Wings over Asia

Photography by the author, Air Journey, and Keith Abela

If you go: Hong Kong

Hong Kong is predominantly a business destination and for that reason wouldn’t top most people’s list of vacation spots, but if you’re in the area, stopping there even for only a day is an absolute must. Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories, and hundreds of offshore islands. Most of that terrain is steep and mountainous, so only 25 percent lends itself to development. With that little space for buildings, the only way is up, which makes for the spectacular skyline of Victoria Harbour, a magnificent line of high rises guarded by verdant mountains. It’s best seen from Victoria Peak. To get there, take the Peak Tram—climbing the mountain at an impossibly steep angle—or walk or use the bus. In the evening, a light show regularly highlights Victoria Harbour. Enjoy it from the Avenue of Stars, but get there early; the place is mobbed.

Both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula offer plenty of shopping; as a matter of fact, Hong Kong is every shopper’s dream (and other people’s nightmare), and a lot of products are tax-free. Most luxury labels maintain several stores, and most knock-offs are being sold at the street markets—take your pick. Air Journey shoppers enjoyed the Ladies Market, marveling at the sheer number of handbags, scarves, shoes, and more. Hone your bartering skills and get a souvenir. If you’re in the market for electronics, visit the Mong Kok district.

If that’s not your cup of tea, relax and take a cruise of Victoria Harbour or visit the Hong Kong Museum of History to explore how Hong Kong has changed over time. Finish your day with one last look at Victoria Harbour at “Felix,” the top-floor bar of one of Hong Kong’s most famous hotels, The Peninsula. —Sylvia Horne

Because of the need for dispatch reliability and the rather ambitious itinerary, weather factors, and the distances involved, nearly all of the pilots who take Air Journey’s around-the-world trip fly turboprops or jets.

Back in 2008, I was lucky enough to fly along on the first legs of Air Journey’s first-ever around-the-world (RTW) trip, from Quebec City to Paris, via Nuuk, Greenland; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Inverness, Scotland. This year, my luck held once again. Only this time I flew legs closer to the home stretch, on legs from Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei to Jeju, South Korea; and Jeju to Nagoya, Japan.

“The trip of a lifetime” is a superlative that’s often way overused. But not when it comes to an Air Journey RTW. Great food, five-star hotels, epic sightseeing, and lifelong camaraderie are key features. And so is the attention to flight planning, as well as overflight and other permits, which Air Journey handles for you. It’s all part of a 76-day odyssey that takes owner-pilots to 40 airports in 29 nations. The price? $88,000 per person, which covers hotels and most meals—but not fuel.

The company on this year’s RTW was as impressive as it was genial. Jimmy Hayes of Atlanta flew his PC–12, along with former airline pilots Danny and Laura Azara. David and Betty Schlacter of Peoria flew their TBM 850. Flying their Sierra-modified Citation ISP was Bill and Corinna Hettinger of Tampa. And Brad and Deborah Howard flew their Twin Commander 690B, along with son Scott. My wife Sylvia and I flew with Air Journey founder and President Thierry Pouille. Perhaps best of all, I got to log six hours of left-seat time in Pouille’s Cessna Mustang.

Flying foreign. Here in the United States, takeoffs and landings are comparatively simple. But overseas flying can throw you some serious curveballs. As soon as I arrived at Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel for the next day’s trip briefing, I was hearing stories about arrivals to the Hong Kong International Airport. Apparently, the drill is to fly at no less than 230 knots until reaching the final approach fix, and then make a frantic effort to slow down and descend for the landing. No doubt about it, Hong Kong has to be one of the busiest airports in the world—and it seems the only way to make it all work, there and elsewhere, is for the controllers to slam-dunk everyone as fast they can.

Then there are the language issues. Yes, English is the international language of aviation, and controllers do give it their best—but, to cite but one example, a Burmese controller kept asking for what sounded to the pilots like “maknum.” Thinking it was a request for each airplane’s Mach number, the group dutifully answered, only to have the request repeated. Turns out the controller wanted an estimate to an intersection he couldn’t properly pronounce. Speaking of estimates, radar coverage can be spotty in far-flung airspace, so position reports and ETAs to fixes are often requested.

