C-182 Transporting Across the Atlantic

[mdolezal]

Ha ha... that's awesome I have so many volunteers to sit as a safety, but sadly, the plane's owner and I will be sitting side by side... for hours... Here's the planned route:

Wichita KS - Mt Comfort, IN (appr 540 NM)
Mt Comfort - Bangor, Maine (appr 810 NM) (where ferry tank installation - 124 G - is scheduled the 4th of May)​

Bangor - Goose Bay, Canada (appr 610 NM)
Goose Bay - Narsarsuaq, Greenland (appr 680 NM)
Narsarsuaq - Keflavik, Iceland (appr 650 NM)
Keflavik - Bergen, Norway (appr 800 NM)
Bergen - Århus, Denmark (appr 330 NM)
It's a good thing he's Swedish because there are some pretty odd names of cities there I couldn't say.
I'm certainly not going into it with a cocky attitude at all. I haven't said yes to it at all, technically. But I will because seriously, how could I pass up that opportunity.
As for safety equipment, yes, absolutely. AOPA will be a great resource, I'm sure. The owner and I are both somewhat book-nerds, so I'm sure we'll have everything over analyzed, although, really, I don't think such a thing can be OVER analyzed.
Thanks for all of the posts and PM's, and not to mention the offers for sitter-inners.
Mat

 

[mdolezal]

Just curious, are you making in money on this deal? I have always wondered if it's possible to make a living doing this sort of flying, especially now.

The only thing I'll make on this is some neat entries in the logbook and a brief stint in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark. ha ha, so no, it's more of a "just for the experience" kind of thing, which I think is worth missing a week of work, right?

 

[ppragman]

Hey ya'll-
I'm looking into the possibility of transporting a C-182 from the US to Sweden and was looking for some advice on doing this. Anybody have any thoughts on good websites, articles, books, etc... for planning this sort of trip out?
Thanks for any help!
Mat

You'll need these:

 

[mdolezal]

You'll need these:

Nice scrote

 

[periksmoen]

Ha ha... that's awesome I have so many volunteers to sit as a safety, but sadly, the plane's owner and I will be sitting side by side... for hours... Here's the planned route:

Wichita KS - Mt Comfort, IN (appr 540 NM)
Mt Comfort - Bangor, Maine (appr 810 NM) (where ferry tank installation - 124 G - is scheduled the 4th of May)​

Bangor - Goose Bay, Canada (appr 610 NM)
Goose Bay - Narsarsuaq, Greenland (appr 680 NM)
Narsarsuaq - Keflavik, Iceland (appr 650 NM)
Keflavik - Bergen, Norway (appr 800 NM)
Bergen - Århus, Denmark (appr 330 NM)
It's a good thing he's Swedish because there are some pretty odd names of cities there I couldn't say.
I'm certainly not going into it with a cocky attitude at all. I haven't said yes to it at all, technically. But I will because seriously, how could I pass up that opportunity.
As for safety equipment, yes, absolutely. AOPA will be a great resource, I'm sure. The owner and I are both somewhat book-nerds, so I'm sure we'll have everything over analyzed, although, really, I don't think such a thing can be OVER analyzed.
Thanks for all of the posts and PM's, and not to mention the offers for sitter-inners.
Mat

As someone who does that trip several times a month (mostly in single-engine Cessnas), I can't stress enough how important it is to be overly cautious and prepared! It's the things that you don't prepare for that can (and do) kill. I also wouldn't recommend the two of you doing this alone for the first time if neither of you has any experience in this matter. But, if you are set on it, here's some advice.

First, your routing is pretty good. I would recommend going to Reykjavik (BIRK) instead of Keflavik as it is a smaller airport that's easier and cheaper to get in and out of and it's right downtown, as opposed to Keflavik, which is about 45 minutes from anywhere. Downtown Reykjavik can be a lot of fun on a Friday night too! I would also stop in Stavanger (ENZV) instead of Bergen, if you are planning on going to Aarhus. It is right on the way to Aarhus and has pretty reasonably priced fuel. Denmark just added an additional tax to Avgas that adds about another $4/gallon to the price, so I would fill up in Stavanger. If you are worried about range from Iceland to Norway, Egilsstader (BIEG) is a good place to stop en-route, with cheap gas and no fees.

