Geneva, the conclusion of a 6 months' trip

Just like a new beginning, the very last flight was a return to Geneva. After 6 months of flying east, the airplane came back to Geneva from West! Actually they went to Italy to meet up with Katsu and the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian display Team! They flew then via the Rhone Valley in order to meet up with the French Team before heading towards GVA. It is then a flight from west coming from south!

A warm and nice welcome to our home base for HB-IRJ with water canon salute and especially a fantastic coincidence for me. I had to fly for my Airline, easyJet Switzerland that day.

Upon checkin in for our flight, the airplane we were supposed to fly was delayed for about 1 hour. This made my day for once!! I could then join the arrival of HB-IRJ on the tarmac and greet Francisco and Roger Mills, Roger being the fastest DC-3 pilot as he also flew Concorde from 1987 to 2000 for British Airways. Great to meet everyone on the tarmac of "our" airport!

Frecce Tricolori

Arrival in GVA

The old meets the new

Back to where HB-IRJ started!!

French Air display Team, Patrouille de France

The following days were spent in Sion for the last Breitling meeting. Many displays of great venue and also some DC-3 flight flown with Roger and Francisco. It all went smooth and brought to an end an incredible adventure.

Many thanks to my readers, my followers and anyone who believe in Aviation, the one with a capital A.

"The day will come when true Aviators won't have their time on Earth any more, when this day arrives, I will hang up my coat and take a well deserved retirement. Until then I shall continue to enjoy the freedom of flight, the pureness of it and strive to be the best, as much as I can"

Raphaël Favre, 2020

My last RTW flight in a DC-3 DUX-BQH

Duxford to Biggin Hill. How could you have ever imagined doing this in 2017 in a DC-3 with a group of fantastic friends?

In my career so far, never could I have ever dreamed hard enough. This was the last ever flight for me of this amazing trip, a trip going back to 2015 when I type rated on the DC-3. This timepiece brought us back in time like never before. 

It was the first time in history a DC-3 made a Round the World Tour and probably the last time also. To be a member of this closed community makes me peaceful and happy. In order to finish this part of the Tour, landing in Biggin Hill was almost necessary. This famous airfield is well known to any aviator who can relate to historical flights. Now it is a small place south east of London where quite a lot of business jets land. The day ended with some tearful goodbyes to our team members but also to HB-IRJ, the Grand Old Lady. At this time I had no clue wether I would be flying again this admirable airplane. So yes, a dream came true and now it is time to say "Au revoir".

Many thanks to every single person I met in this trip, especially Francisco. Without you nothing would have been happening. 

Paul who's expertise in every DC-3 domain led to a smooth an uneventful trip.

Katsu, Greg, Bastien for your professional pictures and movies and good (bad!) sense of humour.

Michiru for your kindness, your great help in general also.

Mireille and Markus, for who you are, we love you!

Hans, for your love of aviation and passion of DC-3!

Alex, for being always available and a happy pilot-passenger!

Every other co flyer who shared the hard work to prepare this trip (Yannick, Gaby)

Mike, without you and your connexions we wouldn't have been able to secure so many good places and AVGAS.

The Japanese team, every single person.

Peter, Team Drinks and your support!

Bob, fitter at 89 than anyone else!

Thomas, the most frequent flyer M/C (Chief Purser)!

Marie, my wife now, my everything, thank you soooo much I love you for ever.

South of London towards Biggin Hill

The great Team

Leaving Scotland

Good morning everyone.

Good to know if you ever want to buy some present in the form of wine or spirit for a later time in the day, at least in Scotland, before 10am it is prohibited! So no way we could get some refreshments for our guest on board towards Duxford. Yes, you read it correctly, flying to Duxford today!! Such a great coastal flight and the icing on the cake is a landing at one of the most renowned place for Aviation. 

Markus and I fighting!

New Helmet for happy Pilots

DH121 Trident cockpit with first moving map ever

Our DC-3 and a B-17 Flying Fortress under a rainbow

Then off we went to Downtown Cambridge in a nice hôtel where we spend two great days, relaxing and visiting the Imperial War Museum. Many good pictures but too many for this blog. We also did some planning for our guest leaving either back to the USA or going to France from Biggin Hill either with an airline ticket or with the DC-3. Seems easy when you travel yourself with easyJet or any other airline but when you have to deal yourself with customs its something different.

From Ice and Fire to the Kingdom of Scots

After the incredible previous evening flight which gave us sparkles in our eyes for the rest of our lives, it was now time to pack again our DC-3 and this time we really made sure the short runway of REY could accommodate our heavy loaded (no offence Bastien!) airplane.

The views after take off until we headed towards the sea and Wick in Scotland were breathtaking. We overflew Selfoss, then climbed above the Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted once agin in 2010 and rendered almost impossible any european flights nor any transatlantic ones. Again, some pictures speak for a thousand words.

Low clouds towards the southern coast

Near Selfoss

The exact place where the volcano erupted

Over the sea towards Scotland

Making landfall!

Approaching Wick

Ackergill Castle where we spent two memorable nights

Cheers people! Whiskey sampling

Hans Hintermeister who could manage to book a flight and join us so far north enjoyed the good company and he was particularly delighted to be back in this place. The reason being that he also was part of the team when Francisco brought HB-IRJ back from the USA in 2008. The team was the more complete!

Group picture with a great meal

We had a day to visit before actually making our way further south. So we enjoyed some nice Whiskey factory visit and meals. Some less good news were actually on the way unfortunately. 

Breitling, our main sponsor, decided to stop any founding to Aviation after a change of CEO. What a pity. Some interesting flights to Edinburgh were planned, those never happened. A sad news, hard to digest but nevertheless we had some flights to do and we cheered up to make those flight a happy memory.

Old Wick building where we returned our dinghies

A short flight with a Cessna 152 for Katsu to snatch a quick picture

The following day will see us fly to the old Aviation Hall of Fame, DUX in short.

Formation flight in Reykjavik

The day started like any other, some good icelandic breakfast at the airport hotel, just across the rather small BIRK airport located close to the city center.

The program for the day called for a formation flight which, depending on the cloud cover, would happen...well, when the clouds mostly disappear!

So briefing meeting up the Ice Air team, postponement for some hours and re briefing.

Finally, once almost everyone decided to leave, our windy predictions became true! A perfect evening, with the perfect colours and landscape to the delightful bliss of those two times two R-1830-92 Twin Wasp. No words will ever be better than those pictures, enjoy!