It's one week before departure ("X minus 7 days"). The Europa as
well as routing are taking final shape one by one.
On July 21st, N81EU is scheduled to take off from Bonn, Germany for
the classic plain vanilla Atlantic crossing via:
~ Northern England (we'll circle the Europa Company in Kirbymoorside)
~ Iceland, Greenland and Canada.
Depending on weather and technical issues we should arrive during
the early days of Oshkosh AirVenture 2ooo. Please visit her at the
parking located north of the West Ramp and adjacent to the Discovery
Channel stage.
Technical issues that were taken care of include:
- 2 day engine check with Rotax Germany
- aerodynamic clean-up with gap sealing and Europa speed kit
- installation of aux fuel storage using two monowheel aux
tanks from Europa Aviation, 35 litres each.
and countless small items around the airframe with regards of
reliability and performance.
- complete survival equipment package as required by canadian
authorities has been secured. It includes a life raft, survival
suit, life vest, water sumbersible ELT and survival food and
lodging.
- insurance coverage for the scandinavian countries.
I am looking forward to see Iceland and Greenland and experience
the still long sunlight days. Childhood dreams are coming true !
My friend Dietmar Mondon has agreed to daily feed the website with
updates which he again will receive by HF, Internet or phone. He
can be reached at: <d.mondon@cyberfun.de> and <mondon@zeiss.de> and
will be able to forward messages to me.
The website can be found at: http://www.thomas.scherer.com
The greatest experience during the preparatory phase of the flight
is the helping hands. Out of the many I list:
Graham Singleton - with a never-ending flow of advices, letters,
emails.
Jim Price - he came to visit Germany for one week. All he saw of
Germany though was the street to and from the airport.
As my technical councelor he went through the entire
airframe. He is lending me his portable GPS and is
arranging the logistics around the ground crew: my father,
Pop - the paintscheme designer and two more friends from
Germany who will attend Oshkosh.
Michel Gordillo - he flew his Kitfox from Madrid to Oshkosh in
1999 and is instrumental in showing me the way
through the authorities of Russia and China.
Pop - is spending every free moment up here, despite the distance
of 350 km.
Motoe - my wife who carries he complete workload of moving the family
and buying supplies for the first months in Mongolia.
and all the supportive messages from the "gang".
Sincerely,
<Thomas, N81EU>
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