I had this missive this morning to cheer me up....
Maurice:
I returned to San Diego from Lock Haven on June 26th. I had been looking forward to seeing you (and your hat) there, but I guess that our *** wouldn't let you in. Too bad.
What is your current status with our people? Will you ever be able to
get back into the States? The number of airplanes there didn't seem as large this year. Don't know if that was caused by fuel prices or the low ceilings that we had for the first couple of days.
Did you ever recover your camera and GPS? I would have thought that whoever took you off would have been responsible for securing your property. Whatever happened to your Cub? After I send this, I will go to your web site and see if the answers are there.
Len J Buckel
Dear Len, aviator, bon viveur and overweight,
I tried to get to the annual Lock Haven Piper Cub gathering but the US Authorities just put me back on the aircraft at Detroit for London.
CAA have suspended my licences having been told by the US I was 'engaged in criminal activity’! FAA confirm I committed no offence landing in a huge field, 5 miles from President Bush's Texas ranch in a torrential thunder storm.
Cub is sold to Alvin and re-registered so they cannot use that against me. [Suggested I impersonated a US citizen in order to buy the cub in Daytona Beach!]. Agreement to buy back if I get a US visa ......will visit you, if I do, before flying to Falklands and Alaska for my floats across Canada.
Please ask mates to read www.kirkflyingvet.com for updates and may be invite me to give talks across US with ones already booked. I will send the Piper Cub petition to President Bush, Department of Homeland Security and Her Majesty The Queen, if need be, to get to California!
Must go, French lesson and selling a shed of aircraft spares today,
Best regards,
Maurice
Ps. My Camera and Alvin’s GPS [never used] was stolen in Bellville, Texas along with the EPERB satellite beacon that saved my life in the Caribbean. It was while I was being interrogated in the police station for the 3rd time by the Secret Service before being led off in leg irons to your ‘sausage machine’ for deportees.