We waited about and hour in the old control  tower which is FarNorth Aviations’s home, chatting with Adrienne and Drew. they were  waiting for a ferry pilot (Nick Taylor) also coming from Reykjavik in a diesel powered Cessna 172.  I’d heard a Sarf Afric accent announcing ‘Mike Yankee’ behind us and staying low (under the weather) out of BIRK. he said he was concerned he might have to turn round.

We gave some pireps – the tops went up to almost 15k

Anyway Nick duly arrived in the same 30kt gusting 40kt(actually not a full headwind but about 20-30 degrees off) same as us so  quite sporting and challenging. He managed to stop almost like a helicopter – mine – well – I was just glad to land level.

But swiftly back to Reykjavik earlier that morning- I knew the next system was due in between 0800 and 0900 – I mean the last one on Saturday was bad enough – 40 knots horizontal rain.

Start of the next front on Sunday morning creeping in over Reykjavik

I had planned for 0700 depart except the airport was not open until 0800 – The nice guy in the FBO agreed to turn up 20 mins early – great – until the tower decided they didn’t have all the details and didnt seem to understand the urgency- .  GRRR!( you know the drill ‘nothing to do with me – you’ve (the pilot) not done it right’ ) We eventually got away about 0830.

FIKI on full blast and max power climb to 15000ft – Actually we picked up no icing and fairly soon (100 miles) we’re in sunshine first at 11000 then we had to go up in two stages of 2000ft and cruised at 15k with a quartering tailwind giving us a 30 knot lift

 

Other than that no events – could even have  diverted to the Faroes which is usually shrouded in fog!!

landing as I said was somewhat sporting

 

Far North are excellent – really excellent

Drew decided to put us in the hangar because of the wind and waived the charge – (actually only £10) but a decent gesture

Filled up, fuel deicing and oxygen. We’re driven  into the Norseman hotel with aforesaid ferry pilot Nick 

Quick pint, shower, ablute and then down to carvery dinner…Only the carvery dinner was the talk of the town and most of the town was there queueing up at 5pm. so another pint and we have a table at 6pm. All jolly good

Some aspects of the hotel wouldn’t stand up in any other metropolis – mouldy grout in shower tiles, poly cotton sheets which if they didn’t give you a static shock, slipped like teflon off the bed. And most of the previous hotels -even Greenland – seemed to have modern foam mattresses. The Norseman sported sprung mattresses. Not in themselves bad but when they get old the tend to dig into you – so you know exactly where every spring is. I cannot accuse the Norseman sprung mattresses of this but I swear I was woken up by same said spring making ‘boing’ noises, so I knew where all the springs were. C’mon guys spend a little money and get some memory foam mattresses – the rest of your hotel and the lovely staff are worth it – even if the guests are not.

Wandered around Wick – its actually quite interesting – short walk to the North Sea harbour, There is a railway into  Wick which I later discovered if a picturesque heritage line.  Caithness (the region) seems to be Macbeth territory although most have changed their name to Macbeath – thanks a lot for the bad publicity William Shakespeare.!!

Its also Murray territory – it’s the Moray firth just south, the source of the name and there are many Murrays about.

Lovely part of the world and many interesting things to do – If you want a flying trip slightly less challenging than mine then get up to Wick – Call Adrienne or Drew – you’ll be assured of a great welcome.

Following morning was the usual early start. Syd had not been able to get a flight plan past EuroControl,  Drew Murray had a go too and failed, Eventually we got one accepted and provided we were ‘wheels  up’ but 0730 z everything would be ok. And so it was – well after we took off and were in the tender care of ATC no minute part of our flight plan remained – vectors here, then go to this unheard of waypoint there.

It’s a complete farce – waste of our time and a waste of controllers time – but small aircraft doing dutiful IR are second class citizens. 

So we plug on 15000ft- mostly above cloud  but the Lake district was clear – beautiful view, Also beautiful view of the Mersey and the Wirral – saw my old house from 15000 feet and 45 years,  Ahhh nostalgia is not what it used to be!

