Monkeys were used as mascots by each crew member on the first Round the World Flight in 1924 and the photo on the left depicts one of them. We would like to replicate as much as we can about the flights that happened 100 years ago so we too decided to use a couple of monkeys as mascots and these have been meticulously hand crafted by Barry's wife Sandra and are shown in the photo on the right. One of them represents Bob and the other Baz and our names are on their backs. Bob is the one with the long eyebrows while Baz's eyebrows are marginally shorter.

The average age of Bob and Baz is 80+ and we are both members of an organization based in the USA called UFO Pilots. UFO stands for United Flying Octogenarians and it has over 1,800 members and has been in operation since 1982. 4 of its members are over 100 years old. We hope to meet fellow UFO's at a number of towns during our flight and encourage pilots to keep their ratings current no matter how old they are. As well as having members all over the USA UFO Pilots also has international members in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, New Guinea, Switzerland, and the UK. The members are looking to promote UFOs everywhere, all the time, with everyone. They are indeed an astute group of people that publish a monthly magazine called Squawk. We would encourage all active pilots between the age of 75 and 80 to join the UFO pilots as an Auxiliary Wing member and of course all those active pilots over 80 to become a member of the UFO Pilots.

23rd May, 2024
Baz left Baz Base Lake Taupo (NZAP)this morning and headed for Keri Keri (NZKK) for his first overnight of the trip.

24th May, 2024
Barry and his younger brother Dennis departed Keri Keri (NZKK) at 7.01 Brisbane time for the 1,125 nm flight to the Gold Coast (YBCG).

Barry landed at the Gold Coast (YBCG) at 14.32 hrs with a flight time of seven and a half hours. This gave him a ground speed of 150 kts for the flight.

25th May, 2024
Barry is enjoying a non flying restful day in wet Coolangatta.

26th May, 2024
After refuelling Barry departed the Gold Coast (YBCG) airport at 10.33 heading for Charters Towers (YCHT).

Barry landed at Charters Towers (YBCG) at 14.38 and with a nice tail wind over the 730 nm gave him an average ground speed between Coolangatta and Charters Towers of 178 kts.

27th May, 2024
Barry had an easy relaxing day in Charters Towers to-day, There was no flying and the weather was fine. He checked out the local attractions including the old Stock Exchange building which is now the Stock Exchage Arcade. This was the first Stock Exchange in Australia. It was built in 1888 and commenced trading in 1890.

28th May, 2024
Barry departed Charters Towers (YBCG) at 09.13 heading for Horn Island (YHID), 610 nm away and landed at 13.03. He again had a nice tailwind and had an average ground speed of 159 kts.

29th May, 2024
After spending the night at the Gateway on Horn Island and after clearing customs they set off for My Hagen (AYMH). Unfortunately the winds changed and the flight time to Hagen was longer than expected and they averaged a ground speed of only 132 kts.

30th to 31st May 2024
These were non flying days and Barry and Dennis spent the time at Rondon Ridge, located about 10 km out of the town of Mt Hagen and at an altitude of 7,100 feet. Dennis spent quite some time enjoying the walks through the montane forest and to the local churches and villages in the area.

1st June, 2024
It was a wet drizzly morning in Mount Hagen but many people braved the weather and came out to Kagamuga Airport to see us off, including a former PNG Prime Minister, Paias Wingti. After many photographs and customs and immigration formalities we departed at 8.34 hrs for Guam. There was a fair bit of cloud and drizzle around the Mount Hagen area and we tracked out over Simbai towards Bogia and then to the north. Our Garmin tracker had a flat battery so there is a gap in our waypoints from Mount Hagen but Baz located a charging wire and soon had it working again. Our glass Artificial Horizon and Directional Gyro also had a mind of its own for the first couple of hours and decided to keep switching the display on and off, but mostly off. The electronics of the display were coupled to our auto pilot and that seemed to keep working but there was nothing on the screen at times. However this too seemed to settle down later in the flight.

After about four hours into the flight were reached the ITZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone). This is an unstable line of weather that is normally present in the tropics. We picked our way through it for about an hour and the rest of the flight was fine and beaut all the way to Guam where we arrived at about 16.15 hrs. Our handling hosts were there to meet us, refuel the aircraft and get us through customs and to our hotel.

2nd June, 2024
A non flying day in Guam.

Previously there were flights between PNG (Port Moresby) and Guam but there are none these days.

3rd June, 2024
On the 3rd June 1924 the original round the world fliers had just arrived in Kagoshima while we arrived on the same date, 3rd June 2024 just 100 years later. Both us, and, the first round the world flyers planned to stay in Kagoshima for two days and this is the first common city that we have shared with the first round the world flyers. The first round the world flyers were met by 100,000's of People in Kagoshima, but we were met by one, Paola, our handling agent in Kagoshima.

