“The Stars are bright…. deep in the heart of Texas”

Hello my fellow pilots, readers and hopefully one day viewers! Again it’s been a long time since we last managed to get some rest. When we last updated we was in India, since then we’ve been across India, The Himalayas, Indonesia, Australia and across the Pacific Ocean. Some of those flights involved multiple fuel refills (whilst in flight), not to mention crossing back over from Southern Winter to Northern Summer and the weather that created.

We landing in The United States at San Francisco with the sights and sounds of The Bay area. It’s been a steady trip from California, Nevada, Arizona and now Texas, cruising at 13,500ft gives us a clear view of the endless desserts on South West America and occasionally a land mark is found, we’ve seen plenty just since San Francisco.

The Shrike is still running well and was checked and serviced again with our recent 2 week lay over in California. As I sit in my motel watching TV shows on my server at home I am looking at the upcoming routing along the eastern seaboard towards Canada and Greenland.

With the end of the trip getting closer I am hoping to resume normal operations as soon as possible.

It’s now beer time – good night

Good Afternoon fellow followers from a very hot and stuffy Delhi in India. We’ve had a pretty relaxed journey since my last update in The Seychelles, and for the next large part of the trip until we get to Bangkok which means that our water rescue equipment and raft can now be off-hired, this does mean that we’ve got a little more space to move and to carry a few more supplies.

All our tech is working extremely well and the last visit from the 747-8F support aircraft at Karachi brought us new parts and tooling along with fresh consumables to last us until we get to Australia where we’ll hand the aircraft to the local engineers for an overhaul, during the support update we had the engines removed and flown back to the UK and the spares was brought to us when the 747 returned. The logistics is something that in the future I will have to look closer at – by deploying a number of engineering pods along the route. Back to the Aircraft the Shrike is still proving itself highly capable and efficient with flights over 4 hours and cruising around 15,000ft it has not put a single step wrong in any way.

I’m currently fending off a cold whilst my engineer spends time with his family and will fly out to meet us soon, the hotel is a quiet retreat located about 55min outside of Delhi meaning I’ve got a very interesting trip back to the airport, but India is an absolute culture shock if you’ve never been before.

Our next flight takes us eastward and out of India to the country of Nepal and into Kathmandu, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Hello all, and it’s that time again where I am able to take time out and present you all with where we all are with our epic trip around the world. This evening you find me in The Seychelles, that beautiful chain of 115 islands located about 600miles from mainland Africa and is Africa’s smallest country.

The Seychelles came into massive fame from the 1970s with the opening of the international airport, bringing the worlds tourists, newly weds and sometimes Royalty, but in this occasion it’s 2 British middle aged pilots, flying an aircraft type that started flying over 70years ago. It’s summer here and a balmy 30° and we’re about 4 hours ahead of London.

So far the trip is going well and with no real urgency we are making good time, there is a lot of flying over water at the moment as the next flight will take us into the African state of Somalia in order to make sure the aircraft is ready for the flights towards the bustling country of India, firstly visiting Yemen, Oman and Pakistan, also we need to gain British consular protection and visas etc.

So far the aircraft has been performing more or less flawlessly, the airframe is overall in good shape and the engines are running well but some the sands around Africa have been giving us a few issues at altitudes over 15,000ft so until we get to Pakistan and following an inspection we will be flying at lower altitudes. They make for good photos too.

Hello, I’m sorry it’s some time since I last came online. On my last flight we had a little bit of a technological mishap, I fly with a tablet in place of a bulky flight bag (like most pilots), during the flight into South Africa after departure I couldn’t find the tablet, this is quite a big problem during the flight myself and my engineer both looked for it but couldn’t find it. So I borrowed his tablet and found the information I needed.

It’s been roughly 3 weeks since the flight and I haven’t been able to get hold of another tablet just yet, but somebody just outside of the last departure airport found the tablet all battered and in need of some TLC. The aircraft handlers have managed to get the device back to me I’ve had it sent back to The UK for it to be repaired.

We are considering coming back home to The UK for Christmas before we come back out in 2024.

Hello everyone! We’ve made it to Greece, the cradle of civilisation and home of the Olympic Gods! It’s been some what of a busy trip as of late. My last post was from Lisbon on Sector 5 since then we’ve visited Faro, Gibraltar, Algeria, Mallorca, Sardinia, Italy and Sicily. And tonight like I’ve said Athens, Greece.

The shrike has proved to be an awesome aircraft with a engineering check up in Mallorca the aircraft was at it’s last suitable point to be recalled back to The UK if there was any serious issue or doubt of completion. But she “flew” through the inspection and was cleared to continue on towards Italy.

Now that I’m away from the hustle and bustle of Athens and checked in with the engineer at a little Villa at Vravrona Beach about 2.5 miles from the Airport. I’m often struck by the facts that Athens is often called The Cradle of Western Civilisation and also democracy and it really does strike home more than ever as our next sectors will take out of “the western world” in down into Africa and into The Middle and far East. Tomorrrow we will be heading down to Crete, many people will know from School the story of Theseus and the minotaur, a myth from the town of Knossos.

Hello! Welcome back to Lisbon, I say welcome back as a curtesy as I’ve not left but we have been taking some time off after a bust weekend to get to sector 5. We’ve spent the last few days taking in the sights and sounds of Portugal’s capital. Lisbon has a long and rich history spanning way back to 2nd Century BC, from Romans to Alans, Vandals and eventually Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate. Lisbon has had multiple raids and rebuilds both by man and nature. Lisbon is a place of aviation history with the first transatlantic flights from Lisbon to New York via The Azores, riding the waves and the weather in an old flying boat. Alas though we are preparing to head south to Faro.

Lisbon sits on of the mouth of the Tagus River and is the westernmost Capital City of mainland Europe, with an average temperature in August of a lovely 23c. Two iconic bridges connect the city over The Tagus, the Vasco da Gama and 25 de Abril Bridge.

As we spend time around Humberto Delgado Airport my engineer is going to spend some time with the avionics again after failing to capture the ILS system, as for me I’m going to relax by a pool and drink some lovely Portuguese beer.

Phew, what a long day it’s been, following our fantastic French breakfast and some very good coffee we planned for our next two flights that will take us ultimately to Northern Spain and the city of Bilbao. Starting in Marseille as climbed to the highest cruise altitude so far of 13,500ft in order to climb over the peaks of the French Alps and into Switzerland, this will be the most challenging flight so far and in conjunction with the weather makes it potentially one of the most dangerous, low cloud and high ground do not generally mix well for pilots. Our route took a north easterly track along the foothills of the alps before the majestic sight of Mount Blanc appeared off our wingtip.

Dinner was a traditional affair with Fondue and Raclette before I found a quiet corner in the pilots lounge to rest up whilst our engineer prepares the aircraft for what will become our longest leg in Europe. Coffee is replenished and snacks refilled.

Taking off from Sion we where instructed to use runway 07 meaning he had a long climb out to clear the peaks before we could turn back towards the St Prex navigational aid, climbing to a clearance altitude of 12,000ft we heading back toward Lyon and the foothills before a series of descents back to 6,000ft. The flight was smooth and uneventful which is a good thing, soon we approach Toulouse’s Airbus plant and the Champagne regions or France before heading towards the French Spanish border and the Pyrenees mountains.

Bilbao situated on the coast of The Bay of Biscay and will serve as our first Spanish stop and our overnight stop.

The Shrike is currently tired down and resting before we head out to Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon tomorrow.

That was an absolute trial of a flight, following out arrival in Orly we noticed a few gauges were not reporting correctly on engine 1 (left) and a faint smell of oil burning from that engine, that as well as getting the last piece of wrap installed lead to a delay of a number of hours, not to mention the issues we’ve had with the French authorities. We finally departed for Marseille at around 23:30 local time, that was probably not my best idea.

With tiredness setting in and the weather getting rough and fuel levels dropping I decided to divert to an overnight stop over in Lyon at Saint Exupéry Airport for our first night on the aircraft.

After a deep sleep and some fuel we headed back into the weather to continue the leg down to to the South. Marseille is a vibrant and prosperous port city and is the largest community after Paris, populated for over 30,000yeas and achieving prominence during the Roman Empire expansion across Europe.

During the 18th Century Marseille was one of the of the major points of infection of the Bubonic Plague which caused millions of deaths through out Europe. This flight has taken us over some of France’s vineyards and Chateaus.

Our next trip after some very good breakfast will take us to Switzerland and the mountain town of Sion, providing us with hopefully some stunning scenery of The Swiss Alps.

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.

---

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.

---

---

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)