Gabon to Poland

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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby nowonmai » Fri Feb 26, 2016 8:00 pm

Gibraltar - only slightly less patriotic than the Falkland Islanders. Guess no one is too keen on Spanish practices if they can avoid them.

Hope you saluted the grand old rock.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:14 pm

We did.

Ibiza and then Montpellier, ran out of cash and the aircraft broke down. Spending the rainy weekend in France.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Sat Feb 27, 2016 8:35 pm

It seems that we have been stupid. The Captains on both birds have company prepaid VISA cards, but when I do the preauthorization on my card at check-in, and the other Captain pays for all the rooms on check out, or vice-versa, the pre-authorized amount is not available for 30 days, as VISA sets it aside to cover the pre-authorization. Makes good sense, but we've pretty much run the money out by tying up all our preloaded amounts with pre-authorizations. Lesson learned. Pay with the same card you pre-authorize with.

Almeria has no ATMs at the airport at all, nor any foreign exchange bureaus anywhere, and money can only be exchanged at banks where you have an account. Our big thick wad of USD that saw us through most of sub-Sahara Africa was pretty much useless. I tapped into my own stash of Euros to get us out of there.

A problem that has been plaguing us since Dakar has us grounded in Montpellier, but we got the part late today, I'll go in with the engineers in the morning to run the old gal, and we will probably be continuing North Monday. Weather was crap for flying today anyway.

I'd like to get moving, service here sucks.

Just a few shots, as Europe isn't nearly as interesting as Africa, in my humble opinion....

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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby coldharvest » Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:33 am

Darcy wrote:in my humble opinion....

No ones opinion is humble around here.
I know the law. And I have spent my entire life in its flagrant disregard.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:54 pm

Well, we got the part but it didn't really fix the issue. We're tired of the French and are pushing on anyways....maybe Austria tomorrow night.....

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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Douchebag » Mon Feb 29, 2016 9:23 am

Is that the Jesus nut you are replacing?
DickPaw, I am convinced that you'd be the omega male of Mantown, you golden shower taking, meat-gazing dandified bitch-boy.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:15 pm

Douchebag wrote:Is that the Jesus nut you are replacing?


A hydraulic servo. They only have Jesus nuts on two bladed birds, like Jetrangers and Hueys. The only multi blade helo (more than two blades) with a Jesus nut would be the Hughes 500 (AKA McDonald Douglas 500 or Cayuse or Little Bird).

Weather was shit in the mountains, and pretty rock and roll with over 40 knots on the nose, so we worked our way down to a river then headed North to Dijon and are now sitting in the lap of luxury in Luxembourg. Now we really are running out of money.....
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby ReptilianKittenEater » Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:32 pm

With those $5 lattes you must be craving a Tim's.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby nowonmai » Tue Mar 01, 2016 1:21 am

Darcy wrote:
Douchebag wrote:Is that the Jesus nut you are replacing?


A hydraulic servo. They only have Jesus nuts on two bladed birds, like Jetrangers and Hueys. The only multi blade helo (more than two blades) with a Jesus nut would be the Hughes 500 (AKA McDonald Douglas 500 or Cayuse or Little Bird).

Weather was shit in the mountains, and pretty rock and roll with over 40 knots on the nose, so we worked our way down to a river then headed North to Dijon and are now sitting in the lap of luxury in Luxembourg. Now we really are running out of money.....


Go and visit General Patton's grave if you get the chance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Wed Mar 02, 2016 8:49 pm

Unfortunately did not get a chance. I didn't really enjoy Luxembourg, a tad too high end for my taste, with expensive hotels, beer, restaurants, and lots of Gucci and snotty accents, and Russian strip clubs far too aggressive for my taste....this little Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction) look alike that could have had my wallet had she been so inclined...

We tried getting to Prague today but the clouds were down into the mountains and we ended up fucking around in the tree tops as power lines and wind turbines jumped out of the clag at us. We were looking at putting down in some farmer's field more than a few times (all those farmer daughter porn flicks creeping into my head clouding my better judgement), before retracing our steps and crawling into Nuremberg. Weather is crap here but I much prefer this neck of the woods. Hoping the weather is poor tomorrow and we can go on walkabout for a look see....
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Kurt » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:11 pm

Nurnberg...try the beer called Vasold Gold.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Sat Mar 05, 2016 9:22 am

Everyone enjoyed Nuremberg, and yes we tried quite a few beers! We couldn't get out the next day either and I don't know how my pants still fit with all the pretzels, beer and bratwurst. After the castle, and it's history with the First Reich, we headed out to the Palace of Justice for the Nuremberg Trails memorial, then took a tram out to the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Grounds where Hitler held all the Nazi rallies of the thirties.

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Weather gave us grief again the next day and we only got as far as Prague, but everyone was blown away with the place. Too bad it was only for a night. We stayed at the opulent Grand Mark Prague and it was my first two floor suite, the bath overlooking the foyer, and cheaper than anything we had stayed at thus far.

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I think my next European holiday will be straight to Prague and stay here, it's quite the place. Met a few fine ladies from Moscow last night too, but I'm still missing Africa....

I can't believe I'm getting paid for all this, but I guess it is coming to an end when we hit Poland, probably later today.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:54 am

Made it to Poland!

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Just working out some numbers for interest;

The ferry flight Gabon to Poland was just over 7000 statute miles.

We were in transit for 25 days

Flew through 23 countries;
Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Poland

18 of those we stopped in for fuel

Slept in 13 countries and 16 different hotels;
Gabon, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Western Sahara, Morocco, Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Poland

Heading to Frankfurt shortly, then Canada and Halifax tomorrow.....
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Kurt » Sun Mar 06, 2016 4:31 pm

Damn, That was awesome. Thanks for posting all that.
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Re: Gabon to Poland

Postby Darcy » Sun Mar 06, 2016 5:17 pm

No worries, glad I could share! Far and away the coolest thing I've ever done....well, some nights in Mombasa come close but...

If anyone cares for a little more depth, but tamer breakdown of the entire trip (family members and company officials read it), I covered most of it in my blog;

http://darcyandhelicopters.blogspot.com

And I've got every photo from the trip here;

https://plus.google.com/photos/116188736389762953183/albums/6242305793461750913
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