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Flag of Turkey.

Flag of Istanbul.

Ottoman Coat of Arms.

 Istanbul, Turkey:

     In the 1980's, the airport was renamed Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey.

     The airport sits on a flat piece of land that juts into the Sea of Marmara, on the European side of Istanbul, 15 miles west of the city’s center.  It possessed two runways, the longest at 9,800 feet, and, dealing with the constant wind off the sea, we usually landed on Runway One Eight (180°/360° magnetic, South/North).  Disappointingly, I found the facilities at the airport a bit on the basic-Spartan side, and badly in need of renovation.

     From a geographical stand point though, dear reader, the city was truly unique.  As it was cut in half by the Bosporus Strait, which separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey, and is the world's narrowest, twisting strait used for international shipping.  For the Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles, the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

     Also at this moment, dear reader, may I have your permission to insert a trifling anecdote?  No?  Tough...here it comes anyway.

     When my father crashed his Cessna 310 in December of 1964 - leaving us totally penniless without a snowball’s chance in hell of me having a career in aviation - to get my mind off my hopeless situation, I went to the movies.  I caught a film playing on Hollywood Blvd. entitled: “Topkapi.”   It was a comedic-caper flick, where a group of bumbling misfits pinch the jewel-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud I, from the Topkapi Palace at Istanbul. 

The “bumbling misfits.”

The Topkapi Palace at Istanbul next to the Bosporus – what “our misfits” wished to burglarize.

What “our misfits” steal.

     Inexplicably, one scene from the movie really lodged in my grey matter.  It was when actor Peter Ustinov delivered a humongous, spotlessly-white Lincoln-Continental convertible to the Istanbul Hilton Hotel; a structure appearing equally white, as he drove this “Yank-Tank” around its circular drive.

Ustinov with the Lincoln-Continental convertible.

Ustinov & Lincoln in front of the Istanbul Hilton Hotel.  

     Coming out of that theater, I clenched my jaw, quit feeling sorry for myself, and decided to get cracking.  For some indiscernible reason, the bottom of my left testicle told me; not only would I have a career in aviation, but one day – by hook or crook – I’d pay Istanbul a visit.  That was my dream.

     Almost 27 years later, in September of 1991, I landed a 747 at Istanbul.  And here’s the cherry on my cupcake, dear reader.  When I stepped off the crew bus at the hotel...it was instant déjá vu.  Oh yes...I had been here before.  It was where Peter Ustinov delivered that Lincoln-Continental in the movie “Topkapi”: the Istanbul Hilton.

     That same evening, sipping bourbon and enjoying the sunset from the Hilton’s rooftop bar, while observing vessels lazily plying the Bosporus Strait, I did a lot of thinking regarding the past 27 years.  Resulting in my reaching the following conclusion: No dream is too big...no dreamer too small.  Dreams have power, dear reader.  Never give up on them, or yourself.

         As for the city, dear reader, I found it fascinating:     

Fabulous "Turkish Delight."

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