Kalispell doctor completes 10,555-mile flight in piston plane

When Christopher Johnson bought his latest aircraft, suffice to say he went the distance.

The Kalispell anesthesiologist and father of three had decided to sideline his passion for flying after he and his wife, Melanie Klawiter, welcomed their third daughter nine months ago. Their other daughters are ages 5 and 3. He had sold his Cessna 182 single-engine four-seater earlier to buy a Columbia 400, but then opted to sell that plane as well.

His plan to stay grounded didn’t last long.

“I got depressed not flying,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know I enjoyed it that much.”

It wasn’t long before he was in the market again for a personal aircraft. When Chad Menne of Minnesota-based Malibu Aerospace tracked down a piston-engine, six-seat Piper Malibu, Johnson was all in.

There was a logistical challenge, though. The aircraft he was purchasing was in South Africa.

Menne flew to Tzaneen, South Africa, ahead of Johnson to inspect the plane and make sure it was air-worthy for the long trip back to the United States. The journey took the pair of pilots through 28 countries — including some dangerous Al Queda-infested territory in Kenya — and over the North Atlantic via Greenland and Iceland.

Johnson had no experience with such flights. In fact, he had only been outside the U.S. one time in his 41 years, to be part of a medical mission to Tanzania.

Menne had plenty of experience in ferrying planes, but had never taken a piston-engine aircraft that far.

Yes, the journey would be challenging and in some areas dangerous. Yes, his wife and parents were worried about his safety. And yes, Johnson almost backed out.

“I had a lot of fear going in,” he admitted. “I don’t think I still have processed the whole thing.”

Once he arrived in South Africa, there was no turning back.

Johnson and Menne hired Shepherd Aero, a company that specializes in personalized services for international travel, to call ahead to the various airports they’d be landing in and make arrangements for their arrival. In hindsight, that was a vital piece of the successful flight.

After being wined and dined by the aircraft seller, they left Tzaneen on March 8, bound for another stop in South Africa before heading to Malawi and then Nairobi, Kenya. Both pilots had been instructed to wear official pilot uniforms, stripes and all, for safety reasons. They were advised that if they looked like professional pilots, there was less chance of being questioned or even exploited by authorities in Kenya.

The time in Kenya was one of the most dangerous legs of the long-distance flight. The area is riddled with Al-Qaeda cells and the militant group Al-Shabaab also has a presence there.

It didn’t help when their plane arrived late in Nairobi. The air tower stayed open an extra 10 minutes to accommodate them, but it snarled the process because no one informed immigration and customs officials, who had already gone home for the day, that a plane had landed. Americans, or anyone for that matter, flying a piston-engine plane to Kenya isn’t an everyday experience.

After having their taxi checked for bombs and staying in a hotel in a blockaded area, the men were confronted by officials the next morning. A handling company working on their behalf smoothed things over with immigration and customs. The men wasted no time — practically ran to their plane, in fact — after they got the OK to depart for the tiny country of Djibouti, between Somalia and Sudan.

At an American air base in Djibouti, they had to hand-pump the aviation fuel, which is much harder to find than jet fuel in that region. Johnson paid for the gas with cash he had stashed in various hiding places in the plane for security.

Next up was a flight over the Red Sea to Hurghada, Egypt, and then to the resort town of Luxor along the Nile River, where they stayed two nights and got to do some sightseeing.

“Egypt is primed for tourism, but no one goes there,” Johnson said, explaining the volatility of that entire region.

Johnson started to have a little less anxiety by the time they reached Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete. The customs process was easier there. After a stop in Croatia it was on to Coventry, England, and then Wick, on the northern tip of Scotland, the big jumping-off point for ferry planes.

The biggest stressor of the trip was yet to come — the flight over the North Atlantic to Reykjavik, Iceland, in a piston plane.

The men formulated an emergency plan in case something were to go wrong. They packed two life rafts with C02 cartridges and immersion suits and reviewed how to evacuate if they plummeted into the ocean. All along they had dealt with wind and weather, nothing very serious, though. Now there was concern about the headwind prolonging their exposure to water.

The temperature was 30 below zero when they reached Sondrestrom Air Base in Greenland, above the Arctic Circle.

“We stuffed shirts into the cowling of the plane to keep the engine warm” while the plane was on the ground, Johnson recounted.

They lost radio contact over the North Atlantic and for a time in Africa as well. Though it was expected to lose contact, it was nevertheless unnerving. They were able to text with their cellphones, though.

The last leg of the trip included stops in Iqualuit, Canada, and Duluth, Minnesota. By the time they left Duluth on March 15 for their final destination of Blaine, Minnesota, near Minneapolis, the Arctic cold had taken its toll on the aircraft and the landing gear wouldn’t go up.

They logged 59 hours of flight time over the eight-day trip, covering 10,555 miles.

Johnson’s Malibu Piper is now being serviced in Minneapolis, and he’ll fly it back to Kalispell in April.

As Johnson reflects on the experience, he shakes his head a little as if he still can’t believe he did it. A native of Yankton, South Dakota, his Midwest sensibilities are immediately obvious.

Although he had been intrigued with flight and loved to go to airports as a boy, he didn’t immediately set out to be a pilot. He got a degree in management information systems before deciding to get his pilot’s license after college.

A job as a software writer for a big bank and working in a cubicle office environment prompted him to change course. At that crossroad he contemplated either taking the entrance exam for the Air Force or opting for medical school. He chose medicine, earning his doctorate of medicine from the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. He completed his four-year anesthesia residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics before heading to Great Falls, where he was appointed chair of the anesthesia department at Benefis.

His time in Great Falls provided an opportunity for a refresher course in flying and he obtained his instrument rating there.

Johnson joined the medical staff at Kalispell Regional Healthcare in July 2013.

He sees a parallel between anesthesiology and aviation, and the risk mitigation that comes with both.

There’s the “taking off” in each profession, the pre-op and pre-flight preparation. Then comes the flight; in the medical world it’s the duration of anesthesia. Afterward, there are post-flight and post-operation checks. Checklists for anesthesiology have actually been modeled after aviation checklists, he pointed out.

Flying halfway around the world to get his plane home wasn’t something Johnson ever thought he’d do. It certainly wasn’t on his bucket list, he said.

But, he said, if there is a moral to his story, it’s one of conquering fear.

“Don’t be afraid to travel,” he mused.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.