Across the Great Divide

[Darby]

At 10pm I was ready to go. I had made my farewells to all my favourite haunts in Honolulu and had it been the 70's again I would have frequented 'Hamburger Mary's to have a farewell session with my old navy buddies but sadly that salubrious establishment was bulldozed long ago....ahhh memories.

Building storms was the promise as I set my course for the mainland. My first target was Ocean Station Uncle/Uniform, an auxillary vessel emitting an NDB signal at 777 nm from Hawaii. Once all my radio's, ipod and tv was coordinated I settled down and organised my trip. Unbeleivably I noticed from the TV times that 'Casablanca' was rerunning (yet again) so I played it again Sam.

I picked up Ocean Station Uncle ok and adjusted course to pass right overhead. It was too dark to spot anything and went on to my next target, Ocean Station Nan/November. This NDB is situated about 1465nm from the Islands. Inflight dinner was not too bad, a juicy chicken obtained from 'Clems Chook Shop' not far from here. Perfect for a late saturday night long haul.

The signal from Ocean Station Nan came in beautifully and my old Empire Airways DC4 was spot on the mark. It was very pleasing.

I set my mainland target to the Sausalito VOR as I wanted a pic of the Golden Gate. The promised building storms did eventuate all along the trip but only generated moderate turbulence at best. I had a look at the celestial nav instrument I had brought along but it is a bit complicated so I did not get round to actually unfolding maps etc. The NDB's and VOR worked out perfectly.

I dropped altitude and flew over the Golden Gate around 9.10am (pic enclosed). Finally landed at San Jose and its good to back I can tell you.

I have enjoyed my long long haul in a really fun aircraft. It took a lot longer that I had origanally planned but the real world intervened a few times rather dramayically.

All credit to my final success here must got to that superb site 'DC3 Airways' from where I got the instruments, the idea for the aircraft, the long range navigation tutorials and the two ocean situated NDB's. Its a worthwhile site to visit for anything DC3. They also have a great radio range NDB set up covering the entire USA. I'll use it for my hop up to Seattle soon.

Anyway, time to check in and see what charters for Boeing.