Long Beach, CA—One of the more interesting pilots of the World Flight Across Russia, July 1992, was Long Beach, California businessman, pilot and philanthropist Don Temple. His lovely aircraft, a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle aptly named The Ultimate Trip, graces the front of the new book, Round the World & Across Russia in 21 Days, 30 Years Later, by air rally documentarian and author Michael B. Butler. Temple, who passed away in 2013 at 85, was accompanied by fellow local aviators Sully Sullens and Bob Leavelle, the later whose detailed flight journal is a major part of the story.
This second book about the World Flight is more extensive, containing two additional major pilot journals and key historical aviation and world historical context. Additionally, history left out of the first book has been reinserted and added to by the author. 30 years of tumultuous Russian history have made the flight of 12 small planes flying 18,000 miles around the world in three weeks, while crossing all of Siberia, truly unique. Don Temple and his crew, and all the participants, truly slipped through a wormhole in time not likely to come around ever again—that honeymoon summer right after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Well known in Long Beach for generous philanthropic work through the Don Temple Foundation, his work has continued through his widow, Marlene, who was pleased to see an updated publication about an event Don was proud to have participated in and been part of. As evidenced by the image above, a book Dedication Page was created for Don.
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the author constructed the book using seven major pilot journals, five ancillary journals, 25 hours of video tape, interviews and what he recalled. Details and color slide shows can be found at www.MichaelButlerBooks.com.
A part of Bob Leavelle's journal landing at Southend Airport in UK.
On July 9, 1992 the Beechcraft Super King Air 200 progressed towards Southend Airport over the clouds to land second to last; Norm and Mario, after false problems in Iceland, arrived much later. Bob Leavelle brings in the twin Cessna 421 Ultimate to Southend, "We're up at 5:30 am… short night… we depart into a low overcast sky… rain during the night… low clouds… about 40 degrees F… six hours plus seven minutes we land at London's Southend Airport… didn't expect this… lot of people waiting happily greet us… news people with camera crews ask why we were doing this… no good reason I say… no justification whatsoever… just for the heck of it… we learn London TV carried us on the evening news… the newspaper carried a nice write-up with pictures."
A part of Bob Leavelle's journal covering the flight from Novosibirsk to Bratsk in Siberia
Bob Leavelle, in Don Temple's twin Cessna 421 Ultimate Trip with Sully Sullens, relates their morning routine, "Breakfast at 7:20 am… porridge… a pancake… greasy hot dog look-a-like… can't understand why the meat has so much fat… 80% or so… the bread is heavy but good… one of our people reached to next table and took a piece of bread… waitress came over upset and admonished him severely… in Russian… seems a specific ration is allocated for each breakfast… hotels pack us a lunch for travel days… bread or greasy meat sandwich, cheese, small apple or tomato, but always whole cucumber… Mario gave us a supply of Nestlé mini chocolate bars, good thing, thanks Mario & Nestlé for fallback rations…
"We are off the ground at 9:50 am and bound northwest for Bratsk… a fuel stop… our destination is Yakutsk well to the northeast 1,200+ miles away… see lots of green fields, large rivers and streams… flying up the Angara River to the northwest… slightly more than a one hour flight… we are first to land at Bratsk… when we stop eight to ten Russians rushed up… they are looking and feeling the plane as if they never saw one with paint before… talks rapidly in Russian to no avail, nobody speaks English, we don't speak any Russian… you would think we landed from Mars… a supervisor comes by in an official car, I can't understand a word, all of his front teeth are gold… friendly chap but wasn't making his point… so he jumped in his car, soon to return!"
Media Interviews: For review copies or interviews please contact Eric Blair Enterprises at MichaelButlerBooks@pm.me or 213-534-7292.