The flight from Guam was to be our longest single flight of this trip at 1,347 nautical miles and it turned out to be 9 hours and 43 minutes flight time. Our glass Artifical horizon and directional gyro seemed to have settle down and we had no more issues with them. However our remote compass is a solid state one and it did not seem to like coming to the northern hemisphere and started to show inaccurate headings by indicating heading figures that showed there was a lot of wind drift when in fact there wasn't. The actual wind component during the flight was was a slight headwind for most of the time. For the first 6 hours the weather was good but we then bumped our way in rain and cloud at 8,000 feet for two hours as we passed through an occuluded front. Doing most of our flying in the tropics neither of us had previously flown through an occuluded front before. The weather was fine again by the time we arrived at Kagoshima.

Paolo, the person handling us in Kagoshima, was on the tarmac to meet us and to take us through customs and immigration. The customs people were particularly interested as to how much money in cash we were taking into Russia and we were with them for quite some time. They counted every Dollar, Euro, Kroner and Kina that we had on us. It was determined that we were within the gazetted limits and they allowed us to proceed with the funds that we had.

Paolo took us to a very charming Japanese restuarant in the evening and cooked us a very welcome Japanese meal. It had been a long day and we both slept very well.

4th June, 2024
This was a non flying day in Kagoshima. Paolo took us out for beakfast to a very nice Japanese coffee place over looking the volcano that overshadows Kagoshima. Barry also managed to get our main compass reset back to where it should be and working normally.

Many years ago Air Niugini operated a direct service between PNG (Port Moresby) and Kagoshima using a B707 aircraft. In fact it was the first destination that they flew to in Japan. For us to get here it required one stop in Guam from PNG (Mt Hagen).

5th June, 2024
After much discussion about the fog that was forecast at Vladivostok (UHWW) we more or less departed on time as it was supposed to have lifted by the time we were due to arrive. We had a headwind component for the flight and this headwind component increased during the flight and it was 30 knots on the nose during the later stages of the flight. There was no weather to deal with except that across the Sea of Jaoan there was a low overcast beneath us.

Upon arrival at Vladivostok we were met on the tarmac, where it was cold and windy, by about 10 officials, they were pleasant and friendly and seem mainly interested in photographing all aspects of the aircraft.

We were then taken to customs/immigration. Despite the fact that we had the correct visas and the correct approvals for the aircraft to enter Russia we were both taken to a room and interviewed together. We were asked questions like What were we doing in Russia? Who was funding our visit? Who was our sponsor? How much cash were we carrying? Did we know that the aircraft had to leave Russia within 12 monts ??? etc.. The whole process took about two hours while we watched the arrival of an aircraft from Tashkent. We could not get the message across to the authorities that we were just a couple of young guys having fun. They finally allowed us to enter Russia and at no time did they check the contents of our bags.

When we got through the system, at about 8.45 pm, Anastasia and Dennis, friends of Barry's, were waiting to meet us. They took us to The Boutique Hotel where we stayed. Vladivostok was about 50 km from the airport.

It had been a long day and we slept well.

6th June, 2024
It was another cold foggy morning and we have decided to spend three nights in Vladivostok. Vladivostok is on the same time zone as PNG. Vladivostok is the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, and the chief cultural, economic, scientific, and tourism hub of the Russian Far East. It is also the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The city is the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District, and is the home to the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy. Due to its geographical position in Asia, combined with its Russian architecture, the city has been referred to as "Europe in the Far East". With a yearly mean temperature of around 5 °C (41 °F), Vladivostok has a cold climate for its mid-latitude coastal setting.

In the afternoon Anastasia became our driver/tour guide and showed us around Vladivostok. Vladvistok is quite a large city and it has nice hotels, restuarants and coffee lounges. We found good food to be relatively inexpensive by paying for it in Russian Roubles. Dennis joined us in the evening for a meal in a typical Russian bath house followed by a Russian sauna including the body being hit with small bushes. It was a great "Russian" experience complete with typical Russian food.

7th June, 2024
We still have dense fog in Vladivostok.

In Russia they drive on the right hand side of the road and a motor vehicle could have the steering wheel on either side of the vehicle making it a left or right hand drive car. However most of the steeing wheels seemed to be on the right hand side of the car and all cars are driven on the right hand side of the road. The average Russian driver drives with either his foot hard down on the accelerator or the brake. He is also a frequent lane changer and more emphases is placed on the horn than the blinkers. He doesn't wear a seat belt and is frequently on his mobile telephone or looking at and talking to the person sitting beside him. All his is happening while the visibility could be as low as 100 meters and travelling at 100+ kph.

Anastasia and Dennis took us out again and we had lunch in another restuarant that was as good as any restuarant in the west and the food was cheap and excellent.

For dinner we had four king crabs and two flounders for the four of us and the price was about $12.00 in total. Food in Vladivostok is pleantiful, well prepared, well presented and inexpensive.