We knew the arrival was going to be challenged before taking off but I’d factored in arriving around midday or later so the heat might have burned off foggy conditions. YUK – we were somewhat forced into departing earlier than I wanted and into the bargain the murky conditions persisted longer,

No point is sweating but by the time we were over Cardiff, Guernsey seemed to be getting worse

Ok  Brief for minimums – what alternates – What a sad end having to divert to Jersey or even Southampton.  Checking ATis every 15 mins, So briefed for missed approach- elected vectors to ILS for 27 – inbound over town 

Syd and I fully expected to have to ‘go around’ – we’d agreed we’d hold for 45 mins (plenty of fuel) and then b@gger off to Jersey.

In the end the electronics announced ‘minimums’ just as I saw the approach lights and the end of the runway. Down without a hitch

reception committee awaited – cakes and prosecco in the ASG conference room – Soooo good to be back and lovely to see friends.

What a trip!  Challenges right to the end. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

From Greenland to Iceland one loses 2 hours – but we managed to get to Iceland by about 1700 UTC (and local) 

Handling agent was very helpful.We fuelled up and got a taxi into town. I asked for the airplane to be triple tied down as gusts of 40 kts forecast for Saturday.

It was obvious from the forecast that it was another day off – Oh No Syd’s going to want to find some museums;-)

Day off (Saturday) dawns and I am dragged out to get some culture. Eventually we compromised on a big red bus tour – the rain was completely horizontal and my companion wanted to go for a bracing walk. Actually its a good way to get a quick absorption of local info. There is a museum on a hill overlooking Reykjavik called Perlan – a glass and steel dome sitting on some huge geothermal tanks. Its a museum and had a planetarium which gave a 20 minute show of the Aurora Borealis – fantastic – now seen the best Northern Lights !!

Evening meal – burger, lamb loin and two beers each – £90 ah well they dont have any banks left and not much cod.

 

I am afraid I didn’t save the meteo images which would have explained the go/no go dilemmas but here is an early forecast for the Saturday which shows Iceland covered with a low. In fact it arrived as expected but the low was about 980 with very tight isobars much more severe than this forecast from earlier in the week hence the 40-50 kts  

So the story was the same as always – sit it out and look for a gap 

Clear weather existed from about 1900 Saturday until about 0700 Sunday after which another low/depression charged in bringing rain and wind. More important to us was the icing level which was about 2000ft.

Radar Sunday 0630 – rain front moving in

Sunday we planned out at 0700 only to be told ‘airport doesn’t open until 0800. Hakum the nice guy in the FBO agreed to open up early so we could prep and be ready to roll just after 0800. Complications with flightplan (in the system but tower couldn’t see it) meant we eventually took off about 0825. Eventually climbed up to 15000 with deicing full on for a while but no dramas – easier than expected.

We managed around 200 kts ground speed for much of the journey to Wick with at times a 50knot quartering tailwind – At one stage we got 224 knots GS – It’s about 640 nautical miles Reykjavik to Wick so the tailwind was very welcome.

Wick is only open for about 2 hours on Sunday to receive a scheduled Loganair. We had arranged with FarNorth (as efficient as ever) that we could arrive outside hours.  Wx on arrival 30 knots gusting 40 20-30 degrees off runway heading 

In the end managed a respectable arrival without drama. Drew Murray (Far North) arranged for the plane to be put in a hangar overnight which, given the wind, was  a blessing. Off into town for the hotel and evening meal. Home tomorrow hopefully.

Friday 13th morning dawns with very heavy frost – no sign

of the icing level being 1500ft – it’s on the ruddy deck.

went over to the airport office at 0700 to sit it out. Rain turns to snow  argh!

