is imperative that the Organisers make very serious attempts to gain approval to conduct the entire course by Visual Flight Rules (VFR). There’s no way Ultralights are going to be able to meet IFR requirements, if these are insisted on or demanded enroute.

During the Air race from Paris to Singapore in 1990, we pretty much had to flight plan on the existing low level airways, which was not much fun. Onetime I requested to cancel IFR and go VFR along the beautiful islands between Heraklion and Kerkira, to which I was brusquely told to maintain the flight planned route (IFR). Not much fun doing IFR in great visibility, at high altitude.

On another occasion, we were stuck in Amman because Saudi Arabian ATC insisted we must fly at a minimum of 14 000 feet at night from Amman to Bahrain….We had no Oxygen.

…And so on

Let’s keep over water crossings to the absolute minimum. Out at sea a bad moment could occur if one encounters sea fog and loses the visual horizon. Sea haze is a serious problem for low level flying especially in warmer latitudes.

Looking at the over water crossing from Seeb (Muscat) to Gwadar (Pakistan) this is what it looks like:

Taking off from Seeb, you are directly over water for 212 nm (392km) until your first landfall at Jiwani on the Pakistan /Iranian border.31nm further you will arrive at Gwadar.

The catch here is you’re going to cut across a small portion of Iranian airspace. All these FIR’s have extremely strict ADIZ (Air Defence Identification Zone ) requirements which sometimes require simultaneous communication on multiple frequencies.

I have flown the route from Karachi to Dubai vv at low level and the coordination required was tough, to say the least. I have landed at Chah Baha (Iran), Jiwani and Pasni (Pakistan).

Remember the airliner that was shot down on the short flight between Bandar Abbas and Sharjah. Volatile……..

I guess the hardest part was trying to get into India from Pakistan and vice versa. That’ll be for the Organisers to smooth over. But expect Bureaucracy which has been developed into an almost art form, a legacy of the British Raj, although the Brits are not to be blamed after half a Century of absence. The Indians must love paperwork.

Other than that, when you finally manage to stagger into the air the flying is easy.

Weather warnings are sketchy, if we are doing it in the spring the weather should be settled.

Myanmmar (Burma} across to Luang Prabang (Laos) on to Hanoi (Vietnam) is Tiger country. The terrain is thickly forested and may require flying at altitude over mountain ranges . And if you’re forced to drop in at a village to spend the night, please take care of your shadow….

Young Marco, the traveling envoy of Kublai Khan noted during his travels in these regions……

Yikes. Let’s hope they remember the Khan’s orders!!

Low level flying in China is going to pose a challenge in staying visual and right side up in the extensive blanket of coal haze prevailing over most of China at the present time. Well, Marco had noted with great awe that the locals used ‘burning black stones’ to heat great baths that enabled the locals to bathe at least three times a week, in winter, every day if they liked….wow. On their return, the Polos were not recognized because the were so clean compared to their European bretheren, who hadn’t discovered coal yet.

And now ……there’s no way one can fly visual at 5 000feet , without resorting to instruments. I have flown all the way from Hong Kong to Beijing without ever seeing the ground until 200 feet on the approach at Beijing’s Capital Airport !!

In China expect to fly in the muck all the time…….

Hong Kong still has an active flying club, which could probably be roped in to assist.

I believe they have an airstrip somewhere to the North away from the commercial Airport at Chek Lap Kok, which we wouldn’t want to go into anyway in an Ultralight airplane.

During the 1990 Air Race, the participants were supported by the Race Organiser in two roving aircraft, a King Air and a Cessna Conquest (Turbo Props), carrying the Race Marshals.

Well, one participant even had his pit crew rooting around for him in a Sabre Liner, ahead of him, like calling winds and weather to the following Racer. We, carried our own spare tyres, bedding and suffered through the turbulence and ice, once arriving six hours after everyone had landed.

