Juliet Papa Around the World

WELCOME TO THE AROUND THE WORLD BLOG FOR N565JP!

Beginning May 2nd, 2008 at promptly 10:00 hrs, Jim, Bob, Chris, Earl and Mercer lifted off from  Showalter Flying Service at Orlando Executive Airport for the trip of a lifetime! Flying on the Juliet Papa N565JP, they journeyed across the North Atlantic and eventually around the world, visiting cities in 15 countries.

This Blog served as a record for their families, friends, bankers and spouses as to where in the world the crew was during their journey. Follow along for details and updates that were posted throughout the trip.

Original Email Notice of the Trip

If you are receiving this email, it is because you may share an interest in some of the people or some of the flying that is about to commence as we take a Citation CJ3 from Orlando Executive Airport to Orlando Executive Airport the long way around. First, I ask that you refrain from responding to this message right now, as we will be unable to handle a ton of incoming email with the final preparations underway. Think all of the good thoughts you’d like to please, but not emails… at least this week. We have created a blog that will enable you to follow our trip, which will begin May 2nd and end on June 25th. The good news for you is that if you don’t want to follow it, this will probably be the last email on the subject you will get. The blog’s address is: http://jpatw.blogspot.com

Several of us will endeavor to add posts each day to the blog allowing those interested to get a feel for the journey. You can feel free to share this blog address with your personal friends that you feel would be interested in it. For those of you still interested, I’ll set the framework for the trip below: Mr. Jim Pugh owns a year old Citation CJ3, whose aircraft registration is N565JP. On aircraft transmissions, the initials JP are pronounced Juliet Papa. Thus the name of the blog “Juliet Papa around the world.” Jim has led an adventurous life, but felt that adding a trip around the world to his pilot’s logbook would be a wonderful thing, so he asked that the planning begin, which it did some 4 months ago. He was most interested in flying places he either hadn’t been to before or wanted to see again, so the following itinerary was created:  

LEG ONE

Friday, May 2nd the trip begins in Orlando (GMT-4). All departures are scheduled for 10:00 A.M local time.
May 02 Orlando to Bangor (fuel) to St. John’s (5.5 total flying) 1 night GMT-2.5
May 03 St. John’s to Reykjavik (3.9 flight) 2 nights GMT+/-0
May 04 Iceland tour
May 05 Reykjavik to Helsinki (3.7 flight)2 nights GMT+2
May 06 Helsinki tour
May 07 Helsinki to Budapest (2.4 flight) 2 nights GMT+1
May 08 Budapest tour
May 09 Budapest to Athens (1.8 flight) 2 nights GMT+2
May 10 Athens Tour
May 11 Athens to Istanbul (1.0 flight) 2 nights GMT+2
May 12 Istanbul tour
May 13 Istanbul to Cairo (1.7 flight) 2 nights GMT+2
May 14 Cairo tour
May 15 Cairo to Dubai (2.9 hour) GMT+4 leaving for U.S. the same day 11:35 PM departure from Dubai to ATL (15.5 flight) to MCO on Delta
May 16 Home at MCO From Dubai 10AM Eastern Friday GMT-4

LEG TWO

June 08 6:00 pm departure MCO Delta to ATL to Dubai overnight (14.6 flight)
June 09 Arrive Dubai 7 PM 3 nights GMT+4
June 10 Dubai jet lag recovery and tour
June 11 Dubai tour continues
June 12 Dubai to New Delhi (3.2 flight( 2 nights GMT+5:30
June 13 India Tour
June 14 New Delhi to Calcutta (fuel only) to Hanoi (4.3 total flying) 3 nights?? GMT+7
June 15 Hanoi Tour
June 16 Hanoi Tour continues or contingency catch up day
June 17 Hanoi to Shanghai (2.9 flight) 2 nights GMT+8
June 18 Shanghai Tour
June 19 Shanghai to Beijing (2.7 flight ) GMT+8
June 20 Beijing
June 21 Beijing to Seoul (1.4 flight) 2 nights GMT+9
June 22 Seoul June 23 Seoul to Sapporo (2.1 flight) 1 night GMT+9
June 24/23* Sapporo to Petropavlovsk to Nome to Anchorage (6.5 total flying) GMT-9
June 24* Anchorage to Seattle GMT-7. 3.4 Flight (pick up a day crossing date line) |
June 25 Seattle to Little Rock (fuel) to Orlando (5.4 flying) HOME! 5:00 PM Arrival Party at Showalter-limo home for Chris Hall! GMT-4

Total Expected Flight Time 51.9 hours

A few words about the aircraft for those who don’t live in aviation. The Citation CJ3 is a ten passenger business jet. It has a range of 2150 statute miles and cruises at 480 miles per hour at altitudes up to 45,000 feet. It is equipped with the state of the art glass digital cockpit and flight management system, truly a wonderful machine that is one of the best selling turbine aircraft in the World today. Our itinerary has been designed around these capabilities, but has been kept conservative on purpose. As an example, our longest non-stop leg for the trip will be about 1550 statute miles, 600 fewer than the aircraft is capable of. That leaves good margins of safety in every respect for the trip. There will be five of us on the trip: Owner and Captain Jim Pugh; Captain Chris Hall, an experienced international pilot; Earl Downs, the retired partner of Jim and a former pilot himself; Mercer Dye, Jr., an aviation facilities designer, former FBO and current private pilot and helicopter owner; and Bob Showalter, who will act as the Pilot in Command of record for the trip.

Although I haven’t asked for the totals, my guess is that the total flight experience of the 5 of us exceeds 35,000 hours! Mercer has been designated as the chief scribe of the trip and both he and Bob have advanced digital cameras and promise to upload some photos of the adventure on to the blog. The blog displays the last entry first and the first entry last, so when you’ve been gone a few days you might want to scroll down and then read up to catch up with us if you are so inclined. You can see we will seldom be still for long and the internet connection quality is yet to be known. We appreciate your interest and kind thoughts as we begin what should be the trip of a lifetime in Juliet Papa!