Jan has been found!

[azzaro]

I recently received this photo showing the Noble Airman alive and well and perusing his hobby with the usual panache.

 

http://www.planefax.com/radar/upsidedownwatersequence.jpg

[mrzippy]

Looks good! Shouldn't one hand be holding a piece of cheese or something?;)

[lifejogger]

Wow, I am impressed, running on water while carrying an old plane over his head!!!!!

[Rupert]

Wow, I am impressed, running on water while carrying an old plane over his head!!!!!

 

I'm convinced! There is little Jan cannot do when he puts his mind to it!! Except perhaps post with his Commodore 64. :(

 

Come on back Jan!!! We miss you!!! :pilot:

 

Michael

[azzaro]

I'm convinced! There is little Jan cannot do when he puts his mind to it!! Except perhaps post with his Commodore 64.

 

:confused: I always had Jan pegged as a VIC 20 kind of guy. :p -- Bob

[KCD]

Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! That, my friends is one of those Magnificent Men in his flying machine (or should I say "with" his flying machine); it is not the Great and Natural! Look closely and you can see, no glasses. Furthermore, great though he may be, he can no more walk (or run on water) than anyone else (Only He can do that). No, this is a false sighting. The other reason I know this is someone else is the vintage aircraft; His Noble High and Mighty flies only WW II vintage aircraft and later. Nothing older than that makes a big enough splash!

 

(By the way, I was under the impression that he used a Radio Shack Color Computer)!

[azzaro]

Right you are! I see my mistakes now.

Imagine me thinking the Flying Ditchman could so skillfully avoid water!

Besides, Great War aircraft? Why he would have scarcely have hit puberty by then. ;-)

-- Bob

[KCD]

Exactly!!! I think it is time to organize a forum wide search... Grab your favorite plane (one you can land on water, because that's where he probably is), and begin the tedious search of every lake, bay,. fjord, bath tub, and mud puddle we can find in Denmark and surrounds. I've already backed the "Gonzo Goose" out of the hangar, and we're prepping her now for a trans Atlantic flight by way of Gander (no pun intended).

 

 

See you on the hunt!!!

[Macroburst]

The Flying Ditchman was spotted in a low flying amphibian yelling Where's Wally per reliable sources.

[KCD]

The hunt is underway! Gonzo Goose about to land in Gander, Newfoundland for fuel, leg one of the long quest to find whatever trace we can of that Great and Natural Aviator, H.R.M. von Peerhoven, missing these many months, is about to be in the books, as they say. The real quest will start in Denmark, checking all lakes, rivers, fjords, puddles and bath tubs, then spiral outwards until we locate him, or the remains of one of his derelict planes floating somewhere.

 

 

It is dusk, and that's Gander down there, and we're glad to be here; we really need to top off!

 

 

Runway 4 on fumes! We'll get fueled up, catch a good night's sleep and hit it again in the AM. We invite you to pool your resources and join the search; he could be lounging in a hammock on some tropical island, unwilling to surface until the beer supply is depleted. This effort could use all the help it can get!

[Rupert]

Great idea Klee! I know a Beaver I can rent in Inverness.

 

Knowing how His Peerness is attracted to water, and the fact his compass often sticks, I believe he may have wandered across the channel. Scotland is chock a block full of Lochs and Fjordes. His Peerness might be flying around with all that water wondering why he can't find his trolley car museum!!

 

So I'll start in Inverness and head down the Caladonian Canal and along some Lochs and see if I can find him holed up in a cheese factory or a distillery thereabouts. I'll report back tomorrow what I discover. ;)

 

As small a continent as Europe is and considering how much beer, cheese, whiskey, and open water there is in Europe he might be anywhere. Perhaps other volunteers might scour some of the beer halls and water sites in other countries as well!

 

Michael

[azzaro]

Alright, I've managed to borrow an Italian SAR Catalina to aid in the effort, but...

Are we really sure we want to find him? Things have been nice and peaceful around here. :) -- Bob

 

[KCD]

The "Gonzo Goose" climbing out after a fueling stop at Nuuk, Greenland, man oh man was it cold! We are on our way to Reykjavik (Iceland) for one last fueling before the UK.

 

 

We are grateful to Bob and Michael for their assistance; all are welcome... The more the merrier! Although I must agree with Bob, it has been peaceful around here of late, and the other thought I had is what on earth are we going to do with him if and when we find him?

[Rupert]

FYI: I'm using a combination of ORBX for Scotland and ScotFlight For Orbx for the scenery of this mythical trip. While Molly and I've traveled pretty much every bit of this trip by either car or ferry, we've never done it by air. So this is a new experience for me. Helping me to remember details I'm relying on the SUPER SCALE ORDINANCE SURVEY MAP we always pre-plan all our trips to the UK with.

