logo Round the World Flight with HB-PON 2008/09
Date: 10 Nov 2005 13:11:00
Title: Beginning of Stage 2. Preparing for the return flight (Tulare, to Palo Alto California)
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37:27.6N 122:06.8W

With regular contacts by telephone and by e-mail with David Johnston, I was constantly kept updated of all the
work in process. As per the master plan of this project, David informed me in early October that HB-PON
would be ready for the 10-hour engine break-in, the second week of November.

Olivier, my co-pilot and I returned back to San Francisco early in the second week of November and then headed
straight down to Tulare to take delivery of my freshly inspected and upgraded Comanche with the shining overhauled
power plant and its new "Titan" cylinders.







Arriving At San Francisco International Airport, I discovered that
my Live Raft, which I had taken from home had been stolen from
my baggage.

What an unpleasant discovery!






With strict instructions from David Johnston on how to break-in the over­hauled engine for the next 10 hours,
Olivier and I spent the next few days racing up and down the central valley at low altitude and different defined
power settings, whenever the autumn fog disappeared.


The journey back home

 

The flight back home would be to take the southern route. While repeat­edly watching the Weather channel and
CNN, it became more and more evident to us, that the initially planned route of our return flight to Europe between
Tulare and straight to Florida was not at all feasible.


Deep winter conditions with heavy snowfall everywhere had set­tled in across New Mexico and the whole state of Texas,
ranging down as far as northern Mexico.
As we needed to get going with our trip, there was no other solution other than circumvent the bad weather under
all circumstances.






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