September 2009 - Foz do Iguacu, Brazil

After a crazy and hectic month up in Alaska, trying to find all of Peter's little red-and-white boxes I awoke before dawn on Monday the 31st not really ready to head off to Brazil. I climbed aboard, pre-flighted (is that an adverb?), walked-around and fired up "Flounder One" from KOFC. Watch this video of the 15-hour, all-day haul (with fuel stop in Guatamala) down to Sao Paulo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHWzQNNshDI

On Tuesday morning I awoke in my hotel room with a busting headache but there under the door was my FOTM information. A bowl of fresh fruit and latte' later I was feeling better and opened the envelope to find the following photo: My heart sank, "I'm in an entirely wrong hemisphere" I thought. Then I read on ... an Oktoberfest in Southern Brazil? Sounds kinda fun!
So I spent the rest of Tuesday setting up my route and aircraft as well as touring around Sao Paulo. I'd be basically flying the route backwards, ending up at the "Falls of Iguacu."

I set out (not too) early Wednesday September 2nd for "Quero" in a Flight Club livery Lockheed Electra. After take-off I turned to the right and flew at about 4,000 feet over the whole of Sao Paulo. Once I was beyond most of the city I commenced my climb on up to cruise altitude of 9,000 feet.

It's about 250 miles from Sao Paulo to Blumenau - just a bit over an hour in the Electra. As I set up for finals I noted a problem ahead ... in FS9, Quero Airport is in a hole! It looked very landable but I just didn't have to fortitude to pull it off so instead I divered to near-by Navegantes Airport on the coast.
It was a bit foggy, still, but no big deal. I spent a few hours here and had lunch in near-by Itajai. For the next, shorter flight ('bout 100 miles from Navegantes) up to Curitaba and "Afonso Pena International" Airport, I chose the Flight Club P-51 Mustang. I even got to chase a Caravan just for a bit of a distraction!
Two days later I was ready for the little bit of a longer flight to "Cataratas Airport" in Iguacu and I figured I'd take the Flight Club's Do328-jet. It was a pleasant, uneventful flight over the jungles of southern Brazil with an arrival about 10:40 AM. Finally, during my time in Foz do Iguacu I took the Flight Club's Stearman on some low-and-slow trips over the falls. I don't know about the scenery for the rest of you, but I had some SPECTACULAR views as shown in the following photos:After my time in southwestern Brazil I took the "Black Flight Club" A-320 back to Santos Dumont in Rio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJokp3Leda8

While there, I could enjoy the sights until next month.

pretendpilot@yahoo.com

August 2009 - Alaska Rogaine

Peter has mentioned Rogaining before but when I saw the title of this month's FOTM I thought of a Hair Growth Product called "Rogaine for Men" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoxidil ). I thought that Peter wanted us all to, "Look younger today! Use Rogaine to regrow hair naturally ..." Thank goodness that's not what we are doing this month.

Having spent a few weeks at home I was a bit glad to hear that we wouldn't be trekking off half-way around the world this month - Alaska is "right next door." And Peter's scenery-adding efforts for this FOTM amaze me - the bar has, again, been set higher! Thank you Raven, in advance, for the abuse I will surely endure this month.

There was something familiar about Cordova-Smith Airport, PACV - It was one of the locations of our first Alaskan FOTM back in March 2003! I booked a quick flight up the Pacific Coast in a Default Lear-45 and arrived into Cordova the afternoon of Sunday, August 2nd. During my flight I reveiwed some of my own "Orienteering" experiences: Of course there is plane old orienteering - compass headings and get back to camp before dark. There is letterboxing, something our whole family enjoys doing. You search for clues in any given area on the internet and then follow those clues to a hidden "box" somewhere. In the box is a custom-made ink stamp and paper. You stamp your own passport with THEIR stamp and leave YOUR stamp imprint on their paper. Then, rehide the box for the next explorer. There is geocaching ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching ) where you download certain GPS coordinates that lead you to a little "prize box" and once the box is found you "exchange" the gift inside for one of your own. Now we have Rogaining which sounds in some ways similar to all of these, awarding points rather than gifts or stamps.

As I studied the route and the requirements for the month a couple of things started forming in my mind: 1- I'd need an extra set of eyes to look for our locators. 2- I'd need to fly something Low-and-Slow. 3- I'd like to see if I could get through this in one sim day. (The real challenge lasts 24 hours. Peter gave us the month but I wondered how much I could get done in 24 sim-hours? 4- The higher the numbers on Peter's list, the more points they are worth so whatever route I picked should include big numbers.

To solve problem one I called Marvin, a former Tuskegee Airman, to fly the right seat as my eyes. Marvin is older today than he was in 1944 but mentally and visually he is at his prime - and FUNNY too! To solve problem two I opted for the two-seat Curtiss Jenny bi-plane. For problems three and four I set up a route that I THOUGHT I could cover in 24-hours, about 700 miles hitting numbers 10 through 24 on Peter's list with another couple possibilities along the way. I calculated that at 70-mph I'd get done in about 12-hours of daylight! BRILLIANT!

Now, if I tell you all of the secrets of all of the locations now that will kind of spoil the fun - plus, you could always just check my full report on our website, http://www.toomuchfs.com/. So, just some photos to fill the space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v1bf5wlsjw (Little Rough but the guy was 65-years rusty!)

Marvin shook my hand, thanked me for the ride and headed off into town. I topped off the PC-12 and made the short hop over to Cordova-Smith and called my daughter to come pick me up in her private jet. Then ....... I relaxed while we flew back down to KOFC.

So in the end we've made it back to Cordova-Smith with 1040 points - and it only took 10.5 hours. "But wait..." I hear you asking, "were there no extras?" While I didn't go off HUNTING for the extra bonus items I did find two of the extra markers.

So out of 1400 possible I set out to find 1220 but only came home with 1140. Peter, what a genious FOTM. Frustrating and crazy but BRILLIANT!!!

Too bad that the RLIs made me hurry so much in the end, I hated that.