“All private flyers have their dreams. And ours was to circle the world under our own power and navigation. We’d thought about it, talked about it, knew we could do it and one day would. It was only a matter of under what circumstances and when. What we never anticipated, not in our wildest imaginations, was that such a flight would be born for us out of Glasnost, Perestroika and the breakup of the Soviet Union …or that it was destined to become a life experience for us as Jews. But that’s what happened…”
So begins Eastbound, as Southern California flyers Evy and Marty Lutin and Renny and Bernie Shapiro learn the momentous news that the historically closed airspace of Russia has opened to flights from the West. This means that it is now possible to fly a direct transglobal route that will not only shave some 6000 nautical miles off the distance needed to accomplish their objective, but one that will put them in good company – only Wiley Post, Howard Hughes and a handful of others have ever flown around the world via Russia. As if these factors aren’t enough motivation, for the two couples there is more, much more. A flight across Russia might give them a chance to use their wings to mount a mission of connection with people and places of post-Soviet era Jewish revival whose long-buried seeds of Jewish life are beginning to flourish once again. It is an easy decision: They will make the flight via Russia.
What follows is the account of this remarkable flight and mission. Based upon her journals and those of her crewmates aboard Cessna N77ML, Shapiro carries us along and onboard their “Lutin/Shaprio Around The World Flight – 1993” from inception to planning and from first take-off to final landing. We are with them as they wing their way across 19,000 nautical miles of ocean, continents and seas, with them as they experience places of history, pre-history, history in the making and everything in between. And at last, we are with them when 9000 miles and seven weeks from home they reach the former Soviet Union, where at their every touch-down in Ukraine and Siberia they find themselves welcomed with joyous cries of “SHALOM!”.
A warm, personal and eloquent read, Eastbound brings us a fascinating and engaging story about the wonder and romance of flight, about a unique travel experience, and most of all about an unforgettable encounter with a distant and incredibly courageous Jewish Diaspora seeking return.