THC 001 - King Air B-200
"Jersey Perl"
(Home base: LSZB, Switzerland. Chief pilot: Sir Habakuk)

While diggin through the archives I stumbled over the old
aircraft certification papers. There I've attached a note
about the story of our first aircraft, the King Air B-200.

Now that I have read the notes, I remember as like it has
been yesterday:

Back in 1997, Sir Howard Carpinhale bought this aircraft for a holiday trip to the canal islands. Take off was planned for 23.12.97; 14:30 GMT. Preflight check has been completed, and the whole family Carpinhale has boarded the King Air - CH 433. He requested taxi clearance and tuckered slowly towards the end of runway 18. The very moment the King Air came to a stop, Cpt. (Carpi) Carpinhale noticed that a couple of armoured vehicles were standing to the left and right of the taxyway end.

While he was wondering what they might be waiting for, he was told by
Ground control to shut down the engines. "Charlie Hotel Four three three - negative. No problems aboard. Why should I shut down the engines?"

Ground control replied "charlie Hotel four three three - your aircraft is subject
of a DEA seizure. Shut down engines immediatedly. Else you are in risk
of getting fired at. Shut down engines and acknowledge."

In the same time the crew realised that the aircraft now has been
surrounded by the armoured vehicles and some funny clothed freaks
were running around/beind the vehicles. Cpt. Carpy acknowledged and
began to shut down the engines, informing over board comm the
passengers (family members) about the happening.

From what he told me, after the engine has been shut down, everything
went very fast. He left the cockpit and opened the board door. A
few seconds later he and the whole family was packed into a police
transporter. No explanations, no listening. He was separated from the
rest of the family the moment they entered the airport building.

The family was interrogated and sent back home, while he was sitting
next to me on the iron bed in the airport jail. He said (and I remember
each word in detail) "I am Frank Lee Baffled". So I said "My pleasure,
I'm called Habakuk the flying shitbag". Then he looked very strange
for a short moment and muttered "no, I mean, I'm frankly baffled. My name
is Howard Crapy Carpinhale, and I am nothing but rich. I simply don't
getit why the DEA is seizing my aircraft!".

Well, we had enough time to get in touch and talk about a lot of things.
Sometime our chat was interrupted because one of us was taken out for
another interrogation.

In short, Carpy was left free after 96 hours, as a free and perfectly
legal because he had a good dozen lawyers working on the case. It became proven that someone unknown has smuggled 25kg of the finest acapulco
afterburner in the tail of the King Air. But they could not prove that
Carpy knewed anything about it.

I had no money for lawyers, so I spent some more time thinking about
how I could explain the other 25 kg of the finest nepalesian cannabis
sativa compresses (they give a good sleep, you know) that they have found
in my plane...

The very day the DEA realised that I am just a freaky consumer, and they could not get famous by fucking me, they let me go - without my tuned Spitfire IXC. It almost broke my heart to leave the ol' lady at the airport. But I would have been shot if I only came near her.

As you maybe understand, I ended in a bar that evening. And the harder I tried, the bader the results were... the tequila sunrise could not make the day brighter for me.

After a couple of hours lying in a most unphysiological position I
regained consciousnes. I found myself sitting in a taxi. After a couple
of seconds my confusion sank back to the level where I could ask:
"wherewegoin?". The driver answered "Peninsula airfield".

I said that I have no money to pay the ride. He replied "It's prepaid,and you find a letter for you, there, on the right seat". I took the letter without asking who paid the drive, and opened it.

I could not say other than "Now *I* am Frank Lee Baffled, man". It was a note from Carpy. His lawyers managed to clean my suit! My Spitfire, though, will remain captured by the DEA as an piece of evidence. In the letter he wrote me that my telling has shown him a side of life he never have heard of, if we had not met in the jail. He wrote the driver will bring me to his private airfield, where his King Air B-200 was standing.
And as a reward for the good chat, he gave me his King Air.

The last line was "If you want do do me a favour, then found the airline dESPair, and fly around the world as a symbol for freedom, peace, love and friendship".


Well, how could I ignore this. After all what he has done for me...



You may now know and understand why this aircraft has a special
meaning to me. If you ever fly it, then think about Carpy and me,
about our nights in jail and about what Carpy said in the last paragraph
of the famous letter...




Thanks for listening.

Habakuk
Hak the seagul