27 July 2005

Oshkosh to Goose Bay

The trip from Oshkosh was a bit slower than planned. First we had to stop in New Hampshire to pick up the missing immersion suits, and a life raft. We were hiring this gear from Ed Carlson a very experienced ferry pilot, and a real character. The author of a manual about “Crossing the pond” He was at the airport to meet us and drove us to his house, gave us a rundown of the weather and the likely conditions and then took us to lunch.

Off to Maine , where we intended to spend the night before going on to Goose Bay and Nassasaraq, Greenland . Unfortunately thunderstorms were in the way so we diverted to Portsmouth in New Hampshire and stayed there. It’s a small world as were waiting in the FBO (Basically a service station for planes but with great facilities, coffee and the loan of a car if you need it, which we did.) I heard an Australian accent! Turned out to be Laurie BonGiorno, a nice guy who has been living in Maine for some time. He was there for the same reason as us, waiting out the thunderstorms, but he was in his friend’s corporate jet! There are some seriously wealthy people in the States.

A very brief look around the area impressed me, a nice place worth going back too; it might as well be a different country to California !

Off in the morning, full of fuel heading for Goose and a charge light came on, divert to Bangor , Maine and check it out. “No fault found” so after a few hours off again.

It was interesting flying over the eastern part of Canada, lots of lakes, few roads and wild country, didn’t see any bears but there would be plenty down there I reckon. The further North we flew the more French we heard on the radio, they do most of their talking in French, speaking English when necessary.

Goose bay was interesting, in a windswept sort of way. It was quite hot, as all of the states have been, but I can imagine it B cold. It really exists as jumping off point to Europe , and an Air force base with timber thrown in.

We met an interesting guy, a German who flew around the world (including Australia and the Pacific in his Bonanza in the late 90’s. He was going the other way to us, heading for the west coast of Canada . He has a business in Germany as a consultant in vibration analysis. Does quite a lot of work for Mercedes-Benz. Every year he embarks on a new challenge “I have to cross the Atlantic at least once a year” He has 200 US Gallon wingtip tanks fitted to his Bonanza which gives him a range of 30+ hours!

Anyway, up in the morning, into the immersion suits and off to Iceland , we had intended to have a look at Greenland but the weather was against us.