But by 0900 the frost and snow had gone indeed one could see blue sky down the Fjord with shafts of sunlight. Looking good for the escape plan – get up on top. We’ve got enough oxygen but – d’ya know you can pump millions of cubic feet of oxygen into Syd and he is still not saturated – low readings on the oxymeter – have to keep close eye on him. Either that or the Americans have sold us duff oxygen.   Me? I’m high as a kite on the oxymeter.

We set off – full power climb to 9000 then 11000 then 13000 then 15000 – we eventually ended up at 19000. The cloud was complete cover but thin if you know what I mean. Mind you at -35 degrees we didnt have to rely too much on the deicing.

About two thirds of the way across the icecap the sun came out and it was a scenic tour down into Kulusuuk. 

 

As we get nearer Kulusuuk it is much clearer 

 

For the first time this trip including all the hours of training on the new aircraft I get a greaser out of the landing – I’ve said elsewhere how different it seems 

Kulusuuk can only really be described in pictures so here goes  [more to follow when Ive got a moment]

Comparisons are invidious but Kulusuuk could put you in mind of a moon base. The guy in the tower – a young man – was on secondment for 3 months from Denmark. There is a hotel there – I suppose full of more ‘right on’ backpackers who crowded Kangerlussuaq. There’s about 2 permanents (or  3 month secondments) In the bay there is some mining ship which is cleaning up stuff – didnt quite get the story – but I gather the US left something like a million barrels of oil after WW2.  The helicopter in the photo is an Air Greenland link to a bigger settlement 50 miles away. They come to Kulusuuk to get the twice weekly  flight to Iceland but they’d spent two nights in the departure lounge (see photo) because the last one was cancelled.

We set off relatively promptish for Reykjavik in clear sunshine. Flew around some icebergs before climbing to 15000 and getting a good tailwind to Iceland for the first time in the journey. 

 

 

 

 

The international departures gate!

As per last posting we’re in Kangerlussuaq, its Thursday.

We were lucky with our holes in the weather. Sondestrom/Kangerlussuaq (aka Blue West 2) is up a 120 km fjord. Our route kept us high (-35degrees C) and clear so not much ice threat but we had to descend over to be level 3000 about 7 miles down the fjord. Slightly nervous of icing but all ok

 

 

 

 

 

Kangerlussuaq is basically an airport and a hote. There’s about 250 people  there and they all work either for the hotel or the airport.

The hotel is an extension of the departure lounge and used to be the US military accommodation. It has been refurbished very well. The airport used to be ‘Blue west 2’ during WW2 and was used for staging ferry flights of warplanes

There are quite a few commercial flights – its a long runway – we were awoken about 2am by a 777 taking off.

The lounge is awash with back packers of all ages – well I suppose its the new frontier for urbanites. 

We ate in the restaurant – I chose Musk Ox. The areas like many arctic and subarctic areas is their natural habitat and they roam free.

Now they look a bit like buffalo dont they ?

I can report that they are actually part of the goat family 

 

 

 

 

But the meat was delicious and tender – I’d recommend Jamaican goat curry also but that was another trip altogether

 

 

We’re hoping we might just have got a jump on the weather which was threatening to keep us in Iqaluit for a week or more. Tomorrow does look promising – It is better to the east of Greenland too. We might even get a tailwind for the first time on the trip.

The trip tomorrow looks OK but all the way to Iceland is 840 miles. we made 680 from Goose to Iqaluit on Tuesday with 30 knot headwind and we were nervous so 840 we’ve decided is a bridge too far even with a tailwind so we’re going to go into Kulusuuk a gravel lstrip on the east coast.

The forecast calls for clouds up to 15k over the western half of Greenland – icing level 1500 so nowhere to run unless we get on top. Eastern half look sunny with quite a good leg to Iceland if we can do both in a day

 

 

We made it after the dramas of the journey from Goose Bay (or Goose Green which Syd keeps calling it) . The FBO is quite efficient considering they were difficult to raise on the telephone. Sunk into the sofas, poured a coffee took off immersion suits – Ah bliss!

