As much fun as it was hanging around with Pete and Cory in France Marcio and I felt that maybe, just maybe, we should put a few miles behind us and get just a little closer to our destination.  So we bid our comrades farewell and took off for jolly old England.  It wasn’t much of a leg for a ferry pilot but we’d wasted most of the day sightseeing and weren’t too far behind schedule, yet.  The night flight over Paris was fantastic and I thought I was able to take some good pictures of the Eiffel Tower but when I got them into my computer they were all just a little blurry.  We landed at Southampton and were greeted by quite the reception committee.  Immigration, customs/border patrol and two very grumpy men from the Special Branch, some sort of CIA, I guess.  It turns out that all the flying we’d been doing and the flight plans we’d filed, then never used, had triggered some alarms so they decided to check us out.  They gave us a thorough going over but in the end realized we weren’t dangerous, just crazy.

Paris from 20,000 feet

Despite having been jerked around all day by French air traffic control Cory and Pete finally made it to Annecy France.  Marcio and I beat them by a full day and spent our time diligently researching the beautiful city at the base of the French Alps.  We found the sights amazing, the food superb and the wine……yes we found the wine.   It was hard and grueling work but somebody had to do it.

We took the boys out for another fantastic dinner followed by a visit to a local watering hole where the locals were beyond friendly.  Maybe we’ll fly tomorrow and maybe not.

 

Well Marcio and I finally got the Cirrus off the ground, and are on our way, sort of.  My boss Cory, and and fellow ferry pilot Pete, were on their way down from Scotland en route to Kenya and thought it would be fun to meet up for some dinner and wine in France.   He didn’t have to tell us twice.  We were on our way to the French Alps before you could say Mon Duex!  Or something equally clever in French.  On the way we decided to test the Cirrus’ high altitude performance by climbing up to 22,000 feet.  The plane performed perfectly, but Marcio didn’t fare so well.  We were using oxygen with the nose inserts when he started to feel a bit dizzy.  I told him to switch to a full O2 make but the transition took longer then he thought it would, and he got a little hypoxia before I took over and set his mask up for him.  Better be careful up there, some of don’t have that many brain cells left to spare.

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.

Cory and Pete pre-heating The Caravan in northern Canada before heading off to Greenland.  Marcio and I will be there in a few days.  I can hardly wait.