Dead Reckoning

This was taken just after takeoff from Amman Jordan last October in a SR-22 Cirrus.  Amman was one of the most magical places I’ve ever spent ten hours in.  I was struck by the fact that all the buildings were the same color from the air.  If you look carefully at the left center part of the picture you can see that they had some kind of archeological dig going on in the L shaped clear area that a temple at the far end.

Here’s the F-33 Bonanza over southern Brazil last September on the way to the new owners ranch.  The Bonanza is a great plane except for the fact that it’s very easy to load it with an aft center of gravity making weight and balance calculations vital.  The photo was taken from the owners friend in his SR-22 Cirrus.

I started flying small planes over big oceans in 1990 and immediately began gathering information and experiences for a book someday, mostly by almost getting killed.  Two years ago I finally started trying to get some of my flying stories down on paper if for no other reason than to keep me from forgetting them, how will I bore my children if I run out of stories?  Anyway I’m getting close to finishing the book, here’s on of the shorter stories about when I lost an engine on a Mooney I was delivering to Italy.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

To say that our accommodations in Anadyr Siberia were spartan would be the understatement of the year.  There was no hot tub, TV, room service, coffee, mini bar, restaurant or anyone who spoke English, and that included our handler Boris, his real name I swear to god.  So after a good  nights sleep Marcio and I endured the standard three hour Russian goodby, courtesy  of the ever friendly customs and immigration services we pointed the nose of the Phenom east and headed out over the Bearing sea.  The flight to Anchorage was an easy one.  Not much to see over the ocean except the occasional Deadliest Catch boat out there trolling for ratings.  Once we hit Alaska the view became fantastic.  The clouds broke and we could see vast mountain ranges with Denali rising above them all.  At one point a 747 bound for Asia passed beneath us giving me a chance for a picture and a little bit of gloating, I was flying a jet higher than Air Force One flew, pretty cool.

 The sun was setting as we landed in Anchorage and by the time we cleared customs and put the plane to bed a full moon had risen above the mountains and bathed the ramp in a golden glow.

The next day’s flight to Las Vegas was pretty dull stuff, fun for us but dull to read about.  The next two nights on the other hand would be very interesting to read about but you know what they say about what happens in Vegas.  All in all my first trip over the Pacific was a blast and besides being a slow learner on the computer I thought I did a reasonably good job flying my first jet.  I hope there are more of those in my future.