Peter the FBO ramp man is one of two students doing a placement from a college in Toronto. He drove out to collect our B&B keys then shepherded us to the fuel refill

It’s out of barrels but you don’t have to bring a hand pump. You do however have to pay for a barrel at a time. In the end we left 34 gallons behind

Peter then drove us to the B&B – one room and not very large double bed – catastrophe

The nice B&B lady did say her friend had another room – We checked that out and I went there – Syd joined me the next day – Very nice very tasteful, comfortable bed. So we are both here now from Tuesday to Friday which looks like the first day to get out 

Whilst it’s still quite cloudy there’s more of a chance of punching through into clear air at 10,000. Today (Weds) raining/sleeting   much same tomorrow so it’s Friday.

These are the barrels – they’re shipped in once a year after the bay ice – which is solid enough to walk on – melts. This year they had numerous DC3’s (Dakotas) passing through on the way to the  DDay anniversary and it nearly cleaned them out (or so the refueller said) Anyway there were 2 for us which we’d reserved.

 

The above ‘profile’ or ‘cross section’ of weather shows our dilemma in Iqaluit (pronounced Ikaloowit’ ) This was actually taken from the day after we left. We arrived on Tuesday and right through the week there was a lot of cloud up to high levels completely across the Labrador sea and covering Iqaluit with the freezing level on the deck. It eased a little on Thursday with a few gaps so we ran for it to Kangerlussuaq.

The Labrador sea in the picture is the left hand bit of water. Iqaluit is th eleftmost lump of land. Greenland is the next lump of land. Our first problem was getting across the Labrador sea – Now you dont set of into icing unless you’ve got somewhere to run. I know my new Cirrus has FIKI (flight into known Icing) but it would be stupid to launch into a whole journey IMC with icing.

The above picture also shows the next two issues – getting over the top of Greenland (the icecap) which rises to 9000ft and then getting to Iceland the rightmost lump of land.

Thursday morning breakfast : the usual ritual of review the latest forecast from several sources. The gap we’d identified for Friday had disappeared and it looked like we’d be stuck until Monday (Greenland is shut on Sunday)

But hang on a moment whats it like right now on Thursday – well blow me the gaps have opened up and the freezing level is 2000ft  Pants on fire – pack the bags – tell the nice lady at B&B we’re off – call the FBO – file FP. So Thursday about 1700 local we’re in Kangelussuaq

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next drama was courtesy of both Jeppesen and Garmin. We got to the aircraft and found no Canada on the navigation databases. I had arranged for Jeppesen to put a subscription to international nav data on JDM – Checked for download – nothing – de nada

Called Jeppesen – US could not help as I have a European account. Called JeppesenCrawley – noone answering Called Frankfurt – nada – line drops when one selects correct choice.

Eventually via US line got through to someone in Jepp UK who was in trip planning but who was off for the day and just happened to answer his phone. He got me through a direct line to someone in Frankfurt who promised the database would be online within minutes – an hour later still nothing.  Fallback position buy Transatlantic database from Garmin – download  – go to aircraft – ‘this database is incompatible with this aircraft 

Call Garmin 1 hour 21 mins on phone – line drops 

Call Garmin again – this time the queue is shorter – it offers a call back but surely they will not call back a +44 mobile. Hmmmm – Buy US number on Skype. Call Garmin 20 minutes later get a call back on the Skype USA number – He talks me through the problem. Actually I think i sorted it myself by downloading onto an SD card which used to belong to the plane (I think it does not like new fresh SD cards – sort that out when get back.

Then discover that the international nav data does not cover Canada. Back to drawing board – buy and load Canada – but you cant have Canada and the international database side by side. That’s hopeless because as we cross the Labrador sea we cant shut down all the systems and reload the international database so we can get Greenland nav data.