8th June, 2024
We still have dense fog in downtown Vladivostok, the forecast is Marginal IFR and it is expected to improve towards the afternoon in Khabarovsk (UHHH). We departed Vladivostok with good tail winds and headed for an old military aitstrip called Kalinka (UHHS) which is near Khabarovsk. We landed and was met by Vadin who was driving a "follow me" car and we followed him to some of the old "bunkers" which previously protected Russian fighter aircraft. It would have been a huge complex for both the Russian army and airforce in its day with a very long runway and many "bunkers". Vadin gave us a tour of the former military base and it has now been taken over and operated by a group of Russian aviation enthusiasts. Parked inside the bunkers were a variety of aircraft such as Dorniers, Cessnas, Stintsons, Yaks, Aero Commanders, as well as a number of Mil Helicopters that were left over from the Russian military. Vadin then took us to our hotel in Khabarovsk. We have decided to stay in Khabarovsk for the night as the weather at our next destination is expected to improve considerably tomorrow.

Since last flying in Russia we have noted that the Russians have changed from using meters for altitude to feet. That makes it easier for us but it must have been an enormous task to change over. The Russian controllers are good and easy to understand. They talk to Russian aircraft in Russian but they save English for us.

It is now over a week since we left Mount Hagen yet we are still on the same time zone, all we have done is tracked north and are now at about 48+ degrees north. The days are long as it get light at about 4.00 am and dark at 9.00 pm.

9th June, 2024
We departed Kalinka about mid-day in drizzle and a 400 foot cloud base. We had weather for the first hour of the flight but the last hour was OK for our arrival at Chirok.

On landing at Chirok we were met by about 40 people including the media. Most of the people were aviation enthusiasts who were establishing a new "Air Park" at Chirok. They asked us many questions and did much filming before we could unload the aircraft. The interview was translated by Roman who looked after us very well for the duration of our stay. Roman has a twin engined Aero Volga amphiban that was parked in the hangar and he flies it regularly. Cjirok was a grass runway about 670 meters long. We all sat down at a long bench in the hangar and had a lunch of traditional Russian food and we again all met in a Restuarant for dinner. Chirok is the Russian word for a local small duck and the airstrip is located about 30 km from the main Russian town of Blagoveshchensk.

All the people were so welcoming that we decided to stay an additiional night in Blagoveshchensk as we felt that it would be impolite to rush off after only one day.

It is rather challenging at times for Bob and Barry when they go to a restaurant by themselves as few people speak English. Fortunately all the restaurants seem to have a large coloured picture of the food beside the Russian name on the menu so it makes it easier for them to select what they want to eat. They can just point at the picture to the waiter/waitress and do not have to make chicken or cow noises to be understood!!!

10th June, 2024
This bacame a no fly day.

Blagoveshchensk is the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opposite to the Chinese city of Heihe and has a population of about 250,000. China and Russia are connected here by a major road with a large bridge that spans the Amur River. Local residents can travel easily between both cities but need a passport. The two countries are also in the process of constructing a cable car across the river linking the two cities so that people can travel between them. The cable car tower has been built on the Chinese side but not yet on the Russian side. People will then be able to travel internationally from one country to another by cable car.

The photo to the right shows the city of Heihe acoss the river in China with the red Chinese flag flying betwen us and a large ferris wheel that operates every night.

The Russian Civil Aviation authorities expressed some concern to Roman as to the suitability for our aircraft at being able to take off from the 670 meter dirt/grass airstrip at Chirok with fuel for a 6 hour flight plus reserves and offered for us to come over to the international airport at Blagoveshchensk to refuel and use their long sealed runway. We checked the calculations and with full fuel in the wings we would have 120 gallons which is enough for about 9 to 10 hours of flight and it was confirmed that we would be able to take off with the 670 meters that was available. However Roman and his aviation friends were also concerned as well and got out some heavy equipment to-day and constructed an additional 150 meters of runway for our departure from his new "Air Park" making the length availabe 820 meters which is way over what we require.

Roman and his aviation friends again took us out for an evening meal. This time it was to a Chinese restaurant. It was an excellent Chinese resturant with plenty of good Chinease food.

11th June, 2024
We took up more runway then we expected during the take-off roll at Chirok and we put this down to the runway surface being soft. We departed in fine and beaut weather for Ulan Ude (UIUU), we were given some good shortcuts by the air traffic controller, but the good weather only lasted for the first three hours into the flight. For the last three hours of the flight we were in the weather again.

Upon arrival at Ulan Ude (UIUU) we were taken to visit some Buddist temples and then to our hotel. Not long after we arrived at the hotel the media arrive to interview us. We are apparently now in the media in Russia in both print and TV and we are just two young blokes having some fun.

12th June, 2024
To-day is a non flying day and it is raining.

We decided to go on a day trip to Lake Baikal. We had a good Russian speaking guide (no English) who drove like a typical Russian, through rain and fog to Lake Baikal. Much use was made of the google translator application on our telephones so that we could ask questions in English and our telephones would translate it into Russian so that he could understand what we were saying and he would respond in Russian and our google translator would convert it to English so we could comprehend his response.

