I turned on my GPS this morning and was really disappointed that it showed that my current location to be west central Wisconsin. It’s not that I don’t like Wisconsin, it’s gods country after all, good beer, great cheese and good beer, did I say beer twice? Hmmmm. Anyway the reason I’m disappointed is that I was hoping to be in Rio de Janeiro instead. Last week I was contacted by a Brazilian aviation company to see if I was available to ferry a brand new G-58 Baron from the factory in Wichita Kansas down to Brazil. I thought about it for a whole two or three seconds before responding that why yes, yes I would. It might be a rather warm time of year to fly through the Caribbean and down across the equator but the prospect of a few days in Rio would more than make up for having to climb into a hot plane over and over. I filled out the required insurance forms and thought everything was jake when the company sent me a second list of requirements. They were, 1. First class medical. I have a second class medical but could get a first class if need be. 2. Have completed G-58 training within the last 12 months. That was going to be a problem because I’ve never had any formal Baron training, I’m an old school ferry pilot, I just get in a go. 3. Completed international operations training within the last 24 months. More problems, I’ve been flying around the world for over 20 years but don’t have any formal training, hell I should be teaching the class. 4. How much time do I have in a G-58? Why none, see response to question 2. 5. current passport, yippee, one out of 5. I knew this day was going to come someday. Back in the old days a ferry pilot could get into just about any aircraft and fly it over the ocean, almost no questions asked. But in the last few years as the planes got more and more expensive the insurance companys have been requiring ferry pilots to have more and more training. I sent in my answers to their form and was informed that I wasn’t qualified to fly the Baron so thanks but no thanks. It looks like I have some training in my future.