I hope you have a strong understanding of weather systems and their effects. Keep in mind that if the weather goes downhill enroute, you can't simply land and wait for better weather. Icing is pretty much a guarantee along that route, especially in the Spring! You can quickly pick up enough ice that you may no longer have the range to make it to your destination or to turn back, in which case you will be going into the water. In early May, the water is still cold enough that even if you do everything right, your chances of survival are not very good. Also, be sure that your instrument skills are tip-top. You may very well find yourself shooting an approach to minimums after having flown for eight hours straight and that is not the time to be getting instrument current!

While weather is important, you also need to be aware of all of the various rules and customs along the way. Are you HF equipped? Is your ferry tank installation approved by Transport Canada (not just the US)? Do you know all of the airports operating hours and miniums? There is nothing worse than getting turned back because you didn't know about one rule or another, or getting stuck with a $1500 bill because you weren't aware that your destination was closed on Mondays in the winter.

There's a million other things that I could go into, but I've got to run. I can't stress enough that you really should have someone experienced along. They will know all of the rules and regs. They will have all of the necessary survival equipment. They will have a better grasp of the weather along that route. Additionally, they will know all of the ins and out of how to save money along the way. An experienced ferry pilot can liteally save you thousands of dollars in fuel costs alone.

If you do decide to do it on your own, take it slow and be careful. Also, be sure to take a camera as the scenery is absoluetly beautiful! Good luck!

 

[minitour]

Single engine + N. Atlantic = Pilotsickle.

-mini

 

[woutlaw]

Single engine + N. Atlantic = Pilotsickle.

-mini

Or you could say with a twin there's 33% more to go wrong.

But yeah, man, it's not a trip for the faint hearted. I think I'd like to do it. Maybe. Once.

 

[derg]

Ask questions, triple check, ask about flight plans, ask some more questions, rinse, repeat.

Story time with Unkie Doug.

About a year ago there was someone who probably was doing his first ocean crossing in a single engine piper.

He calls off his HF position report to Gander and it included a 200 degree turn away from land. Gander calls the guy back a few times to verify his "next" point and he calls it off again.

The other FO and I take a quick look at where his "next" point was and he had some type of gross navigation error and started sounding really nervous and a couple of us starting asking about his destination and where he was planning on coasting in at.

Of course you can hear the tension in the guy's voice because now he's totally confused, could separate what was programmed in his GPS apart from where he was actually trying to go and it wasn't looking pretty at all.

I'm not sure what ever happened to the guy because we went out of range, but there were a couple of other flights that were able to maintain some sort of HF contact with him.

But pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease check, recheck and know what you're doing apart from what the GPS flight plan is telling you to do. Even with a glass FMS/GPS airplane, we're triple-redundant checking lat/long waypoints at least four or five times EACH, between the FMS, the track message, the flight plan and how the plane is actually performing to reduce the probabilities of gross nav error.

 

[germb747]

Just curious, are you making in money on this deal? I have always wondered if it's possible to make a living doing this sort of flying, especially now.

Dude, with an avatar like that, how do you expect us to pay attention to what you're writing?

Gig 'em

As someone who does that trip several times a month (mostly in single-engine Cessnas), I can't stress enough how important it is to be overly cautious and prepared! It's the things that you don't prepare for that can (and do) kill. I also wouldn't recommend the two of you doing this alone for the first time if neither of you has any experience in this matter. But, if you are set on it, here's some advice.

First, your routing is pretty good. I would recommend going to Reykjavik (BIRK) instead of Keflavik as it is a smaller airport that's easier and cheaper to get in and out of and it's right downtown, as opposed to Keflavik, which is about 45 minutes from anywhere. Downtown Reykjavik can be a lot of fun on a Friday night too! I would also stop in Stavanger (ENZV) instead of Bergen, if you are planning on going to Aarhus. It is right on the way to Aarhus and has pretty reasonably priced fuel. Denmark just added an additional tax to Avgas that adds about another $4/gallon to the price, so I would fill up in Stavanger. If you are worried about range from Iceland to Norway, Egilsstader (BIEG) is a good place to stop en-route, with cheap gas and no fees.

