In the Beginning...

It is not too often that you get really great opportunities in your life. Most of those arrive by meeting people.  And I am not talking about in cyberspace either, but the good old way, with face to face conversations and handshakes. So in this case. Kind of a "I know a guy that does... bla bla bla and bla too!" and the reply is usually, "really, can I meet so & so" and pretty soon you find yourself sitting around the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon over coffee and shooting the youknowhat.
Hans rolled in one day with a rather loquacious  and slightly loud friend of ours, god forgive him he is German after all, and always in drill sergeant - mode including his 4x4 and camo clothing. You all know by now who I am speaking off, right!?
Well, next came some ground school for the Ultralight-permit and some fun flying in the Luscombe. But the dream remained for Hans. He would like his own little bird and ideally it would be a CH-701 from Zenair. Now being somewhat a representative for BUSHCADDY AIRCRAFT, needless to say I have been trying to sway this idea into our favour. After all, we are all about bushplanes, all metal, all CANADIAN, well okay, there is a bit of Australian & Austrian Influence lately, but so what?

Well, make a long story short, the idea was fixed and solid that it will have to be a 701. After all it was designed by a Swiss and of course with Hans being Swiss...   you can imagine the rest of the argument. As the saying goes: You can always tell a Swiss but you can't tell them much! Now rumours has it that the same to true for Austrians. Hmmm!?

So here we go; Looking at all kinds of birds in all kinds of locations we finally came across N500ME a beauty of a bird but about as far away from beautiful British Columbia as solid land goes, right down in the deep south, Zephyrhills (KZPH), Florida.

Next the planning begins and all I can say is; the size of the baggage compartment pretty much limited major planning, add to this a cruise speed of 75mph for a 2587 Mile Cross Country and you get the idea that this trip is going to be a super multiple coffee stop flight across the U.S.A.

Stay tuned the adventure begins on Tuesday May 31st, 2011 with our flight via American Airlines from Vancouver to Tampa. From there, lets see how this adventure unfolds, eh?!

Willy T.