On board is the Norwegian, Thomas Waerner, winner of the Alaskan ‘Iditarod’, the toughest sled dog race in the world, together with his 24 huskies. Vilnius is Europe’s only capital you can overfly in a hot air balloon – complete with a zone transit overhead its international airport. Ryanairs will hold for you, because, remember, powered aircraft must give way. Right-hand orbits at present position, please, you will be cleared for the approach after the Wizzair Airbus on short final’ is something that my UK friends would plaster all over Facebook. Here, it’s a routine occurrence.

We head up towards the Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth, where you usually can see one of the British Navy’s new monster carriers – plus HMS Victory, which looks tiny in comparison! And that’s the next mistake. At least, it is if you do it without gloves. The icy metal of the ladder and hull sends a searing pain into my hands.The 145hp of the O-300 performed well in the cold morning temperatures. We initially remained in the pattern for an assessment flight before climbing to altitude for the stalls and slow-flying exercises. Outside the north hangar there are still a number of snowbound and decommissioned aircraft, including a DC-4 and a DC-7. But primarily DC-6. Many pilots are moving across from costly GA aircraft to microlights and that doesn’t help with our ageing pilot demographic. But it was at least good news for the duo playing in the evening as they had obviously worked out that they wouldn’t need to stray very far from the 1970s! Rob Everts shows us a DC-6 simulator. “It still works. Must be pretty unique. But we don’t actually use it. It’s more of a curiosity,” he says. Well… as for me… I’d like to fly a DC-6. At least fly with me. Is there something that could be done…?” I ask cautiously.

He got the Auster dismantled and shipped to Lithuania, and then tasked local mechanics to rebuild it, replacing all the wood, and the metal, and the wiring, and, above all, the fabric. When I turned up to look at it, I thought it looked resplendent in yellow and blue. And it was also impossibly cute. I think all vintage aeroplanes are – as they sit on their tailwheels, they look like puppies begging for a biscuit. I only had time to stay for one day, but that was enough to change my perception of CC. He is a great host and an even better cook. Outside in his little oasis by the pool, he cooked some of the best ribs that I have eaten in my life. And over several cold beers, he shared the details of his life. OK, SkyDemon refused to play ball, stubbornly repeating that our ‘subscription had expired’… OH NO IT HADN’T! After the second beer he muses: “Maybe I should get potential pilots and mechanics drunk first and then let them sign the contract with us…”In the hold we can take a look at the permanently mounted special tanks in which the fuel is transported – the machine is used for Everts Air Fuel. We are told that the first C-46s were brought from Japan in the late 1970s – the Americans had delivered them there after WWII for the country’s reconstruction. They had been landing on Runway 05, which would have been perfect for a downwind join, but when we called up they gave us 23, which meant some re-positioning. There’s a real variety of types from single seat flexwings to sleek hot-ships, gyroplanes and everything else in between. He directs us to create a grid with one column for the different flaps position, one for the stall warning activation, and a final one for the actual airspeed, and says, “today, we are going to be test pilots.”