Lake Baikal was about a 150 km drive from Ulan Ude and when we arrived we could see little of the lake as it was covered in fog. We stayed for about three hours and the fog was lifting as we left so that we could eventually see the hills on the other side of the Lake. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world at 1,642 meters (5,387 feet) and is 455 meters (1,494 feet) above sea level. It is the worlds largest lake by volume and contains 22-23% of the worlds surface fresh water, more than all of the Great Lakes combined in North America. It is also the worlds oldest lake at about 25-30 Million years old and amongest the clearest.

13th June, 2024
It is always slow getting through security at a large airport, and Ulan Ude (UIUU) was no different. That is why we like to land a smaller airports as there is no security and it is easier to come and go. We also messed up our Instrument departure out of Ulan Ude but we were soon on our way. The flight was one of the better flights in that there were only a couple of lines of cumulous cloud to pick our way through.

At Severny (UNUU) which is a small GA airport near Krasnoyarsk we were met on arrival by the usual photographers as well as an air-traffic controller, Sergey Chadin, who was a friend of Barry's. Sergey and his aviation friends had a big welcome for us after we landed with coffee/tea and pastries in one of the offices in a hanger at the airport. The hanger in the picture above is one of the maintenance hangers at Severny, the floors are tiled and heated, the building is insulated and it was spotless. The weather in Krasnoyarsk today is fine and warm, 30 degrees and hazy.

Sergey then took us to our hotel in Krasnoyarsk.

14th June, 2024
It was a fine day to-day and the temperature got up to 31, that was high for southern Siberia.

Sergey picked us up from our hotel and took us out to "his" airport where he learnt to fly and does aerobatics. It is Kuznetsovo (UNQK) airport and it is a small grass airport on the other side of Krasnoyarsk to where we landed. We watched a Yak 52 do aeros with a person who had come to the airport for a "joy flight". Sergey then gave us a '"city tour" including taking us up to a lookout overlooking the city. Krasnoyarsk has a population of just over 1 million people. We then all went out for dinner to the Tunguska restuarant for Siberian food.

It has been two weeks since we departed from Mount Hagen and we are now about half way across Russia. Since Vladivostok we have been more or less following the Trans Siberian Railway as well as the Trans Siberian Highway as they both go through quite of the places where we landed. We could look down and see them from 10,000 feet and noted that they were generally quite close to one another. The Trans Siberian Highway was finished in 2012 and is 11,000 km long. The Trans Siberian Railway was built berween 1891 and 1916 and extensions are currently being built to Mongolia, China and North Korea. Planning is also underway to connect it to Japan through the Russian Island of Sakhalin and the Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

15th June, 2024
Sergey took us out to the airport and briefed us on the departure out of Severny and it was a short flight of a couple of hours to Novosibirsk (UNNT). Sergey spent a lot of time with us in Krasnoyarsk and made us feel very welcome. We also met his wife and young son Max.

It was fine and there was no enroute weather to Novosibirsk, we flew at 10,000 feet and it would have been our easiest flying day so far.

The temperature in Novosibirsk for our arrival was 31. We were met on the apron by about 10 people all eager to take our photographs and get photographed with us. They then took us to a business lounge for another interview and a nice lunch. Our inteperator for the interview was Julia and she was also to be our driver/guide for the duration of our stay.

Julia drove us out to a small airfield called Mochishe where there was an enthusiastic group of aviators who were running a flying school and restoring aircraft. They were even restoring a C47 (DC3, Dakota). Oleg, a friend of Barry's, flew up to meet us at Mochishe in a Chech Republic built Evktor. Barry then flew back to Oleg's place with Oleg in the Evktor where he too had an airport known as Novosibirsk North (UNCC). On the way back to our hotel we called in to a into the "Puppen Haus" restaurant for dinner. This was a restaurant that had all kinds of dolls and memorabilia mounted around the walls and in display cabinets. It was still quite light at 10.30 pm, time had gotten away from us and it was 11.30 pm before we returned to our hotel, this was the latest night for us on the trip so far. It was a long day and it was just as well that the next day was to be a non flying day.

16th June, 2024
It was another hot, fine, but hazy day in Novosibirsk.

We spent the morning catching up on emails etc. Julia set up a meeting with some "international" people who said that they would like to meet with us. It turned out that the meeting was to be beside a bon fire at the edge of a lake on one of the hydro dams in the area. The drive to the "beach" was about an hour followed by a rough steep walk down to the "beach". We then decided that it was not for us so we cancelled the visit and drove another hour back to town.

Julia took us to her house and collected her daughter and we all went out for Russian food.

