Test the ground.

Chino Airport.
Chino Airport.

So the time had come to go to the USA and test the ground for what was to come. Vicki and I had just had our 10th wedding anniversary and she had the need to shop so it was a perfect time to hit the USA.

While Vicki shopped, I hit Chino.

I briefly met up with Ray Hecker, who was busy flying on a young eagles weekend.

WOW, there are some great aviation sites to be seen at that airport. I spent most of the day visiting aeroplane museums but did get an idea of where things were and how my whole adventure might play out.

I also had a meeting with the Riverside FAA FSDO reps. Expecting to just waltz into the building, I was a bit surprised at the security required to get in to what appears to be a fairly unassuming building. Once in though the guys were great, I had been put off balance a little bit by the security but these guys were very friendly and genuinely keen to help me through the process. So it appears that what will happen is that I will need to show them the Falco in the container, this is just to check for no shipping damage. Then they will return when it is together and ready to fly. They then give me a test area over a lake to “shake down” the machine. According to John who said “we aren’t going to kill you with this” it will just be an hour or so. Then I get a “program Letter” which releases me to go flying in the USA to go to Oshkosh etc. The program letter is reasonably specific on destinations but that is fine with me since Oshkosh is my main one.

After my meeting with Ray I had come to the realization that I needed to get on with some of the organisation myself, so while I was waiting for my return flight I hit the net. What I found was pure delight.

In San Francisco area there is an Expat Kiwi who has started up a swing lift trucking company called Kiwi Container Lifting. OK that is in SFO but on his site he also had a couple of links for a few other small companies doing the same thing and one quoting LA. Great.. that is a huge relief and now the process begins to get a whole lot simpler.

What a great trip !