We left Paga, at dawn on a bright crisp morning in that beautiful P3 Orion Snow on all the mountains all the way down to Vancover, then down to Durango in Mexico my that’s a long haul, in the maddie Honda learjet, the next morning in a pea green soup up to FL23 all the way down to Tobias Bolanos from there to Santa Maria here we picked up the beech & on to Del Caribe on St Margaritas in brilliant clear skys & here we overhead St Lucia heading NE again
Wizard Prang - what! Who wrote these Flight Plans, I'd like to shake him warmly by the throat, no hand, hand by the hand!
Prune here, We've just spent the night at Robert L Bradshaw Airport on the SW tip of St Kitts, we had MADEE tied down as although it's not the hurricane season ATC told us they were expecting a bit of a blow in the night.
Well at about midnight it began to blow, anything not tied down tore through the sky, and even that, that was tied down strained to be free, and because of the moonlight one could make out the cumulus nimbus towering upwards to FL45.
At 1am as lightening started to flash and thunder started to rumble, it started to rain, just the odd drop at first but after ten minutes or so it came down by the bucketful, until the streets turned into rivers, and then at 2am as if by magic, just as quickly as it started the wind dropped and the sky cleared and everything was bathed in erie moonlight.
Before we head north tomorrow I plan to do a bit of sightseeing. Why here well I'll tell you why, throughout 1860-1875 my great grandfather Robert Henry a Master Mariner came here as master of the barque Woolhampton.
It will be two years on Sunday since she vanished from a holiday apartment in the Algarve and the then three-year-old would be five, nearly six.
Gerry and Kate McCann have employed a forensic imaging artist from the United States' National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to create a photographic impression of how Madeleine would probably look today, with the image being unveiled on the Oprah Winfrey TV show.
Without evidence to the contrary, the McCanns, from Rothley in Leicestershire, still believe there is "a very real likelihood" Madeleine is alive and well.
The age progression will be used on posters for a fresh drive to find their daughter.
It is being shown on the Oprah Fridays Live show ahead of the broadcast of the star's interview with the McCanns, extracts from which have been released.
In the one-hour interview, to be aired in the US on Monday, she asked them: "Do you let yourself go to the worst?"
Mrs McCann replied: "I think it's natural. I know people mean well when they say don't let yourself go there, but as a mom, inevitably there are times when I do. And they're the times that I kind of dip down."
The interviewer asked them about their marriage. Mr McCann said: "Child abduction, I think, could destroy any family. There's no doubt about it. It's one of the most devastating things. But we've been supported tremendously well and I think that's helped us stay strong and stay together."
Mrs McCann said she keeps Madeleine's room ready for her return and said she goes in there about twice a day.
UPDATE:
2 May 2009 01:31am
Gerry and Kate McCann's very public ordeal has highlighted a dearth of support for the families of missing people, a charity has said.
Sunday is the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance in Portugal and Missing People believes more could have been done to help her family and those like them.
The charity's director of policy and research, Geoff Newiss, said: "Two years on and Madeleine McCann's disappearance from Praia da Luz continues to highlight the need for better services and support for families affected."
Mr Newiss continued: "Families like Madeleine McCann's need more help with the emotional, social and practical impacts that occur when someone they love goes missing.
"Kate and Gerry McCann have had to deal with an unprecedented level of misinformation about Madeleine's disappearance in the public domain. This has certainly not been helpful to them or the search for their daughter.
"Madeleine is a vulnerable missing child. Her family are in the same desperate situation as the 1,000 other UK families the charity currently supports, all living in limbo."
The charity wants better responses from police forces to the families of missing people and more "timely and appropriate" support.
It is calling for an increased awareness among other service providers - such as counsellors, financial advisers and solicitors - of how they can help relatives.
And it is campaigning for a better range of information and guidance for the families of missing people.
Its recommendations are outlined in a report, called Living in Limbo.
Virgin Media News
Mel.
Last edited by mel wilson on Sat May 02, 2009 7:50 am; edited 1 time in total
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that update, Mel. I am praying that the release of this enhanced photo will reinvigorate global, public attention to this little darling girls ongoing plight.
You have my everlasting respect for keeping on top of the state of things regarding our little missing Madeleine and her worried parents. I proudly salute you my friend! I am going to try and record the McCann's interview with Oprah next Monday for later viewing as I will be working when the program is broadcast.
I would love to see a renewed effort here at Surclaro by bringing on another "Round The World Flight In Search Of Madeleine McCann".
@ Cdr Prune,
What Ho Yourself My Good Fellow!
My hat is off to you as well for keeping the candle alight all these weeks and months in the Search For Maddie!
But what has your research revealed to you as regards your great grandfather? I, for one, am extremely interested in learning more about him and his journeys---either publicly or privately!
What Ho Chaps! Prune here
Is a month since I posted our travels on this jolly ol' site, been lain low with the screaming habdabs not something I'd reccomend.