If you go: Jeju, South Korea

Take the kids. Seriously. Air Journey’s group stayed at the Jungmun Tourist Resort Complex in Seogwipo, where a lot of Korean (and an increasing number of mainland Chinese) families spend their vacation. They all bring their kids. If you prefer a less “active” lifestyle, you may want to stay away from the big resorts.

There is a lot to see on the island. First is the World Heritage Site Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes, which is comprised of three sites: Mount Hallasan Natural Reserve, Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, and the Geomunoreum Lava Tube System. Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak is a cinder cone, connected to the main island by a small strip of land. Beautiful by itself, it offers breathtaking views of sunset and sunrise and is—depending on your degree of fitness and your shoes (high heels are not uncommon, but not advisable)—easily accessible by a system of stairs, which lead to a viewing platform.

The island is best discovered by the Olle walking paths, an ancient, interconnected trail system inaccessible by cars. These coastal trails will lead you to remote forests and beaches and offer spectacular views of the islands’ natural beauty.

If you’re tired of walking, kids and adults alike will have fun at the Art and Alive Museum, where classic paintings through “trompe l’oeil” (deceive the eye) techniques assume a three-dimensional aspect and invite visitors to interact with the painting. —Sylvia Horne

Engine start times are additional overseas novelties. We’re used to firing up and calling for our clearances. But in places like Hong Kong and Taipei, the drill is to call ATC for permission to start engines. This can be a pain when you’re sitting in the cockpit and it’s 92 degrees with humidity to match, but it does save you fuel and it does help traffic flow at busy airports—especially when your allotted “slot” time for takeoff keeps getting delayed because of congestion.

Then there are transition altitudes and levels. Here, we have one altitude where we change our altimeters to standard pressure—18,000 feet. But elsewhere, transition altitudes (when climbing into the flight levels) and transition levels (when descending out of them) vary.

Handling. Other formalities include not just creating and filing flight plans, but obtaining overflight permits for crossing into each nation’s airspace, securing and paying for landing permits and fees, plus obtaining takeoff slot times. Oh, and you also need to arrange for going through customs and immigrations procedures. You conceivably can do all this by yourself, but it could drive you nuts in the process. Luckily, Air Journey does the flight planning and handles all the rest through a network of handlers. Like Misao (“Mickey”) Nagae, our handler in Nagoya. When we all landed, Nagae was there to speed our way through the bureaucratic hoops—one of which involved a health officer beaming a temperature detector at our foreheads. Got a fever? Then you’ll be quarantined!

Stick time. The night before a flying day, there’s a detailed pilot briefing about the upcoming route, so there’s little surprise about what’s to come. For the departures at Hong Kong and Taipei, all the pilots had to wait for engine start times—and the Mustang’s was delayed by 30 minutes in steam-bath heat and humidity. But, by turns, we were cleared for takeoff between jumbo jets. The standard instrument departures (SID) were remarkably simple. At Hong Kong International (VHHH), it was a 180-knot climb to 14,000 feet to Ocean intersection, followed by a direct climb to FL330 following a 435-nm route that carefully avoided the Chinese mainland.

The only issues for the Mustang were the much higher-than-standard conditions (ISA +19 degrees) prevailing that day. The 180-knot climb speed (160 knots is more customary) didn’t yield an optimal climb rate, so it took us longer than usual to reach cruising altitude. And once there, we registered a 309-knot true airspeed; under standard conditions that speed would be more like 340 knots. So a slight change in ambient temperature can mean big changes in performance.

A mere one hour, 22 minutes later, the island of Taiwan appeared beneath a shelf of broken skies.We were assigned the ILS Runway 23R approach to Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (RCTP) and after an uneventful landing, the group quickly cleared customs and immigration at the Taiwan Business Center FBO, then got in the van, bound for the Grand Hotel Regent Taipei Hotel.

