| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 31 Dec 2010 | N21481 | 5G0 (LeRoy, NY) - N23 (Sidney, NY) - OIC (Norwich, NY) - 5G0 | 2.8 | 893.0 |
On the last day of 2010, I went exploring. I crawled away from Le Roy under a low overcast, finally emerging in clear skies east of Rochester. My first destination was Sidney NY, a small airport surrounded by high hills. I parked at the full service fuel pump ($4.26/gal) nose to nose with a very nice looking Mooney.
As the line guy fueled my aircraft, another gentleman approached and offered to help move the Mooney, if needed. Seeing that the Mooney did not need to be moved, he gestured toward Warrior 481.
"Nice looking airplane!" he said.
"Thanks," I smiled back at him. "But it's no Mooney." I indicated the airplane I surmised to be his.
"Oh, I'm just a passenger. The Mooney belongs to a friend of mine. Nice airplane, though. Fuel efficient." We made some more small talk about how I was out exploring new airports that morning and he was en route to New Jersey for a $100 hamburger with the pilot of the Mooney.
"This Mooney is a world traveler," he boasted. At my impressed expression, he quickly clarified that it was the former owner of the airplane who had flown it solo around the world. "There's a great website written by the guy who did it. You should check it out."
I captured a snapshot of the airplane with my cell phone so that I would not forget the tail number (yeah, this photo doesn't really meet my usual aesthetic standards, but a legible tail number was all I really needed).
The rest of the unseasonably warm day passed with the exploration of another airport (completely deserted), return to Le Roy, and an oil change for Warrior 481. That evening, I found the website describing N60RP's journey around the world. It's a fantastic read (no pun actually intended) - I highly recommend it:
"Reed Flies Around the World"
Happy New Year!
Always fun getting some air time and honestly, what better way to warm up the oil! Very interesting article on the Mooney. You just never know who you will meet or what kind of history you come across while flying.
ReplyDeleteThe original owner of our plane was the guy who supplied "Duke" the Bush bean commercial dog. He used the plane to finish his show dogs across the country.