The quality of communication between M and I is deteriorating due, in part, to time difference as he struggles eastwards (I think?) but also because I am spending increasingly long hours at my desk. Our conversations now take place as I drive home - 20.00 hrs for me; midnight for M.
He informed me that last night's conversation cost 40 quid.
Last night M told me that he would walk to the airport at Muscat this morning as he could not hail a taxi or flag down a camel at the unearthly time at which he needed to start. I don't know if this is what he did. It may not have been a big deal as presumably the Airport Hotel is at the airport.
I was rather nervous at the prospect of the stretch of water to be crossed today. I tend to think of the Irish Sea which we cross fairly often as being quite enough water for comfort. I did check the time frequently and try to figure out, when they would be safely on terra firma in Karachi. On the whole this was a pretty futile exercise, as I didn't know when the intrepid pair took off, flying conditions, exact (or even inexact) distances or how much fuel was being carried (more of that later).
Suffice to say that by 17.00hrs here I had decided that more worry was pointless, as he was either eaten or safe.
Well he was safe, just. M has obviously read my note of two days ago when I suggested that he may have lost his flair for keeping everyone sitting on the edge of their seats. Today he managed a real spectacular! Some of their flight was at an altitude of 10,000 feet (they're becoming reckless and making a habit of this) and I gather that, while M and G-KIRK were climbing steeply at approx. 7,000ft, the tank fuel level became lower than the carburettor and the engine stopped - not the first time for M (he is the best pilot in the world with whom to have a donkey stop - sheer experience).
He tells me that he jammed G-KIRK's nose downwards and managed to start her again by 4,000ft. In the meantime he had made a "pan; pan; pan" call on his radio (unusual and fortunate for him to be in radio contact) and two race aircraft diverted to drop a dinghy on his head which was, thankfully, not necessary this time.
Thank you from me to both crews.
An aviator friend described "pan" to me as signifying only less of an emergency than "mayday" and we wondered why M had not taken full advantage of the most dramatic call.
The flight took 5.5 hours and M and G-KIRK arrived at Karachi with 2.5 hours of fuel left - enough for all sorts of contingencies. M and G-KIRK seem to be hitting form - it's time to book my ticket for Oz.
KK (M's wife)