Are we back on? Inshallah…
After radio silence for a few weeks, we’re hopeful things are going in the right direction once again. Our team has reassembled in Abu Dhabi in the hope we will soon have a green light to proceed. We’re still bound for Malaysia to close out Sector 2 I guess this could accurately be called sector 2.2 after the pause for the last few weeks.
The team looks a bit different now.‘Jedi-master’ Paul B from Aerometal has arrived to be our pilot in command. It’s also great to have Chris C back as pilot. He flew Spirit of Douglas in the US and on the first of our Atlantic crossings in 2024. And we warmly welcome back Zachery G as our mechanic. Gregory, Anouck and I are back to complete the sector and round out the team.
After a few days on the ground, we’ve successfully got Spirit of Douglas out of the hangar, given her a big hug, cleaned her, undertaken aircraft repairs (including replacing a carburettor), navigated local operations protocols and got yet more paperwork in order.
Even so, there seems to be another challenge to overcome at every turn. And we’re not even airborne yet! But we’re hopeful that we’ll be flying again very soon. I get the feeling Spirit of Douglas is as keen as we are to be back in the sky on the World Cruiser Tour.