Exercise Whooper Finn Field Report No. 1

No plan survives contact with reality, and so it has been with week one!

Our arrival on 1 May was remarkably smooth. Our hosts for the first few days were 23
Service Battalion at Hamilton, Ontario. We were met as we came off the aircraft by a
reservist who is a local police officer and were escorted through customs and
immigration with formalities only taking a matter of minutes. That was a perk few
travellers get to enjoy these days.

Lt Col Rick Mount Pleasant met us at arrivals in person and escorted us to the vehicle.
Our first excursion was to a local steakhouse for dinner with the Colonel, his wife and
our driver, Jeff. An excellent meal with conversation to match (unfortunately there
were Jimmy's jokes to contend with!)

We were supposed to pick up our vehicle on Sunday 2 May, but it wasn't ready on
time and Jeremy Browne, CEO of Kettle Creek Trailers substituted another, unsuitable
vehicle instead which we couldn't accept. However, another much better vehicle was
quickly sourced. The trailer is first class and there is a lot of interest in it from other
ultralight flyers, who especially like the wing rack on top.

As we had no transport our hosts, 23 Service Battalion came to the rescue and
provided us with a driver, Corporal Jeff Huckle and a very plush, 7 seater people
carrier. This allowed us to maintain our preparation work on schedule, collecting
stores and ferrying around to all the places we needed to go to. The equipment is
comprehensive, it even includes edible arctic candles, made of animal fats which have a
slight aroma of roast beef!

Our accommodation for the first part of the week was a classroom in the main
headquarters building. As we looked out of the window across a small lawn and a
couple of beautiful trees coming into leaf, the backdrop was Hamilton harbour which
looked stunning in the early morning sunshine. The weather has been outstanding. We
didn't see a cloud for 4 days!

We visited "Father Goose", Bill Lishman on Tuesday to finalise the research
requirements. Everyone had a superb day with Bill, Joe Duff and the rest of the
Operation Migration team. I was allowed to fly on my own with the aircraft used in the
"Fly Away Home" film. Later in the day he and Joe took the rest of the team flying.
Despite initial reservations on the part of some people this resulted in huge grins as
they came back from some exciting late evening flights. The day was rounded off with
a barbecued steak and a beer as we watched the sunset afterglow from the scenic
vantage point of Bill's patio on Purple Hill.

The rest of the week was a blur of hard work and preparation. We drove south on
Thursday to Indianapolis, and camped overnight in Camp Belzer, a Cub Scout camp
we commandeered for the night. We had to wait to pick up the aircraft from customs
at Indianapolis International Airport next morning. It took all day to extract the two
large boxes and transport them to Rob Rollison's place at Shawnee Airport,
Bloomfield, Indiana.

On arrival, we immediately set to work sorting the aircraft out. You could have
knocked me down with a feather when we opened the trike box only to find it was
painted metallic blue, not the black which I had specifically ordered. Nice one Pegasus!
Whoever heard of a metallic blue Whooping Crane!

There have been a number of jobs on the new plane that took three days' hard work to
sort out. The brand new propeller was very out of balance which we had to rectify and
we had to replace the airspeed indicator because it wouldn't work. My radio/intercom
didn't survive the journey well and will have to be fixed before we leave for Florida on
Tuesday.

If it weren't for Rob Rollison and his generous efforts we would have been in
significant difficulty with the aircraft as delivered. His very professional approach
helped enormously and we were all impressed by his hangar (which was home to us for
the last few days) and his facilities at this lovely little grass airstrip. Step forward and
take a bow Rob Rollison!

On a lighter note, not very many Irish people, or any other foreigners for that matter,
appear to visit Southern Indiana. This is a pity, for although we are a novelty, the local
people are very friendly and it is a very pretty part of the world, with forests and
woods mixed in with scattered patches of farmland. The houses are typically wooden
bungalows nestling amongst the woods surrounded by little lakes.

We are starting to encounter more language difficulties. Our accents are confusing the
locals. They think we come from Australia (my kangaroo bush hat probably
contributes partly to this). However, as we can't tell the difference between an accent
from Idaho or Indiana we can't be critical!

We should be ready for departure to Florida on Tuesday, weather permitting. We
have been experiencing very warm and sunny conditions and have managed to miss
anything threatening. The research work will start on Tuesday as we fly south. So if
the aircraft misbehaves as it settles in we can back track to get help from Bob.

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