17th June, 2024
It was time to leave Novosibirsk and due to traffic it was an hours drive with Julia from our hotel to the airport. Despite the fact that it was a large secure airport, the airport staff were efficient in getting us through the VIP security system and out to the apron where our aircraft was. There was another green uniformed security person who approached us looking for some stamped paperwork prior to our departure. We gave him some but told him that we needed it for our departure out of Russia. He went away with the paperwork and came back after about 30 minutes and told us that it was OK to depart and gave us more stamped papers. We then contacted flight clearances for our departure clearance and were told that they did not have our flight plan, despite the fact that it was lodged the previous day. The details came through about 10 minutes later and we started the engine. It was then apparent that we had an issue with the right magneto on the engine, however once the engine warmed up the problem seemd to go away. We finally got away about an hour after our planned departure time.

There was some weather en route and we ran into an embeddded cell that we could not see and the verticlal speed gauge indicated that we were ascending skywards at 3,000 feet per minute. The controller could see us on his radar climbing like a jet and wanted to know if we would like to change our level from 10,000 feet. Once through the cell we told the controller that we would like to descent back down to our normal flight level.

It was a relatively short flight of just over two hours and we were only calling in to Popovka (UNOY) near Omsk for fuel. There was the usual media of about 20 people to greet us when we landed and the usual interview and photographs followed.

However we decided to see if we could find the cause of the rough running engine when it was cold. There were some Russian engineers and a good workshop at Popovka and they quickly found that the points gap on our right magneto was not enough. This was adjusted to the correct gap as well as an oil and filter change. The aircraft was tested and all was OK. The Popovka airport is owned by Alexandra and he and his engineers were very friendly and most helpful in sorting out our aeroplane issues. The Russian Engineers were very good on Lycoming engines and they even balanced the prop.

As a result of this we then decided to stay the night at Popovka and stayed in the "pilots" accommodation at the airport that was the top floor of Alexandra's log house.

18th June, 2024
We were scheduled to go to Tobolsk (USTJ) to-day but the airport was closed from to-day for two days so we decided to skip it and go directly to Samara. On checking the weather at Samara it did not seem to be suitable for our arrival so we decided to stay another day at Popovka and depart early tomorrow. Popovaka is located on the Trans Siberian Highway and there are many trucks going in both directions along the highway adjacent to the airport. Popovaka is not far from the border with Kazakhstan and Omsk is also a train station located on the Trans Siberian Railway.

It was cold and windy in Popovka today so we stayed inside the log house where it was warm and we were out of the wind.

Alexandra and his wife took us to downtown Omsk to the Nana restuarant for dinner. It was a Georgian restuarant and we were fed Georgian food.

19th June, 2024
We decided to give Tobolsk a miss and go directly to Somara, however there were some weather issues at Somara but we determined that if we arrived at 9.00 am local time then it should be OK. It was a 6 hour flight and there was a two hour time change so we became airborne from Popovka just after 5.00 am. There was some enroute weather about half way through the flight and the controller requested us to descend to 1,700 feet as there was some military activity in the area. It was interesting flying in Russia about 1,000 feet above ground level with the Urals approaching. We stayed at 1,700 feet for about 30 minutes and then the controller got us to climb back up to 10,000 feet. We landed at Krasny Yar (UWWQ), a small airport outside of the city of Somara where the Aerovolga group of aeroplanes are manufactured.

We were met by Sergey Alafinov a well known Russian pilot and also the owner of Aerovolga. Sergey also knew Bob's former Russian aviation friend with the same name, Sergey Terekhin.

After lunch Sergey took us on a city tour of Samara and then to a nice restaurant for dinner near the very long beach prominade beside the Volga River and there we watched the sun set over the Volga.

It turned out to be a 20+ hour day for Bob n Baz and they were ready to sleep as soon as they arrived back and were in their room at the small airport.

20th June, 2024
This was a non flying day with breakfast at a rather late (for us) time of 9.00 am.

Sergey took us for a tour of the manufacturing facility for the all composite Aerovolga fleet of aircraft. They are all amphibian flying boats and the manufacturing facility was impressive with many aircraft under construction. There was very little aluminium used in their construction and it was mainly carbon fibre and composite plastic like materials. All the aircraft were well finished and were fitted with Lycoming (IO 540), Rotax, Chinese copy Rotax engines or a Czech turbine, whatever the customer specified. Sergey also had in the design stage a 4 engined flying boat (Amphibian) fitted with four Rotax engines.

Sergey and his staff looked after us both really well for the duration of our stay.

21st June, 2024
We were to fly to Kazan this morning, a rather short flight of less than an hour but were advised that the airspace around Kazan was closed for two days due to some officials arriving at Kazan. As a result we have decided to spend the time here in Somara and catch up on much needed stuff like washing, correspondence etc, and generally taking it easy in our large common room. We have a very large building on the airfield to ourselves, we have a good cook who feeds us and looks after us and it is a nice quiet place as well.

We have also been advised that as we approach Moscow we could expect some jamming of GPS signals (because of possible drones) so we now have a Russian road map with us and our planned track drawn on the map as a back-up incase we have to revert to visual flying with a clock and compass to get into Moscow.

