On to Greece

The rest of our trip to Crete went fairly smoothly.  We flew two-leg days stopping for RONs in beautiful Cannes France, Lucca Italy, Sabaudia, and Brindisi Italy.  In between these places, we refueled in Urbe near Rome, and Salerno before Brindisi.  We drew so much interest and curiosity in all these places.  Rampers, fuelers and mechanics in their coveralls lined the taxiways as our Travel Airs landed one after the other. They all had their mobile phone cameras pointed at us.

Landing at Cannes just at sunset was beautiful. But for Pedro - Team SoCal Travel Air - trouble came in the form of a bad vibration at a lower power setting on short final. The problem turned out to be a crack on his engine's crankshaft. Keith did exploratory "surgery" on the engine and determined the diagnosis.  Not good.  A new engine was needed.  We had planned to stay one night in Cannes.  With this problem, we stayed a few more nights until Pedro was able to locate a new engine in the U.S. and make arrangements for its shipment to Cannes along with his mechanic from CA.

Cedric and Alexander, and the Piper Warrior crew had to continue as they had commitments they could not get out of.  Nick went with them to learn the routing into Italy. Keith, Colin, and I stayed another night with Keith helping Pedro get the old engine on Pedro's plane ready for removal. Nick drove back to Cannes the next day and Teams Alaska and Barnstormers had to prepare for departure to Italy and Greece without Pedro the next morning - November 2.  We hoped that Pedro's new engine would arrive without a glitch; we would stay in touch for updates.

Brindisi Airport was an interesting experience.  We had been warned by seasoned European pilots like Cedric that the bureaucratic aviation systems in Italy will make the most patient aviator very agitated.  The fueling process for two aircraft took nearly 3 hours.  The actual fueling took a fraction of that time. Paying for the fuel and getting a receipt was an ordeal that could rival trying to straighten out an insurance claim snafu over the phone.  An obviously untrained, elderly official had the task of checking each pilot's passport, typing --in the Search and Ye Shall Find method --all the information required on some obscure forms using a computer keyboard that he obviously found mysterious.  Name, birth date, passport number, expiration date, date of transaction, quantity of fuel, etc. After each entry, he had to read it back aloud --- slowly.  "Ah, a mistake. Must fix that." The 'fix' could take several minutes.  Amazing.

The next day, life vests donned, we headed out over the Adriatic Sea for Corfu, Greece.  It was a beautiful flight around, over and next to corpulent cumulus clouds with sunshine reflecting off the sea below.  After 35 minutes of nothing but sea, it was so nice to see dots of small islands and then the big one of Corfu. Very friendly staff there to greet us and point us in the right direction for hotel and restaurant.  We would be joining other rally members in Megara the next day who had been there ahead of us working on their planes before the last pre-rally leg to Sitia, Crete.  Our thoughts were with Pedro. We knew the time crunch ahead  put pressure on him as the rally launch date was coming up fast.

 Approaching Cannes at sunset. Lots of yachts in yonder harbor.

The Casino in Monte Carlo.  Wish I had more time in Monaco.  The memory of Princess Grace is still revered here.

Nick taking a break in a wine bar in Lucca Italy where we stayed the night in a lovely family run inn within the walled Old Town.

One of the more prominent peaks in beautiful Tuscany.  We are 15 minutes out of Urbe where we made a fuel stop.

Friendly Stefano Pesucci - retired airline captain and current CFI - greeted us at Urbe and kept us company as we went through an interesting song and dance to get fuel:  only one aircraft at a time could taxi to the fuel pumps on the other side of the runway which of course required taxi clearance from ground control, then a change of frequency to the tower to cross the approach end of the active runway, then a change back to ground. At the pump, forms and signatures, and initials and ....

At a family-run restaurant in Sabaudia. Air field here is a grass strip and we landed just before total dark which we would have preferred not to do.  Now relaxing here with great food. Couldn't read the menu as everything was in Italian.  Talkative waiter with little English described the menu with enthusiasm.  We just nodded our heads and said "Ok" to everything, and we got EVERYTHING.  The staff played a Pavoratti CD for us while we ate and drank wine.  So nice to savor real Italian food while listening to the great Luciano sustain the high notes of Nessun Dorma.  Pasta never tasted so good.

The impressive Amalfi Coast enroute to Salerno, our next fuel stop. Then on to Brindisi on the east coast of the Boot.

In Brindisi, one of the ground crew asked in  broken English if he could sit in 'Smuggler'.  Nick was happy to oblige. 

Sea and clouds -- crossing the Adriatic.

Setting up our approach to airport on Corfu.
(View over the cowling and through the prop. Main tank gas gauge is a little off. We also have a top tank which we switch to an hour into flight and then go back to what's in the main tank,)

Our hotel in Corfu. Very inviting after a long day of flying. 

Small park across the street from our hotel. The view out to sea was really beautiful and comforting knowing we had crossed a large span of it earlier and could now kick back and relax.  

Costas, ramp security manager at Corfu airport who took such good care of us and our airplanes for our brief stopover. He took a genuine interest in what we were getting ready to do for 5 and a half weeks. He also enjoyed Nick's sense of humor and could easily come up with some pretty good quips of his own.