Japan to Russia to Alaska

Sapporo to Petro to Nome

Catching up on some of the end game stories- A career first! My leg to Petro with Captain Chris on the radios. We copied down our clearance to taxi out of Sapporo. We were sure the guy had missed something- namely giving us an initial altitude to climb to. As we were nearing the end of the runway and had things squared away, Chris asked the controller to please give us our initial altitude to be assigned. The controller responded that we had been given the clearance to cruise at Flight Level Four One Zero and that was exactly what he meant! I have never in my life been cleared to my final altitude from the takeoff clearance before! We sheepishly acknowledged his somewhat put out response and took to the runway, dialing in 41,000 feet on the autopilot for our “initial climb.” J An interesting sight on this flight occurred about 300 miles after takeoff. I was watching a large contrailing aircraft approach, both visually and on the TCAS system, indicating that he was 7000 feet below us- therefore cruising at 34,000. It looked at a distance like a 747, with its bulbous front end, but it didn’t look right- it looked “crooked.” Well, as it passed below us, I figured out why. It was indeed a 747, but it was operating on only 3 engines instead of 4. Thus, the thick contrails of condensed moisture were emanating from only 3 engines- two on the right side and one on the left, leaving an imbalanced trail behind him as he flew on to Japan. Yes- a 747 can operate quite well on 3, just not as high or quite as fast as with 4. Mercer provides herein the pictures of the Russian soldiers that met us in Petropavlovsk and some of the pictures of the Foxbats and other machines that were scattered about this cold war base. There were spectacular cone shaped volcanic mountains all around “Petro” as we arrived from Sapporo, starting with one sticking up through the clouds above an island about 100NM south of there and on three sides of the airport as we descended. An intricate arrival and approach- you fliers should look up the ILS at Petro (Identifier UHPP) to see the descent plan around the rocks. Landing in to the wind seemed of no importance to them either, but with over 10,000 feet in front of us, we obliged rather than cause an international incident by asking for the other runway… I had stayed with the plane to oversee the refueling as the other guys went in to the terminal in a van to get the paperwork handled. After the fueling was done, I pantomimed the need for a men’s room and asked if I could just walk over the 300 meters to the terminal. No, but the lady in uniform would lead me to another building. She strode ahead, I dutifully followed and went into what looked like a small TSA security type site in a very small old building. She pointed and I went in to the one -holer men’s room. As I came out, I noticed that there was a small security camera attached high up on the wall. It was in a white plastic housing… the brand was written clearly on it- Radio Shack!