I hope you have a strong understanding of weather systems and their effects. Keep in mind that if the weather goes downhill enroute, you can't simply land and wait for better weather. Icing is pretty much a guarantee along that route, especially in the Spring! You can quickly pick up enough ice that you may no longer have the range to make it to your destination or to turn back, in which case you will be going into the water. In early May, the water is still cold enough that even if you do everything right, your chances of survival are not very good. Also, be sure that your instrument skills are tip-top. You may very well find yourself shooting an approach to minimums after having flown for eight hours straight and that is not the time to be getting instrument current!

While weather is important, you also need to be aware of all of the various rules and customs along the way. Are you HF equipped? Is your ferry tank installation approved by Transport Canada (not just the US)? Do you know all of the airports operating hours and miniums? There is nothing worse than getting turned back because you didn't know about one rule or another, or getting stuck with a $1500 bill because you weren't aware that your destination was closed on Mondays in the winter.

There's a million other things that I could go into, but I've got to run. I can't stress enough that you really should have someone experienced along. They will know all of the rules and regs. They will have all of the necessary survival equipment. They will have a better grasp of the weather along that route. Additionally, they will know all of the ins and out of how to save money along the way. An experienced ferry pilot can liteally save you thousands of dollars in fuel costs alone.

If you do decide to do it on your own, take it slow and be careful. Also, be sure to take a camera as the scenery is absoluetly beautiful! Good luck!

:yeahthat:

 

[flyboywbl]

Here is a great story about ferrying a plane across the atlantic. Get a Spot Tracker. Great 100 dollar investment. Then your loved ones can know where you are.


Ferrying our new Caravan – or how to haul ass from Wichita to Windhoek in 4 days.

