P-38 arrived in Salzburg!

Salzburg Airport...09th March 2009...5:34 pm

OVER THE OCEAN, OVER THE SEA ...

Restoration of our P-38L Lightning is complete, the initial flight and subsequent technical flights have been extremely successful, Sigi Angerer is mightily pleased ? so far, so good ? but the plane's in Texas and is supposed to be in Salzburg, where its sisters in the Flying Bull fleet await it.

Three options for transporting the plane to Salzburg were considered.

? The nicest and most spectacular, but also most adventurous and riskiest option ? Sigi hands over the plane in flight over the North Atlantic. No doubt it has its attractions, but it's also enough to turn any pilot into a nervous wreck, with a three-hour flight over the ocean, a water temperature of two degrees and waves metres high below?

? The container option: we break the P-38 down into convenient sections and ship it to Europe. But who could bear to break up this aircraft again?

So,

? we're looking for a ship with a hold big enough to accommodate the P-38 in one piece.

After weighing up all the separate options' pros and cons, we decided on option III, i.e. the combined flight/ship/flight journey. Once again so far, so good ? but where is there a port where we can practically land the P-38 on the pier, or take off again virtually direct from the unloading site?

These were the challenges we faced, never mind the bureaucratic hurdles, so it is perhaps understandable why it has taken some time for the plane to embark on its journey to Salzburg.

The undertaking thus started with a flight of almost 1,300 km, from the berth at Ezell?s, in Breckenridge, Texas (near Dallas), to Pensacola in Florida. Sigi was able to accommodate the plane there for a couple of days in the honourable company of other historic aircraft at the National Naval Aviation Museum before, after a few days rest, it was transported several miles to the nearest dock. By the way, not only is Pensacola home to the unique museum, it is also the home base for the legendary, world-famous "Blue Angels".

On the final journey to the port, the plane several times had to be lifted by truck crane over sections of road that would otherwise have been impassable, because they were too narrow. The P-38 was finally lifted from American soil by crane and disappeared into the narrow belly of the barge. Loading a fully airworthy airplane on board was a first, even for the crew of the "Flintereems", who are used to all kinds of strange cargo.

The ship was now ready to sail and proceeded from Pensacola, through the Gulf of Mexico, with a stop in the Caribbean for other cargo to be loaded. Then finally it set off across the Atlantic in the direction of Europe, past the Azores, through the English Channel, to Rotterdam. Here the cargo taken on board in the Caribbean was unloaded, before the sea journey continued to Hamburg.

The ship's crew didn't have time to get bored because of the stormy weather conditions at sea, and it wasn't a cruise lounging on the sun deck for our engineer, Hubert Rödlach, either. The heavy cables used to secure the plane had to be checked several times a day to ensure they were secure, and adjusted from time to time to avoid the valuable cargo slipping because of the rough sea passage.

Finally the cargo ship with our P-38 docked early in the morning of Friday 6 March 2009, crew and airplane intact, after 24 days travelling at a speed that never even reached 20 km/hour. Unloading the plane by crane and setting it down on European soil was mere routine for the crane driver.

Sigi took receipt of the plane with visible relief that everything had gone well during shipping, and could hardly wait to finally press the starter button for the two Allison engines and, after a brief check and warm-up, accelerate for take-off in the direct of Salzburg Airport. The only luggage Sigi carried was anticipation, excitement and 88 minutes' flying time until landing in Salzburg and thus the fulfilment of another, major dream in his life as a pilot.

The Flying Bulls fleet has also been enhanced by a magnificent addition, in the form of a unique airplane, in what must surely be the best condition in the world.

Who would have thought that there would be yet another superlative after all the splendid examples?

06.03.2009