Having sold G-BBWZ for my Client, the decision to go and view OY-BGN a 1974 PA28 140 Cruiser was made.

22nd June 2006.
I caught a flight to Copenhagen from Edinburgh and decided that as Copenhagen hosts Tivoli Gardens I should take my girlfriend on this trip to pacify her for all the ferry trips I do alone ;-)

We arrived early evening in Copenhagen and went to our hotel (Mercure Hotel £160.00 a night) now this really should have warned me that Denmark was EXPENSIVE !!!!
We relaxed in the room for an hour for me to get over the room rate (especially seeing as that was an 'Aircrew rate') then we walked to Tivoli Gardens...as we arrived there 'the heavens' opened, instead of going into the gardens we went to the 'Hard-Rock Cafe' for a meal... the meal was excellent after waiting for 1hr at the bar for the table, but I wondered why they wanted to put our bar drinks on the meal bill !!!!
After the meal of a Steak & Chips for me and a Chickenburger for my girlfriend and the 2 Large Beers each (they don't have Pints) I was given a bill for £87.00 (Cheap eh?)
Again I was getting 'fleeced' and we decided that as we had an early start the next day to view OY-BGN it was 'shut-eye' time.

23rd June 2006.
We were greeted by Lars & Ulrik at 0745hrs in the Hotel lobby and briskly taken to Roskilde Airport to see OY-BGN.
Lars & Ulrik pulled OY-BGN out of the hangar onto the Hardstanding and my 90 minute walk around/purchase inspection commenced, my 1st instincts told me that if the books looked right, then as everything on the aircraft looked good and the engine ran so sweetly that this was the right aircraft for my client. Everything stacked up and a deal was struck and OY-BGN was purchased by 1030hrs.

OY-BGN now belonged to my client and I now had to pay Lars £400 for the Ferry Permit that he had obtained to export the aircraft from Denmark, I now had the aircraft and needed to get it refuelled for the flight to Kiel EDHK and also submit a 'flightplan'
Roskilde has the strangest refuelling facilities ever and it took 45mins to get refuelled !!! with a flightplan booked for 1140hrs it was looking like I might miss my slot, but I managed to get the wheels off the ground at 1140:22 and after an uneventful flight to Kiel the wheels touched the runway at 1325hrs. Refuelling at Kiel was only 10mins and at 1400hrs we were flightplanned to depart to be able to get airborne to hopefully fly to Groningen EHGG after having a 'flightplan' accepted with 25mins notice....things were looking good (or so I thought ) until at 500ft the door popped open...(never trust women to shut doors )the decision was to stay at 500ft and do a circuit and land to shut the door.
After landing to close the door I was asked if I was going to taxy back to the Control Tower to pay the landing fee ? then seconds after saying it was a emergency landing the decision was that I could take off without paying it. Time was now 1410hrs & for the 2nd time OY-BGN departed Kiel's runway enroute to Groningen...the flight down to Groningen was flown at less than 1500ft and our arrival at Groningen was at 1620hrs. I was planning to nightstop at Groningen, but the airport staff said " you will not find a hotel room for about 50 miles radius due to the Annual 'TOUR DE NEDERLANDE' Cycle Race being on (oh shit !!) The Refueller rang through to Lelystad and said that we would be inbound to them and could they arrange a hotel room?. Having refuelled and flightplanned, we were able to get airborne at 1700hrs for the 50 minute flight to Lelystad...The Netherlands are as flat as hell and so we flew the 50 minute flight at 500ft and landed at 1751hrs....Lelystad staff had arranged the Hotel Airport Lelystad for £50 for the room and we were in our room by 1805hrs relaxing, we had a few beers in the hotel bar and then asked where was best to eat around Lelystad? the town's Steak/Fish restaurant called the 'Full House' was suggested and that was where we went!!! now still reeling from the 'Hard Rock Cafe' bill I was slightly dubious of what this bill would be !! Well we had about 10 beers (5 each) a starter each and a main course of Surf & Turf each and at least 2 Irish Coffee's each....the bill was £65.00
THIS WAS THE END OF THE 23rd JUNE 2006 and we obviously made it back to the Hotel as we woke up there on the 24th June 2006.

24th June 2006.
Our plans for today were to fly down to Le Touquet and if it was nice when we got there, we would 'nightstop' there. Our departure from Lelystad was at midday, due to the 'gremlins' only checking out of the 'Hotel Kelsey-head' at 1130hrs, the flight to Le Touquet took 2hrs 20 minutes and by 1420hrs we were now on French soil and the weather was scorching hot!! DECISION was that we would stay over until the 25th so my Girlfriend could sample all the 'Ambience' of Le Touquet that I had spoke so highly of, I used my usual clout to get the Penthouse in the Hotel Red Fox and also got a table booked in the exclusive 'Perard' restaurant. As my head was suffering from the 'gremlins' having decided to hitch a lift to Le Touquet with us I wanted a sleep until 2000hrs and that would still allow me to get to the 'Perard' by 2100hrs to eat !! At 1845hrs I awoke and by 1915hrs we were in the Hotel Westminster having a Bacardi & Coke for me and a Large Gin & Tonic for her !!! THE ONLY REASON TO GO THERE IS BECAUSE IT IS £7.50 A DRINK !!! ( I love being ripped off !!! )
2100hrs....Sitting down to Dinner in the Perard and surprisingly we were only sitting in there with 4 other diners !!!
NOW THAT IS 'EXCLUSIVE' AND WITH THE REPUTATION OF IT BEING LE TOUQUET'S BEST RESTAURANT I WAS IMPRESSED BY THIS !!
# REASON IT WAS EMPTY.... IT WAS THE WORST MEAL I HAVE EVER ATE #
After this diabolical meal we decided that we would have 'a few beers' in the American Theme Bars, the few beers were about 5 each again !!! So again it was off to bed 'pissed again' knowing that on the 25th June 2006 I had to get to Marshland for Martyn English to see his PA28 140 Cruiser !!!