Russia has a large land border with China and the Chinese have become a big trading partner with Russia. This is evident by the large number or Chinese cars and trucks in Russia and as we have seen, even aircraft engines. The aviation people in Russia tell us that the Chinese aircraft engines are better than the ones from the west. There is also the easy access to China by highways being built between Russia and China.

22nd June, 2024
We are now into our 4th day at Somara, the airspace at Kazan is still closed so we are going to have to give Kazan a miss. Today it is quite cloudy in Somara, there are tunderstorms around and it is raining. It is a good day to have a non flying day and we are taking it easy in our large house that we have to ourselves on the Krasny Yar Airfield. Barry even found time to clean ZK-BAZ.

Samara is a transportation and industrial hub, as well as home to one of Russia's top engineering institutions, Samara State Aerospace University, which has helped to pioneer Russia's innovative space program. Stalin also had a bunker here during WWII and it is now a museum.

Since entering Russia we have not seen any tourists, nor have we come across anyone whose mother tongue is English, everyone we have met so far has been Russian speaking and they try very hard to communicate with us in English.

23rd June, 2024
After becoming airbourne at Krasny Yar and sorting out our departure and clearance through the radar controller at Somana we were soon on our desired track, climbing and on our way. However in less than 5 minutes the GPS signals were jammed and we lost our position information, had no tracking details and not even a ground speed, our Garmin tracker had also stopped working. Our atlas/road map was of no help either as we were in cloud and could not see the ground. The very helpful radar controller offered to give us radar vectoring and this we accepted and we seemed to be the only aircraft in the air in this sector in Russia. Barry then looked up the information that he had and located a couple of VOR's on route so he set these up and they seemed to work fine. This all lasted for about 45 minutes and then the GPS system became active again, but it was again jammed on our descent into Pavlovskoe (UUIP).

The media were waiting for us at Pavlovskoe when we landed with TV cameras and magazine journalists, so will will be back on Russian TV again.

We drove to our hotel which was in the city of Suzdal and we went on a tour of the city. Suzdal is a very old city and will celebrate 1,000 years since it was founded in August 1024. It is a city of many Churches, Monasteries, Convents, Bell Towers and it even has a Kremlin (Fortress). There were thousands of tourists in the city looking at the old and religious attractions and all the tourists were Russian. We had a good English speaking guide who said that previously many foreign tourists visited the attractions in Suzdal but we were the first English speaking people that she had acted as a guide for in three years. She said that there were only Russian tourists these days, it is a two hour drive to Moscow from Suzdal. Our driver Llya came with us and returned us to our hotel where we all had dinner together.

Bob picked up a cold/sniffle along the way and is getting over it and he has now shared it with Barry.

24th June, 2024
Uhriy and Llya took us on a city tour of Vladimir, it has a population of just over 300,000 and they also took us for lunch to a restaurant with a view. As we approach Moscow we feel that we have probably just scratched the surface in our flight across Russia by landing at the smaller General Aviation type airfields that are near large towns and are run by aviation enthusiasts like Uhriy and Llya both of whom own aircraft that are based at Pavovskoe. There must be many more airfields in Russia that we did not visit or even know about. We have been made welcome at all the small airfields that we landed at by people like Uhriy and Llya, and others. They all really went out of their way to ensure that our stay was as seemless and as enjoyable as possible.

Vladimir is situated on the Klyazma River and was founded in 1108 by Vladimir II Monomakh, grand prince of Kiev. The community became the centre of a princedom, deriving importance from trade along the Klyazma. In 1157 Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky moved his capital there from Kiev. The city was twice sacked by the Mongols (1238, 1293) and on each occasion it rapidly recovered.

The city possesses some superb examples of early Russian architecture. Especially noteworthy among these are the Kremlin, the Cathedral of the Assumption, originally built in 1158, the triumphal Golden Gate also built in 1158, and the Cathedral of St. Dmitry 1197. Many of the buildings in Vladimir, along with many of those in neighbouring Suzdal, are collectively called the White Monuments and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992.

25th June, 2024
The flight to-day was from Pavlovskoe (UUIP), Vladimir to Konakovo (UUEL) Moscow, it was a short flight of just over an hour. Immediately after becomimg airbourne at Pavlovskoe the GPS signals were jammed and we had no GPS information for the duration of the flight to Konokovo. Our Garmin tracker also went out. The radar controller was helpful and gave us radar vectors and monitored our track for the duration of the flight. For the last sector of the flight to the runway we had to rely on visual reference with the ground. The GPS jamming is caused by radio frequencies being generated that are stronger than the GPS signals coming from the satellites and I guess that it is used to deny GPS informations to drones that may target Russia from the Ukraine.

