Flight Over Motherland, Iran
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
|
Arshid was very concerned about
this part of the flight. Therefore, I made this
segment of the Freedom Flight solo. Arshid
took a commercial flight from Ankara to Dubai
and he was waiting for me at the airport.
Since our flight around
the world is about the freedom and
inspiration of Iran ’s young generation,
Arshid was very concerned about the
possibility of Iranian government to force
land our aircraft, or even potentially shoot
us down, once we are over their airspace.
Additionally, if we have engine failure we
would have to set our plane in Iranian
territory. He tried diligently to convince
me not to take such risk, but for our
mission, overflying Iran was the most important
part of the Freedom Flight. After all, our
massage to young Iranian is noting short of
their ability to accomplish what appears to
be imposable and do what they want to built
a batter future.
The flight
over the Caspian Sea and soaring over the Albourz Mountain as the
entry point to Iran was a dream that finally came true. With the fear
of uncertainty of what I could be facing and the
sheer excitement of flying over my motherland, it
was truly an out of body experience.
My flight plan was approved for flying over
Tehran, Esfehan and Shiraz . This flight was about 980
nautical miles and I had 25 knots of head
wind that made the flight more challenging
over high mountains of Iran and limited fuel.
I climbed to my assigned
flight level 190. Fifteen minutes into the flight
over the Caspian Sea and still in
Azerbaijan territory, Baku radar informed me that Tehran will not accept this flight unless I climb to flight
level 210. I accepted the altitude and
climbed.
Soon after I entered the
Iranian airspace Mehrabad control center told me
that my flight over
Tehran was forbidden and I must take a different
route. They vectored me around the west side of Tehran . My original route would put
me over the Liberty Square, but the re-routing
prevented me to over fly the monument.
My flight
over Esfehan and Shiraz was according to my flight plan.
Due to high terrain I lost radio communication for
nearly 20 minutes. I finally established radio
communication with Shiraz .
As I was approaching Shiraz I requested to over fly
Persapolice . My request was denied and I was tolled
that it was a restricted area. Once I was over
Shiraz airport, I started to communicate in
my native language with the local air traffic
controller. I told him about my flight around the
world and soon I received overwhelming welcome and
cheers from him and other pilots on the same
frequency who where flying commuter aircrafts. For
the next thirty minutes we used that frequency and
talked about the flight. We shared thoughts and
information about Freedom Flight. We exchanged names
and it was very apparent that we made connection.
The air
traffic controller told me when I earlier requested
to fly over Persapolice he did not know I was an
Iranian, otherwise he would have granted my request.
I told him it is not too late and I could turn
around. He vectored me to the site. It was the
moment of victory and I was overwhelmed with the
feeling of pride flying over Persopolice that is the
first sign of structural civilization and the symbol
of Persian Empire .
I finally crossed the
southern boarder of
Iran in to Persian Gulf and entered Emirate’s territory. It was a mix
emotion of reaching safety, and leaving my
motherland and few friends I made behind.
After nearly 8 hours of
flight, I finely arrived at Dubai that has the most unbearable
heat.
|