25th June 2006.
Again as the 'Gremlins' had checked into the 'Hotel Kelsey-Head' and that I had agreed to take my Girlfriend shopping for goodies and handbags we would depart Le Touquet at about 1300hrs for North Weald, shopping was completed in super quick time and being about £250 lighter in the pocket from the shopping spree we went to the Airport,refuelled and flightplanned to North Weald.... 1310hrs OY-BGN was airborne enroute to North Weald and at 450ft we were IFR and routing direct to Dover, we coasted in at Dover at 1327hrs and then LONDON INFO gave me the BAD NEWS..... North Weald cannot accept you, so what are your intentions? I asked for the current weather at Manston and Southend?
Manston was Overcast at 200ft and Southend was Sky Obscured at 500ft !!!!! well I thought: What a choice !!!! lets hope the ILS Nav Box works and being a Coward I chose Southend..... well with a 'hand over' at the Isle of Sheppey by London Info to Essex Radar I commenced my 1st ILS procedural approach in ages in an unfamiliar aircraft with unknown reliabilty in the instruments.
Established on the ILS at 7 miles and at the procedure height it was looking 'bang on the money' this continued all the way down to about 600ft and then as we passed 500ft still IFR the needle went ape-shit and just as I thought " Shit I need to divert elsewhere" the Runway appeared ahead and this was at 350ft and we were visual, so we landed !!! Our landing time was 1425hrs (1hr 10mins after departure, but felt like 'AGES' )
'HELL IT ALL WORKED' and we were on the ground at Southend...the following 40 minutes was spent convincing Southend Customs that OY-BGN was a Temporary visitor to the UK ;-)
At 1545hrs Southend's Weather opened up to CAVOK and then we decided to depart to Marshland (Maybe Martyn would see his aircraft today?) Martyn was phoned and told "Be at Marshland at 1700hrs to see your Aircraft" we were in the air at 1610hrs and routing to Marshland to hopefully arrive by 1700hrs....having never been into Marshland by air I had to plan my trip for the 'ultimate arrival' at 1659hrs OY-BGN seemed to point it's nose slightly downward towards a field and I could see a frantically waving man....this had to be Marshland? anyway the throttle was advanced and the nose stayed low and a 40ft 'beat up' was performed past the owner of OY-BGN before setting it up for an approach to land at Marshland.
Having been welcomed by Martyn,we unloaded all the bags and goodies we had acquired along with all the documents into Martyn's car. I asked Martyn if he wanted to go and fly his PA28 140 OY-BGN ? it was about 30 seconds before Martyn had strapped himself into the LH seat that I had occupied for way too many hours....
A quick 25 minutes flight with Martyn seemed to put a 'beaming smile' on his face....which was just as well seeing as I was going to be spending the Evening with him and his wife in a Restaurant......after the flight we went to Martyns house,which I had already seen from the flight with Martyn.
Martyn had arranged a B&B very close to the Restaurant for me and my girlfriend and we were dropped off and told to be in the restaurant in 2hrs !!!
The restaurant was called the 'WOOLPACK' and I thought I HOPE IT ISN'T LIKE THE EMMERDALE ONE !!!
Well we all met up in the Restaurant and the Landlady was an Aussie who not only sounded like Dame Edna, but looked like her as well !!! Her Antics were extreme to say the least and we gave her a little bit of banter,her humour was funny enough that it was decided that 'we would give as good as we got' She was quickly stunned when we got onto the subject of 12in Penises and she asked "if I wished I had one that big?" I quickly replied "I would be gutted with one that small and so would she,pointing at my girlfriend"
The content of the rest of the conversation revolved around genitalia with the landlady and made the evening very convivial ;-)
After quite a few beers and what could only be described as the best meal of the whole trip, we retired to our B&B for a well deserved rest before having to depart for Edinburgh the next day with OY-BGN to get it certified onto the CAA register as G-ENGL & CofA'd
The Aircraft Mechanic that I use for G-BHJK & OTHER AIRCRAFT recommended Tayflite at Perth to put OY-BGN through it's CofA and had agreed a price of between £2000 - £2500 + parts to get it through an annual and CofA, so OY-BGN was on to be certified in Scotland by Tayflite.
26th June 2006.
OY-BGN was refuelled and ready for the trip to Fife (where I had planned to park it until Tayflite could start it) Our departure was delayed due to it being very overcast at Marshland and we finally managed to get airborne at 1300hrs and flew up as far as Teesside and landed at 1505hrs....at Teesside we decided to get some food and then after that snack we decided we would fly up and instead of landing at Fife I would go into Latch Farm with OY-BGN.
I cleared this with Steve Owen as it is really only a 'microlight strip' and OY-BGN does weigh more than 450kgs and I didn't want to upset our neighbours there !!! so at 1730hrs we took off out of Teesside and routed up the east coast to Berwick and then flew towards Latch Farm and landed at 1915hrs in about 150yds (best ever landing in a PA28)

THE SAGA GETS BETTER NOW !!!! (OR RATHER IT DOESN'T)