The Spirit of Adventure (version 0.4) by Michael McCafferty The true story of the summer-long experience of a lifetime: flying a beautiful open-cockpit biplane, with wings of cloth and wood, touring Europe with the freedom of an eagle. © Copyright 2010, all rights reserved Michael McCafferty PO Box 2270 Del Mar, California USA email: [email protected] website: MichaelMcCafferty.com 2 Table of Contents Preface 8 The Fantasies 9 Waiting for the Slow Boat to Paris 12 Day 1: Silent fears 15 Day 2: A Day of Challenges 16 Day 3: A Lesson in French Hospitality 19 Day 4: An Excursion into the Streets of Paris 22 Day 5: The Calm Before The Storm 26 Day 6: Let There Be Wings! 28 Day 7: Taxi Ride from Hell, Haircut in Heaven 30 Day 8: A Very Short Story 33 Day 9: Only Pilots Know Why Birds Sing 34 Day 10: Friday the Thirteenth 37 Day 11: Who Is This Guy? What Makes Him Tick? 40 Day 12: The Paris Air Show 47 Day 13: The Air and Space Museum 51 Day 14: Another Rainy Day in Paris 54 Day 15: An Old Irish Prescription 57 Day 16: Observations From A Sidewalk Café 60 Day 17: The Loose End of a Long Red Tape 65 3 Day 18: Meditations at the Babylon Café 69 Day 19: A Street Party of Epic Proportions 71 Day 20: Anticipation 74 Day 21: Another Day On, and Under, the Ground 77 Day 22: To Fly Is To Be 80 Day 23: Of Corsica! 86 Day 24: More Than Just A Pretty Face 88 Day 25: Mono-kinis 91 Day 26: The Global Perspective 94 Day 27: Please Stand By. We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties 99 Day 28: There Is No Language Barrier! 102 Day 29: The Animal & The English Lord 105 Day 30: Sensory Overload 108 Day 31: Good Friends and Good Flying 110 Day 32: Testosterone Alley 116 Day 33: Just Playing 121 Day 34: The Blue Wizzard 124 Day 35: Oh! Are We Stylin' Now! 127 Day 36: And We Didn't Get Arrested! 131 Day 37: Riding The Edge Of The Storm 133 Day 38: The Gods Must Have Been Sleeping 138 Day 39: Wingovers for Nici 141 4 Day 40: Lost in the Alps 144 Day 41: A Day Without Alps 148 Day 42: Lunch in St. Moritz 150 Day 43: A Bit of a Dip in the Strip 155 Day 44: Wake Turbulence Monster 158 Day 45: To Go or Not To Go 163 Day 46: Magical Mercedes 166 Day 47: First To Fly 170 Day 48: Luxem-bored 174 Day 49: The North Sea 177 Day 50: An Absolutely Perfect Grass Runway 180 Day 51: McCafferty's First Law of Meteorology 184 Day 52: Foot, Bicycle, Taxi, Rental Car, Ferry, Bus, Train, No Biplane 186 Day 53: Party Capital of the North Sea Islands 189 Day 54: A Walk On The Beach? 193 Day 55: Leap of Faith 196 Day 56: Aliens! 200 Day 57: Future Aviators 204 Day 58: The GPS Of The Future 208 Day 59: Unplanned Landing In (former) Communist Territory 211 Day 60: Runway Snake! 215 Day 61: Rest and Reflection 218 5 Day 62: Preparations 220 Day 63: Tribute To Lowell Williams 222 Day 64: Stress Test 223 Day 65: Why Am I Here? 228 Day 66: Happy To Be Alive! 231 Day 67: Great Hotels, Great Memories 237 Day 68: The Conservative Club 241 Day 69: Down And Out, And Just Around The Corner 244 Day 70: Back At The Beach Again 246 Day 71: Hangar Flying 248 Day 72: Mustangs Forever! 250 Day 73: The American Air Museum 253 Day 74: Punting And Picnicking 256 Day 75: A Most Incredible Day 259 Day 76: Today Well Lived... 265 Day 77: They Saved The World 270 Day 78: The Land Warfare Hall 275 Day 79: Great Planes 276 Day 80: Playing On The Grass & In The Air 278 Day 81: Anticipation 283 Day 82: Spitfire! 284 Day 83: Nice People, Nice Day 292 6 Day 84: Floats For My Biplane! 296 Day 85: Ghosts of Greatness 298 Day 86: Cloud-Slop 299 Day 87: Discoveries, Old and New 302 Day 88: Roots 305 Day 89: Reflections From Within 310 Day 90: Miracles & Monarchs 312 Day 91: Incommunicado 315 Day 92: Typically Irish Weather 317 Day 93: Meeting the Relatives 318 Day 94: Flight of Fancy 320 Day 95: "The Craic Was Mighty" 321 Day 96: The End 322 Three years later... 324 Epilogue: The Duck 324 Appendix A: Acknowledgements 328 Appendix B: Emergency Supplies 329 Appendix C: Checklists 330 Appendix D: Emergency Procedures 334 7 Preface Many times over the years since this great adventure, friends suggested I write a book about it. I always said that I would work on the book someday “when I got old”. Although 13 years have passed since my epic tour of Europe, I still don’t consider myself “old” but the recent death of a friend from high school days inspired me with a sense of urgency. Barry Dunleavy was a friend for 54 years. His passing got me thinking that maybe I might not have much time left and that some of the things I’ve been putting off might not get done at all unless I “Begin it Now”. Thank you, Barry. Rest easy, good buddy. 