"04:11.4N 73:32.0E"


Muscat to Malé (Maldives)


Just one day of relaxing, and driving around Muscat with a rented car, visiting port Mutuah and the old town and port of Muscat with its many government buildings in excellent, old fashion architecture and museums were interesting, and hardly enough in this interesting country with its long history.

The old town of Muscat, sitting In between mountains and the sea was quite interesting to visit. We later drove along the coast to the famous Hotel Al Bustan, this great place was actually being renovated at this time.

After lunch we spent much time at the hotel Intercontinental pool. Outside temperature was 46 degrees C and no doubt, we spent most time in the water to cool down.

Yesterday the 26th of June, we had an early start. We got up at 4oclock in the morning, to allow an early take off with full load of 115 % Gross weight. Remember, with all our gear and an additional tank in the cabin with 100 Gallons of fuel.

We planned for a take- off at 06:00, but with delays caused by the refueling agent, we finally could take off just before 8 o clock with full 220 Gallons of fuel and a relatively good weather forecast.

Our Comanche performed exceptionally well, considering that the outside temperature was already 40 degrees C at this time in the morning. This was the longest leg, all over the water of nearly 11 hours. Flight was uneventful, and once we reached our Flight was uneventful, and once we reached our cruising altitude of FL 110 it cooled down to an acceptable level inside the cabin.

Because the time difference, flying eastward of 1 hour, and the delay on the ground before departure, we landed well after dark at Male International which is situated just outside the Island of Male, the capital and looks like the form of an Aircraft carrier.

We stayed at the near bay airport hotel, which proved the ideal hotel for us. The aircraft was basically in view of our room. After unloading the lane in pitch dark night and having cleared all the preliminaries, Customs, immigration etc we had an well deserved cold beer and a buffet dinner and then off to bed. Today the 27th of June, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at the top floor of our hotel, with a clear view of Malé Island and then organized to go back to our aircraft to take care of all the preparations for our flight tomorrow, which will take us to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.

Relaxing at the hotel's pool was what we really needed and enjoyed. After spending most of the morning on the aircraft, we met Azim, one of the Airport operations mangers. Later in the afternoon, we then crossed over by Jetty from our hotel to the neighboring Island Male and Azim showed us the busy town with 90'000 habitants on a place of just one square Kilometer.

Mazem invited us to his home and we met all his family in a small apartment. Back at the hotel we, made the final preparations for tomorrows flight to Colombo and had a final drink at the rooftop of the hotel, overlooking the adjoining islands. .

View from the hotel on the airport island to Malé Island,

the capital of the Maledives.

A shady place to arrange the flight maps to Colombo.

Meeting place in Malé city.