Dale’s Medical Certificate displayed in the book

Note the date of the medical exam as July 18, 1970 exactly one year from the day of the crash. Dale’s actual height is 72 inches, yet, the doctor’s office incorrectly typed Dale’s height as 78 inches. This went unnoticed until after Dale’s even newer medical taken 6 months later. The Publisher has promised to make a note of this in the 2nd edition printing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding the Takeoff from Lusaka Intl. Airport. How did you navigate or communicated with your next flight, as the Comms, and both dual GPS Navigation units were inoperative?

The publisher of Flight to Heaven had many constraints to consider when preparing a book which deals with the technical’s of the field of jet aviation, while at the same time trying not to lose the average, non-aviation minded reader. This was accomplished by eliminating much technical jargon as well as just plain eliminating pages of my manuscript. With all that said, the Publisher did a fine job in this difficult balancing act. Here are some questions that were not answered in the book but our attempt is to answer them now.

This flight took place in 1987, that’s 23 years ago, during that time much technology has improved and the number of space satellites have increased. During our flight we were using GNS navigation. Now GPS is more common and widespread. From the next flight until our return to the US base of Orange County, CA, I made the decision to no longer fly at night time. However, our GNS units began to operate again once we returned to the Mediterranean area. We landed in Tel Aviv, many stops in Europe, and for our hop back over the Atlantic, both GNS units worked fine. The problem as it turned out was that we were not receiving enough adequate signals in the lower part of Africa. Back in 1987 that was not too uncommon in certain places over the globe.

The COMM radios seemed to be working, from the cockpit, yet no one answered our calls before and during our approach into Lusaka. But then, as it turned out, no one bothered to listen. At that time of the night, actually early morning, and in that remote area, all radios were turned off. To my complete frustration mind you. We paid good money for accurate flight planning data from a company called “------ Wheater” and normally they provide great service. This part of their information was a disaster. Our COMM radios, all three worked fine. We just had to get the military involved at Lusaka, and depart Zambia with the military permission. Our flight plan to South Africa, Port Elizabeth, was normal, during the daytime, and was without incident. Even in 1987 the South African air system was stellar, operated of course, by the British.