 

 

I hadn't thought about Bob's concern until now. What will we do with Jan once we find him? Perhaps we can donate him to the Trolley Museum. Surely he's a known artifact there.

 

I'm really surprised how much detail is lost when I shrink these screen shots down to acceptable content numbers. THIS SCENERY IS VERY DENSE!! Please click on the screen shots to enlarge them. ;) I'll probably also need to remember to include the plane in some exterior shots as well.

 

Taking off early this morning. We could see the red rays of dawn over the Moray Firth as we left Ft. George near Inverness and headed to the Caladonian Canal.

 

Man they've got big ones in that canal! I bet they don't make it under that bridge!!

 

That's Loch Ness off in the distance!

 

There's Urguhart Bay and its' castle. No sign of a crash yet. But maybe His Peerness is staying at the castle.

 

Nope. No-one's been home here for a while! The castle looks much more desolate from the water! We then swung East and checked out the River Morriston

 

Here's the River Morriston waterfalls. Maybe he's gone further up to the Glenn.

 

So sign of him here in Glen Morriston. That's Loch Clanie up ahead. We'll check it out if we need to head North again on another pass.

 

OK. We've back tracked and taken Loch Ness all the way down to St. Augustus. I know there's a ton of good beer and whiskey in St. Augustus. If Jan was in this area he'd have surely dropped in for a wee dram!

 

This Beaver only has floats so we had to land in Loch Ness again & cruise up to the bank. It's noon or so so I'll spend a while checking out the local haunts in town.

 

If anyone has any new info or finds Jan please let me know! It's tough duty hanging out in bars in case he shows up!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Maybe I'm drinking too much too early! I just realized I posted a blog as well as this post! I don't even know what a blog is!!:confused::confused:

[Rupert]

Day 1 Search Contd.

 

I really should have stayed so long in the pub!! I'd forgotten how short days are in Scotland this time of the year. TBTG it's still really clear. Which is pretty unusual for this, make that any, time of the year.

 

 

So we'll head Westbound over the next section of the canal towards Loch Oich. (No I'm not making any of these names up!! :p)

 

 

There's Loch Oich ahead.

 

 

And this is the Loch Oich Marina.

 

 

Now, as promised, here's a shot of the plane. As we leave the canal.

 

 

Invergarry is coming up on the right. I'll swing over and take a quick check up into Loch Garry.

 

 

 

I'm glad we came this far! That looks like it might be a crash site there in the Loch!.

 

 

Nope I guess it's just shoals. (Or poor scenery. :o)

 

[Rupert]

Continuing on on day 1. Since we found nothing in Loch Garry we'll climb out and turn around and hope to beat the darkness to Laggan for the night.

 

 

We probably should have taxiied around on the water. These Bens (mountains for those who aren't of Scot heritage.) are way too close together for a decent turn without a lot of altitude!

 

 

Putting down near Laggan, we can soon call it a night.

 

 

OK, we'll taxi past the lighthouse and try to find a place to park tied up to the beach.

 

 

OK, tied up. We just need to shut down and head for a B&B. If they have one.

 

[Rupert]

OK, after a day of to rest my aching head, we're back on the Jan trail. Today the weather is more normal, read cloudy. But since my father was a Scot, I should be able to handle Scot weather as well.

 

We lifted off from Laggan and then took a look back to where we just left.

 

 

So now we're following the river and approaching the Curran Narrows.

 

 

Next we enter Loch Levin where we find a rare almost clear stretch ahead.

 

 

Approaching a pass which will give us a low altitude trip into the Great Glen, we hang a right and take a look over our shoulder at Loch Levin as we depart.

 

 

MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE GONE AROUND THE LONG WAY! THIS IS REALLY A TIGHT PASS FOR THIS MUCH FOG!!! AND THERE'S NO ROOM TO TURN AROUND AT THIS ALTITUDE.

 

Looking Back, we're lucky we made that one!!!!

 

Continued in the next post.

[Rupert]

Molly just took another shot leaving the pass. Seeing that shot now, I believe that was more scary than the first two shots.

 

But looking ahead Glencoe is opening up in front of us. One thing I've always thought scary to those who here. There is only one road here and it goes in one end and out the other. Both directions can be hugely dangerous in bad weather. And the mountains (Bens) here are so treacherous they've been used for generations to practice for assaults on Mt. Everest. Sadly, more than one mountain climber died here before ever getting to Mt. Everest at all.

 

 

Traversing Glencoe with no sign of any human activity other than a few buildings belching smoke, were approaching the pass out, which is also pretty foggy. But it looks much more doable.

