Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Pilots are in Creve Coeur!

Today we got an update from ground crewman and mechanic Gerry Coe. Here are some of his experiences:)


Good morning, from Creve Coeur, MO! It’s gray and raining here today and it looks like it may last a couple more days. Good thing we pushed on instead of staying in Marshall, MO last night. The hotel here is ok. It’s been a good trip. Driving the van has been uneventful and I've listening to books on CDs to help pass the time. Of course, every time I settle back in to listen it seems that one of the radios starts squawking or someone calls on the phone. There was a good sized reception at the airport here when the planes got in last night but it was pretty much over when we drove in. Oh well. We’re going to look into a miss in the engine of the D-VII today while the film guys spend quality time with their cameras and computer.

That's all for now,

Gerry

Second Photographer, Russ Wiltse shared the following with us:


We all made it safely to Creve Coeur, MO at around 6:30 PM . A long exhausting day for all of us. But the welcoming committee was great here, complete with refreshments as you can see in Mark's hand. The ground crew witnessed a road accident of a semi flipping over just a few cars behind them and hit a traffic jam in Columbia , MO because of the end of the football game.
A restful night and courtesy with a smile from our friends at the Super 8 motel.

A good decision to take a day of rest in Creve Coeur on Sunday. We wake to rain and clouds. We're invited to a barbeque at the airport today. We'll see how that goes...

We had a close call on our way to Creve Couer. It was uncertain that the DR I, having to deal with the smaller 16 gallon gas tank, would make it completely on our last leg to Creve Couer, so it was decided that Mark, with the DRI, would stop midway on our last leg accompanied by the WACO crew at an extra stop to refuel. When we landed at the FTT airport, we got some news that made us have to leave that airport in a rush, so we weren't able to refuel. Again in the air, with Mark uncertain weather he has enough gas to make it to Creve Coeur, is trying to pilot the DRI while holding a map trying to look for another fueling airport. Other members of the team are giving him identifiers for possible landing locations. All this is happening while we are losing daylight and heading into an eastern storm. He finally decides on a small private airstrip, hoping we'll be able to borrow some gas from a nearby farmer. When we land there isn't a soul around, maybe because it's a Saturday. Just as we are about to siphon gas from the WACO into the DR I, an old man pulls up on a motorcycle, and Mark asks if he knows where we can get some gas? The man says "I think we can help ya". He opens his hanger a brings out a 5 gallon can of regular car gas, and we have enough fuel now to complete the leg to Creve Couer! Mark
ends up giving the man a little money for his trouble.

Here's Linda busy guiding the ground team to the right destination using her personal GPS system.
More to come soon!

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