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Germany to Las Vegas

cirrus

Well there she is, a beautiful 2010 Cirrus SR22T.  And the T stands for TURBO!  This awesome looking aircraft is going to be my home for the next week, or so, as I ferry it from Augsburg Germany to Las Vegas in the good ole US of A.  The plane is very well equipped and in great shape so hopefully it will keep making noise all the way across the north Atlantic and get us safely to sin city.  Going with me this time is my good friend, and fellow ferry pilot, Marcio Lucchese.  Marcio has about 50 ferry flights under his belt but all of them in business jets so making the crossing in a single engine piston is going to be an eye opener for him.  We do have one thing going for us and that’s the plane itself.  The fact that it’s turbo charged and oxygen equipped gives us the ability to climb up to 25,000 feet and cruise above most of the bad weather that might be in our way.  This baby also tops out at a sweet 208 nautical miles and hour, that’s 237 miles and hour for you non-pilot types.  At that speed we’ll be losing money at the craps table in no time.

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The Slowest Blackbird

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I’m most often asked is “How fast would that SR-71 fly?” I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It’s an interesting question, given the aircraft’s proclivity for speed, but there really isn’t one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual “high” speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, “what was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?” This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.

 

Continued:

HT/ Tailspin Tom

 

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On The Move

After many delays, I’m finally on my way to the dark continent, the land down under, the Emerald Isle,…..Germany.   The powers that be have generously included a seven hour break from my travels to be spent, as I see fit, as long as I remain within the confines of the lovely Charlotte North Carolina International Airport, so I’ve got that going for me.  I’m in the middle of my long international flight routine.  Sit on my rear, bored to death, eating crappy food, and then having a few drinks just before boarding so I can hopefully sleep for most of the flight.  If it works, I’ll arrive rested and ready for battle.  If not, I’ll be worthless for days.   When I get to Munich I’ll hook up with my co-pilot Marcio and the Discovery Channel’s camera crew and get to work.  We’ve got at least four days of test flights, rigging the plane with cameras, and pre-flight interviews before we can leave.  Even then, the weather has to cooperate, which it isn’t.  So talk amongst yourselves and I’ll try and keep you all up to speed.