Real Progress
Your Weekly Lex, For Strength
Trapped In Amber
Like a bug on a windshield, like a rat in a cage, like a teenager in math class, like a virgin in a ………Oh well you get the idea, like a ferry pilot in England. Got to Goodwood airport and met the Baron’s seller and got the bad news. He’s still working with his bank, FAA, CAA, DAR, insurance company and the buyer to get some damn thing or other. Long boring story short the earliest we can expect to leave the Emerald Isle, wait that’s Ireland, is Friday. If the owner can’t get things in order first thing in the morning Cory and I will be taking an Airbus across the Atlantic instead of a Baron, a lot faster but not nearly as impressive. If we have to go home in defeat after spending almost a week in England will be a bitter pill to swallow but it’s so damn expensive here we’d be better off going home and coming back when the owner has his act together. And oh yes, it’s the owner’s screw up so it’s his bill.
Ferry Flight Pic of The Day
When Stu, John and I flew the Cirrus from Singapore back to the US we were just a little bit cramped. The gear you see on the ramp here in the United Arab Emirates was just a drop in the bucket. When we got to Scotland and added three survival suits and an extra large raft, the only one they had, we were full.
Stuck, Stopped,Going Nowhere Fast
Welcome to the fast paced exciting world of ferry flying! Visit two or three countries a day and see thousands of miles of beautiful scenery pass beneath your wings, unless the owner of the plane you’re picking up doesn’t have his paperwork in order. Then you might be stuck sitting in a hotel for five days bored out of your gourd, like I am right now. The owner of CB Aviation Cory Bengtzen and I have been stuck in London since last Wednesday waiting for the bank to release the plane and accept the insurance. In the meantime we’ve been drinking, seeing all the classic tourist sights, drinking, eating crappy english food and drinking. My liver hurts, it’s not good to keep ferry pilots in one place for too long. Today in anticipation of some sort of progress we hopped on the train down to Goodwood where the plane is located. I hope we start flying soon, I don’t think I can stand another museum.
Ferry Flight Pic of The Day
In Chang Mi Thailand there was a street near our hotel called the night market. It was filled with shops and stalls where you can buy almost anything, as long as you’re no too picky about, you know, authenticity. I bought a really nice Rolex that has surprised me by continuing function for almost six months now and one for Mrs. Scary that didn’t make it out of the country before becoming a bracelet that will tell you the correct time twice a day. In the photo a knife vender and I are playing with butterfly knives while John our cameraman/director films it for the show. I didn’t buy a knife but Stu and I did buy two really powerful lasers from him that we could use as signaling devices if we’re ever forced to ditch in the ocean.
I Want One
It’s Not Too Late
I have two teenagers that have grown up in the Facebook/Playstation age and it makes me sad. I think Mrs. Scary and I have done better than most in trying to raise our children in the “old school” way but modern society is a powerful enemy and it wears you down bit by bit to a point when you suddenly think that “only” two hours of online gaming is progress. I have a hard time coming down hard on the culprit, my son, because he’s otherwise very active, football, soccer, baseball, hockey, skiing/snowboarding, hunting/fishing and scuba diving. But it just bugs the living crap out of me to see him sitting in front of that damn idiot screen for hours at a time when he should be out…I don’t know… recreating my childhood or something. He’s got a great head on his shoulders and he wants to do great things, maybe it’s the old man in me talking, but in MY DAY we didn’t waste our time playing video games. In my day we built tree houses and submarines. Or at least tried to build a submarine…it’s a long story. Of course when my best friend Lee got PONG we spent hours hitting that little white dot back and forth but that’s totally different. At least I caught him studying my FAA power plant test guide last week, maybe there’s some hope for him yet.
