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I was helping to unload a few bits of electronic kit (if you can call drinking coffee and talking about flying helping) when my new Pilatus piloting pal got a message. A Russian cruise liner had been leaving Gdansk after a pre-season refit when it had died. The main CPU for the engine control computer had gone AWOL. We had one and it had to be got to Gdansk real fast. The job had been given to Viktor someone (I couldn't say his surname - all Cs and Zs..), a transport pilot with his own airline. We found him parked over at the Cargo Terminal
Seems Viktor's 'airline' consisted of just this one elderly ex-Aeroflot AN2 which had clearly seen better days. Viktor needed the job real bad but there was a problem. I have never seen such a bad case of flu in my life and there was no way he could fly, least not today. There was only one solution...
Climbing in through the side door you could almost smell the thousands of sweaty passengers who had been crammed in here during the plane's former life.
The 'office' was hardly inspiring - half of the kit seemed to be inoperative - and what was still working was pretty rudimentary. This was VFR flying at its most basic by the look of it.
Luckily Viktor had a GPS so at least we could just follow that sucker. Just as well because I didn't much trust many of the basic flying instruments I have to say. Anyway, we taxied out with a VFR clearance and cut in front of a few bigger stuff who needed the whole runway. Pretty soon we were climbing straight out heading for Gdansk.
As we climbed vis was pretty good and the city of Warsaw could be clearly seen on our right.
Winter can be long hereabouts and the ground was still well covered with snow. I had to concentrate on my flying though. I'd decided not to bother with the so-called altitude hold switch. Couldn't get it to work properly and Viktor couldn't explain it to me.
The whole flight was gonna have to be flown manual - hard work in a truck like this. There was a consolation though. This was hard work but it was VFR flying at its most enjoyable. Had almost forgotten what it was like. Nothing automatic - everything manual. And with a clear blue sky, what more could you want?
To be continued....
