The job….

Ferry a Cessna 337 from Jacksonville, FL to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It is something that I have never done before, but want to expand my pilot experiences and said I would do when the offer was made to have me do the flight. A good pilot is always learning right? Time for this old dog to learn some new tricks.

The first step, go check out the plane in Jacksonville and make sure it is in good working order and going to safely be able to complete this massive flight of a predicted nearly 6000 miles.

So off I go. Leaving Grand Rapids tonight to fly to Orlando where I will stay the night. Tomorrow morning I will drive up to Jacksonville to meet the previous owner of the aircraft for a run down on it and a familiarization flight.

The goal of this trip is to ensure the plane and I are both ready to do the trip and to identify any potential issues that need to be addressed prior to the ferry flight.

The familiarization flight is a key part of this process, because I have never flown a Cessna 337 before. Technically, the FAA says I am qualified, and I have flown multiple other multi-engine aircraft, but not one of these before. And there is no doubt that a good checkout is at least a good practice since the inline twin-engine configuration is different than that which I have flown before.

More tomorrow after I have met the plane. I must admit, I’m looking forward to the prospect of a new adventure trip. If all looks good, the bulk of the preparation will begin to get ready for a proposed launch date of May 4 from Jacksonville for 5-7 days of flying nearly 3/4 of the length of the Americas.

For now, time to ride down on Delta Airlines to Orlando via Minneapolis.