Preflight Report

Good morning everybody, welcome back to Farnborough on this auspicious day as we depart the UK for what may be until after Christmas, we’ve run out of the things to check and make sure it all correct it’s time to go. Fully loaded with fuel, tools, parts, light saving equipment and not to mention luggage and with a new passport in hand (including some in flight food and entertainment) the aircraft is fully loaded.

The route today which may be a single flight was prepared earlier in the week and has been submitted to ATC services at Farnborough and we’ve been cleared to operated into Europe and through French Airspace including clearances through Paris. We are hoping to see some of histories most iconic beaches in the French region of Normandy, the beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno which as most of us know where the focal point of D-Day landings of the 6th June 1944. From there we’re turning towards Paris and prepare to take in the sights of The Arc De triumph and The Effiel Tower before a landing at Orly. Our initial routing and climb to 5000ft will take in the sights of the South Coast of England and the Isle of Wight and over the English Channel.

Inflight

Our flight has been somewhat lower than we had hoped and also a bit more bumpier, thanks to the great British summer cruising at 3000ft over the south of England meant we did get some good views below. Once out of English airspace the coffee machine was filled and prepped by my faithful engineer and a sweet mug of hot joe was in my hands.

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Post Flight

Arrival into Orly was a standard affair with Paris ATC handing us over around 17nm from the airport. Orly has grown into a massive international hub making our arrival a fair bit more expensive than I thought and frankly we’re going to make a similar mistake on leg 2 but going forward we are going to be looking at smaller regional or private airfields where possible, in addition in flight which takes us into a country in the first instance will have to clear a customs and border control point.

We are ready?

Hello everyone! Welcome to Farnborough Airport the starting and finishing point for our epic trip around this blue marble we call home. After a quick flight from Blackpool after some moderate aircraft alterations with some specialist vynal wrap and some TLC on the airframe and engines we are in a position to go.

Today’s flight was designed to ensure that the avionics where operating as required following some essential repairs on the autopilot to get our Instrument Landing System (ILS) receivers working again as well as a last minute update to the GTN panel.

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Sat here in my hotel room I’m thinking about the upcoming adventure going through my mind and writing down everything we may need, from coffee supplies (very important) to suitable SD and USB devices to record our trip. All the camera’s have been tested as well as audio devices. My partner for this trip has been busy triple checking everything as we’re not expecting a maintenance stop until we get to our Outpost at Palma De Mallorca (roughly flight 9), incidentally that will be the only time we’ll be able to arrange a direct flight back to UK in order to bring equipment and spares should we require it.

Next Flight – ATW1 (Farnborough to Orly)

I really need to make sure I dedicate more time for this Blog, our time so far in Africa has been very eventful, not least due continued problems throughout Sudan. As I lay here in my very pleasant air conditioned room with a fully complimentary mini bar on the shores of Lake Victoria I’m reminded about how different and strange Africa can be to us aviators that don’t travel here often. Away from all the hustle and bustle of the tourist hotspots, chaotic towns and major airports Africa is a place of sand, bush, savannah and villages.

So as you know I’ve been following a printed plan and itinerary and that would have us flying over Sudan, this has caused us some issues that no-body in Egypt cared to tell us about. And my thanks to an unidentified radio operator for informing us of the current airspace closure but that did give us somewhat of an issue to deal with.

Since Athens we’ve been carrying an extra 160litre (8x 20litre jerry cans) on fuel in the luggage bay along with tools in order for us to carry our remote refueling if required due to the sparseness of Africa,