If you go: Taipei

Taipei’s history is long and marked by different cultures, but its development as a cultural, political, and economic center started in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek lost his battle with communist China and withdrew to Taiwan—together with well-educated mainland Chinese and their capital (gold and currency). If you’re into trivia, you’ll relish this tidbit: Taipei owns and displays all of the interior riches of the Forbidden City (Beijing) in its National Palace Museum, while the Forbidden City itself remains devoid of glam.

There are several points of interest in Taipei, but don’t miss Taipei 101, the skyscraper that at 1,670 feet until recently was the world’s tallest building—and still boasts the world’s fastest elevator. Air Journey’s travellers, however, were enchanted by the Longshan Temple because of its beautiful architecture and the local worshippers who went about their business singing and praying, unencumbered by curious tourists.

Taipei’s pride in its political leader Chiang Kai-shek is reflected in the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which is flanked by the National Concert Hall and the National Museum, an impressive architectural ensemble. The changing of the guard at the memorial is as precise as anything you’d witness in London.

And then there’s Guang Hua Digital Plaza, a six-story, indoor electronics market the likes of which you’ve never seen. Any gadget you could dream up already exists in one of the hundreds of tiny stalls stuffed from floor to ceiling with electronics. Air Journey’s Thierry Pouille had his cracked iPhone screen repaired. It took 15 minutes and gave him a rare insight into the inner workings of his phone. Garmin’s primary production facility for consumer goods is located in Taipei. —Sylvia Horne

For the 576-nm, one hour, 48-minute leg from Taoyuan to Jeju International (RKPC) in South Korea, each airplane departed at five-minute-slot intervals. Our Mustang went first, and, despite ISA +17 conditions, we reached FL330 in a respectable 30 minutes, although we scrapped the original FL370 cruising altitude because it would have taken more time getting there. And here are the numbers for the cruise to Jeju, which are very similar to our performance on all the East Asia legs at FL330: 178 KIAS; 309 KTAS; and a total fuel burn of 580 pph (about 86 gph).

After landing at Jeju we taxied past a “follow me” truck to out parking spaces—hard by several 747-400s!—passed customs, and into the van bound for the hotel.

You’ve probably noticed that these legs lasted no more than two hours, covering approximately 500 nm each. That’s by design, to minimize fatigue, ensure adequate fuel reserves, and leave more time for fun at each stop. The whole itinerary is also optimized for the best weather. The RTW trips take place in the more climatologically benign months of the year. For the North Atlantic and European segments, May and June are usually free of winter’s ice and low ceilings. As for the Mediterranean legs—well, this area is nearly always tame. The desert regions are predictably dry, and by June and July the worst monsoons affecting South and Southeast Asia haven’t kicked in quite yet. And for the East Asian legs I flew, typhoon season hasn’t really spooled up yet—although we did manage to dodge typhoons Rammasun and Neoguri, the first of the season.

We flew the 527-nm leg to Nagoya (RJNA) at FL330 again, and once more the trip was a short one—one hour, 39 minutes. As usual, Bill and Corinna Hettinger took the high road, flying their Sierra-modified Citation ISP up at FL430. The Schlacters’ TBM flew at FL290; the Howards’ Twin Commander took FL270 on that leg; and Hayes’ PC–12 flew at FL250-270, where it would make its best speed. Using 123.45 MHz, each ship stayed in contact with the other, sharing weather and wind information.

Flying the ILS to Nagoya’s Runway 34 I felt a reassuring familiarity with the airplane. We might be in the Orient, but most terminal procedures have the same feel worldwide, and there’s a comfort in that. So it was 60-percent N1 and flaps 15 while maneuvering to intercept the localizer, gear down at one dot above the glideslope, then 50-percent power and full flaps while riding the pipe at 98 knots, then the VREF of 91 knots approaching the threshold. Pull back the power halfway as you cross the approach lights, then go to idle once over the runway. With any luck it’ll be a gentle “erk” as the mains touch down.

Stepping out the door to meet Mickey, it finally sank in. My time on the trip was coming to an end. But no matter. A bullet-train ride to visit Japan’s original capital, Kyoto, was waiting. More so than ever, I realized just how fortunate I am to be a pilot, to have been on such an epic voyage, and to have had such outstanding company.

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