Red Lake, Ont. Canada, 13.06.2005
'Colombian connection'
Enroute to the Red Lake Trade Show
13.06.2005
While enroute (back) to Canada I received an important message from one of the ferry pilots -the ones that are contracted from time to time to fly some of our planes to a certain location.
In this particular case Segundo Riveras de la Garza just informed that he had been contacted and asked to land ASAP upon entering the country. Seems the canadian authorities made a real problem of the sentence '100% pure colombian' mentioned somewhere in the paperwork of his plane ...
After a lot of bla-bla, calling back and forth on the phone, we got a green light for Segundo to fly on to Sioux Lookout; the authorities would be waiting there to 'ground' the plane and 'hold' the pilot and I was more or less ordered to show my presence there too.
When I got there I found the 'Transport Canada' fellows were still 'very concerned' and in the meantime they had asked for some extra assistance and gotten that in the way of representative of the ministry of interior and RCMP officers.
Anyway, as agreed in our talks they refrained from tearing apart the plane right there and then until I arrived...
'100% pure colombian'? That's the problem?
Luckily I had enough papers and references from the Red Lake bush flying trade show, the mayor himself, AeroPedro business notes, the US FAA certificates and colombian export and authorities ...
Pheew! not the best of situations, I'd say.
Lets see, how can I explain this?
"Gentlemen, the sentence that is worrying you so much does only apply to the plane itself ... you see, this is a El Gavilan 358, made in Colombia and on its way to Red Lake for the Trade Show; nothing more, nothing less"
"Cpt. Riveras has some coffee on board, that's also pure colombian indeed, and all he drinks, I'm afraid :-)"
"Yes, you can have a look at the plane. It is in perfect order and you don't need to worry about the insulation; that's as good as absent, only a bit of foam, textile and plastic -I would want to fly this plane around here in the winter or without a headset :-)"
Then comes a shout from Segundo at the hangar: "señores, café!" "Gentlemen, shall we move to hangar?"
Mr. Riveras had just poured one cup of coffee and one glass of 'transparent fluid' for each of the officials... and ourselves "please, señores, café de Colombia y ron de caña, salud!"
Oh, oops, so he drinks more than just coffee; though I don't think the fine canadian gentlemen did disapprove :-)
OK, I think we did get the matters settled; the officials made copies of all the paperwork, gave me a temporary permit (licence) for the HK-4199-X and after we all enjoyed one more ron, they left for their offices.
Segundo is by know on his way back to 'down South' and I'm getting ready to leave for Red Lake with the Gavilan.
(click on the snapshots to enlarge)
CYXL taxi to rwy | Take off run CXRL
34 | Take off CYXL
Leaving CYXL | Wether, nothing to see | Slight improvement near CYRL
Turning for CYRL 08 | Approach CYRL 08 | Touchdown CYRL
Parked at CYRL
CYRL - CYPL >Flightno.1038Leaving CYXL | Wether, nothing to see | Slight improvement near CYRL
Turning for CYRL 08 | Approach CYRL 08 | Touchdown CYRL
Parked at CYRL
Cheers,
Brick
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