8 The Fantasies I took delivery of my beautiful new biplane at the factory in Lansing, Michigan, in the summer of 1993, registration number N50YM. With the considerable help of Waco Chief Pilot Carl Dye, I was able to get it back to my home airport of Carlsbad, CA where I would begin the serious work of learning to fly it. I knew virtually nothing about flying but I had the time and energy and commitment to mastering the art and science of it. As a student pilot I had two different instructors who were checked out by Carl: Vince Moore and Lowell Williams. Vince was young, detailed, rational, and patient. Lowell was a P-51 fighter pilot in WWII, and a finer man/pilot could not be found. Between them, I finally learned something and eventually I earned my ticket to solo. It took me much longer than normal to solo because the insurance company could not imagine how anyone could learn to fly such an extraordinary (and expensive) airplane without having tons of experience with other, more normal, airplanes. Eventually, after petitions by my instructors, and their assurances that I was an OK pilot, I was allowed into the sky alone. A solo license, or even a Private Pilot license, is just an early step in the long path of learning. Over the next several years I achieved ratings for Instrument flying, Multi- engine aircraft, gliders, seaplanes, etc. About a year into my flying education, instructor Vince Moore was doing a solo test flight, to check things out after some routine maintenance. Due to an undocumented feature of the parking brake, and his use of the brake during a ground run-up of the engine, the brake stayed partially engaged during the subsequent flight, and when he touched down, the parking brake engaged fully and instantly, flipping the plane over and making it a total loss. Vince was unhurt, thankfully. I traded the parts and the insurance payoff for a new biplane, same as the first one and gave it a registration number in remembrance of the first one: N250YM. In the few months between Vince’s accident and the delivery of the new biplane I had some time to continue my flying education, but in different airplanes. It was during this time I flew the legendary WWII fighter, the P-51 Mustang, and the B-17 bomber, earned a seaplane license, instrument rating, multi-engine rating, and glider solo license. The next couple of years with the new biplane were some of the best times of my life. Flying consumed me completely. 9 Each new adventure fueled the next. At first I would fly just around Southern California, then the southwest (Monument Valley, etc.), and up the coastline to Big Sur, Half Moon Bay and the coastline of Oregon. Bolder adventures took me through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. In 1995, Art Annecharico and his Waco joined me on a trip along the beach from San Diego to Canada. In 1996 Art and I flew our biplanes across the USA, from SoCal to Maine, down the east coast to Kitty Hawk, then back home again. I wrote daily emails from that 6-week trip, and the story is online at http://www.MichaelMcCafferty.com/adventures. This was event blogging, but before blogging was invented. I didn’t take any photos, and I guess I just can not think of a good excuse why. However it did teach me to be sure to take photos on future tours. After the coast-to-coast adventure, it seemed natural to do a Round The World flight. When I looked further into the idea of a Round The World flight, I was amazed to learn that an open-cockpit biplane had flown around the world only once, in 1927, with the full resources of the US military, and two pilots, not solo. And so, a worthy challenge presented itself: to become the only man to fly solo around the world in an open-cockpit biplane. Initial planning indicated it would take at least a year in the planning, and six months in the execution, and a whole lot of money.