From Ulan Ude to Krasnoyarsk and tomorrow maybe further

After the weather front was over, the weather in Ulan-Ude has settled, the wind calmed down and the sky cleared. Unfortunately, the new center of the cyclone was moving faster towards Krasnoyarsk, as it seemed in the evening; so we tried to postpone the flight an hour earlier. However, being in Russia, this was not possible. When I just tried to pull my plane out on the smooth asphalt, they were going crazy. But other than that I feel like on vacation. Andrej is taking care of all the papers at the airports, he communicates with controllers; I just hold my stick in the plane, or even not even that when I switch to autopilot. It is much less stressful than before.
At 9 local time we flew into a clear sky and hoped that the weather forecast will be wrong and that the weather in Krasnoyarsk would be much better than forecasted: temperatures 2°, a few clouds at 400 feet and covered at 1300 feet, light rain and snow – which is ideal for frost.

First the controller asked us to fly on 3000 m of altitude. We flew across partly frozen Baikal Lake, where the wind was almost 30 kts into nose. Finally, they let us fly on 5000 feet, where the wind was better and more suitable, the landscape nicer, and the layer of black carbon as well on this altitude. We flew over Angara river, mostly frozen, then we continued across the vast Siberian forests somehow northwest direction. Here and there occasionally a village or town, but mainly forests, covered with snow. Winter here this year was long and cold, too.

We spotted some fires in the east towards the north. Firstly, the sunny weather changed halfway into a high cloudiness, then a cloudy layer appeared below, but we flew across the snowy storms. Towards Krasnoyarsk, the visibility was dropping, we were flying about 400 meters above the ground, mostly in the clouds, and just before the airport we saw the airplane strip, we joined into the short finals and landed at the Krasnoyarsk Severny Airport. It is an airport with many aircraft and helicopters of general aviation, nicely arranged and managed, at reasonable prices. It was just above the zero degrees, the wind, the rain, and the snow. I find it incredible that ice has not accumulated on the plane.

At night, the front should cross over us and we hope for better and more appropriate flight conditions against Omsk.
Even though evening check on the weather does not give us much hope. We will see what the morning will bring.

Iz Ulan Ude do Krasnoyarska in mogoče jutri še naprej

Po prehodu fronte, se je vreme v Ulan Ude uredilo, veter se je umiril, nebo jasno. Žal se je nov center ciklona hitreje pomikal proti Krasnoyarsku, kot je kazalo zvečer, zato sva poizkusila polet prestaviti za kakšno uro prej, vendar smo v Rusiji, kjer se nič ne da. Že ko sem na roke potegnil letalo na bolj gladek asfalt, so ponoreli.

Drugače pa se sedaj počutim kot na počitnicah. Andrej ureja vse papirje na letališču, komunicira s kontrolorji, jaz samo držim palico v letalu, ali pa še to ne, kadar je vklopljen avtopilot. Veliko manj stresa kot prej.

Ob 9 lokalno sva le poletela v jasno nebo in upala, da so vremenske napovedi nezanesljive in, da bo v Krasnoyarsku bolje kot so napovedali, temperatura 2 stopinji, nekaj oblakov na 400 ft in pokrito na 1300 ft, rahel dež in sneg. Idealno za zaledenitev.

Najprej nas je kontrolor poslal na 3000 m preko delno zamrznjenega Bajkalskega jezera, kjer je bil veter skoraj 30kts v nos. Potem so naju le spustili na 5000 ft, kjer je bil veter ugodnejši, pokrajina lepša, plast črnega ogljika pa prav nekje na tej višini. Preletela sva veliko reko Angaro, večinoma še vedno zamrznjeno, potem pa preko prostranih sibirskih gozdov proti SZ. Včasih kakšno naselje, v glavnem pa so gozdovi, še vedno delno pokriti s snegom. Letošnja zima je bila tudi v teh krajih zelo mrzla in dolgotrajna.

Nekaj požarov sva opazila proti vzhodu, nekaj proti severu. Najprej lepo sončno vreme se je na polovici spremenilo v sivo-turobno visoko oblačnost, potem se je tudi spodaj pojavil oblačen sloj, vmes pa sva letela čez snežne plohe. Proti Krasnoyarsku se je vidljivost še spuščala, letela sva okrog 400 m nad tlemi, večinoma v oblakih in šele tik pred letališčem zagledala stezo, se vključila v kratki finale in pristala na manjšem letališču Krasnoyarsk Severni, z veliko letali in helikopterji splošnega letalstva, lepo urejeno, po zmernih cenah. Malo nad ničlo, veter, dež in sneg. Se mi zdi prav neverjetno, da se na letalu ni nabiral led.

Ponoči naj bi fronta prešla in upava na primerne razmere za let proti Omsku. Čeprav večerni pregled vremena ne daje veliko upanja. Bomo videli, kaj bo prineslo jutro.