There were media people to meet us at Konokovo as well as Pavel, a longtime friend of both Bob and Sergey Terekhin. The airport is a private one that is mainly used for helicopters and is located about 100 km north of Moscow. Evgeny, our Russian handler was also there to meet us and he flew us to a heliport in Moscow in his helicopter, a Robinson 66. We went to Evgeny's office and then onto our hotel in a black vehicle that looked like one that the "A team" used in their TV series. In 2014 Evgeny flew his Robinson 66 helicopter, the one in the above photo, from Moscow to New Zealand and back.

It was an early night for both of us.

26th June, 2024
It was a non flying day. We did a city tour of Moscow with an English speaking person, her name was Lana.

Moscow is the capital and the largest city in Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at over 18.8 million residents in the city and urban areas and they cover 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 sq mi). Moscow is among the world's largest cities, being the most populous city in its entirety in Europe, the largest urban and metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent. It is clean, vibrant and "never sleeps".

Pavel took us both out to dinner for a river cruise on the Moskva River. The cruise operated between the Kremlin and the tall "glass buildings" in down town Moscow. There were many people having dinner on the cruise and loud music was played over the speaker system on the vessel. We left the vessel at about 9.30 pm and another dinner cruise was just starting.

27th June, 2024
It was another non flying day, we did more sightseeing and met up with Olga, a Russian Travel writer who had previously been to PNG. Bob and Olga went to see a huge complex that was built in the Stalin era that had large pavillions for all the former republics, like Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan etc that existed under the USSR while Barry took in the atmosphere of Moscow.

We all went out to a Georgian restaurant for dinner with a couple of friends of Olga's and consumed some more Georgian food.

Bob and Barry caught a taxi back to their hotel at about 10.00 pm but the others carried on as for as they say, Moscow never sleeps.

28th June, 2024
This was to be another non flying day and the morning was spent catching up on emails, flight planning etc.

Our perception of the city of Moscow was one of old soviet style buildings as well as large stately buildings that were constructed many decades ago like the Moscow State University (50,000 rooms).

However downtown Moscow now has modern classy "glass sky scrapers" of all shapes and sizes. The Evolution Tower is one of the more "different designs" that have been built in Moscow. It is 246 meters tall and has 54 floors. The design is similar to the double helix-shape of DNA. This is possibly why the building reflects two ribbons wrapping around each other, symbolizing the inter-linking of individuals, generations, and families.

The tallest building in Moscow is the east wing of the Federation tower, it has 101 floors and is 419 meters tall.

Moscow too has its traffic jams, as most big cities do, and has a high proportion of expensive cars on its roads like, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, BMWs, Mercedes, Lamborghinis, Range Rovers etc. People have not been able to import new cars into Russia, for the last couple of years, due to sanctions being in place. There are also quite a large number of Chinese made cars on the roads around Moscow. Most of the cars here have the steering wheel on the left hand side and of course they drive on the right hand side of the road. This is in direct contrast to the cars in Vladivostok and this would be influenced by the cars in Moscow coming from Europe whereas in Vladivostok they would come from Japan.

We have not yet come across an English speaking "tourist" since we first arrived in Russia over three weeks ago.

29th June, 2024
We were back in the air again to-day. Evgeny flew us in his R66 helicopter from the heli port in Moscow to where our aircraft was parked at Konakovo (UUEL). After take off we experienced GPS jamming for the duration of the flight. We managed to get by with a compass and a clock, as well as doing some map reading and the controllers were again helpful with radar vectors. We departed Konakovo (UUEL) Moscow, and landed in the rain at Novgorod (ULLK).

Some friendly folks at the Novgorod airport gave us a lift to our hotel and we then did a walking tour of the town with an English speaking guide, Natalie. Despite Novgorod being a well know "tourist town" Natalie told us that we were the first English speaking people that she has had to guide in 3 years. We saw the usual churches and of course there was another Kremlin to visit.

Bob's feet started to ache so he and Barry sat down beside the nice lady in the photo who was also exhausted and had sore feet and had taken her shoes off.

30th June, 2024
Todays flight from Novgorod (ULLK) to Saint Petersburg (ULLI) was again done without any GPS signals for it was jammed for the entire flight. It was only a short flight, less than and hour, and we landed at the main International airport in Saint Petersburg as our next flight will be an international one. The Air Traffic Controllers were good in giving us radar vectors for a more or less straight in visual approach for runway 28R.

We left Saint Petersburg Airport via the domestic terminal and Victoria, our English speaking guide, was there to meet us. As neither of us had been to Saint Petersburg before Victoria immediately took us on the obligatory city tour which consisted of many more churches. The most interesting one, without doubt, was the Kazansky Cathedral, a monument to Russian military glory. It was built on the eve of the War of 1812, following an impassioned prayer before the Kazan icon for the Mother of God, the great Russian military commander Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuzov set out to join the Russian forces near Somolensk.

Victoria took us to lunch for some more good Russian food. Bob and Barry have now been in Russia for so long that they will soon be able to apply for Russian citizenship. The only problem that they would have would be passing the Russian language test in all categories of speaking, reading and writing.

