Dayton and onwards

Weds 5 Sep: day before the off. Yesterday was somewhat fraught owing to the inability of the ferry organisation to manage events. So the main man can't do the trip - how about someone calling me? the response to my obkections was simple assertion no answers - i.e. we've done hundreds of these things and are professional (in other words what the hell do you know) Nothing annoys me more than being treated as just another punter and given the run around by some self appointed elite. Anyway this morning made contact with the replacement ferry pilot - what a world of difference - answers a question with a straight answer. So I feel we might be getting somewhere - I'll reserve judgement on Atlantic KingAir until we have completed the trip with no nasty surprises- Plan is to set off about 9:30 tomorrow. Expect Bangor about 14:00 allowing for fuel stop at Waterville, don't know how long customs and immigration formalities will take but am expecting we'll be off again for Goose Bay by 16:00 arriving about 20:00. - not much more to report from Dayton

The bear stands ready for duty - Captain Ted on parade complete with cloud appreciation society membership badge

Dayton here I come

• Home • Up • Notes on Ferry Planning • Notes on buying • N352CD • COPA • Flight tracking • Good Weather Sources • Dayton and onwards • Goose Bay-Nars. • Naqrsarsuaq - Iceland • Wick to Roskilde • back to EGHH • Postscript •

1st Sept - arrived late on Weds - picked up car Thurs morning and drove to Columbus for interview with FAA inspector- a process you have to go through to get your JAR licence validated and receive an FAA airman's certificate on the strength of it
Friday morning met up with Bill McNabb a CFI and Cirrus expert - I've got him for a few days to get me used to the SR22 - he is following the Cirrus programme - its actually quite hard work - getting lots of procedures in - and learning the electronics We go over to Virginia tomorrow Sunday - combining a ferry trip with some Xcountry. I a way I am beginning to wish I'd booked to do a full IR here - they certainly work hard and thoroughly - managed 5 hours flying today.

Sun 2 Sep - today I 'arve mostly been eating NOTHIN - well Bill had to deliver an SR22 about 400miles to the shenandoah valley in Virginia and then give the guy who has bought it a flight review. arrived at Dayton intnl at 8am - not my time of day - we set off, & arrived in Shenandoah about 11 after a couple of distractions along the way. Useful stuff practicing X country auto pilot and stuff. then we spent 2 hours doing ground school which I engaged in then 2.5 hours flight review. We eventually left Shenandoah at 19:00 in the par exchanged SR20 - a slower beast - does about 120kts indicated. we climbed to 12500 to get over the building clouds and managed about 145 tAS but a headwind of 15 or so meant GS 130 - I should have been better at the bladder planning - took us nearly three hours - then arriving in the dark Bill decides he is going to put me through my paces night landing - 3 touch and goes at Dayton intnl - try that at Gatwick - sank into bed about 11:30 having had one sandwich all day - geeez they work hard here -there's a couple of extra pics - not much - added to the album I didn't get time to take many photos. The Shenandoah valley is in Virginia west of Washington and is stunningly beautiful - gentle hills and rolling meadows - looks like horse country and rich by the look of the properties - about 100miles west of the capital. going West back to west Virginia then Ohio and Dayton you have the Appalachians where they tell me there are still hill billies

23 Aug - this page set up - booked out to Dayton next Weds 29th Aug 07 - have FAA interview and BFR organised - now to get some flying under way.
Now what's Dayton famous for ?
Some stats - pop 158,000 sits almost midway between the State capital Columbus and more famous Cincinnati. For locals of my neighbourhood that means its 3/4 the size of Southampton. funny though how American towns always seem bigger.
Birth place of the Wright brothers - who had a bicycle shop and indeed Wikipedia records that among the big name industrials there is still 'Huffy Cycles' so I expect cycle city
home to USAF museum - might be worth a visit. Wikipedia on Dayton (despite all that Wright Bros don't crop up much in a search on Dayton!!)

Mon 3 Sep - only 3.5 hours flying today but I am a fully fledged FAA airman - got signed off on the FR (FAA flight review) and also certified as completing the CSIP (Cirrus program). Final preparations tomorrow - check up on my ferry pilot, last minute shopping etc. Went for a meal tonight with Bill and his extended family - delightfully sociable and amusing. I said I would give a plug to the Dayton News web site which Hillary McNabb - Bill's daughter edits so here it is http://www.daytondailynews.com/ hope I got the right one Hillary?
For those who are quick on the uptake you may notice that 352CD has now appeared on flight tracking under its new P1 - we filed an IFR flight plan today - and no I am not Rosenbloom enterprises - that's the previous owner

Tues 4 Sep Dear diary, next to last night in Dayton- sorted out whether we had European databases on the Garmin430's, Jaime Steel bless her cotton socks said "yeah I put in one of those garmin 330's that you guys in Europe have to have" and she said all Euro databases are there (that's the transponder 330 only Jaime!) - but there is only one card/chip in each 430 CD on N352CD and they still say North American - so what do we do when we get to Iceland ? Can't imagine sitting in an Icelandic hotel would be a good place to sort out Jeppesen databases even if the cellphones work and offices are open on the weekend! Now, I have learnt that the set up in the Cirrus is marvellous - there you are flying around not knowing about where you are and you can punch in KMIE or whatever and with a bit of nowse you can get the goddamed thing to fly the plane down to 200ft - ah but if you only have a USA database Try flying in Europe with a North American db and you are proverbially f'd Europe is another planet. so suffice it to say don't rely on what your agent tells you - not sure Jaime does computers - well at least not European ones. We need a EuroGarmin db. so after several intercontinental phone calls a lovely lady in Jeppesen Crawley sorted it and Jaime's husband Danny (star!!) has downloaded the lot and lent me a spare chip which I will mail back to him when we arrive. Only issue now is Don Ratliff - unfortunately it is his birthday this week and all bets are off. He told me today he can't make it He is getting an associate to call me to arrange another ferry pilot - oh blast it - I'll bloody well do it myself if this continues - 24 hours to go - the tension mounts
BTW dear listeners - today was supposed to be relax-enjoy I suppose you have gathered it was not quite so - nevertheless I still managed to get to the worlds first airport Huffman Prairie and the USAF museum - Its well worth a visit - you could spend more than a day here - certainly more than the hour or so I had - some pics on the gallery - if you wan t to see the pics this diary is now getting so long that you will have to click on the album link above and in the left panel