You might think that after 72 feature flights this whole idea of a Flight of the Month might be getting old (and maybe it's just me) but I, for one, am continually thrilled and amazed to see these features coming up. Hans, what a great idea! As usual, I can't wait.
I wanted to get quickly into the "theme" so I loaded up an old favorite, the Lockheed Electra L-188
and left Beirut, Lebanon at 14:30 New Year's Day. My route took me over Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Tunisia and Algeria before arriving into Casablanca.
I tried to judge the daylight and the speed and the mileage to arrive in time for my 8 PM departure with a beautiful woman. As you can see from the Tunis photo however, (you'll have to read my FULL Report on www.toomuchfs.com to see that photo) I was running late and got into darkness. What was worse was that at this point I needed gas so I turned around and landed at Tunis for a quick gas-and-go. Even with the "quick" turnaround by the time you land and taxi this big beast and shut down and fill-up and restart and talk to ATC and taxi back out to the runway ..... needless to say I arrived into Casablanca well after dark - middle of the night kind of thing. I also noted that the airport Hans had picked for us was DARK. PITCH BLACK IN FACT! Thanks a lot, Hans!!! So, to make my entrance to this FOTM even worse I had to divert and land at the main, lighted airport in Casablanca.
I spent the next day getting the download, loading in Hans' flightplans and making sure that Audrey had everything she needed.
Finally with time and weather and NDBs all set I was ready to deliver the lovely woman from danger. Although, so far as I'm concerned, taxiing this taildragger in the dark at an airport with NO LIGHTS is plenty dangerous! Miraculously we didn't crash and I was able to get airborne. I crossed the NDB and pointed the arrow to my tail and trimmed out for 8,000 feet and about 140-150 knots.
I tell you, this is some slow going.
Nothing to see ...
nothing to do ...
no NDBs in range ...
dark and dreary ...
Can someone please tell me why I was so anxious to make this flight?
My mind wandered ... Since dear Audrey is no longer with us, who would I REALLY fly away from danger (yes Hans, besides my wife)? Well, this is actually quite an easy choice, so long as we are living in a world of fantasy. Aishwarya Rai would be my choice. Really Hans, are you going to tell me that Agnetha can top this pick (pic.)?
How would it work to get Ash away from Casablanca in time?
I started thinking about the movie and yes, I've seen it a time or three but it always seems odd that she leaves Rick in the evening ... shouldn't it be that all the trauma and the police and the guns and the veiled threats and the cross-double-cross be at night? It always seems to me that this should happen at night, all night, and they finally get the girl safely away at like four or five in the morning, then collapse into bed ... BANG, BANG BANG! "Where is she?" I'd look to the clock and see that it's 6:30 AM and the soldiers at my door have missed her by two hours. "Gone" I'd say flatly.
Yea, I'm going to need to rewrite this story.
It's been HOURS and I'm still flying along at 142 knots, no NDB in sight. I open the GPS and see that I'm about 2 miles east of coarse and still about 97 miles from landfall. This sucks!
The next morning, when there is actually something to see outside, I fly back down to Tangiers as suggested. I see Morocco, Portugal, Spain, maybe Algeria ... why are we flying Air FRANCE?
So we are writing a new story now ... getting the lovely lady onto a bigger, nicer airplane in the wee hours of the morning rather than at night. I also loaded in a less-direct but safer route:
So I set up another flight, before dawn, in the DC-3 and with a new, diva aboard. WOW!
Just before the bad guys arrived, we were off (This time it's not me putting her on the plane like in the movie, I'm flying!) Then, not unlike Hans' original plan for this FOTM, I cruised along in the dark but only briefly this time.
We crossed sea as the sun rose.
Soon enough we had landfall (and the NDB) in sight. We made it to Lisbon in about the same amount of time just with more to see!
(if you look very closely you may notice a plane sitting at the hold short point? Well, he decided to pull onto the runway and then SIT THERE! I guess he was waiting for me to go missed or something. I was as slow as I could get (considering the wind) and he just sat there! I was getting very aggrevated (and could have gone around) but he FINALLY started his take off roll leaving me JUST enough room to land behind him.) We landed safely, and taxied to a quiet, private parking area.
Now that Aishwarya is back to modeling maybe she'll send me a signed picture to keep with my charts .... Hans, thanks for the inspiration!