Are you still with me?  Its not stressful at all

So reloaded Canada and we set off for Goose Bay about 3. hours later than planned – I can sort out the rest later

We are booked into the Hotel North 2.  I stayed in the Hotel North 1 in 2007 last time I passed through with a Cirrus. Then it was a low rise motel full of lumber jacks

This time it is a three storey square building with small windows which looks like a warehouse. The receptionist bloke  seemed to have had a charm bypass operation, but its a room. The usual pub burger – thankfully such a facility on site – and off to bed 

 

Tuesday dawns after a fractious night. 2am a fight in the corrdor  5am more noise – I put my head out of the door. There 2 paramedics coaching a paralytic (thats paralytic not paraplegic) how to put one foot in front of another.

We get to the FBO at just after 0700 should be enough time to get to Kangelussuaq today. Famous last words 

a picture of me half in survival suit with a silly hat

More slight delays for minor reasons but we’re off by about 0830.

Weather clouds and icing are OK and soon we are at 9000ft . Winds more than forecast – we were expecting from forecast much the same as on the Houlton to Goose leg and expected to achieve 165 GS. Sorely mislead. Soon we have 20 knots on the nose.

Now this presents something of a crisis as Iqaluit is 677 miles away and any significant headwind pushes the range limits. Fuel management and speed watching every  5 mins we eventually hatch a plan to turn back if we fall below 20 gals forecast left at destination. 

We then started to get over 30 knots – called for climb to 15000 and donned the oxygen. Syd’s talking a lot so I switched his off  (only joking!!)

At least we get back about 5 knots – still looking fuelOK for Iqaluit

The other effect of a headwind is you slow down. realisation dawned that we would arrive in Kangerlussuaq more or less at closing time. As they charge mightily for out of hours that was not option. Ok next problem – we’d been told there were no hotel beds in Iqaluit (one reason we planned to scoot off quickly to Kangerlussuaq)  But if we cant make Kangerlussuaq what to do .

I thought that the satellite phone in the Garmin Perspective (yes it has a built in Satphone) was an expensive luxury until that point. We tried calling Iqaluit hotels and FBO but noone answered. Eventually we called the lovely Wendy in Woodward Aviation who called Iqaluit and rustled up a bed and breakfast – Hoorah!! no turn back.

Never been so grateful for an expensive luxury. 

The leg eventually took us over 5 hours which is about the limit if you want reasonably generous reserves (not the min 45 mins) . More on Iqaluit later

Yesterday we left Augusta
quite a days flying through the complex areas of US airspace Washington New York Boston
pretty straightforward if you can understand what’s said !
IFR should be easy because you get handed over to the next station but there is a good game here – the controlling stations are not referred to as what you find on the aircraft/garmin database. so we resorted to looking up the frequency on the iPad and finding a name – surprise – its still a different name. Local knowledge is everything
Got up to Lancaster (near Gettysburg PA) refuelled and scuttle doff to Norwood Boston
we left relatively late morning Saturday. Hurricane Dorian (once again) was forecast to clear Boston are by lunchtime and leave clear skies and blustery winds
Exactly so
Now anothe habit of US ATC is to leave ou up high until the last minute 11,000 feet – with a mile to go – now descend to circuit pattern (well Im probably exaggerating but we were on top of Norwood and still at 3000ft – completely missed it – looked like a UK disused airfield
after two attempts got it in and rendezvous wit Syd at the Holiday Inn
Holiday in is a reliable chain but in sore need of the odd bit of refurbishment
Ate at the awful chinese on the hotel campus (did I say I liked chinese – no ? just as well)
discussions on plans Sunday morning decided to leave early (leavin M to make here own way to Boston Logan Monday night
quick rush and were off 3 hours to Houlton where we have to clear customs
up at 11000 nice cruise, same misunderstanding of what was said – arrived Houlton 15 knot xwind
Now Houlton presents itself as Houlton Intenrnational.

Nice facilities – but a completely ghost airport. not a person in site
Fortunately the credit card in the fuel worked – tied her down and called for a cab. Had a coffe in the FBO/reception shack – quite good facilities- a completely deserted clubhouse.

