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Switzerland to California in a Mooney bird
The prospect of spending a year working in California provided an excellent excuse for Flemming to fly our "Honey Mooney" over there from our home base in Geneva, Switzerland. She was already well equipped: extra fuel tanks in the wings (allowing for 11 flying hours at economy cruise - no reserves), a Codan HF transceiver, all instruments needed for IFR and even a stormscope. All we needed still was a PRONAV GPS receiver to tell us where we are when over the Atlantic with no land (or beacons) within reach. And, of course, we had to order the relevant Jeppesen trip kits and US Air Force charts.
As we were planning to fly over the Ice Cap (the enormous glacier over Greenland) and the north Atlantic, we were obliged to carry some survival gear on board. This consisted of drinking water, food, flares, camping gas, down parkers, mittens ... and a snow-saw (essential for igloo building). Our two fold-up mountain bikes (not intended for cycling on the Ice Cap!) took up the whole luggage compartment, so everything else had to go on the back seats.
Having flown the bird to Kenya (on our honeymoon) 2 years before, we were happy that, this time, we would not have to apply for overflying or landing permission for any of the countries en route.
The day of our departure dawned to find us still not ready to leave. "Honey Mooney" was ready but we hadn't finished clearing out our flat for its new occupants. Our hitherto orderly packing had to be abandoned. We flung the last of our belongings higgledy piggledy into boxes for the cellar, sent out SOS signals to our cleaning lady to clear up after us and made for the airport...
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