Oh, we didn’t miss the Empire State building! This was Supap's favorite place to take photos. To our surprise, the lines were too long! Funny, there were no lines at all when I first visited the building. Luckily there is an ‘express ticket’ where you could overtake everyone since you paid more than double. Couldn’t imagine paying that much when I was younger. We wondered around just enjoying the scenery. No worries because we did not look like King Kong so no one really bothered us.

View and photo from the Empire State Building

Supap and I also took time to prepare for our long trip the next day. We did some groceries for the plane and not forgetting my hard drives for the videos. With our energies still running high, we checked out the infamous “Hawaiian Paradise” Club. Everyone was dead gorgeous and pretty and ready to party but… too bad, we had an early start the next day. Can you believe that???

We tried to be like New Yorkers so we rented a stretch limo to head back to Teterboro. We were of course the smallest jet in the tarmac! What the heck! We still arrived in style. The Jet Aviation FBO is nice and has very good business --- Gulfstreams, Falcons, and Hawkers are all over the place. This was my dream when I was young --- to have an FBO with all the private jets in the region coming in. Unfortunately, the Philippine government had other ideas. I had the FBO but did not have the visiting jets!

We headed for Goose Bay, Canada with a stop over at Bangor, Maine. Planned to stay overnight and start off early for Greenland the next day. Unfortunately, upon landing, our right hand generator had carbon brush problems. That meant an extra day that actually turned into three days in Goose Bay just to wait for the parts.

This was our first free day. Washing clothes was on the agenda but with itchy feet, we rented a car and explored Goose Bay. This was an old military base. The town is very small and when you rent a car, you’re warned against going to dirt roads. We were able to cover the whole town within a few hours. We discovered more restaurants than the travel brochures have listed. We also visited the Sea Plane base. Flying seaplanes is a way of life here especially if you live further from town. The single and twin Otters on floats are just super busy hauling cargo and people from all over the place. It was fun to watch and it made me see how important airplanes are for these people.

The next day was spent for organizing the plane while the mechanic replaced the parts. We bought some floor mats to keep the dirt away on the ferry flight so the plane will look neat and brand new upon arrival. We also had to look for Supap's Tabasco sauce. Now you can tell he is really Thai.

The Goose Bay ramp is interesting during early mornings. All the small airplanes with ferry tanks parked at the Woodward Aviation ramp are open and being inspected by the pilots. They are all doing the Atlantic crossing and getting ready for take off. The weather this morning was marginal. Being in the Mustang, our alternate fuel is critical and we, of course, did not have the Atlantic crossing experience and ferry tanks. It was snowing in Nassaseraque. The ceiling and visibility were low. But do we want to spend another day in Goose Bay??

Tough decisions will have to be made. Do we just stay and wash our dirty clothes again? Do we wait for weather to get better? They say the bad weather can sometimes last for a week. We have to make alternative plans. We checked on winds aloft and weather further north and it was good. A bit of head wind going up but we should recover once we head east. It was a longer route but definitely safer. Plus, if we have an engine failure, the swim with the whales and the seals (and hopefully, not with polar bears) will not be too far.

Instead of flying four legs to Sweden it will be six. It’ll be definitely a long day for us! Our first leg would be: Goose Bay (CYYR) to Kuuijaq (CYVP) heading further north of Canada.

Short hop but had 120 knots of headwind. Just a refueling stop and was interesting to see the stylish terminal painted blue, which stands out in the field. The topography and terrain changed. I thought I had seen enough lakes but when you fly over this area, they seem endless and numerous. I am sure most of them have never been fished on before. Tried a quick turn around but, with our pee break and Supap's photo session, we had burned almost two hours of our day.