The morning consisted of the normal drills: packing my stuff, paying the hotel bill, fuelling the plane and preparing for take-off. I noticed a map on the wall in the FBO indicating the still burning forest fires. After take-off I paid attention to the surface underneath me, and saw the damage of the fires quite well this time. Another important task on this flight was to empty my ferry tank. It would be uninstalled in Muskoka. The pumps were using their strength to pump the last drops of precious fuel into the main tanks.

Until now, I was flying on an IFR flight plan today. When I was 15 minutes from my destination, I got a confusing message from ATC. My expected further clearance time was in 45 minutes, for an NDB approach while I had indicated I didn’t have an ADF onboard. Strange. It was a sunny day, so this was resolved quickly by cancelling IFR and switching to VFR.

15 minutes later I was on final approach off Muskoka airport, needed to brake off and make a 360° to give way to a jet. 5 minutes later, I made a smooth landing with almost full tanks. It was a relief to be greeted by Dave and his crew. The “dangerous” (or let’s say “isolated”) part of the trip was now over. I gave them a short summary of my trip and thanked them for their assistance and their technical expertise.

And then, after more than 4 months of emailing, lots of messages and a few phone calls, I finally met the most trustworthy Canadian one could ever imagine: Kevin. It felt like we had known each other for ages. He offered me a place for the night, which I happily accepted. As I had been expecting, Kevin was a very easy-going and friendly man. A very experience hunter and a pilot as well. I spent the evening at his house, meeting his –at that time- normal looking neighbor Mark, his lovely wife and one of his daughters.