We left Badshaw and headed to USAF Pepsicola up in the panhandle arrived with the sunset, no one here 'cept a battered ol' 1049 'Connie', leaking fuel all over the tarmac, we parked well glear of him.
I remember 'connies' in a AEW role up at Kinloss in '72', saw many a wet start fire and on one occasion one a/c lost a mainwheel on landing chased my ol' Bedford 1.5 ton truck right down the airfield.
Glad it didnt catch us, just think of the paperwork FMT3 etc.,
Try explaining it to a hairy *beep* MT WO, heard every tale ever told believed none.
Next morning took off bright and early heading N by NE came up via Wahington & New Jersey, martha vineyard to Gander
More tomorrow
Hi Guy's and Mel, You will all be pleased to hear that the Melbourne Sunday news devoted four pages to the disappearance of Madeleine today.It also stated that there may be a new suspect??. BP
Hi Guy's and Mel, You will all be pleased to hear that the Melbourne Sunday news devoted four pages to the disappearance of Madeleine today.It also stated that there may be a new suspect??. BP
Wow! Four pages---that's wonderful! Hooray for the Melbourne Paper! I don't suppose you could supply a link to the article, BP? The part that interests me is your statement as to a new suspect?
Retired British detectives are pursuing "potentially significant" information received after the broadcast of a new TV documentary about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, her family's spokesman has said.
More than 50 calls were made to the McCanns' investigative hotline following the airing of Thursday night's programme.
The callers offered "real, new information", including details of possible sightings of the missing child, said family spokesman Clarence Mitchell.
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby.
The new documentary highlighted three witnesses who saw an odd stranger who appeared to be watching the McCanns' apartment in the days before she disappeared. An artist's impression based on one account of the man, who was described as "very ugly" with pitted skin and a large nose, was also released this week.
Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, are employing two retired British policemen to continue the search for their daughter.
The former officers - ex-detective inspector Dave Edgar, 52, and ex-detective sergeant Arthur Cowley, 57 - scoured thousands of pages from the official Portuguese case files looking for clues. They put the three reports of a suspicious stranger hanging around the McCanns' apartment together with two sightings of a man carrying a child away from the flat on the night Madeleine vanished.
Mr Mitchell said there was a good response to the programme, Madeleine Was Here, which was watched by 2.6 million people on Channel 4 and will be screened by Portuguese broadcaster SIC on Monday.
He said: "The investigative phone line has had at least 50 calls since the documentary. It's a very encouraging response because there is real, new information being given in some of these calls, information that the investigators are now able to set to work on.
"Some of the calls are coming from Portugal, and that's exactly where we need the information from. We will not go into detail but the investigators are very pleased with that response."
We saw the new TV documentary about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on British TV last night.
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby., but as Kate McCann said "If Madeleine
is out there she'll be going on six now".
The new documentary highlighted an artist's impression based on family characteristics of how Madeleine will look now, so I suggest that the paint jop on our aircraft needs to be updated too.
As the father of a daughter my heart goes out to Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, it broke my heart to see them continue the search for their daughter, whilst maintaining some semblence of normality for their younger children.
Praying for you, Madeleine please return home soon.
The new documentary highlighted an artist's impression based on family characteristics of how Madeleine will look now, so I suggest that the paint jop on our aircraft needs to be updated too.
Praying for you, Madeleine please return home soon.
The parents of Madeleine McCann are to sue the disgraced former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral.
Kate and Gerry McCann are to take action over comments made in the media by the man who previously led the inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance.
In a statement, the parents of the missing girl said: "We - together with our three children Madeleine, Sean and Amelie - are taking this legal action against Goncalo Amaral over his entirely unfounded and grossly defamatory claims -made in all types of media, both within Portugal and beyond - that Madeleine is not only dead, but that we, her parents, were somehow involved in concealing her body."
The decision was taken in a bid to prevent further publication of Amaral's "deeply offensive" book The Truth of the Lie, his television documentary and his "disgraceful thesis" that the parents are involved in their daughter's disappearance.
The statement continued: "The primary reason for our legal action is simple: to stop any negative effect that these absurd and deeply hurtful claims may be having on the ongoing search for Madeleine.
"We can no longer stand back and watch as Mr Amaral tries to convince the entire world that Madeleine is dead.
"Nor can we allow this blatant injustice to Madeleine, with its obvious risk of hindering our attempts to find her, to continue.
"Mr Amaral's entirely unjustified claims have not only brought indescribable devastation and suffering to our lives, they have hugely compounded the already immense pain and anxiety we have endured since Madeleine's abduction."
The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, recently marked the second anniversary of Madeleine going missing from their holiday flat in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3 2007, just days before her fourth birthday.
They will join families of other vanished youngsters on Monday to mark International Missing Children's Day. The event on London's South Bank will publicise the plight of the mothers and fathers left wondering what happened to their children many years after their disappearance.
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