This Ultralight flying gaggle is going to be a seriously slow but fun event. Broken axles or worse are going to be a concern from the outset for both participants and organizers. If one could seriously consider leaving a downed craft where it was and continued to destination in the Organiser’s pickup, it might be the worst or best outcome depending on your point of view. Any how, the best tack is to prepare for the worst.

I would like to see some form of roving rescue party on route at all times.

The competitive juices and spirits will be flowing freely, which could encourage or unnerve some. Trust me….I have heard loud cockpit altercations on the radio between a husband and wife team, racing to get ahead. And….they turned finals, for the wrong airport! I was right behind. At the reception, they were not talking to each other….oh brother!!!

So what is this going to be, an all out Race or Fun Rally in the steps of Marco Polo to get everyone to reach Khanbalig Tatu in one piece.

I’m all for a nice gentlemanly pace of an achievable mileage of 300 nautical miles (555 km) or five hours flying per day.

Still, I’ll wager a cool case of Buds to a spot landing competition at suitable landing grounds.

If this is going to be a Internationally Sanctioned Event, the FAI’s definition of qualified "Ultralights", "Microlights" and "VLA’s" (very light aircraft), is going to have to be trashed out and accepted before serious planning can get under way. Has such a craft been defined yet with certainty?

What max empty weight, max all up weight and max fuel capacity are my first questions. Starting from there other solutions can be worked out.

Here are some of my personal specifications of what I would call a doable craft:

• In the engine department: RELIABILITY, RELIABILITY, RELIABILITY!

• Two seats ( one to carry the gear, spares or fuel)

• Steady min 60 kt TAS (mile a minute) at economy cruise power setting. Tails, you win heads you lose (the wind I mean). Expect a tail wind of 20+ kts in spring going east, at low level.

• Min no wind range of 350 nm (650 km) to dry tanks

• Wing loading to accommodate "continuous light to occasional moderate gusts"

What? Did you expect to fly only in the calm?

• Basic pressure instrumentation for VFR flight, one gyro instrument for emergency IF.

• Navigation gear: GPS, SATCOM phone. (Don’t forget the whiskey compass!)

• Communication gear: two VHF radio coms min. Forget about requiring HF.

• Lots of spare batteries: sponsors to provide free supply!

• Transponder if it can be accommodated in the craft.

• ELB and survival gear for all types of terrain.

Weight, Weight, Weight, what shall we do to meet those pesky requirements.

To avoid unnecessary conflicts in sensitive areas, can the FAI be persuaded to grant all participating aircraft "an international sport aircraft registration" and an easily recognized "tail fin logo", identifying the aircraft as a sport flying vehicle operating under the aegis of the FAI in an "International Aviation Event".

That is a long shot indeed, but worth thinking about. After all the FAI does insist on individual memberships and crews operating under the FAI are required to be in possession of an "International Sporting Aviation License" for sanctioned events.

Surely you can’t wave your FAI license to the masked Zorro in an armed Interceptor for safe passage.

If I do get to do this great aerial adventure, I would like to go in a gaggle of two/three identical craft flying a loose formation enroute, giving mutual support to each other, and arriving in an ‘echelon break’- Red Arrows style! Roger can have the cold ones ready when we are parked.

Now can I persuade two/three others to come along with the old ‘axle fixer’. At least the view would be different and I wouldn’t have to step on them camel…..never mind.

I am hoping that the above tongue-in-the-cheek ramblings based on actual experiences can benefit anyone contemplating this upcoming voyage. No offense, malice or innuendos are directed towards any person, orgainsation, nation or city in the above discourse, which consists of personal observations and actual situations experienced. I fly regularly from Asia to Europe and in China, albeit seated in a high perch, but I do constantly look at the ground below and day dream about what it might be like to do it "low and slow" shadowing a camel caravan perhaps.

If anyone needs any kind of background information about sport aviation in Asia, India and the Middle East, feel free to write. I’ll do my best to find those answers.

With Best Wishes and Regards to everyone contemplating this Great Aerial Adventure.

Hoping to join you.

Sincerely,
"Siva" Sivaraman
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 1, 2001

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