In the middle of 2007 months ago we took delivery of 2 new Cessna Caravans, the ferries from Wichita to Botswana were outsourced to a reputable ‘ferry company’. Without going into the details the ferries took some weeks longer than they should have – the same ferry company also dumped one of our (other) planes in Luanda. It was at this time that my colleague Ray Rothlisberger (aka the veggie) and I vowed the next ferry would be done by ourselves. Time is money and planes sitting for weeks waiting for a ferry pilot bleed a company of cash fast we weren’t going to be a victim of that again.
We were lucky our next delivery was going to be another new Cessna Caravan. When you buy a second hand aircraft there is often an element of uncertainty involved in delivery date – negotiations can be protracted and the plane can often times be in some remote place. Our new plane was due for delivery at the end of January. The beauty of buying a new plane from Cessna is you know when and where you will take delivery of an aircraft. In this regard Cessna is an awesome company; they roll a plane out the hangar door on the very day they say it will happen.
So with the dates set in our calendars we debated the route we would take. Traditionally, ferry pilots fly the northern route from Newfoundland to the Azores. Anyone who has watched Titanic knows a swim in the north Atlantic is a short, frigid affair. Swimming is always a possibility in a single engine aircraft and one has to ponder this eventuality, no matter how morbid the thought process may be. In January weather is a major factor in the North Atlantic. One is almost certain to encounter some icing conditions. The notion of flying in severe icing with a bush plane equipped for Namibia was distinctly unappealing to us. That said the Search and Rescue in the north Atlantic is excellent. Air Traffic is well organized and if something goes wrong there is always the comforting knowledge that back up is on hand.
The other possible route we debated was through the Caribbean to Brazil and then across to Ascension Island to finally end up in Namibia. Firstly, if you have to swim there, the water is a lot warmer. It might be “bright side of death” logic, but it’s true. The other up side is that in January the Caribbean weather is good and the weather in the Equatorial Atlantic is also good. The down side is on the African side of the ocean, Search and Rescue is practically nil. We had first hand experience of this: one of our planes being ferried last year (the one that got abandoned in Luanda) had been flying with another plane which disappeared off Angola - never to be found.
We chose to go on the Ascension route. We liked the prospect of good weather – we also liked the prospect of visiting Ascension Island – simply because no one we knew had been there. More of that later.
The planning began. We quickly learned that the only place we needed a clearance for was Ascension Island. Compared to the Northern Route which transits through Africa this was a pleasure – every place in Africa needs a clearance. Ascension Island is seldom visited by the general public and access is limited. We wrote to the governor of Ascension and after some emails we were informed that at short notice we could be denied clearance even if we had previously been given one. We were undeterred. Our clearance was set for some time in the week of February 5th to 8th. We figured this would be easily achievable. We never figured on doing business with a bank which seemed inspired to jerk us around, motivated to delay a delivery process which had been known for months and then became inspired to nearly unhinge all our ferry planning processes. Cessna don’t let a plane out the hangar door without the money in the bank. With the plane now outside the hangar door waiting for the money we were delayed by a week. This delay was going to have a major impact on our lives.
Ray had gone ahead to a trade show which should have dovetailed nicely into the ferry. He spent an extra week in the USA while our bank got its administration together. Ray and I arrived in Wichita on Tuesday the 5th February. Wichita is a city in the middle of America. It is the home of General Aviation manufacturers like Cessna and Beechcraft. It is also the home of Pizza Hut, Coleman cooler boxes and the Wizard of Oz. For all this industry it seems like a bit of an airline back water, there are not many places in the USA where you can connect directly to Wichita.
Cessna Sales Rep for Africa Dan Lewis took us out to dinner. Kansas is also the home to a large cattle industry. Mesquite steaks are the main signature meal in that part of the world. Ray doesn’t eat meat, so we settled into a place where we could get other food. He ate an aubergine. All the while, what seemed like a blizzard (really just a snow storm) raged outside.
The first thing we had done on arriving was find out about the weather . Between Kansas and Ft. Lauderdale – our first stop over - there had been many tornadoes and the weather had been foul. Jets were diverting round storms at FL410. For us mortals in a Caravan this was something we needed to avoid. Thankfully, the storm front was scheduled to clear on Wednesday - our first day of travel.
On Wednesday we were scheduled to meet with Cessna to talk through a few issues. Then after that we had planned on a leisurely start to our ferry. That was all about to change. We got an email from Ascension Island saying we had to arrive on Friday by 20h00 at the latest. Evidently military exercises were to commence from Monday onwards and the Island would be closed for two weeks. A quick calculation showed we could make it if we flew non-stop from Wichita to Ascension with just 2 hours at each of our re-fuelling points – it would be tight but we could make it - just.
We left Cessna and went directly to Walmart to buy food, water and general supplies to sustain us for a few days of uninterrupted flying. Ray snuck into the fresh produce section – but came out empty handed. Maybe Aubergines at 7.50 on the Rand were too expensive! I never asked it was all a bit of a rush. We also bought a pillow and a duvet. After the plane these last two items proved to be our best investment. If we were to fly for the next 2 days non stop we were going to have to plan on sharing the sleeping.
Then it was off to Moundridge Municipal Airport. The USA is littered with thousands of little airports like this - a few hangars and a runway – but nevertheless a well organized place. The runway had just had a snow plough on it so we would be able to leave. Carl Weaver of Weaver Aero had done the tanking. Ray got the plane ready – I manned the printer and got our flight logs printed for the entire journey. We moved fast – too fast - we got type rated on the ferry tank plumbing and electrical system but this quick conversion would later cause us some anxiety when we least needed it. We had also brought with us a Sat Phone and a demonstration version of a new South African Product – the Telematics Satellite Tracking device. This system is a thing of beauty and should become industry standard for ferry companies operating little planes over vast oceans. Andrew Burton and Dennis Jankelow have collaborated to develop this system. When installed in an aircraft it can be tracked accurately on Google Earth. Every 15 minutes the tracker sends a message. In our case for this flight this would be a significant stress reliever for friends and family. Now they could literally watch us from home and see that our flight was going according to plan. Being a demo system had its draw backs. The antenna was on the dash board and the power supply was from the bus bar to a wire. I taped the main box for the system under the pilots seat. With wires across the floor there was a risk that at some point we would snag a wire and disconnect the tracker. We tried to use enough duct tape to prevent this.
Finally we launched out of Moundridge at 14h00 local time. The first flight was going to be a short one – 5 minutes to Newton to get some fuel. It was -6Deg C. Kansas was covered in snow, but the sky was blue and cloudless. Our new plane had 4.5 hours on the clock. Brand spanking new. The seats were covered in protective plastic and the smell of a new plane was overwhelming and exciting. For both of us having been in aviation our entire lives the privilege of flying as brand new plane is something that will never be forgotten.

