Pilawt
Final Approach
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Pilawt
As I posted in an earlier "Sedona" thread, we happened to park our 172 at SEZ on August 17 next to a gorgeous RV-10 with South African registration. I googled the registration when we got home, and learned it's owned by a retired couple who took off from their South Africa home on May 27 for a westbound trip around the world.
Update:
Due to visa issues, they were unable to depart and re-enter the USA, so they had to skip the Caribbean and South America.
They are now in Auckland NZ. Here’s their most recent post, from just a couple of hours ago:
(They mention “planes” in the plural. It appears they are flying together with a US-registered C-206 on at least part of their trip.)
Wow.
Update:
Due to visa issues, they were unable to depart and re-enter the USA, so they had to skip the Caribbean and South America.
They are now in Auckland NZ. Here’s their most recent post, from just a couple of hours ago:
Now we are safely far away from Christmas Island [Kiribati], the story of how an overnight stay on an idyllic island turned into a rather unpleasant week.
We arrived at Cassidy airport mid afternoon on Wednesday and airport staff asked for our landing permit, which we did not have. It is common practice to fly without a permit. You apply to Tarawa the capital, who do not answer emails or telephones. The permit comes through at any time weeks in the future. As long as you show that you have applied when you land that is usually good enough. NOT this time, no paper permit no access to fuel, and for a while no leaving the airport..several hours and phone calls later we were allowed to go to the motel. We were then told we had to pay a fine before we could leave the island. It took 2 days to find out how much and who to pay. The 10,000 AUS dollars per plane was paid direct into CAA bank. 4 days later we received confirmation that Civil aviation Kiribati had received our generous donation and we were allowed to leave. We thought all was well and the fuelers promised to pick us up at 3pm that day. Instead around lunch time 4 police officers came to arrest us for not having a landing permit. Thankfully we had an email confirming the planes had been released by the authorities for fueling and departure so they went away.
At 4.30 the fuelers picked us up and took us to the airport, fueling was finally completed in the dark at around 7.30 pm.
We returned to the airport at 5.30 am the next day and found that fire engines had been parked in front of the planes to prevent us from leaving. We asked for them to be moved but were told we had to clear customs first. Customs then asked for a 40 Dollar "facility fee" (cash with no receipt needless to say.). We paid and the fire trucks were moved, we wasted no time in taking off and will not be returning.
We arrived at Cassidy airport mid afternoon on Wednesday and airport staff asked for our landing permit, which we did not have. It is common practice to fly without a permit. You apply to Tarawa the capital, who do not answer emails or telephones. The permit comes through at any time weeks in the future. As long as you show that you have applied when you land that is usually good enough. NOT this time, no paper permit no access to fuel, and for a while no leaving the airport..several hours and phone calls later we were allowed to go to the motel. We were then told we had to pay a fine before we could leave the island. It took 2 days to find out how much and who to pay. The 10,000 AUS dollars per plane was paid direct into CAA bank. 4 days later we received confirmation that Civil aviation Kiribati had received our generous donation and we were allowed to leave. We thought all was well and the fuelers promised to pick us up at 3pm that day. Instead around lunch time 4 police officers came to arrest us for not having a landing permit. Thankfully we had an email confirming the planes had been released by the authorities for fueling and departure so they went away.
At 4.30 the fuelers picked us up and took us to the airport, fueling was finally completed in the dark at around 7.30 pm.
We returned to the airport at 5.30 am the next day and found that fire engines had been parked in front of the planes to prevent us from leaving. We asked for them to be moved but were told we had to clear customs first. Customs then asked for a 40 Dollar "facility fee" (cash with no receipt needless to say.). We paid and the fire trucks were moved, we wasted no time in taking off and will not be returning.
(They mention “planes” in the plural. It appears they are flying together with a US-registered C-206 on at least part of their trip.)
Wow.
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