I don’t believe it – spending time with Mike and Jean it’s impossible to make any plans more than a few days ahead! First they decide to change their route back to SA from a “north out of LA route” to a “south out of LA route”, then they settle the details of the route by way of arm wrestle!
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So now it’s Baja then Acapulco (Mexico), San Jose (Costa Rica), Bogota (Columbia), Manaus, Rio and Recife (Brazil), Accra (Ghana), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo) and Johannesburg (South Africa). Mike reckoned the southern route has better weather but Jean’s not going to Brazil without seeing Rio de Janeiro. Hhhmmmm. Unfortunately Jean got the better of Mike on the arm wrestle that resolved that little route planning difference, so they’ll be able to send us shots of sugar loaf mountain in the next few days.
Departure time is tomorrow morning LA local time, about 7am. (That’s 1400Z on Tuesday 6 September 2011, 16h00 SA time). Mike and Jean will head down to the Brown Field just south of San Diego and then on La Paz, California Sur, Baja, Mexico while I fly back to SA with Emirates to help Gareth, Terry, Andrew, Cheri-Lee and the team keep The Airplane Factory turning over until their return.
LA is awesome. I’m fascinated to visit the old world, but there’s no question that I love this western frontier life more. I reckon I get a pretty touristy little slice of things, but wow what an exciting patchwork of different people with different interests all getting along their own things right on top of one another. This just has to be a place I come back to spend some proper time in – hopefully funded through the sale of loads and loads of Slings into California which just has to be the global centre of aviation excitement.
We’ve done quite a bit of hard work checking out everything on the aeroplane. No serious problems of any kind. A small crack in the bakerlite on the prop commutator ring, of which we had a spare anyhow, an oil and filter change, plugs, airfilter and a comprehensive inspection. We got loads of help with servicing, got to do a little flying in Matt’s Eagle, we’ve eaten and drunk gluttonously and we’ve even got a bit of a rest in between. Sadly we haven’t really had time to really clock into LA culture, make any films, meet any actors or the like, but hey, there’s always next time!
It’s a public holiday in LA today and we’re pretty much done preparing the plane, so now it’s off to buy a picnic for Mike and Jean’s trip tomorrow, then off to the beach. Here’re a couple of shots from the last few days – thanks Jim for your contribution to those. More from Mike and Jean in Mexico and from me back home there in Joeys.
Hasta la Vista
James
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