After filling the tanks and partly filling the ferry tanks, we were off to Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International. We scurried down there at 207 knots groundspeed – not something seen very often in a Caravan. That cold tailwind must have been blasting from the north at full speed! We were heading out of a freezing Midwest to a more balmy place – it would be 20 something degrees when we arrived. At 7 hours 30 minutes planned for this flight it was expected be by far our shortest flight. It would also be an opportunity to check the plane out and also the ferry tanking system in the comfort of land. After Ft. Lauderdale there was going to be a lot of water to cross! I got my first nap in. Ray was in good shape. My body was still in Johannesburg, Ray’s was in Seattle. Our body clock differences were going to work in our favour. He would be sleeping when I was awake. Somehow that would end up relegating me to flying in the graveyard hour!

We got into Ft. Lauderdale at around 22h00, local time. To be honest local time at this point was going to be a blur. All we know is that the customs official said something like “ what the !@#$, didn’t anyone tell you it’s the middle of the night. Only crazy !@#4ers fly at this time of night. Once he got over the inconvenience of our arrival time they were very efficient and friendly. There was also to be the first of a few conversations which would be had at every one of our stop over points: “you are from where?! How long did it take in this thing?! Where you going next?! You guys are nuts.” The guys at the local FBO obviously thought we were nuts too. They gave us a good discount on our fuel and we each got a tee shirt.
With near to full tanks we took off and set heading for Barbados. Barbados is one of the southernmost Islands in the Carribean chain of Islands – we knew someone who happened to be visiting there that very day. Sadly we also knew that we were not going to be consuming Red Stripe beer on the Jolly Roger. Barbados was to be a quick affair. We flew over Bimini, Nassau past Cuba. Don’t ask us what it looked like – it was dark. The sun came up we were out to sea. We saw a bit of Costa Rica. The weather was perfect. Our arrival in Barbados was past the harbor. We saw 5 massive cruise ships – a reminder that they had planned to be here when the weather was fine.
Barbados had a big airport the air traffic controller had a wonderful Carribean lilt in his speech and sounded like he could work in a reggae band . There were multiple Liat (the local airline) Dash 8’s and Twin otters on the move. Barbados is a tourist destination and this place was about making those tourists move. Getting fuel pump attendants was going to be hard theyall looked busy and were not interested in our need for speed. We got the feeling that we were at the back of the queue. We sensed our arrival at ascension was going pear shaped. It was at this point that we remembered John Price from Africair was in Barbados. Africair is the Cessna appointed distributor in the parts of Africa where Comair SA are not. They have a sister company, Tropicair, which is the distributor in the Caribbean. John works hard so I presume he was there peddling Cessna’s – not boozing red Stripe on the Jolly Roger. A quick call to John and he gave us the local FBO numberl. The local FBO was on top of their game the staff all had a wonderful Caribbean lilt in their speech and service came at top speed. With fuel and flight plans done we had a shower, shave and shampoo in an attempt to feel better. We also got out of Wichita appropriate clothes and into something more appropriate for Brazil and the Caribbean. It was humid!

Since the beginning we had been most fearful of getting a rapid turn around in Fortaleeza Brazil. Firstly everything happens there in Portuguese – all I can say is “No fudge mal”. I think Ray knows “Obligado.” Barbados taught us we were going to need someone in Fortaleeza to give us the same quick service. The question to the FBO was simple “do you guys know someone as efficient as you are in Fortaleeza?” the answer was “no – but we have a book with a list of ground handlers.” We got a photocopy out the book and called Penelope at our office in Maun – excepting she had likely already had dinner in Maun and so we were about to make an imposition. Penelope tells us “I can see you in Barbados!” We already knew – but at least we also knew the sat tracking was still working. We gave Pen the numbers of every handling agent in Fortaleeza. The flight ahead was going to be 11 hours. It was still early afternoon in Brazil so the folks in Fortaleeza would be at work even if Penelope wasn’t. We took off. I called my mother in South Africa. After the last ferry from Hong Kong she was pretty stressed- a quick call from the sat phone to tell her all was going was going to give her some comfort – it did – a bit.
The sun set over the Carribbean again. We headed towards French Guyana. We also said good bye to Miami control. The airspace for the next 15 hours of flying would be with Amazonica Control. We were starting to feel like we were alone. The prohibited airspaces in front of our path extending from ground level to Unlimited altitude told us this is where the French do their satellites launches into space. We saw the Amazon at night – it looks dark.
It was at this time that a mild headache I had been nursing turned into a thumper from hell. I drank loads of water and slept. Ray flew. I pondered whether my headache was malaria from an exceptionally wet Maun which I had left merely days before. Ray suggested Altitude sickness - he’d had it in Nepal the previous year and described the symptoms. I concurred, 24 hours at 11000 feet was the likely culprit.
After we passed Belem, I felt better. Ray gave me a brief about who we was talking to and where we were. I could see from the GPS that we had a lemon of a head wind. Ray climbed into the back and slept like a murdered monkey. I was left to fly and talk to the Brazillians. We flew into Sao Luis airspace. The airtraffic controller told me to decend to 6000 feet. My now mild head ache told me this was a good move more oxygen was good, the logic in me told me this oke didn’t understand me – a conversation between the ATC and another plane which I got some jist of explained to the oke on the ground where we were going. In broken English we got re- cleared back to 11000 feet.

