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Russia 

We complete the Around the World flights through Russia into Alaska.

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Joined with our friends who are also completing their RTW in their SR22 - they started in Argentina and we meet up in Poland to travel together. Two Cirrus aircrafts the SF50 Jet and the SR22 fly leg for leg through the largest Country in the world!

Poznan-Poland to St Petersburg-Russia

The First Leg

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EPPO -Poznań Poland to ULOO - Pskov Airport 520 NM for entry to Russia and then to ULLI - St Petersburg.
Our meet up with our fellow RTWers (Around the World flyers) Alex and Martine in their SR22 and us in the SF50, was scheduled initially for ULOO. However as a quick maintenance item needed to be done on Alex & Martine’s SR22 and Amir had just completed the SF50 type rating renewal check ride, we all decided to meet in Poznań and fly together to a small airport in Russia called Pskov, just off the border of Estonia and our first point of entry to clear customs immigration and fuel up if needed. READ THE STORY.....

Leg 2

St Petersburg- to Moscow - Russia

ULLI St Petersburg to UUBM Moscow (Emergency diversion to UUBW)
360NM Short flight of around1:40hrs
We left the apartment at 9am for a 40 minute drive to the airport- by 11:50 am we were ready to start the engine.
What happened in between that time frame was a lot of messy disorganised, poor instructions and people with “authority“ blocks. First we couldn't find the crew security gate. Then the check desk couldn't understand why a foreign crew would not be using the International entrance to airside - we are a domestic flight, our Flight Operation Support got on the phone to them and explained in Russian the reasons and provided our clearances. Read the story.....

 Moscow to Chita Russia

Leg 4 to 7

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UUBM Moscow to USSS Yekaterinburg
767NM - Chita fuel stop
It took a few days of waiting in Moscow before we felt relatively confident in the weather to be clear enough to commit to a flight to the next destination. A visual departure from this small general aviation airport that was deserted on the Sunday but it took us an hour to drive to the entrance as there was a drag race meet next door the queue went back for 3 miles!  Lots of young party people in their 1970s hotted up LADAs (Russian made small sedan).
Once in the air we started to climb in stages testing the readings of altitude against each measuring device -  9000 to 14000 to 27000.....Read the story.......

Chita Russia to Anchorage Alaska USA

Total legs - 14

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UIAA to UHBB Chita (fuel stop) then to Khabarovsk Krai region- city on the border of China - Blagoveshchensk
660nm - Vladivostok 660nm - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Island 514nm - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka 720nm  - Anadyr 940nm - Anchorage Alaska 850nm. 
The fuel stop was made in good time and we are airborne again for the longer leg of this day of flying. Travelling SE we turn around the border of China with Russia and follow the Amur river which marks the border.
About half way we take the altitude from FL 290 to 310, watching very carefully the readings-all good only a 80 feet mis-compare same as before; this being manageable and quite normal.
On our approach we fly over a section of the river that is under full flood, an annual event, although this year is especially worse. There are hundreds of homes and farmlands under water and completely cut off, we later learn there was over 700 families in isolation or evacuated from flood waters.
It is a surreal feeling to be flying along the Russian border and looking to our right over the Chinese Heilongjiang province. 
Read the story .....
 
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