Looking for recent intel on Petropavlovsk - Kamtchatsy

[Jerz]

I have a trip coming up with a tech stop at UHPP. Has anybody been there recently? Any useful info? Thanks

[skyboy]

Good old Petro,

Been there many times, weather sucks sometime.
Day operation only, alternate is Magadan UHMM which is far, watch your fuel!

Hints:
1) Watch your altitude during descent on the STAR, they do not provide temperature compensation. You will see that crater ontop of the volcano really close.

2) Always fly the full procedure (in meters/QFE) and you will be fine.

3) handling is very good and the "KGB" lady officer is nice looking aswell...

4) Last thing, volcanic eruption happens all the time over the Kamtchaka region. I suggest you master what is a volcanic eruption report.

Fly safe and send us pictures!

[sanjet]

Some of these airports have weird operating hours right now. Would double check.

[Jerz]

Thanks Guys

I am familiar with Magadan, but not Petro. Looks like Seveluch volcano is active. Also Sigmet for severe turbulence. Seems like most of Russia went feet/QNH, but Petro FIR is still metric/QFE. Fuel will definitely be a consideration for us. Also without a visa we are only allowed one tech stop on Russian territory, no overnights, no diversions. Fun times

[PanEuropean]

If you are planning to proceed south from UHPP, pay attention to the upper winds enroute.

I departed UHPP once in a Twin Otter, heading south, encountered 90 knot upper winds on the nose at FL 100, wound up turning around and going back. If I recall correctly, I was airborne for about an hour before I turned around, but it only took about 20 minutes to go back.

The town itself has little to offer.

[Jerz]

Thanks Pan. We will be heading the other way to Nome. Hoping for a push .

Yeah, I remember close to 100kt on the nose low level jet stream going to S. Korea. This time we should only have monsoon in Indo and typhoons in Philippines to keep us entertained. Hoping by the time we are out of quarantine in OZ, the typhoon season should be over.

[skyboy]

Just in case you get stuck in Nome and you have the choice between the Polaris Hotel or the dumpster, i recommend the dumpster big time!!! This place is very bad.

Fly safe and we are all waiting for pictures from Nome aswell !

[PanEuropean]

Jerz:

If you are going to Nome, make sure you have firm hotel reservations. There's only one decent hotel in that town (The Aurora Inn), and it has a habit of filling up frequently. I got stuck in Nome once (had to divert there on a flight from Yukon to Anadyr), the Iditarod dog race was on that week, and if it had not been for the kindness of strangers who let me sleep on their basement floor, I would have been stuck sleeping outdoors with the dogs.

Also, watch the weather forecast for Nome. On another flight there, I had the runway in sight at 10 miles in good VMC, by the time I was 3 miles back the weather went below IFR minima, I only escaped a return to Anchorage by stuffing it in at a very small private strip a few miles east of the main airport at Nome. Due to the proximity of Nome to the ocean, it can go down very fast - though that might not be a concern at this time of year if the ocean surface is frozen.

I've always used Bering Air for fuel, parking, etc. - they are a very nice organization to do business with. Very friendly & helpful people. I highly recommend them.

[FICU]

Other than the incredible scenery what I remember most are the super hot English handler we had and the Mig-31s parked near the runway with armed guards, I still managed to take a few pics as we lined up to take off. This is going back 18 years when we had to fly the full NDB arrival to get into the valley. First time it was at night and pouring rain and on the way back it was sky clear. Fun times!

[Bajan Pilot]

Fuel stopped in Petro once. Have you conversion app for alts. handy. They operate in metres. We were not issued an arrival until practically on top of the airport, then it was a scramble to get it programmed. The runway is full of holes and rough. Short taxi off the runway to the fuelling pad, but had to follow a FOLLOW ME truck for litteraly spitting distance, same outbound. Radios in that area are not the best. We were westbound and fuel was tight. Our routing was King Salmon-Adak-Petro-Sapporo-Seoul.