We flew over Parnaiba a tourist destination, in the dark. It must have been somewhere like midnight but the beach was well lit up and clearly seen from our position. We thundered on through the night to Fortaleeza. Just before we started descending into Fortaleeza Ray woke and came back to fly. I figured it was now 06h30 in Maun and time to check that Penelope had mustered some logistics in Fortaleeza – sat phones are awesome! I wasn’t hopeful. Penelope told me she’d spoken to a very helpful person in Fortaleeza called Gustavo. He was going to be there to meet us and assist us. I asked her to call him again and reconfirm our arrival.
We landed at 03h00 local time. I was not expecting much in the way of service. It was hot, it was humid. We got directions to the far end of the apron and parked between some airbus’. This was a big airport. Gustavo was there – the only thing missing was a red carpet. We are over happy. Gustavo processes us at the speed of light. The Brazillian flight briefing staff are thorough. They tell us again we are clearly nuts but we are used to it now. I try to explain to them the concept of PNR. They are not interested if we are going to Ascension, they want to know we have an alternate. I suggest some place in Liberia which we can make if we have to go there. I would rather swim in shark infested waters than land on Liberia. I make a note of this mentally and they accept our alternate.
Before we get into the plane I realize that one of us has kicked the antenna lead out of the Telematics system. Oops! On the internet we likely stopped moving somewhere.

We launch out over the ocean it is 5 am and still dark. It is my leg to fly and as we settle in the cruise I decide to call home. Wendy my wife of two weeks is not a happy bunny. On her internet connection we had stopped moving off the coast of Brazil several hours earlier. I assure her we are all OK and I have reconnected the antenna. I feel really rotten about this but there is not a lot we can do now. Ray calls Tegan and let’s her know all is well. We head out East into a vast expanse of water - the sun is in our faces. After 2 and a half hours we fly past a little Island called Ilha Fernando de Noronha. This is the last land we are going to see for 7 hours. The weather is perfect.
More out of boredom than anything we tune in all the Ascension Island frequencies. We pick up the NDB in Ascension from 500 miles out. This is unbelievable! Never in our lives have we seen such a thing. We should not be too surprised. Ascension has been a military airbase since 1942 when the Americans hastily built a runway and all the infrastructure needed to support masses of aircraft. During WW2 20000 aircraft enroute to the European and African theatres of was transited through this little Island – it must have been chaos – this translates to something like 20 planes a day. With no GPS in those days a strong NDB must have brought great comfort.

At 100 miles we are talking to an American ATC. We get a clearance from 100 miles to call final approach. Clearly there is not a lot of traffic today. As we approach this volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean two things amaze us. The size of the apron at Ascension. You could fit no less than 15 B747’s on the ramp there. The number of massive antennas on the other side of the Island. This is also where the BBC world service has a major transmitter base. On short final we are grateful to be landing in the light. There is a steep hill on either side of the runway . Doing a circuit in the dark would be interesting.

We were booked into the Obsidian Hotel – the only hotel in Ascension. Obsidian, is an unusual name – conjures up thoughts of a combination of Obscene or Insidious. Not a name I would give a hotel – but then I am a pilot not a geologist. I was told Obsidian is the name given to a volcanic rock that has a glass like make up. I learned something. We had booked in weeks before and had very good information via emails. Their pay off line was “friendly, relaxed service. We quickly bought into the “friendly and relaxed” part.
Ascension Island is an interesting place. One thing it is well known for in conservation circles is a few endemic bird species and also a major green back turtle breeding site. The beach is two minutes walk from the hotel. Ray and I have dinner and head out to the beach in the dark. We nearly stumble over a massive female turtle crawling across the beach. The beach is literally crawling with turtles – this island is in a place on earth where man has not interfered with the delicate balance of nature. The beach is also a scene of multiple craters from previous nights of turtle activity. Not being too clued about how to approach turtles and being concerned about interfering with their breeding we leave get some well earned sleep. We are amazed at how easy it was to see such a spectacular event.

