With the completion date getting closer, Gary Kurtz (Producer), Norman Reynolds (Art Director), Brian Johnson, Bill Welch (Construction Manager) and Alan Arnold (Unit Publicist/author of Once Upon A Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back) went to review the work being done on the Millennium Falcon.
"Before dawn on a bitterly cold January morning I boarded a tiny plane at the Elstree airfield to fly to Pembrokeshire to see the Falcon being constructed." (From Once Upon A Galaxy by Arnold)
On the morning of their departure the weather was an omen of what to expect further into the filming schedule once the cast and crew had relocated to Norway. With temperatures hovering just above freezing, the ground and runway at Elstree Airfield was covered in a layer of ice and Brian Johnson, who was a licensed pilot, was nervous about the flight. His doubts increased when he observed their ruffled and bleary-eyed pilot approaching the group. Together they boarded the Piper Navajo and settled in while the pilot made a cursory attempt at completing the pre-flight checks, before opening up the throttles.
The aircraft didn't budge, and after a few minutes of flicking switches, fiddling with knobs and pushing the throttle back and forth the pilot realized that he had forgotten to take the chocks away from under the wheels. Once removed, the plane was cleared to take off and they taxied out to the runway. After a glance at his controls the pilot pushed the throttle forward and the Navaho roared down the tarmac until it veered into the grass and came to a halt a hundred feet later. The plane had suffered a tire blow out at nearly 90 miles an hour. After returning to the waiting lounge Brian Johnson "suggested to Gary Kurtz that we had a different pilot and that duly happened."
All in all the start of the trip did not bode well but considering the mechanical difficulties that the Millennium Falcon was famed for, it was certainly an apt beginning.
Though the weather in Pembrokeshire was supposed to be clear they found the day was gray and miserable when they landed in Haverfordwest. During the 15-mile drive from the airfield to Pembroke Dock the travelers were deep in conversation about The Empire Strikes Back and didn't notice the beautiful Welsh countryside passing by.
Upon arriving in Pembroke Dock, they went straight to the Sunderland flying boat hangars, which are still standing, to find that the project was complete in terms of the steelwork and nearly all the plywood cladding had been fixed to the structure. Alan Arnold described the nearly completed product as "a thing of beauty." The group from Lucasfilm only stayed long enough for a quick inspection and to allow Norman Reynolds to give his final orders before they were back in the air and heading for Elstree.
When the work was finished the Falcon weighed in at a staggering 23 tons, and measured 65 feet across (or 80 feet if you went from stern to the tip of the mandibles) by 16 feet high.
