Author: Renny Shapiro

ISBN:1-4208-5288-4

Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is excited to have as our guest, Renny Shapiro author of EASTBOUND: Our Flight- Our Mission 


Good day Renny and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Please tell our readers something about yourself and what motivated  you and your husband as well as  your friends to embark on such a trip on a small aircraft?


Renny:

First of all Norm, I thank you for your interest in my book and I’m delighted to participate in this interview.

Now, about us and our motivation? Well to begin, my husband Bernie and I, and our long-time friends Evy and Marty Lutin, our crewmates on our world flight, are parents, grandparents, and our lives center on our families, businesses and communities…and flying.

We each own our own aircraft and have been flying for business and pleasure for years throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. We are certainly far from being “adventurers”; it’s just that there’s something about the freedom and beauty of flight that has always appealed to our senses.

Still, over the years, and like many private flyers, we’d harbored a dream - a dream of one day mounting and carrying out the “ultimate flight adventure” - a flight around the world. But it wasn’t until we reached our late fifties and early sixties, an age when we had the time, experience and means to take on such a challenge, that we gave it serious consideration. From that point on, and as I write in EASTBOUND: “We’d thought about it, talked about it, knew we could do and one day would. It was only a matter of under what circumstances and when.”

Then came 1992, when in the aftermath of the fall of the USSR, and for the first time in 70 years, virtually all of aviation history, Russia opened its airspace to private flyers from the West. To say that this caught our attention is to put it mildly. We’d been presented with the opportunity of our lifetimes, and we seized it .

Not only would we fly ourselves around the world by way of the former Soviet Union, but having long been involved with the plight of Soviet Jewry, we would use our wings to carry out a mission of connection with what was now a historic advent of post Soviet-era Jewish revival and renewal .

Norm:

How long did it take for you to prepare for such a trip and what were some of the things you had to consider?

Renny:

It took us ten months to prepare for our flight, and the considerations were many. Of course first and foremost was safety and emergency planning. A good part of our preparations had to do with readying and training ourselves for any “unplanned event” (like having to set down NOT at an airport). So we had to gather and carry with us substantial sea and land survival gear and medical supplies.

As for routing, permit requirements, and researching ground facilities available to us along our way, we worked with an international flight handler. Then there was the planning of the mission we hoped to carry out in the FSU, and for this we were fortunate to have the interest and assistance of many individuals within our local Jewish Federation, and the New York and Jerusalem offices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, National Conference On Soviet Jewry, and Jewish Agency For Israel. In addition to all this we had to prepare ourselves and our aircraft for a two month-long journey – and prepare our families, homes and businesses for our two month-long absence, and inevitably the “what to do” lists should anything (G-d forbid) go wrong.

Norm:

Do you all have a license to fly? How was the flying time divided up among the pilots? How difficult or easy is it to fly a small Cessna?


Renny:

Only my husband, Bernie, and our partner, Marty Lutin, are licensed pilots. and on this flight they alternated as PIC (pilot in command). Both men are highly qualified pilots.

Bernie had been flying since 1946, Marty since the mid-1960’s, and at time of our flight they held a combined total of 11,000 hours in the cockpit, most of these hours in high performance jet-prop aircraft.

As for Evy and I, both of us had been flying with our husbands for years. Evy was a trained “pinch-hitter;”  I had at one time held my own pilot’s license, and while no longer current or legal to fly on my own I remained well practiced in navigation and in the handling of an aircraft.

As for flying the Cessna? Well, the 441 we flew in (Marty’s plane and chosen for this flight over ours because of cabin capacity and range), is not exactly the “small plane” folks think of when they hear “Cessna."

The 441 is a high performance twin engine turbo-prop with a range of about 2000 nautical miles, a ceiling of 35,000 ft., and a cruise speed of over 300 knots. While a highly sophisticated aircraft, the 441 is “pilot friendly” and not difficult to fly. Still, because its systems, components and flight characteristics remain different from our own jet-prop Aero Commander, and the series of Commanders Bernie had been flying for years, he studied up and trained in a 441 simulator,


Norm:

How many countries and cities did you visit and which ones left a lasting impression? Why?

Renny:

During our 63 day, 23 leg, 18,000 nautical mile flight, we made stops in Canada, Iceland, Scotland, France and Germany. Then, and after separate land trips (Evy and Marty to Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and Bernie and I to Poland), we flew on to Sicily, into Turkey, and at last into Ukraine and Russia.

In all, we stopped in some 20 cities, and I can only say that in part and because of our means of getting to these places, which in itself was so special, each one we visited was also special. But if I have to choose, I would have to say that what stood out for us most were our visits to the cities of Odessa and Kiev in Ukraine, and to the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk, Irkutzk and Magadan, where we were privileged to meet, to engage with, and come to know, men, women and children of a far distant and incredibly courageous Jewish Diaspora seeking return.

Norm:

As my mother-in-law is from Izmir and there was at one time a large Jewish population, what were your impressions when you visited Izmir?