 

 

Traveling along and out of Glencoe we're now heading into Loch Linnhe via Loch Levin. Loch Linnhe is pretty wide as we're getting closer to the sea so fog should be much less of an issue. At least until we cut between some of the Isles.

 

We'll pass between the Isles of Mull and Muir of Ord. Then between the the Muir and the Isle of Skye.

 

 

We'll follow the Isle of Skye on our left till we pass the new bridge. Molly & I haven't been on Skye for many years and the last time we were there we had to take the ferry so it'll be interesting to see.

 

 

Above are pictures of our turn up the Sound of Sleat. And of a fish farm in the Sound. Yes, unless it's labeled "Wild Caught" your Scottish Salmon is probably raised in a fish farm like this one.

[Rupert]

Day 3 continued to shutdown on the Isle of Skye:

 

As we travel along we've seen almost no air and zero water traffic except for a ferry or two. I guess most people are too smart to make a trip like this this time of the year. Once we get to the Skye Airport (XBRO), we'll abandon the search for awhile and see if others have had better luck finding His Peerness.

 

Up ahead we see the "new" Skye Bridge.

 

 

Right after looking back at the "new" bridge we hang a huge sharp left to head along the coast with the Inner Sound on our right. The airport is right there. Although it sits back quite a ways from the Sound. Spotting a channel, we'll land and try to water taxi up the channel to where their fuel truck can reach us. It's shocking to discover they don't have any seaplane refueling setup on the coast itself!

 

 

Ok, now we're this far what do we do now? Perhaps if we clear that sharp right in the channel we'll make it up to where the truck can reach us.

 

 

Well TBTG for water rudders, we made the turn and can see the spot to come ashore. Sadly, we'll almost certainly have to pay people to help us manually turn the plane around to get out of the channel. Perhaps we should have thought this through a little better???

 

 

Ok, we're here finally.

 

We talked with the local FBO and he said this isn't the first time this has happened and he'll probably put an in water refueling point on the Sound soon. But they've turned more than one Beaver around here before.

 

So we called the plane's owner and after the FBO turns it around, he'll have it retrieved. It won't be cheap for us so we'll definitely have to rethink our thoughts of continuing the search for Jan! I hope Bob or Klee do better than we have!!:o:o

 

P.S. I hope viewers enjoyed our journey. And if I've made an error or several in my narration, I apologize!! Molly and I haven't been on the West Coast and on Skye for several years. (And that was before they built the "new" bridge!) We always took the Mallaig Ferry which doesn't even run this time of the year. So my memory of how this all ties together probably isn't perfect.

 

However next summer, not this year, we plan on traveling back up into Skye to visit some relatives who recently moved there from Crail. Where my father's folks are all from.

Michael

[azzaro]

Wow! You've made a career of this Michael. :eek: :rolleyes:

 

I think the rest of us will just sit in the Pub with a few Guinesses (Guini?) and wait for the Great Airman to appear.

Come to think of it, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Perhaps the Noble Airman will pop his head up then? -- Bob

[mrzippy]

 

Come to think of it, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Perhaps the Noble Airman will pop his head up then? -- Bob

 

I think it's about time that "Pauxatany" Jan pops up to see his shadow! Maybe a little hard to do over water!

[Rupert]

Wow! You've made a career of this Michael. :eek: :rolleyes:

 

I think the rest of us will just sit in the Pub with a few Guinesses (Guini?) and wait for the Great Airman to appear.

Come to think of it, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Perhaps the Noble Airman will pop his head up then? -- Bob

 

Good Points All!! Save me a seat!! I'll take a Bombardier or whatever is their "Best" on draught! :cool:

 

And you are right. Groundhog Day would be the perfect and appropriate time for a reawakening of His Peerness!!

 

Michael

[PhantomTweak]

I know! He was flying along, like usual, heading for a great (well, normal for him, anyway) water landing, and without warning he went into hibernation!

We just have wait till the water thaws out, wherever he is (hope it's not the Antarctic Sea!!), and he will pop his head up :D Or at least inflate his LPU-21.

Pat☺

[KCD]

As "Gonzo Goose" slowly wafted her way, at reduced throttles, down the first fjord we came to in the Netherlands, what to my wondering eyes appeared but this. I've sent the photo to the NTSB for positive identification, but if that's not the "Great and Natural" Aviator, it's definitely one of his star students! I know it's not a Ground Hog, but in any case, no shadow appears present.

 

 

The Dutch Coast Guard has been notified, so this chap should be dry in a reasonably short time. Perhaps, if not His Highness, then a clue?

[azzaro]

Hmmm, there's a shadow, so six more weeks of no Jan.

Make of that what you will. :confused: -- Bob