BTW that’s Canada just behind the trees.

There’s only 2 cab companies in time and both phones went to answer machine
A third I called said 45 mins, when he did not arrive I checked and he thought we were in Presque Isle 20 odd miles away
wanted top dollar to come over. We were beginning to think we’d have to bed down there for the night.
But eventually (2 hours) hotel owner picked us up and again fortunately there was a pub restaurant on site so we did not have to go into town
Now hunkering down for day with customs and hopefully off to Goose Bay tomorrow

Now I did this transat 12 years sago and stayed in the far north hotel in Goose bay – This hotel has all the same ‘good ole boy’ moose shooting atmosphere – Thats how you know you’re goin’ north.

A pleasant night – the Motel had an Irish pub so steak sandiwch and a weak beer and off to bed

In the morning I called Troy Fitzpatrick the ‘can do’ CBP officer and we got a lift to the airport for them to inspect the airplane and then off to the Border (Houlton is right on the Canadian Border and there is a customs post on the dual carriwageway. Here Troy and his colleagues went through all the paperwork in a jiffy. When it comes down to it it wasn’t all that complicated – they just needed to eyeball us know we are who we claim to be and are not running away from anything – Very civil  – Id also say Troy was a very smart cookie but nice with it – I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up running the show. After that we got chauffered back to the aircraft 

This is Troy and his sidekick – Ted with the terminal building of Houlton International in the background and N287TB on hte apron with Canada in the farground 

 

On Houlton airfield there is a small factory – Troy informed us it was Smith and Wesson – which makes all the handcuffs for all the law enforcement agencies in the USA – plus some parts for hand guns

How about that ? Service with a smile from uniformed CBP officers and a quick tourist bit thrown in – Ya can’t knock it.

 

Just packing in the hotel room
we are heading for Boston via Harrisburg ( about 477 nm ) pick up fuel then on to Norwood Boston (255 nm) weather looks ok to begin with but strong headwinds
trouble is waiting for bloody Dorian to clear off Nantucket
So delaying to arrive Boston after 5 pm
Hope that does it but the wind should be straight down the runway

Just swapping out the warm weather gear for the thermals even though its 22c in Boston – it gets colder from there on

Well dont go thinking this has been a tourist rest few days. Just thought I’d check about the planned arrangements for passing customs at Houlton on the Canadian border (a very convenient fuel stop which give good reserves for the onward to Goose BaY)
the customs agent Josh had a hissy fit and thought he couldnt understand Houlton as he’d never done it before so I get passed on to Donna Kavanaugh (btw dont ever use Deringer as a customs agent – they have developed themselves into an extension of bureaucracy and do not listen or help the customer)
Donna Kebab turned out to be the classic ‘mom’ in a management position. Everything which came out of her mouth was an absolute law (even if she also clearly didnt understand things fully) But dear friends she was that plague of modern life a ‘compliance officer’ – you know if there is not already a rule they’ll make it up. Absolutely asserted that it was not legal to use Houlton to export an aircraft (not true but a convenient assertion for her) . I called Houlton customs and had the great fortune to speak to a lovely guy called officer Fitzpatrick. Classic ‘can do’ US male. much to-ing and froing – 2 hours yesterday 4 hours this morning and after some decidedly acerbic exchanges with Donna Kebab who seems to think she’s a government official not a customs agent who is supposed to try to ease the paying customers passage. What a perfect example of the Peter principle.
Eventually I spoke to officer Fitzpatrick and he countermanded Donna Kebab and emails me to say I’m good to go.
God preserve us from bossy women in management positions.
Travelling like this throws up loads of other issues – I spent some time on the phone trying to sort out why Moneycorp had suspended my preloaded dollar card – it turned out it was because someone tried to refund part of a previous transaction. Moneycorp call centre very rude and autocratic – promised a call back from a supervisor which never occurred. No empathy with the fact that I am travelling and cannot deliver a trail of documentation (probably another ‘compliance officer’ somewhere in Moneycorp). DONT recommend MONEYCORP

Well rant over but you get the picture – not left the room in 36 hours for admin issues
Just needed to remind myself what it was really like

Well y’all know ’bout Augusta – green jackets and golf v
We hared outta Savannah ‘cos the ‘guvnor said so’
Various people told us airport OK
Actually the airport contrary to many other internet reports is inside i95 and therefore part of the mandatory evacuation zone.

