13 November 2004, Tampa

I only stayed two days in Orlando . Two days of Mickey Mouse and hot-dogs. My only regret was that the kids are back home in Quebec , and that I visited Disney World alone. I guess I will be coming back in the near future, once they are old enough.  

I decided to prepare an interesting flight plan that will once again let me see if I am in the good graces of the American authorities. So I decided fly over the NASA installations in Florida . I therefore left for the airport in late afternoon to file my flight plan, prepare for departure, and also to see if fellow Six Pack member John left me a message.  

At my arrival, I was surprised to be greeted by William Bumbray, a WESH reporter. The local MSNBC station had heard about our tour and wanted to do a small story about it for the evening news.  

-         “Mr. Paradis, what is the status of this project know as the ATW with the Six Pack?”

-         “Everything is going fine. As we speak, almost everybody has left Westchester County . Unfortunately, Peps is still grounded, waiting for replacement parts for his plane. Jack has reached Philly. I heard he is quite a hit in the local pubs with his Irish accent. Bryan is flying to Washington today and Ondra is in Norfolk . He got into some minor trouble for taking pictures of the naval base. John is already in Montego Bay and enjoying life while listening to Bob Marley.”

-         “That interesting Sir. How did you guys come up with such a project of promoting world peace with the help of beer?”

-         “It’s just our small part to help make Earth a better place. We always say we can’t do anything that will change the world. That’s not true. Fans of the Holy Bottle, we decided to travel the world not only to find the ultimate beer, but to do the ultimate pub crawl to share our tales”

-         “Doesn’t this look like a cult?”

-         “Not at all. We share common passions: flying and beer. All we want is to share those passions with the world. That why we’ve created a web site.”

-         “Maintaining that web site must be quite demanding?”  

-         “The internet is magical. We can do most tasks remotely, and we have our tech wizard, Luc Martineau, based in Ottawa for emergencies.

-         “Well, that’s all the time we have Mr. Paradis. Good luck to all of you.”  

Wow! That was my first interview in the US . With a bit of luck, it might get picked up by the national network.  

Okay, time is flying and I have to get going. A quick stop, at the pilot’s lounge, to see, if I have any messages. Nothing there, expect for my wife asking that I bring milk whenever I get back home!  

After the usual checklists, I request taxi to the active runway. After a quick taxi, I am number 2 for take-off at runway 36, right behind a US Airways plane. For once, I was able to maintain a “normal” speed while taxiing.  

All went smoothly as I turned east towards the NASA facilities. This is the first time I fly in this region, and I was quite impressed with the installations I saw. The space shuttle launching pad was quite impressive! The runway is also VERY long, and I resist the temptation to land there. The last place I want to visit in Cuba is Guantanamo !!  

I then turned west and flew once again over Orlando and Epcot Center . The rest of the flight was quiet. I landed smoothly after a nice descent over the Tampa Bay . Biut of course, I busted the speed limit while taxiing to my parking spot!!