AUSSEY ODESSEY

1. PREPARATION

February 13th, 2007

Jerry & Derek are two old farts - both over 70 - looking for a little adventure to perk up their wrinkled lives! An 11,000 mile trip from Spain, through Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emerites, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and on to Darwin, Ayers Rock, Brisbane and Sydney in a single engine Cirrus might just do the trick. Mind you, if we find our way to Aussey, there is 11,000 more miles to get back to Spain. Hmmm…… Do we really want to do this?

We both have our injections to comply with international requirements and Derek at last, has his Indian Visa. We both visited the Indian Embassy in London two weeks ago. After standing in a half mile line for two hours in single digit temperatures, being a Yank, I was told that a minimum of five days would be required to issue my Visa. Since I’m living in Spain and didn’t fancy a five day London stay, I passed. Derek on the other hand being Brit, got his in one hour. I’m told I can get a Visa on landing in Ahmadebad. OK let’s have a show of hands - who believes this?

Mechanically speaking, we are as ready as we will ever be. 100 hour check - performed, new Alternator #2 - installed, new boost fuel pump -installed, injectors - cleaned and titanium spark plugs - installed. With 750 Hobbs hours (625 flight hours), reasonable compression readings, full glass cockpit avionics and instruments in good working order, all that is required now is to update the data bases with Jeppesen using Europe, Med, Middle East and Australasia data.

All routes and provisional flight plans have been prepared using Jeppesen FlightStar IFR, STAR’s and SD’s are printed out for destinations and alternates. Trip Kits are in hand for the journey. Derek’s partner, Clare is liaising with the UK MET office to sort out route weather. A four man raft and a ditch kit has been assembled containing 10,000 calories for each of us, a hand held VHF radio, personal locator beacon, sat telephone with gizmos, flare gun, fish hooks with line, water and water purification tablets, etc. A First Aid Kit containing everything one would expect to find in a five star hospital (consolidated and indexed by my wife Jolana - need I say more?). Then there are the mosquito net tents, fire starting thingies, tools and many more items for personal safety and comfort.

Derek and Clare will visit us in Mallorca on the 25th of this month. A couple days of review and a test flight with all the gear weighed and on board will be accomplished straight away. After a day of unabashed drinking, eating and merriment on the 28th of February, (celebrating my wife’s and my own birthdays with our friends) we will take a day off to recover and should leave from Son Bonet (LESB) Mallorca at 09:00 on 2 March, 2007, bound for Iraklion (LGIR), on the sunny Isle of Crete. 1160NM.

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AUSSEY ODESSEY

1. PREPARATION

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