Saturday Night; Merritt Island FL --
Well, three days have gone by since what was supposed to be the beginning of this Great Flying Adventure. Uncle Bob and Grumpy found the airplane at the Tuskegee AL airfield in just the same condition as Uncle Bob had found it a few weeks earlier, when he "borrowed" it to fly up the Des Moines IA to visit our kid sister, Aunt Hazel: stripped and primer-ed with large I.D. numbers spray-painted on the sides like the work of some late-night "tagging" artist.
Mr. Tatum, the fellow who had had the Mooney on his site to paint since early June, was apologetic, but not ready to begin applying the finish coats of paint for another week or two -- if then. So, we flew away with the airplane looking a little bit like a 1930's Model-T touring car that the Judd's used to go from Oklahoma to California, looking quite bedraggled, but mechanically very sound. The engine was just 10 hours out from a complete overhaul, including all accessories -- virtually like a new engine!
A three hour flight from Tuskegee to Titusville FL was a joyous reminder to Grumpy of bygone days flying with Uncle Bob! At the Space Coast Regional Airport, we were met by the Florida Son & Spouse who provided limousine service for us to Chili's restaurant in Merritt Island.
At the restaurant we met by Deon and Heike Williams and their happy 13-month old daughter, Visia. Grumpy suffered pangs of anticipation for the upcoming visit with his "Little Punkin" in Merida on his return flight home from Brazil.
Well, three days have gone by since what was supposed to be the beginning of this Great Flying Adventure. Uncle Bob and Grumpy found the airplane at the Tuskegee AL airfield in just the same condition as Uncle Bob had found it a few weeks earlier, when he "borrowed" it to fly up the Des Moines IA to visit our kid sister, Aunt Hazel: stripped and primer-ed with large I.D. numbers spray-painted on the sides like the work of some late-night "tagging" artist.
Mr. Tatum, the fellow who had had the Mooney on his site to paint since early June, was apologetic, but not ready to begin applying the finish coats of paint for another week or two -- if then. So, we flew away with the airplane looking a little bit like a 1930's Model-T touring car that the Judd's used to go from Oklahoma to California, looking quite bedraggled, but mechanically very sound. The engine was just 10 hours out from a complete overhaul, including all accessories -- virtually like a new engine!A three hour flight from Tuskegee to Titusville FL was a joyous reminder to Grumpy of bygone days flying with Uncle Bob! At the Space Coast Regional Airport, we were met by the Florida Son & Spouse who provided limousine service for us to Chili's restaurant in Merritt Island.
At the restaurant we met by Deon and Heike Williams and their happy 13-month old daughter, Visia. Grumpy suffered pangs of anticipation for the upcoming visit with his "Little Punkin" in Merida on his return flight home from Brazil.Later that same evening, before we bid #1Son and Spouse a fond farewell, we installed a new tire to replace the one that went flat during our flight from Tuskegee. We had borrowed #1Son's scissor jack to raise the right side of the airplane so we could take off the old tire and replace it with the new.
The next two days were spent trying to fill out the relatively simple, but disgustingly vague U.S. Customs form that is recently required by all aircraft (commercial and private) before they are allowed to depart for a destination outside the U.S. border. It is also required to be filed before departing from a foreign airport for entry into the U.S.
This afternoon, Grumpy finally deciphered the proper order for filling in the blanks (no, you can't skip around and then come back later to complete ones you don't fill in the first time!). Oh, how I wished "The Philosopher" or BoPop had been retained to put together this Government website. [NOTE to certain people: This is a good example of why we each need to be concerned about the Government being involved in something as important as our Health Care!]
The other thing that interfered with our departing from Merritt Island today was the fact that there is a big air show just south of here and our airport is closed from about 0900 to 1200 this morning and will be closed tomorrow from 1200 on in the afternoon until about 1700. When the air show is in progress, the airspace we need to fly through is also blocked! Our route out of Merritt Island is to fly south along the coast-line until about Palm Beach where we turn to fly direct to Georgetown on Great Exuma island in the eastern Bahama's. We plan to take off at 0900 tomorrow.
Stay tuned to this place for more exciting adventures bound to follow.
The next two days were spent trying to fill out the relatively simple, but disgustingly vague U.S. Customs form that is recently required by all aircraft (commercial and private) before they are allowed to depart for a destination outside the U.S. border. It is also required to be filed before departing from a foreign airport for entry into the U.S.
This afternoon, Grumpy finally deciphered the proper order for filling in the blanks (no, you can't skip around and then come back later to complete ones you don't fill in the first time!). Oh, how I wished "The Philosopher" or BoPop had been retained to put together this Government website. [NOTE to certain people: This is a good example of why we each need to be concerned about the Government being involved in something as important as our Health Care!]
The other thing that interfered with our departing from Merritt Island today was the fact that there is a big air show just south of here and our airport is closed from about 0900 to 1200 this morning and will be closed tomorrow from 1200 on in the afternoon until about 1700. When the air show is in progress, the airspace we need to fly through is also blocked! Our route out of Merritt Island is to fly south along the coast-line until about Palm Beach where we turn to fly direct to Georgetown on Great Exuma island in the eastern Bahama's. We plan to take off at 0900 tomorrow.
Stay tuned to this place for more exciting adventures bound to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment