Continuing on from the last article, as you can recall I had just purchased an airplane that I had never seen, from a man that I had never met, all on a feeling that I got from speaking to him over the phone. It’s no wonder that I don’t sleep very well. But, what’s done is done and I really needed to get all my preparations made so that I could go down and pick it up.

I didn’t purchase a US-based aircraft totally blind, though. When I started looking into buying out of the US, I did do some research. I contacted Bob Kirkby, knowing that he had just been through the importation process. I asked him for some advice on what I could do to make the process go more smoothly. Bob was a great help. Even with his busy schedule, he took the time to send me a very detailed email outlining the requirements from Transport Canada, as well as what to look for in the logs and the airplane to make sure it would pass inspection without too much trouble. Thanks very much for your input, Bob. In Bob’s email, he gave me the contact information for a Minister’s Designee. This is a Transport Canada approved person who is able to grant a C of A for your aircraft on behalf of Transport… a very powerful position. I contacted him and received another wealth of knowledge on exactly what transport would be looking for and what to watch out for. Along with all this information, I contacted my flight instructor Gary Radjo. Gary has a US license, so initially I inquired about having him ferry an aircraft home for me. He told me he did it quite often and it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. He also gave me the contact information of an AME that he endorses and also does quite a few importations. I contacted him, and he provided even more information. To legally import an aircraft into Canada, you will need to have an AME to do the inspection. This AME will need to be affiliated with an AMO, and the AMO must have access to a Minister’s Designee. Lucky for me, Ian is all three… one-stop shopping. I was a little concerned about a bit of a monopoly, but Gary assured me there was nothing to worry about with Ian. He’s been in the business a long time and has a good reputation. So now, with all this information, I still went and bought an airplane without looking at it in person.

I made the deal for the airplane on June 22, and right away I called Gary to see how his schedule was and if he could do a ferry flight. He wasn’t too excited about traveling that far to pick up an airplane that no one had looked at. Did I mention my trouble sleeping? Gary had suggested that we go together to pick it up. It was going to be about 20 hours of flight time, and he wanted some company for the trip. Plus, he wasn’t very comfortable with the whole situation and didn’t want to get stuck out there alone. I agreed, but there was the issue of me having no passport. Luckily, I had applied about three months prior, but I still hadn’t seen it. I called the passport office; they said I could expect it in about two weeks. This, I thought, would work out wonderfully as Gary told me that he wasn’t available until the second week in July. I started making arrangements with the seller for that week, stating that we would be arriving in Pittsburg on the Monday or Tuesday. This schedule all worked out well for him, and everything seemed to be going great. Plans were coming together.

Gary suggested that I get hull insurance for the airplane, seeing as though it was yet unproven and neither of us had seen it. Good idea, so I filled out an online application for the Gold Wings plan and sent it away. This was just towards the end of June, but I figured that I had lots of time to get this sorted out in a week. The application came back the next day with a few requirements that I needed to provide. Most of it revolved around flight time and experience. I added Gary to the policy for the ferry flight as he was the one properly licensed to do the flying anyway. There didn’t seem to be any issues, and the quote came back on the Tuesday. I accepted the quote and returned it, thinking that I would receive the policy the next day via email. In the meantime, I was checking with flights, still not booking because I hadn’t yet gotten my passport. Time was getting very short as we were supposed to leave in five days, and really, I didn’t have anything that I needed yet. Did I mention the no-sleep thing? Thursday came, and still no passport. I called their office, and I did get confirmation that it had shipped the previous day, and I now had a tracking number that I could follow. Great! That night when I got home, I tried to book the flight that I wanted, and of course, with my luck, the flight was booked. And of course, all the flights were at their full fare instead of the discounted rate that I was watching earlier in the week. I wanted to get a direct flight to Pittsburg, but they were all gone. The only thing available was for Tuesday, and we would need to connect in Toronto. I booked those and let all parties involved know about the confirmed flight itinerary. So here it is Thursday night; we’re leaving Tuesday morning at 7 am. And so far, I don’t have a passport or insurance. Sleep is becoming a distant memory by now.

Friday morning, I took some time off work to spend a few hours on the phone trying to sort out a few things. I called Marsh first thing to find out that they wouldn’t issue insurance without the registration marks. My thoughts were to fly it home on the US marks since Gary has the US license and deal with the registration when I got home. Wrong! Marsh needed the Canadian registration, or they wouldn’t issue insurance. Now I’m entering into full panic mode. I quickly called transport hoping that someone would sympathize with me and help me out. I got lucky, and that’s just what happened. I explained my situation and the time limit that I was in, and they helped me out over the phone. I just needed to reserve a mark, and I could use that to secure insurance. In a few minutes, this problem was solved. My new hot rod will be C-FOTM. It was the first available on the list, and it seemed to roll off my tongue alright. Previously, I had been on the Transport Canada website trying to choose a mark, but it’s so hard. Trying to decide on what sounds good with what looks good is tough. This way, I just picked the first available, and it was done.

Right away, I called Marsh back and relayed all the information that I had just received. The girls there were more than helpful now that I had everything they needed. They finished the policy while they had me on the phone and said they would email the policy the same day. Things were looking up. Now the only thing left was the passport. I had been checking the tracking number, and for the last two days, the package had been stuck in Winnipeg. I checked it again after I was finished with Marsh, and it still was in Winnipeg. It’s like it almost fell off of the truck. My mind started to race again. I thought, I’ve come so close now, had everything scheduled, flights booked, insurance, travel money, the seller ready to pick us up, and now I’m depending on Canada Post. I phoned home and asked Marilyn to run into town for me to check the mail just in case. A call back half an hour later, and the passport had arrived. Everything was now in order; I could maybe go home and get a good night’s sleep. Wrong, I still was thinking of all the “what ifs.” What if the seller didn’t show? What if there was no airplane? What if I’d been taken? What if, what if, what if.

The weekend passed, and I took Monday off to double-check all the arrangements. I called the seller, and he reassured me that he wasn’t going to screw me over and his son would be there to pick us up as he had a conference to attend. I spoke with Gary, and we planned to meet at the airport. I put together a bit of a safety kit for the airplane and got all my insurance and flight kit together. It seemed like a long time coming from when Marilyn and I started talking about getting a larger airplane, to putting the Chief up for sale, and then to this. Now it was finally here.

The morning started early as we had a 7 am flight to Toronto. I was amazed at how well I slept. I sure hadn’t done that in a while. I met Gary at the gate, and he went through a checklist with me to be sure that we had everything before we checked in. We both got through inspection with no issues, and before long, we were boarded and taking off and heading east. The seller had sent all the aircraft logs to me, and we spent the time going through the logs and comparing things back and forth. The logs are complete right back to 1950 and started with the original test flight. I love to go through stuff like that and think about the history inside.

We arrived at Pearson’s in some rapidly deteriorating weather. It was very hot and humid, and the thunderstorms were starting to build. We had about three hours to wait for our connecting flight to Pittsburg, and we didn’t want to get caught at customs, so we decided to go straight through and get a bite to eat on the other side. Well, after another bout of taking our shoes and belts off, Gary got through, but I was detained for a few minutes to answer questions about being on a farm and why I was traveling to the US. They wanted to know if I had any dirt on my shoes, but most of the questions revolved around the airplane. There wasn’t any issue with it, just a fellow pilot interested in talking about airplanes. I met Gary, and we boarded the shuttle bus to take us to another terminal where we would meet our connector. I thought that there would be a place to grab a bit to eat there, but not quite. It was just a plain terminal with just a little coffee bar and a few sandwiches. I’m guessing that the rent there must be pretty outrageous because two sandwiches, a coffee, and a pop was $26. Yikes!

We had about an hour and a half to wait, but the weather wasn’t looking good. Huge thunderstorms were building along the east coast, and flight after flight was being canceled. It got to be about ten minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave, and I was getting nervous. The minutes were ticking down, and we were still waiting to get an announcement on our flight’s status. Finally, about three minutes before departure, they called for boarding, so I called the seller quickly to give him an update. He told me that his son would pick us up at the gate and drive us out to the airplane. He would meet us there shortly after. The flight to Pittsburg was uneventful, and after we landed and were in the terminal, I turned my cell phone back on. Not more than a minute passed, and the phone rang. His son was outside waiting, and within a few minutes, we were loaded up and off. The small strip was about an hour from the Pittsburg international, and my excitement grew the closer we got. I still hadn’t seen this airplane, but the way things were going, I was starting to feel better about the whole transaction.

