HOME??? Sort of.

Okay so far we have flown 33 legs, 7616 nautical miles (15,232 kms), 17 days, 70 hours. We have one leg left to fly, 167 knots to Saskatoon, about 1hour 15 minutes and we couldn't go yesterday. It was very frustrating to be stuck in Yorkton because the weather had cleared here but in Saskatoon you couldn't see across the street. The other problem was we really wanted to see our families and Raul had a ticket to fly AirCanada out of Saskatoon at 8pm. So we bit the bullet, borrowed Mom and Dad's car and drove to Saskatoon. The most disheartening part was to see the route flyable, we could have made it but as always "Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, rather than in the air wishing you were on the ground".
So we have sent Raul on to visit his family in Calgary and Josh and I did make it to Leask last night. It was great to finally get home, it wasn't for long though because we had to return Mom and Dad's car, so tonight we are back with them in Yorkton to spend Easter Sunday and fingers crossed that we can finally take our little CFIGT to Saskatoon on Monday.
One last note, it's flippin cold here - I don't care what you say!!

Thursday March 20, Canada at LAST!!!

Took off early this morning from Olathe, Kansas actually saw the sunrise in the air. Called Canpass (customs and immigration) for clearance into Canada and asked them to meet us in Regina at 4pm. Didn't count on the layer of low cloud that we encountered in Oneill, Nebraska. Spoke to the weather guys for close to 45 minutes before we decided that going east would be enough to skirt the freezing rain and 400 foot ceilings. Called Canpass again and told them that we would be arriving in Winnipeg at 4pm instead of Regina. With all of the diversions around the clouds we didn't have enough fuel to make Winnipeg, so stopped in Grand Forks for fuel, called Canpass for the third time to amend the arrival time to 5:15pm. So actually crossed into Canada at 4:55pm. Landed in Winnipeg, waited for Canpass to check us out, when we finally called them they said they never knew we were coming. Go figure.

When they finally did arrive, they asked a couple questions and welcomed us to Canada. We took a quick look at the weather and made the easy decision to head for Yorkton, where my parents were. Called Mom collect and said pick us up in an hour and a half!

The 75 minute flight was great until the last 15 minutes when we encountered some mist and since it was getting close to sunset we couldn't see the lights of Yorkton until we were 10 miles out. However we got in just before dark and hangared the plane with plans to leave Good Friday for Saskatoon.

Wednesday March 19

Surprise, surprise the ducks are northward bound again. Thought we were only going to be able to go straight west then maybe north but as luck had it we in left drizzling rain only to clear out about 10 miles out. We saw the catfish ponds from the sky and it was impressive. After about a halfhour westward we noticed clearer blue sky to the north so pointed CFIGT in that direction and made it to Olathe, Kansas.
The plan for tomorrow is Pierre, SD (409kts) - Regina, SK (412 kts) clear customs and head to Saskatoon. This of course is only if the weather cooperates. Radar looks like we will be scouting the clouds but prognosis tonight is iffy. We will see what actually progresses tomorrow. Cross your fingers for us-we are getting homesick

Tuesday, March 18

Hello from the heart of cotton and catfish, Greenwood, Mississippi. Diverted here yesterday after we noticed that our alternator was overcharging. Nice town with very helpful people but couldn´t talk to the mechanic until today. Problem is the starter relay. We are also installing another artificial horizon, since the one I have shows that we are flying upside down. (Now I just need to talk to the Mexican FBO that sold me this one 3 months ago.) All parts should arrive tomorrow, not sure about the time for installation and weather is not promising.

Did put our time here to good use as we went out to see them harvesting catfish this morning. We waited at the fish plant until a truck was leaving then followed it to the pond being harvested. The process is called seining. They drag a net across the pond and corral them into a smaller net, then use a crane to scoop out the fish and transport them to the plant. Harvesting is based on fish size and whether the samples are on flavour or not. It was neat to see and of course we really enjoyed the catfish at supper tonight.

Well between a cold front moving south giving bad weather and problems with the electrical system it looks like the lost ducks will be spending more time than they planned in Mississippi. It seems that the artificial horizon, radios, and alternator are acting up today forcing them to divert to Greenwood, Mississippi. They hope to have a mechanic that can look into it tomorrow. In the meantime Barb and Josh went to look around the countryside and stopped to talk to the local catfish farmers, they were invited back tomorrow to watch them harvest, which they do every day.

Keep your spirits up crew, Canada is not that far away.

John

Well two more stops under our belt, Troy, Alabama and Columbus, Mississippi. Now we are on dry land all the way home!! May have to skirt some weather tomorrow but should be another good day of flying. Best part about today was meeting pilot Bob Curry in Sarasota who helped us wait out the fog by sharing some really informative websites and then a personalized tour of his King Air. We really enjoyed the conversation and his help

Looks like home on Tuesday from here.