Blessed with another beautiful day and flying over the Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea.

Susan Parson, FAA — this one’s for you and all the fine folks within the FAA organization that make the FAA Safety Briefing a reality.  Christos Gr, Papazafiriou,  age 86, is the oldest active pilot in Greece.

Bavarian Alps near the Eagles Nest in Germany

Mountain top near Bosnia

Can you find the tourist in this picture?

Dinner in Thessaloniki, Greece – Tom Haines (Senior Vice President, Media and Outreach, AOPA), Anton Koutsoudakis (President, AOPA Greece), Adrian Eichhorn, Bill Costa (President, Aero Club Thessaloniki).

Just a few miles from home!!

A passerby carrying the Olympic Torch.

I’m preparing to depart Germany as bad weather is quickly approaching from the North.  In fact, it’s supposed to snow here this weekend.  The visit here was a memorable one and perhaps the best part of any Expo proved to be true once again – the fellowship of Airmen!  AERO is Europe’s most important and largest trade show for General Aviation (over 600 exhibitors from 34 nations and it was an honor to be part of it.

Comparing name tags with Toni Eichhorn (center) and Walter Eichhorn (right).  Toni is an A320 Captain with Lufthansa and his father Walter is a retired Lufthansa B747 Captain.  In their free time, they travel as a father and son aerobatics team to airshows in Germany and neighboring countries.  My father, a decorated Army pilot, and I never performed together but we did share many memorable flights in the Bonanza.  Guess you could say flying is in our blood on both sides of the pond!

An Extra 330LE with an electric motor!

Blue airplanes seem to be catching on!

A reduced scale all carbon fiber L39.

What every aviation event needs – a good dog or two!

Walter (right) and Friedrich (left) in front of the VOLOCOPTER, the world’s first certified Multicopter.  Talk about cool this thing is amazing.   Walter and Friedrich own a Bonanza here in Germany and Walter and  I first met a few years ago at a Bonanzas to Oshkosh (B2OSH) party in, Wisconsin.  Small world.

So now the journey resumes.   Tomorrow Tom and I will fly to Greece.  Stay tuned for more exciting pictures and updates.

Ed Hicks (left) and Ian Saeger (right) flew over from the UK in Ian’s Cessna 182 to take some aerial pictures over Normandy.  Tom Haines (middle) flew with me in the Bonanza.  This was a flight I will never forget!

On Saturday, 4/16, Tom Haines (AOPA) and I visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial and walked along Omaha Beach where D-day, the  battle of Normandy took place.  For anyone who has ever thought about visiting Normandy, make it happen.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

This is the Fifth Engineer Special Brigade monument at Omaha Beach.  As a retired Army Officer and former Combat Engineer, this monument has special meaning.  Engineers lead the way!

“THEN IT ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS BRIEF DAY OF BATTLE ON THE COAST OF NORMANDY, AND FOR SO MANY OF THEM IT ENDED.  FOR THE REST OF US, WHAT HAS BEEN SINCE HAS NOT BEEN THE SAME.” By CAPT Charles Cawthon, US Army, 29th Infantry Division. 

At times I almost felt like I was flying across Lake Michigan.

Can you find 33G?  She’s pictured here North East  of  Santa Maria  and a few hundred miles off the coast of Portugal.  Click on image to enlarge.

So finally an update. My apologies for the delayed posting but the amount of work that comes with flying a private airplane across the North Atlantic Ocean to four different countries is overwhelming. So far this trip has gone exceptionally well and mostly as planned. With strong turbulence between Canada and Greenland last week my flight support crew (Bill Compton and John Whitehead) and I decided that it would be best for me to head to the Azores and then up to France. Turned out the weather/winds were as forecasted and I enjoyed a strong tailwind and mostly clear skies the entire flight. Below are some of the pictures that I took along the way.

The good folks at Maine Aero Services in Bangor, Maine, helped me perform a final check of the airplane before heading North to St John’s Newfoundland. Ben Doughty (shown here driving the tug) proved to be an excellent technician and I highly recommend this shop to anyone who needs work performed on their airplane. Great job guys!

Flew between layers of clouds the entire flight to St John’s,  changing altitude several times to avoid icing.

Departed from St John’s at sunrise to avoid landing in Santa Maria after dark.  While I love night flying,  the thought of ditching at night doesn’t excite me.

Looks easy on paper! Click on image to enlarge.

Not like the Mint (first class) service we now offer at JetBlue, but this stuff tasted great! If you’re wondering what’s in the large bag on the right, it’s a mix of cheese and caramel corn like you can get in Chicago.