Category: Ferry Flying

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here’s a shot of Grenada after takeoff one morning last summer when Stu and I were taking a F-33 Bonanza down to Brazil.  We had a great dinner at a little restaurant on one of the small bays you can see in the picture.  After takeoff that morning we asked the tower if it was ok if we made a quick trip around the island before heading south.  With their permission we got a great aerial tour of the island.   I’ve seen a lot of the islands in the Caribbean and Grenada is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.  It’s now at the top of my list for my next vacation.

Whew!  That was a painful and arduous trip.  While traveling in the modern era is at the same time both extremely safe, reliable, and for the most part convenient, it’s still a painful test of endurance and patience to make an international trip in the steerage section of a commercial airline.  I won’t bore you with the details of the early morning car trip, parking, forced self check in, breaking the pull out handle on my suitcase and having to borrow the TSA’s bolt cutters to finish the removal process, getting put on standby, deciding not to have a Bloody Mary then immediately regretting the decision when I saw two other men having one because they looked soooo good, sitting next to an armrest hog for eight hours, suffering through two movies that just sucked, enjoying free red wine, dragging my broken bag with no handle all over Heathrow and through five different train transfers, one of which was a serious mistake, only to arrive at the hotel at 12:35 pm and be told that the bar and restaurant was closed and the nearest open establishment to get any kind of sustenance was a fifteen minute cab ride away in Piccadilly Circus.  No I will not bore you with those details, because that would be too cruel.

BTW Here’s dinner.

I’m traveling to England tomorrow to pick up a Beech Baron and fly it over the pond to Miami so no post on Wed. When I get going I’ll keep you all posted about the trip.

Dangerous Flights : Web Extras : Official Trailer.

Above is the link to the new reality show I’m in called Dangerous Flights.  It’s about ferry pilots flying small planes to their new owners around the world.  I did four trips for the show last year and let me tell you it was a BLAST!  The show airs on the Discovery Channel in Canada on May 8th and later this fall in the US.

 

Somewhere over Myanmar (Burma) hoping rainbows are good luck.

Nice sunset shot from the left front seat of an SR-22 Cirrus somewhere over Thailand.  I really should take a photography class someday so I can try to do scenes like this justice, because trust me this picture doesn’t.