The next day we rent a car and head out to see the sights of Ascension. The hotel reception is open from 10 am to 12 every day – what few visitors there are on the Island are beating the door down when it opens. We get our car and first of all head out to the aiport to get the Sat phone charger. We need one last charge on the phone to get us home. The ops room at the airport is a scene of quiet activity the door is firmly closed with a restricted sign on it. We see US and UK personnel in battle fatigues having a meeting. One walks past Ray and tersely announces” we live in interesting times. A C-17 transport plane is parked outside and we are told this is the advance party for a lot of activity in the coming days. We ponder on what could be happening here. Ascension has the ability to store 20 million litres of Jet A1 so we figure when it gets busy they can support major levels of aviation activity.

We take a walk up the devils riding school an inhospitable crater that Charles Darwin described on his round the world trip in HMS Beagle. As we walk up the volcanic rock strewn pathway we notice many of the hollows in the rocks are filled with funny white stuff. The white stuff is almost every where. We would later notice it on other parts of the Island. It turned out to be paper neatly shredded into little pieces. This place was about military and great care was being taken to preserve secrets. It would be nice if they could at least tidy up after themselves!!

We took pics and drove on. There was a NASA tracking site from Apollo 11 days. Not much was left to show for it save a few buildings and a little plaque telling us that Neil Armstrongs first words from the surface of the Moon were heard by Ascension Island first – every place has its claim to fame!
We then drove up a steep switch back road to the top of the highest peak on Ascension – aptly named Green mountain. The whole Island is sparsely covered in Vegetation kind of like a desert island. Green mountain sitting at some 2000 feet gets a lot of moisture. The place is damp and green. Stark contrast to the rest of the place. The view is beautiful and we wonder why no gazillionaires have claimed this little part of Ascension as their own private spot far from Paparazzi.
During WWII Ascension obviously had great strategic importance. Overlooking Georgetown, the main settlement on ascension there were two large cannons. At the outbreak of hostility in 1939 two cannons were taken off the ill fated HMS hood and installed here. The guns saw action when a U-boat came close to shore and the cannons sent them packing. The Germans were trying to create the illusion of activity in the southern Atlantic. The ruse worked for a period and valuable resources were sent to Ascension.
Our tour was over we had not seen all the Island, but we were launching at 17h30 that evening and with our longest flight looming we decided a bit of shut eye in a proper bed was smart. Neither of us slept really. I managed to do some last minute fine tuning for our planned flight. We showered and headed out to the airport for our briefing. We got a fantastic met report for our area of intended operation given to us by a highly efficient RAF briefing officer. Probably one of the best briefings I have ever been given. We headed out to the plane in a bus – the apron is big at ascension so our plane was a schlep to get to. Once loaded up we got going. Ray was flying the last leg home. The plane was for his operation in Namibia so he was clearly getting excited. We loaded up the routing in the Garmin 530 GPS. The distance to destination: 2014 nautical miles. There were two waypoints in the GPS and nothing in the middle. No VOR’s, no Intersections, just us an ocean. The route showed up as a curve in the GPS. It is unlikely that this aircraft will ever see a curved great circle route again in its life! We have never seen something like this before either so we take a pic of the GPS.