The 170 was inside a hangar, and as we opened the doors, I could feel a big grin building on my face. Other than a bit of dust, the airplane was just as he said it was. Gary and I started going over the plane when the seller’s son had to leave. I thanked him for his efforts, and away he went. Gary continued to look over the plane and had the cowls open. First impressions were that I had gotten myself a pretty decent airplane. The further we got into it, the better it got. All the instruments are either new or rebuilt and refaced. The interior is completely redone including paint, carpet, leather seats, headliner, and door panels. Even all the glass has been replaced. The engine was changed about 15 years prior and is the O-300A. It has a Jasco alternator, good mufflers, and about 1200 hours on it. The exterior is also freshly repainted and looks good. There wasn’t anything that we found out of the ordinary. The 170 was just how he said it was.

What a relief.

The only thing that I did notice was that there seemed to be some mud around the pitot tube. I asked Gary about it, and he knew what it was right away. A Mud Dauber had built a nest inside the pitot tube. I borrowed some tools from nearby and we removed the inspection panel and the end of the pitot. We simply had to blow it out and reinstall it, and the problem was solved.

The seller arrived shortly after we had it back together, and after introductions were done, we discussed the airplane and the restoration that was done. This 170 was damaged quite substantially during a hurricane in Florida, and a very thorough restoration has been completed. The logs were very complete, showing all the work that had been done to bring the aircraft back to life. By this time, it was starting to get dark, and it had been a long day already. We stopped by a restaurant on the way back to his house for supper, had a good meal, and were both ready for some rest. We completed all the necessary paperwork that evening and finally got to sleep about 1 am. Quite a long day.

It was an early start the next day. The seller needed to get back to his conference, so we were up by 6 am and at the airport by 7. We rolled the plane out for the first time and started to load our gear into it and set up the mount for the GPS. We said our goodbyes, and I thanked the seller for his hospitality and his honesty. We topped off the tanks and headed out.

Gary did the flight planning for the trip. All I needed to do was punch in the destination on the GPS, check the distance and flight time, and fly. That morning, the forecast wasn’t great—low cloud with thunderstorms building but clear to the west. We knew that we only had about an hour’s worth of bad weather before it would clear and then sunshine for the rest of the journey.

I flew the left seat for the whole trip. Gary is comfortable on either side, so this was better for me. We treated the flight as a checkout. As I rolled on the power on that first takeoff, I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear. There were a lot of anxious moments to get to this point, and now it seemed like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The plane accelerated down the runway and took to the air. It felt rather foreign compared to the Chief, but it felt good. We took off heading south and turned west into the soup. Gary took the controls as I fumbled with the GPS. It seems that I didn’t do something right, and the whole screen was blinking. I felt better with Gary flying the first leg anyway. Pennsylvania has some really nice countryside with rolling hills thick with trees. We even saw a few Amish with their horses and carts traveling down the roads. The soup was thicker in some areas than others, and we tried to fly around the darkest looking cells. About an hour into the flight, it was like a curtain opened and we flew out into the sunshine… much nicer. Our first leg took us to Huntington, Indiana. We stopped and were able to get a good feel on what our fuel burn was going to be, as well as to see what the oil consumption was. Oil consumption was as expected, and fuel burn was about 8 gph. Just what the POH suggests. From Huntington, we headed to Ottumwa, Iowa, where we were able to borrow a car and head into town to get a bit to eat. So far, we had traveled about 6.0 hours and we battled a 25 mph headwind the entire time. After lunch, we loaded back in and headed for Huron, SD. This would turn out to be the longest leg of our trip—3.9 hours of flight time. This is where I found that dinosaur that Stu is always talking about.

It was a long day, and we saw some very impressive countryside. We started out in the morning in low cloud and rain at points and flew into sunshine. We flew close enough to Chicago that we could see the Sears Tower sticking up through the smog. We flew across three states where the only thing growing on the ground was corn. We met some extremely helpful people at all the FBOs we stopped at. All were more than willing to fuel the plane and wash the windows, as well as offering us a car to get to town with. Great, great people. The first day had been a success—9.9 hours flight time and almost halfway home.

The first two days of our trip had been quite tiring. We took the opportunity to sleep in a bit and catch up on some sleep. When we did get back to the airport, the plane was fueled and the windows washed. What great service! From Huron, we headed for Miles City, MT. What a huge change in scenery in just a few hours. It went from lush fields of corn to dry pasture that would only support a few cows. Still, we were fighting that 25 mph headwind. I was beginning to wonder which reading was correct—the GPS or the ASI. At Miles City, we went to town for lunch. The courtesy car was gone, but we were able to borrow the operator’s personal car. After lunch, we headed for Great Falls, which would be our stop for the night. More super people here as they met us on the ramp and were tying the plane down even before we got out. We chatted with the fueler for a bit and explained that we would need a hotel for the night. He radioed in, and even before we were inside, rooms were booked and a shuttle bus was on the way. The hotel was nice, and Gary and I enjoyed supper over a couple of beverages and some great storytelling.