We packed a the bags bundled into hire car and drove to airport before it closed
Ya’ll know ya have to fill up a hire car before returnin’ it. It wass one hour after the ‘vacuation order and most gas stations were closed – sod it National car hire can charge me $11 per gallon
Signature FBO very nice but say they are out of here in a few hours and closed henceforth (or something like that) argh panic.

so filed FP (flightplan) to Augsta

I previously needed to go and have a ‘conversation’ with augusta aviation maintenance about the sh@te job theyd done on the inspection and annual So seemed like a good place to evacuate to

More on the aviation later

the story now is not about flying – but sorting ourselves out amongst other evacuees (of which there are many)
Difficult booking any hotel in Augusta (its a perfect 90 mile away from the hurricane zone so every one is heading here. We end up with only 2 days at the ‘Partridge Hilton’ it’s a very old Augusta hotel with lots of history. Front of house staff seemed to have a large indifference to ‘guests’ – lots people descending on them and demanding things and disturbing them – in 21st century I would give it 1 star
Overall and I don’t expect anyone to understand me but the hotel is an oddly spooky place with lots of strange history -just a feeling you understand.

that’s enough – we were only allowed 2 days at the Patridge – Managed to get a billet in the Marriot convention centre ( I did at first worry that this meant 100 sqqft of a basketball court in the sporthall with red cross blankets but it turned out to be a regular Marriot with $100 a bottle sauvignon blanc. you know you’re not in a rescue centre when that happens!
Enough
We are holed up here in Augusta

Do you know what a dump Augusta is ?/ it is a University town with miles of medical campuses
WE all know it for the golf – but drive around..I have never seen so much boarded up real estate together with ‘homeless’ on the street
There seems to be no industry .. no jobs Yes events like the masters and the odd convention but the money does not seem to stay here.
I google things to do in Augusta – it said ‘nothing’
I googled sandwich shops – it said ‘none’
I googled restaurants – it said ‘none — well none that you’d like’
I googled churches – it said ‘432’
I google medical centres – it said ‘we can fix anything at a price’

(before anyone in Augusta takes offence – this is sincerely tongue in cheek – I know you’ve got a philharmonic and a ballet)

Ok ’nuff social hisrtrionics or is that historical economics

  Got to hotel and chilled most of day – went to plane in afternoon – handover. Couple of glitches in what had been done but more of events there elsewhere.

Not a cloud in the sky – (before Dorian and the fall!!)

 

I completed two days of intense training Thursay and Friday – the transition is supposed to be about 10 hours I believe combined with 14 hours ground school. I’ve done the ground school and we got through 9 hours culminating in a solo back from Atlanta to Savannah (200 miles) 

Generally I’m happy – the Perspective (electronic cockpit)  has quickly  become second nature. I realise that I tend to fly my current version SR22 g2 listening to the engine note. This of course doesn’t work with the turbo so I have to watch carefully about low power low speed.

The biggest problem is the way the  colonials  use English and ‘gabble’ on the radio. Also process and procedure is always just oddly different which puts you on the back foot and constantly makes you think your doing it wrong. Adds to the stress. Ah well getting there.

Biggest problem now is Dorian (hurricane) which was heading for central Florida but this morning (Saturday) is forecast to turn sharply north and make landfall where we are. So just formulating a plan to trash all our touring and keep the plane in the hangar until it passes over then move on up to the Boston RVP with Syd

Well its a nice place to be holed up