From the Canadian into the USA winter.

November 23, 2014

The photographs of positioning Pilatypus and fueling her, speak for itself. It was a happy moment we could leave after un unpleasant night without sufficient sleep.

towing PH-PNG from the hangar to the tarmac for refueling

refueling in the cold…

We had a three hours flight to BANGOR, Maine.

departing Goose Bay

leaving Goose Bay (or Cold Bay!!) direction South West

bye bye Goose

Saint Lawrence River

In Bangor we were nicely received by the USA Customs, probably because Urs did all what has been requested. It was much warmer than in Goose Bay or in Cleveland to come.

US Custom area at Bangor, Maine

In about one hour we left for another three hours flight to Cleveland, Ohio, where we were going to meet William Friedman of the Cleveland Port Authorities.

An uneventfull flight.

out of Bangor Airport direction Cleveland

The approach was not easy since we had a/c just below us landing on another airport also in the direction of Cleveland and not very far from it. For me a new experience but with young fox as Flying Pilot, we did not encounter any problems. It was very cold indeed so we asked Atlantic Aviation Services for hangar space but we were #6 on the waiting list and we did not get it. Since the cargo hatch did not cooperate with us to be opened, we had hope it would done so after one night in a heated hangar.

We took our luggage out via the passenger door, also on port side.

Cleveland Airport KCLE

handling the aircraft via the PAX door due to a frozen cargo door…

For the evening we were invited to have dinner with William Friedman of the Port of CLEVELAND, who told us with much charisma the developing liner service with Spliethoff and he praised Torin Swartout a lot for his good work to book cargoes. It gave me the chance to tell him something about the history of Spliethoff, in particular what has been developed in the last twenty years. We have been eating what must have one of the best beefs in the USA. 8 ounce is not small but considering there appeared steaks on the menu of 24 ounces we stayed quite sober.

For me it was the first time I have seen a Port Authority doing so much, in such an enthousiastic manner way to develop cargo for their port and it was just music for me to listen. Of course I have promised him a trip through the Amsterdam canals on SHAKA, a small wooden pilot boat, if he would come and see Spliethoff in summer time.

The WESTIN Hotel was the first hotel on this trip not offering free WIFI so we made a remark about. That may be changed already in 2015 we were told.

I am typing with still 2 hours to go for Minneapolis, Minnesota, from where we will send you another blog. We have noticed that the weather will be pretty bad. For pilots (relayed to us by Jim Hillegass, being himself a non-professional pilot, like myself):

The TAF now says:
KMSP 221409Z 2214/2318 20008KT 3SM BR OVC006
FM221500 19008KT 2SM BR OVC004
FM222200 18008KT 5SM BR OVC008
FM230200 16008KT 3SM BR OVC005
FM230600 17007KT 2SM BR OVC003
TEMPO 2308/2312 1/2SM FG VV002
FM231400 21008KT 3SM BR OVC006

18/36 is short. For anything under a 10 knot crosswind, the active runways will probably be 28L and 28R. The ILS is on the opposite end, 10R. With that wind, if the traffic is light (as it probably will be with the visibility and ceiling) they might let you land on 10R. It’s a nice long runway, 5000×100 feet. If you use the ILS, they might ask you to circle to land, but that would not be my first choice. Here’s the Airnav site:
https://www.airnav.com/airport/KFCM