Friday was going to be an easy day. We only had about a 2-hour flight from Great Falls to Springbank, so we took it easy in the morning. We had planned to be in Springbank by 1 p.m. to meet the customs officers, so we had lots of time to plan our flight. As before, Gary handled the flight planning and called to arrange everything. He filed a flight plan with US flight services and contacted Canadian customs to confirm our arrival time. The only thing to do now was wait.

When we did climb into the airplane, everything was in order. We had about 15 minutes to burn before engine start to double-check everything. This is when it started to get weird. As we were still on the apron, a Cessna 185 was taxiing towards us when he stopped in the middle of the taxiway and shut down. Both Gary and I thought this was a bit strange. The pilot got out, looked at the tail, and walked away. At the same time, a FedEx Boeing 737 landed and was taxiing up the same taxiway. Now he had nowhere to go, so he started zigzagging around on the apron to get around all the other parked aircraft to get where he needed to go. Gary looked at me and said, “Let’s get out of here before something else happens.” I was in total agreement. We started and got taxi clearance, and were heading towards the end of the runway when an F-16 blasted down the runway and peeled off in full afterburner. Cool!!! Great Falls has an Air National Guard station, and they were doing maneuvers. I got the 170 down to the run-up area and completed our checks. Then we got to sit and watch four F-16s come in and land. They were coming in as groups of two. One would land, and the other would peel off and join the circuit again. The third one to come in for landing must have been a little hot because he locked up the mains and subsequently blew out the right tire before sliding to a stop in a cloud of smoke. Great, I thought. It was only a few seconds before the fire trucks were rolling, and before long, five trucks had surrounded the F-16. I looked over and asked Gary what he suggested we should do. Before he could answer, the ground controller came on and told us to taxi back down the taxiway to the intersection and leave from there. I quickly confirmed his instructions. The way things were going, I wanted to get the heck out of there.

We took off and headed for home with still lots of time to meet customs at the planned time. Gary contacted US flight services to open our flight plan to get a trans-border transponder code. It appeared everything was in order. Wrong. About 20 miles north of the border, we contacted flight services in Edmonton to confirm our flight plan. We found out that there was no flight plan. Now I’m not sure if that made us legal or not, but Gary had me turn around and head for the border. He was able to contact flight services, who assured us that they would get it sorted out. Problem solved. Wrong. The next time we contacted Edmonton to confirm our flight plan, there was still no record. We asked the flight specialist what he suggested. He said he would contact US flight services to get it straightened out and to stand by. Within a few minutes, he again contacted us, told us that our flight plan was confirmed, and wished us a good flight. Great, Gary and I laughed about all that had happened to this point. It was like someone was out to get us. We continued on course and began to recognize some familiar territory. We had no trouble joining the circuit at Springbank, but I’m sure the controllers wondered why this US-registered aircraft was so familiar with the procedures. We landed with no issues, switched to ground frequency, where we got some nice comments on the plane from the controller.

As we taxied up to the Esso, I could see the customs officers there waiting for us. We were five minutes early. Pretty good timing considering all that had happened so far. Before shutting down, I contacted flight services to close our flight plan, only to find out that there was no flight plan. Here we go again. I explained to the flight specialist all that had happened until then, said we were down safe, and they could take it from there.

The customs officers were pleased that we were on time. She said that they had to wait 2.5 hours the day before. Us being on time must have helped because she never even looked inside the airplane. She didn’t get closer than the wingtip. They just wanted to see the paperwork so they could figure out the GST.

As I was completing the paperwork, Gary headed over to Ian Baker’s hangar. Ian would be doing all the importation inspections and paperwork. When I was done, I took the plane over and parked it outside. Together with Gary, I went through the airplane with Ian and pointed out any of the issues that I thought there were. After 30 minutes or so, we were done. Marilyn came to pick us up, and we took Gary home. Looking back, it all seemed to go so fast. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, but I got through them, and now my new airplane was home, almost.

In part 3, I’ll let you know what happened with the import inspection and all that was involved in getting the 170 home to Carstairs.