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Around the world with Grace Flight crew
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@acnpapers.com
A group of Collin County aviators are using their summer to take a month-long trip around the globe.
The crew of the King Air N332MS — which consists of Captain O. R. Smith (Plano), First Officer Glenn Smith (Frisco) and Navigator & Radio Operator Mark David (McKinney) — set off from Collin County Regional Airport on June 6 in order to raise awareness and funding for Grace Flight of American, an organization devoted to providing free air transportation for medical and humanitarian purposes.
They also had adventure in mind.
“If you have to be stuck somewhere far from home, Japan isn't half bad,” the entry read. “We are working on flight planning for the multi-day, multi-leg trip from Japan to Anchorage across the Russian Far East.”
The crew’s blog has been tracing the trip since takeoff. An entry from July 12 reads:
“On a less statistical note, Japan has been a pleasant and interesting experience. Two anecdotes underscore how old this society is and how the Japanese view time. (1) Adjacent to our hotel is the Sanjusangen-do Temple and its 1,000 standing life-size statues of Buddha. 124 of them date from the 12th century; the other 876 are from the 13th century. They're the new ones. (2) My brother recommended that I see the Ninja House in Kyoto. The hotel concierge told me that it was not open because it was being refurbished. When I asked her when it would re-open, she looked at her watch and said ‘About two years.’
“I don't care who you are, that's cosmic.”
Part of the crew’s objective is to experience as much of the world as they can, and a photo log tracing them from landmark to landmark and across world-renowned cities can be found online. Included are photos of the group on top of a glacier in Iceland and in front of the Taj Mahal.
Smith, Smith and David are expected to arrive back in McKinney on Saturday, July 17.
Donations can be made at http://www.graceflight.org/.
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