Chicago to Poland airplane delivery – day 1
I delivered a Mooney Acclaim from Chicago to Poland last week. I was accompanied by one of the pilots for the company that purchased the airplane. We had several interesting experiences during the trip, so I’ll do separate posts on each day of the trip.
Day 1 was supposed to be a fairly easy day: Aurora (KARR) to Goose Bay (CYYR) with fuel stops in Dunkirk (KDKK) and Bangor (KBGR).
Day 1: karr - kdkk - kbgr - cyyr
Map courtesy of Great Circle Mapper (click on map to see full size).
We left Chicago in IMC but flew into clear skies about an hour before landing at DKK. We fueled up and were ready to leave again 15 minutes later… only to notice a huge flat spot on the RH main as I walked up to the airplane. Later we found out this was a known squawk but somehow got missed before our departure in Chicago, and I missed it on the preflight as well.
Being Saturday afternoon did not help us at that point, but Lou at Dunkirk Aviation was kind enough to open the maintenance shop for us and a bit later we were on our way to Bangor with a new RH main.
Changing right main tire at KDKK
After KDKK we had some good tailwinds so we took the Mooney up to FL190. In Bangor we did the eApis manifest, Canpass, flight plan to Goose and grabbed a sandwich at the terminal. Taking off out of Bangor we ran into a small frontal system near the US – Canada border and had to use some of our TKS fluid, something I had preferred not to do this early in the trip.
We finally made it to our hotel at Goose around 1:00 am local time.
Great pictures .I dont know if you have landed in Kulusuk but be careful running up on the runway before take off the volcanic ash on the runway will polish your prop . Also you can buy a tee shirt with Kulusuk swimming club written on it. Good for bragging rites !
Lots of luck . I am now retired but had fun and some frights on single engine trans Atlantic ferries .
Bill
Thanks Bill. On this trip we didn’t stop in Kulusuk, but I have landed there on other trips. A beautiful place in summertime but I don’t think I’m joining the swim team there :)