Always surprised by people you meet… Reykjavík, Iceland

Reykjavík, Iceland Day 28. 19/July/2014 Always surprised by people you meet… Day score 9. There is an old guy called Benni for my benefit. He must have retired, smokes a pipe almost continually and is here virtually everyday. His hearing is not so good anymore or his English, but Gummy had shown me on his phone a video of a flight where they flew to Englandto pick up an old Russian war bird to return to Iceland. Benni had been given the job of ferrying the plane as he had flown everything and anything everywhere. He had flown DC3’s in the early days right up to the Boeing 757’s when he retired and was a mainstay and promoter of the youth within the club. Benni invited me to see his Pitts Model 12 unlimited aerobatic aircraft that he had built and redesigned himself to be a better plane than the Americans make. I didn’t think you could make Model 12’s I thought they were all factory built, but he had built this one apparently. It would be worth seeing. It was the other side of the airfield and Thurther joined us. Thurther is a photo journalist, if he has nothing to report he hangs out at the Geirfugl club as well, so he is here a lot too. At the back of a huge insulated hangar was Benni’s huge white Model 12 Pitts. How could he have made this, it was an awesome plane. Less its engine, which had been removed and sent to Lithuania for repair. Stunning and his respect levels went through the roof for his efforts. Especially as he must be 75ish by now. On the way back Thurther showed me more iconic aircraft designed by Icelandic aviators, some pretty impressive, some not so, but any aircraft designed and built and flying, after building my own, I know is a major achievement in itself. The weather looked like it might brake nicely for me to try and fly the coast tomorrow. And Thurther and I took time to study a route. With the long range tank now installed in my plane, it would give 7 hours range if necessary and I would only need to stop twice for fuel around Iceland. But 7 hours at a time in my plane was a lot to ask so I still broke it up into 4 hour flights. It would be good to test the long range tank though. There was almost a party atmosphere in the club tonight with food and beer brought by a group of ten young pilots of all levels. I met Bjarki who flew with Air Iceland. He flew to Kulusuk as well of all places and he showed me some even better weather sites that they used. This opened up a whole new field of weather studying. It was still bad by the way, with a lot of cloud on route to Greenland, but a possible attempt around the coast was possible tomorrow, not easy but I was running out of time and opportunities and Oshkosh was looming being only 9 days away… One of the guys who turned up tonight who’s name was Joel, seemed like he had an enthusiasm beyond the norm. I mean some people like flying, but for some people it’s in their blood. He explained that he got on well and helped often over the international side with the BIRK aircraft handling company. In return the guys at BIRK would call him if anything interested flew through. There is a surprising amount of cross Atlantic travel and most of it goes through BIRK at Reykjavik. Joel had been to the Reno Air races where I hope to head if I get to Oshkosh. He explained how he got there though. A ferry pilot flying some war bird arrived, can’t remember what it was and the pilot asked Joel to show him around town and to take him to the best bars and best restaurants. The ferry pilot blew hundreds of dollars and paid for or Joel’s food as well. There was bad weather and Joel looked after the guy all the time he was there. Reno was mentioned and the pilot was competing and invited Joel to come over and work as part of the pit crew. They stayed in touch and indeed the following year Joel went over there. They won their category and since Joel had worked so hard for them they gave him the trophy and he has it at home. This was committed dude. He went on to explain that he if set his mind at something he would do it and to the best standard, a standard that most normal people can not believe, a bit like me. We were very similar in manner and life style and thoughts and perspectives. His passion though was hunting and rifles. But rifles shooting to an accuracy of 10 shots within 1 meter over 1 kilometer. He told me how it was possible and it’s complicated, and perfection of tuning of barrel of gun in weight and length and powder and weight of bullet are critical. Fascinating. He gave me the name of the guy he crewed for. Said he was a multi millionaire in Canada with his own private fleet of war bird aircraft and that if I wanted to go and see him, he could organise it. Brilliant conversation of two equal minds. We are both quite individualistic. People would not believe when he would go hunting and live off the land for two weeks on his own… I’m not quite that detached, I like my own company but I get quite lonely at times… Jees, it was 2.am… He bid goodnight and after some more internet TV news and watching some motor racing on Wheels internet TV I got to bed. Thought for the day: I want to go home and build a Pitts Model 12…

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