N5153B

Cessna Skyhawk SP   C-172S   Burlington, Vermont to Muchamiel, Spain
This was left in Burlington on its way to Saint Petersburg, Russia, by a pilot who had second thoughts about ferrying.  I'm always happy when someone who begins to have doubts about this enterprise bails out while he (or she) is still alive and the airplane undamaged.  I've seen it happen more than once that a nervous pilot panics and kills himself in a situation that shouldn't have been fatal.  And I don't believe it's any reflection on the pilot to be nervous, any more than it's a reflection on someone afflicted with acrophobia that he can't stand on the edge of a cliff.  It's much better to accept your constitutional limitations and find some other line of work. I've never been to Russia.  I'm disappointed that I have to drop this airplane in Spain, but I have a prior commitment and won't have time to take it all the way.  This is part of a large order of Cessna Skyhawks by the University of Civil Aviation in Saint Petersburg, and there are more to come, so maybe I'll get another chance.
Date	Destination	Distance (nm)	Flight time (hh+mm)
14 Mar	Millinocket, Maine	210	2+56
There was a big storm to the south, bringing strong easterlies—a Nor'easter, as they call it—which had made the national news for flooding and for blowing down trees on people's cars and houses.  I planned to leave before it got too close, and to fly VFR between the clouds and the Green Mountains to avoid the ice aloft.  I figured I'd reach Saint John's in eight hours.  But it took forever to get hold of the lone Customs agent to clear me outbound, and by the time I took off the storm had moved nearer, and I had 70-knot headwinds at 3,000 feet.  With that wind tumbling across the ridges, I was getting a carnival ride, and plenty of time to enjoy it.  The XM Weather was showing the winds at 9,000 feet to be just as strong as at 3,000, but not so perfectly in my face, and as I flew away from the storm center and toward clear air, I climbed, hoping to gain back some time.  But it was no good.  I was going to be two hours late, by my best estimate, and the margin for Canadian Customs and Immigration is plus-or-minus half an hour.  I needed to make a phone call.

Date	Destination	Distance (nm)	Flight time (hh+mm)
14 Mar	Fredericton, New Brunswick	91	1+04
I got a good signal on my cellphone at Millinocket, and I arranged to clear customs at Fredericton instead of Saint John's.  Freddie's close enough to Millinocket that even if the winds were not what I expected, I'd still arrive close enough to my ETA for government work.
"	Saint John's, Newfoundland	578	4+51
I climbed right to 9,500 feet out of Fredericton, in smooth air, and had the great pleasure of watching the headwind drop knot by knot from 19 to 18, to 17....  By the time I passed Cape Breton Island I had a couple knots' tailwind, the first faint foretaste of the really decent winds I expect to enjoy on the way to Santa Maria.
15 Mar	Santa Maria, Azores	1378	8+59
Smooth sailing.  I kept climbing gradually as the airplane burned off weight, and I reached FL130 after five and a half hours, just in time to slide above the valleys and between the peaks of the only real weather on the whole route, near Flores Island.
16 Mar	Muchamiel, Spain	1239	9+19