.........So I jump into the Piper Cheyenne and the guards come out... they've not seen me, but now I'm stuck! So I sit... and I sit......until 04:15!!! I pop my head up and the gaurds are gone! It's time to go! I start the engines as quickly as I can, taxi like a madman, desperately trying to find a runway and takeoff... I'm away!!I make a safe take-off and when all is steady, I swoop down as low as I dare. I head for the coast... a cunning plan... I pop up into radar again and then drop down underneath... the authorities now think I'm heading for the Med and I make a sharp 90 to the left and head for the Tunisian border. That should buy me some time.As low as I can and as fast as I can I travel at 270' full-whack and I reach the border in 15-20mins. I relax, climb to 3000 and head for Remada and then on to El Borma. Here I turn South and Travel Into Algeria on the safe side of the border with Libya... all the way down to In Amenas.I'm travelling straight into the Sahara! As the Sun rises, so does the heat... I estimate 40C+ today!! There are dried-up lakes and rivers here and few Navaids! My next waypoint is Illizi, across a huge plateau. I run from flat, wide open desert into mountains and then up onto the plateau.. where it becomes barren and lifeless again.From Illizi I turn towards my destination of Tiska airport at Djanet, Algeria (Oasis and site of one of many French Foreign Legion forts). 127 miles of hard, mountain and desert terrain. This is one of the most remote places I've ever flown and it's quite exhilerating... if a little risky!! But, then again, I did just steal a plane from a large, Libyan Airport!!The terrain is deceptive here... there are wide plateau areas, that climb very gradually and I have to be aware that my height AGL is dropping... but I'm getting Sunblind and the horizon and mountaintops are shimmering. Finally, I find Tiska! (The airports are well camouflaged on this landscape) and I drop down for the approach, get my clearance and make a good landing on a long runway. I'm lucky... I've been in contact with Carthage Centre (Tunisia). the time is roughly 06:45All I have to do now is pay my way into Algeria... this could take some time...........................Total distance: 685 milesTime taken: 2.5 hoursFuel Burned: 400 gallons (about 1100lbs? not sure)I'm off now to check-out the cave paintings at Tassili N'Ajjer (8000 years old!!) A refreshing cup of Mint tea around the camp fire tongiht. I hand over the baton at DAAJ (Tiska, Algeria). The next leg will be pivotal, I expect... West to the Atlantic Coast... or maybe South-East into Deep Africa and the Congo... or maybe East to The Aswan Dam and the Nile!Cheers all and Goodnight...Djanet photos: http://www.aroundtheworlds.com/english/sahara-e.htmDjanet Forts: http://www.manntaylor.com/forts.htmlTravel Info: http://i-cias.com/m.s/algeria/zz_djn.htmTravel Info: http://www.travel-guide.com/data/dza/dza140.asp (look half way down and read from "Hoggar Mountains" to read about the region I flew over).

I'l pick up the baton now and depart out of DAAJL Wiley

Emergencypants (love the name, by the way),Great shot! Must have been a challenge to keep a plane as fast as the Cheyenne that close to the rising dunes!Interested to see where Mr. Wiley takes us next!--Tony

Landed at DATM. Much equipment trouble prior to departure at DAAJ.Cruise altitude was 29,000 and Grd speed varied from 260 to 300 knots. Weather was just some high scatterd cirrus, to occasionally clear. Winds mostly light. Be prepared to depart off gravel runway. Time of arrival at DATM is: 01:47 EDT. o6:47 a.m. local.Screenshot. Coming soon in seperate upload. Departed DAAJ at 04:18 Local. Landed at DATM at 06:47 local. Screen shot hopefully here.

Here is a larger, easier to see screenshot. I hope.