1st July, 2024
A non-flying day in Saint Petersburg.

Victoria came and collected us again and we saw some more elaborate churches as well as going to Kotlin Island where we saw a Russian Navy Church that was the biggest of them all. Victoria's English was good but she drove her Mercedes like a Russian.

This is our last full day in Russia. We started in Vladivostok and finished in Saint Petersburg. On the way we visited 12 Russian cities/towns and spoke with a broad section of people in the communities that we visited. We stayed in a wide variety of hotels/accommodation facilities. The average Russian has not been severely affected by the special operation/war in Ukraine. They dress well, have nice shoes, drive good cars and enjoy a high standard of living. They go about their lives normally, couples stroll hand in hand, they go to work, the children go to school, the family has regular outings, they listen to Russian and Western music, the streets are washed daily, the cities are clean, food is plentiful and good, hotels and restuarants operate normally and people are friendly and happy with their life. The Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, etc is being replaced with cars made in China. There are no flights between Russia and Europe and there are now thousands of Russian people being tourists in their own country. There were large crowds of people walking around the tourist areas of Saint Petersburg and Moscow but they were all Russians. The price of petrol is about 60 US cents a liter and food is inexpensive. We saw no beggers or "Street people". The internet service was available in all the areas that we visited and it was fast and reliable.

The GPS jamming interferes with the GPS systems in cars and other GPS devices. The BBC and Linked-in were blocked as were some other social media sites. It was not possible to use a "foreign credit card" even to pay a foreign bill via the internet. Some web sites in the US also blocked us from accessing them as our IP address was coming from Russia.

The Russian people generally do not talk about the issue between Russia and Ukraine, they feel that it does not affect them and they can get on with a normal life. However they hope that it will end soon.

We had a lot of waiting time that was taken up by the bureaucratic systen in Russia especially when we went through a major airport. It would take between two and five hours just to get through all he bureaucratic paperwork that was required by security/customs etc.

Russia and Papua New Guinea have a common problem with adverse travel advisories issued about them by some countries, in that they were probably written by people who spent little time, if any, on the ground in either country.

2nd July, 2024
We were scheduled to fly to Malmo (ESMS) in Sweden, the flight plan was in place, breakfast was taken at 8.00 am and we were at St Petersberg International airport at 9.00 am ready to go through Customs & immigation for a 10.00 am departure. Going through the international departure systen we were confronted with delays, paperwork, and the Russian bureaucratic system and it took us until 2.45 pm until we were able to take off, a total of 5 hours and 45 minites. Bob spent most of the time sitting at departure gate 59 while Barry was sitting in a separate room by himself in the customs area waiting for customs to give us approval to leave. Barry also had to enter Russia for a second time to go to Customs and had to depart Russia again through the departure gates/system.

Our departure from Saint Petersburg was of course with a GPS that was being jammed so standard departures could not be used but the controllers were helpful by giving us more radar vectors. The GPS signals re-commenced to operate our GPS navigation system when we were one hour and twelve minutes into the flight and well over Estonia.

We arrived in Malmo to be greeted by a long time (36 years) friend of Bob's, Rudi Knospie. Rudi represented Air Niugini in Europe for many years and he came up from Germany to see us. There were European border force people there as well to check our passports etc as it was an international flight. Our passports were stamped quickly and without any fuss or interrogation.

The three of us went out to an Indian restaurant for our evening meal in Malmo and we stayed near the airport in the Airport Hotel.

3rd July, 2024
Rudi was at the Malmo airport to see us off as were the border force people who stamped our passports again. We took off and headed for Humberside (EGNJ)(Hull in the UK) more or less on time. The temperature had dropped and we picked up some ice in the clouds during the flight and finished the flight off with an RNP approach into Humberside. As it was another international flight we were required to land at an international port of entry. The immigration people were not interested in us and did not come to see us on our arrival. However the "police" were interested and they came to see us and quiz us about our flight throgh Russia. As soon as we got that out of the way we started to leave but found out that there was a shortage of air traffic controllers and that Humberside airport was closed for 45 more minutes due to an air traffic controller not being available.

As soon as the airport opened again we headed off on a short flight of about 10 minutes to Breighton (EG40) where some friends of Barry's from his Goroka days, Bill and Kate Hart, were there to meet us. ZK-BAZ was put to bed in a hanger where it will remain for the next 6 to 7 weeks.

Bill and Kate took us to their home where we both are now staying.

4th July, 2024
Bob's nice and her mother, (Emely & Tina) came over from Germany to see us and we met them for dinner at the Ibus in Hull. There were a total of 6 of us for dinner and most of us had fish & chips with mashed peas.

This is the end of the first half of the flight, Sandra (Barry's wife) will come over and join him in the UK on Saturday (6th July, 2024)while Bob will return to PNG and come back to Humberside next month after the Hagen Show and Bob and Baz will then continue with the second half of the around the world flight 100.