Renny:

Unfortunately, we spent no time in Izmir. We only landed there and were immediately whisked off to Koromar, and then to Bodrum. However, as I tell in my book, while we were in in Istanbul, and while visiting the Neva Shalom Synagogue there, we met a father and son from Izmir. They were preparing for the boy’s Bar Mitzvah, and when we asked the father why in Istanbul and not in Izmir (where at the time the Jewish population stood at about 2500) he replied, “Izmir is where we live, but Istanbul is our history.”

Norm:

If you had to do it all over again, would you take a similar voyage?

Renny:

Absolutely! Without hesitation! Our flight and journey, and our mission of connection with Jewish revival and renewal, surpassed our every expectation. What we experienced was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity and experience, one we have ever since remembered and treasured, and always will.

And especially so because what we experienced in 1993 can never happen again. Because, you see, in 1994 Russian officials decreed flights like ours and others carried in during 1992 and 1993 as “too dangerous” and shut down their airspace again. Ever since, the only flights from the West permitted into Russian airspace have been international air carriers and selected corporate flights. All private world fights are again relegated to the Southern Hemisphere, and their only allowed touchdown in Russia is Petropavlosk, on the southern tip of the Kamchatka Penninsula).

Norm:

Why did you feel compelled to write EASTBOUND: Our Flight-Our Mission? How has feedback been so far?

Renny:

Well first of all, I never planned to write a book about our journey. I figured I would just put our journals together in some form for our keeping and that of our families, and for any friends who might be interested. As for the flying aspects of our journey? We’d leave these to hash over with our friends in the flying world.

And as for our moving encounter with Jewish revival in the FSU, and the many stories imparted to us by those whom we met there? This was all something we’d promised to tell, and we would, through meetings with Jewish groups and organizations.

But never did a book enter any of our minds---until we got home, and until the wide interest in what we’d done became abundantly clear to us. There were so many requests for us to speak about our journey that we elected Evy Lutin, who amongst the four of us was our best and most talented speaker, to be our official crew-spokesperson. It was a role she took on with tireless enthusiam and energy, and indeed it is one that continues to this day.

But the clincher came when one day, after one of her many appearances, Evy called me to say, “This isn’t enough, Renny. People want to know so much more than I can tell them. And they keep asking me ‘where’s the book?’ Renny! We need a book!” The result was that I was elected official “crew-writer”, and EASTBOUND was born.

As for feedback? Oh my gosh! It’s been greater and more positive than anything I ever expected! I’ve been getting messages from readers of every interest and persuasion, both from home and around the world---and always they are the same: “From the moment I opened your book I couldn’t put it down,”---“Your EASTBOUND is a page-turner,”---“You brought me to laughter and tears.”--- “The history you gave was incredible,” and so on and so on. But what has meant the most to me are the frequent words: “I felt as if I was with you every mile of the way.”

Norm:

What has your experience been like with self-publishing?

Renny:

Well, having never written or published a book before I really have nothing to compare it to. I can only say that after submitting my manuscript to a number of major publishers, and after accumulating a respectable pile of polite rejection letters, I knew that the only way to get EASTBOUND into print was to self-publish.

A friend of mine had recently published with Authorhouse and had had a good experience, so that’s where I headed. And by and large I have been satisfied. Of course, bottom line with self-publishing is that such companies are there only to provide the most basic requirements of production and distribution, and, in the case of Authorhouse, promotional assistance and options. The rest of it is pretty much a “do it yourself” venture.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome them?

Renny:

Well, as you see, 13 years elapsed between our journey and my publication of EASTBOUND. And during this time I faced many personal challenges and obstacles, starting when after a couple of years into my book I realized I was trying to do the impossible by trying to do write for four people.

Not only that, but I felt that what I’d written was shallow. I wanted to write something better and more personal. I wanted to provide readers with more of the history behind what we’d experienced, and to give our story a deeper and more meaningful context.

In short, I wanted to create a book that would convey to readers a background against which they could weigh and understand what we did, and most of all one that would carry them along and onboard with us, and make them feel as if they’d been a part of our world flight and mission.

Well, all of this was great and good, but it launched me into doing a lot of research and a lot more writing, and re-writing, and re-writing. Then in 1996, and when a terrible tragedy struck our family, I set the book aside. It would take several years before I regained interest in the book, but when I did I returned to it with the realization that I needed help – not with the writing, but with the organization of my material. It was at this point that one of my daughters introduced me a friend of hers, one Linda Schreyer. Linda was a writing instructor and part-time editor, and from that point on Linda guided me, organized me, and while she never once changed a word of my story, she made it possible for me to at last, and finally, to complete EASTBOUND.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Renny:

Actually, I believe you have covered everything. All I wish add for the information of your readers is that EASTBOUND is a non-profit venture and that all of my proceeds benefit the vital humanitarian work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee – work that we had the great privilege of personally witnessing during our visits in Ukraine and Siberia.

Beyond that, Norm I just wish to thank you again for this opportunity, and say that I hope I have answered your questions to your satisfaction.

Thanks Renny and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Click Here To Read Lily Azerad-Goldman's Review of Eastbound