Hi Lowell! Good PIREP! What city was it that you landed in? I don't think you get a Strike against you for posting more than one screenshot (which is against the rules), because it looks like there were problems with the upload process.I am inclined to ask what plane you were flying, though. All those nice round engine gauges make it look quite a lot like a jet, but according to the rules, only props (of any sort, including the big honkin' ones) and balloons are allowed in the flight.Please let us know, so we know whether or not the baton is truly at DATM, or if it's back at DAAJ, the airport you left from!--Tony

Hi all,Looks like Lowell was flying the Baron...I'm gonna grab the baton from DATM. It might be too far, but Im gonna try to make it to The Canary Islands. I've always wanted to see them. It could make it interesting for who ever flys across the pond, it's a long ways. I'm gonna jump into my Cessna 421C and prepare for a short/soft field take-off out of Bordj Mokhtar. It might be a little over 4 hrs, depending on winds so hang tight.BTW, I have mapped our progress with FSNavigator and will upload screenshots as this continues, but I don't know how to upload them? Do I add just like an email attatchment in hotmail?-------------Michael"The one fellow who is really broke in the air is the one who is out of both altitude and airspeed" (Wolfgang Langewieche, Stick and Rudder)

Good luck to the Canaries, Michael.Yeah... you can add attachments by browing to them, just like in Hotmail.Si.

Whew, I made it... Just a little longer than I was hoping for. I really pushed the range of the Cessna 421C to its limits. I made it to Los Rodeos, Canary Islands (GCXO) with 30 minutes on board.I departed DATM at 0800 UTC and arrived GCXO at 1350 UTC. I walked out to the 421C did my pre-flight, read through the manual to brush up on my short field runway procedures and was ready to go. It was night time locally so I filed an IFR flight plan and climbed in my 421 up to FL240. The sky was scattered at around FL180. Unfortunately, I had a 53 Knot Headwind right on my nose. After I burned off some fuel I thought I would try to climb up to FL280, but the wind about 74 Knots there. I decided to descend down to FL220 and stayed there for the remainder of the flight. I didn't pass one airport for over 2 hrs. As a matter of fact, I was only handed off maybe 3 times untill I got back down to Canary Approach.As I was crossing to the south of Gran Canaria Island, ATC cleared me for my intial descent. Looked up to the north to see the steep cliffs dropping off into crystal blue waters. Sure is beautiful here.ATC kept me pretty high through the descent so I could avoid the volcano that makes up most of Tenerife Island as I flew my downwind leg to Runway 12 at Los Rodeos. Cleared to land, dropped the gear and made a textbook landing. Sure felt good to get out of the plane and stretch my legs. What a great flight.Some Links about The Canary Islands-http://www.red2000.com/spain/canarias/tenerife/index.htmlhttp://www.airdisaster.com/special-pa1736.shtmlWhos Next?-------------Michael"The one fellow who is really broke in the air is the one who is out of both altitude and airspeed" (Wolfgang Langewieche, Stick and Rudder)

Here is our route so far:

Michael,Nice close up of the 421!Thanks very much for posting the chart and map of progress so far. Would you like to be the flight's official Navigator? We do need someone willing to update the progress and periodically post mapped progress! If our course is going to be westbound, I sure hope someone has a prop-based plane that can make it across!!--Tony

Hi Tony,>Would you like to be the flight's official Navigator?Sure, I will be the navigator.>If our course is going to be westbound, I sure hope someone has a prop-based plane that can make it across!!I was thinking the same thing, could be intersting!-------------Michael"The one fellow who is really broke in the air is the one who is out of both altitude and airspeed" (Wolfgang Langewieche, Stick and Rudder)

>>If our course is going to be westbound, I sure hope someone has a prop-based plane that can make it across!!>>I was thinking the same thing, could be intersting! We need Heather in this (she's off flying right now, but should be back by this afternoon): she could take the DC-3 fully fueled and go a long ways.I'd be glad to grab the baton for some short flight once you get into the U.S. (or even South America) but I'm afraid I'd end up lost in the Atlantic the way things are going right now.

Okay Mike, I've got it. Guess the ladies should get their two cents in. Give me a few minutes to look things over here, determine where you're at and the next destination. I ought to be good for a thousand miles.Heather

Sorry about the screen shot. I was trying to get a LARGER shot not a sperate one, so you could see the GPS. That was the King Air 350.There didn't seem to be a city. But the airport was out in the middle of No where. Ha. The airport was about on the border of Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania. By the way, we'll need considerably more than 2 and 1/2 hours to get across the water legs won't we? So If I get one Ill plan to just plowing on across.I was hoping, but forgot to tell anyone in my PIREP I guess but the next leg I wanted someone to do would have been DAKAR on the coast. Then on across to S.A. Lowell Wiley