Jaime Steel (apologies for the pic I nicked it off her website )

I've written many of these pages as I went along - as a sort of diary. Some of the reactions are those which come after the usual day's frustrations. I decided to write this page from the perspective of a week or so later.
After I got back to Bournemouth within a few days I was back in the air with CD - flying down to Cannes - now this was the trip she was destined for.  We have a little flat just to the east of Nice link to photos and directions here (Villefranche)
Anyway - I usually take about 5 hours in the Robin - 1.5 to Le Mans - fill up then about 3-3.5  hours or so to Cannes. Try 3hours 10mins !!! - OK we had a bit of a tailwind but just superb- Anyway a week away builder bashing has led me to neglect to write a postscript. I am just basking in the wonderful thought that I am unlikely to have to put up with the arrogant FlyBE much more.

I researched and organised most everything myself. Would I recommend this path? - well it takes time and my aptitudes and preferences are not those of everyone. I have been asked a lot of questions since I got back - Someone asked me to compare it with crating and shipping - actually my ferry costs including insurance were not dissimilar but I would not have had such an adventure.
If you read the diaries - frustration comes out over the late changes to the ferry arrangements but to be fair I was gate crashing the party - had I not been there the ferry company could have delivered when they wanted (though to be fair I did allow several date changes) Don Ratliff is actually 74 and a fit man still doing many of the trips himself - he is a legend at many of the stopovers so I shouldn't begrudge him a substitute so that he could go to his own birthday party. He is quite an icon along the 'silk route' or the North Atlantic ferry trail - when grizzled old border guards mention his name in reverence at Bangor Maine you know he is something. I am only sorry I did not eventually fly with him - but his company put up an excellent substitute and when I go over my initial "they can't let college kids out during term can they" I discovered a young man who at every turn surprised you with his knowledge, experience and judgement - depressed me because it said flying is a young mans game - Anyway Mike Ryan thanks for your excellent company on the trip and superlative skills.

Spinning back to the build up - I mentioned that I joined COPA and went to their annual convention as an economic way of researching and looking at planes. I thought I was the only Englishman there until Ian Valentine (founder of Free Flight) breezed into town with some razzamataz - clearly a celebrity- apparently he has ferried several Cirrus's  across to set up his Cirrus timeshare operation. The convention was not the best time or place to get attention (unless you've bought several planes like Ian) but Jon Duplaise did his best to show me round the stock they had - but he was in demand elsewhere. I went for a flight with Eric Sanderman the north east regional sales director who was excellent in low key selling and explaining things. Although I took something away from the convention there was a sense of my mission being insignificant - it was when Cirrus announced theJet - lovely as it is I am afraid I cannot afford one.
I would say join COPA - read everything on their forums - loads of useful stuff. Not sure the convention is worth a whole trip to the USA but you can cover several brokers in one place. For me the only ones worth talking to are Jaime Steel and Alaris.
I know I was having a whinge in one of the diaries about the Europeanising of the aircraft and stumbling my way through that minefield. If I hinted that Jaime was not interested it was not correct, her husband sorted me out eventually and I discovered later that she had just given birth to their first. Jaime it is a credit to you that I did not realise you had all this on your plate - yet you made everything work.
I do think it is valid to European readers to point out that you need to know quite a bit about the electronics databases. The Brokers try but may not understand all the ins and outs. The American manufacturers sell through agents in Europe and frankly give the impression that we are only one stage removed from Iraq. I eventually sorted the MFD background map when I got back to Bournemouth
now here is a massive recommendation Brian Cook - Bournemouth Avionics bcook20971@aol.com   - just no nonsense - the most competitive (he could have done my 330 almost at dollar price) well done Brian. He did comment that my views are not rare. 
As for the other players in this blockbuster - I have mentioned Andrew Bruce at Wick (Far North Aviation) again a what you see is what you get type of guy. He was very helpful in my researches before hand putting up with my endless questions.

EFT did the Danish VAT thing -  footnote here it is likely to end shortly and Denmark will bring its VAT rate for light aircraft into line with other rates - at present we don'

t know what this means - the legislation is timetabled for Jan 2008 - but that does not stop me praising Frederick Westenholz from EFT
Finally - I decided to keep the aircraft on the US register - that means you have to have the airplane owned by a US trust - indeed a Delaware Trust. You are in fact the beneficial owner but for legal purposes the US trust is the US resident and owns the aircraft. This cost you legal fees and annual trust management fees - budget around £2000-3000 to get set up and I am expecting some £800 a year . I talked to a lot of people about this and there are one or two American outfits doing it. I heard one or two horror stories of absence of communication and  a cavalier attitude when I got to the US but I had already decided to go with Ajay and Alan Solway from Heritage.co.gg - based in Guernsey. I realise that I could have saved myself a few bob here but in practice they did everything without me having to think about it and the annual charge is reasonable and I can expect to fly in to Guernsey and be bought a lunch (isn't that what flying is all about) - that's what you said Ajay!!

There's a load of stuff on other pages about Bill McNabb - the CFI/FAA examiner who gave me a thorough going over before I took off with the plane - I have over 500 hours now and I would caution  'do not think you can just jump into this thing and fly off' - The Cirrus proficiency program is there for a reason so do it .Bill made it fun and even took me out to dinner - thanks - BTW Bill,  google McNabb in Ohio and you find Quakers from Scotland !!

So I'm back and I cannot get over how mega the new aircraft is - I may not be able to put down a deposit on TheJEt but thanks Eric and Jon at Cirrus for entertaining me when I was clearly a nuisance with the convention and celebrities around - well done
Jaime - sorry didn't get your emails about the baby till I got back - that's why I was looking a bit confused I reckon! Thanks Susan and everyone at Commander Aero. Mike Ryan - just hope you get that cool flying job you so deserve.  - Sorry to go on and I am probably getting boring here but from the acknowledgements you can tell that doing the ferry adventure (as opposed to crating and shipping) takes help from a lot of people and most are well prepared to help - That's what made it an experience - To all -thank you and I will return the favours where I can.