Bidding Farewell
to a Friend
Transporting N8270P (a.k.a. Gloria) to her new home
in California
Friday
Friday began early, despite our need to recover from the wonderful dinner provided by Marcelo and his wife. Jack and I walked him around and inside the plane, describing anything we thought was unique to this sample or just generally of interest. Then we sat down, signed a few papers, and Marcelo called AOPA escrow service to release the funds.
The escrow service worked wonderfully
- with the money in escrow, Jack and I were willing to fly 2300 miles,
and once the plane was delivered, the money was released and in our bank
accounts within an hour. The service made the transaction amazingly straghtforward.
Of course, by this point, we were all really ready for an airplane ride, so off we went to familiarize Marcelo with his new toy. Gnoss Field is about 20 miles north of downtown San Francisco, and the airspace restictions in the area were quite reasonable, so we made a big circle south toward the bay. In this photo (or better yet, the enlarged version seen by double clicking on it, you can see the San Francisco skyline on the left, and the tower in Golden Gate Park to the right. At the extreme right is the Golden Gate Bridge.
And here's a better view of the bridge, taken with the camera hanging out the airplane window!
And an even better view, as we passed over it!
Of course, inside the plane, everyone was having a blast!!
But, time and events prevailed, and eventually it was time for us to return to the ground, and then home. After landing, Marcelo called his friend Norm to tell him that the plane was finally his, and that he would be heading down to Oakland to drop us off, about an hour drive. Norm said "Why don't I just take them there in my Mooney."
Why not indeed? Marcelo drove us a few exits to San Rafael airport, and we climbed into said Mooney for the 15-minute trip.
As you can see above, there was a pretty big hill off the end of the runway, but Norm's deft piloting got us to Oakland in style, and with some great vistas of the city. (And there I was, with dead camera batteries).
So Gloria is now with her new master, and she seemed to be happy in sunny California. Marcelo certainly seemed happy, too!
As for me, it was genuinely weird to walk past the tiedown back at Islip, see it empty, and realize that Jack was not going to be back in a few hours with the plane. This will definitely take some getting used to, and I hope I don't live to regret our decision to sell. But the timing was right, and there will be other planes.
At least that all makes sense, intellectually. I'm not sure that I agree with Richard Bach when he says that airplanes have souls. That couldn't be possible...
Could it?
I don't think so. But somehow, there's more to Gloria than just a bunch of aluminum, wires, and plastic. I'm going to miss her.
