Baghdad to Beirut

Here's my planned flight from Baghdad to Rafic Hariri International airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Here is a list of some things to see and do in Beirut. We were "bumped" off the plane in Beirut every day for a week, on our family relocation trip, which was quite concerning, but our anxiety was almost completely mitigated by a very friendly taxi driver, who took us under his wing. Each morning, after we called the airport, and learned that the one flight was overbooked again, he picked us up, and gave us another fascinating tour of the area.

The X-Plane ATC gave me a flawed clearance to descend from my cruising altitude to 5,000 feet, well before I got to these coastal mountains, which appear to top out in the 4,000-5,000 meter elevation range. Not a good plan! I complied with the clearance, by descending very slowly, as I could see the horizon disappearing behind the ridge line. In IFR conditions, I would've been at risk of running into this ridge, although the SF50's terrain warning display probably would've given me the warning I needed, to avoid becoming a statistic. On a side note, I remember our taxi driver / tour guide taking us up on top of these mountains, where I think I remember him telling us that we had a view of seven countries. I remember him mentioning Lebanon, Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon, and then my memory fails me.

On the ground in Beirut, with a good view out my windshield of a B-747 taking off.