We take off and head out into the blue yonder. The plane settled into the cruise at 11000 feet. We have a tail wind which is great and I settle down for a nap in the back. Ray flies on and the sun sets in the west. We fly past St. Helena an equally remote Island in the Atlantic – but without any form of an airport. Napoleon Bonaparte spent his last days there and we had hoped to fly down the valley of the capital – Jamestown. We figured they had never seen a light aircraft come over town so it would have been a childish prank. Sadly that was not to be. We were some 180 miles distant as we past it in the night. We make a call via the sat phone to Windhoek Area Control. We get the distinct impression that sleep is more important than our welfare. The ATC grunts as Ray gives him a position report and hangs up the phone. Welcome home!!
At around 6 hours into the flight I come forward to fly so Ray can sleep. I switch on the pumps to transfer fuel from the ferry tanks to the wings. As had been our habit I put my hand on the pumps to feel the vibration of the pumps and check they are working. They are not. I get a sick feeling. I tell Ray – he disagrees with me the pumps are vibrating he tells me. I switch them off and on again – in my mind the vibration is the ambient vibration of the plane. With the pumps on and the right fuel tank selected, the right tank should be filling slowly. We disagree for a few minutes and I watch the fuel needle like it has never been watched before. Hoping I am wrong. As we realize the inevitable, Ray and I share a laundromat moment in the middle of the night over miles and miles of Atlantic Ocean. We get to work figuring our options. We know Angola is achievable – in truth we probably would have preferred to swim. We also figure we can make a Wilderness Safaris Camp on the Kunene river – Serra Cafema. We will however be landing there in the dark and this is a remote bush strip. They have a sat phone and we have a sat phone – so a phone call ,if they answer, can muster some support and get a few vehicles to the strip. We are not happy, but we know this can work. We fiddle with the pumps and follow wires across the floor. Suddenly and miraculously the pumps start to work. We leave them be and wait till there is enough fuel in the tanks to make Windhoek. I tell Ray to go to sleep – he is wide awake and both of us are a little shaky. After a while he pushes off to sleep.
The sun comes up as we hit the Namibian coast. We fire up the sat phone and call Wendy and Tegan – “we are over Cape Cross and all is well”. I call my mother. It is 630 am in and she is watching us on Google earth – she should be (and normally is at this time) in bed. She has managed to run a few macros and install the necessary software to track us. For a 75 year old grandma this is pretty impressive IT, and a measure of her anxiety.
The Brandberg is a welcome and familiar sight, we don’t see that much else there is a lot of cloud cover and as we see the ground between the clouds Ray gets excited to see river beds with water in them. We are now seeing the first weather in the entire trip and the only thing in the plane which has stopped working is the weather radar (thankfully under warranty). We find out Windhoek Eros is effectively closed but undeterred we cruise over International and Ray sets us up for an ILS approach. He should be tired but some people never grow up – he is playing with his new toy and nothing is going to stop him now – I think he secretly hopes we will break cloud at 200 feet. It is raining and we see the runway at 1000 feet above the ground.
We pull into the apron I pack my kit and head out check on to a flight to Maun. The service on Air Namibia is as usual – the check in done we head off for our first cup of coffee since Wichita. Before the trip Ray and I had resolved to do the next 100 years of strategic thinking for Sefofane. We realize we have hardly spoken a word in 4 days. Crazy but true.



Let me know if you want the original and i can send it to you. It has pictures.

-Matt

 

[mdolezal]

Thank you, Unkie Dougie! Yup, I'm sorta running through all of the items I need to check out before I commit to this, and the information provided above is a great help. I really appreciate it. I'm not really a "risk-taking" person unless a very intriguing opportunity comes up, which I think this qualifies. I certainly understand the risk involved, but it's also one of these "I'll wish I had done it once" things that may not present itself again. Then again, that's better than the "I wish I hadn't done this" thought when you're, oh, 50 feet from taking a final cold swim in the Atlantic. But agreed, Doug, triple checks the whole way. Thanks a bunch!
And thanks for the info, periksmoen . I'll hit you back on a PM in response to your PM. I'm checking out the times, logbooks, etc... of the newly purchased plane. Your advice has been, and will be, greatly appreciated!
Mat

 

[Cessna414JJB]

Talk to the dudes at Telford Aviation in BGR. They tank hundreds of airplanes a year, and know people that know stuff.

:yeahthat:

OTP - happen to have ever met this gray haired stone old english guy, who used to be in BGR almost once every week? He ferried a bunch of old planes over to Europe, some of the boxes where so scary that I would have thrown up taking them around the pattern. I think his name was Jim, or John and he was around 70 back then (1999-2001).

He once took me along in getting used to a QueenAir he wanted to know more about before taking her to Africa. We sat there for minutes and minutes before he had figured out how to start the engines. Apparently he had never flown one, or at least did not remember a darn thing about the type. What a ride...

I do generally not recommend doing TA ferries without going along with some experienced guy or gal having done these trips a few times, first. I'm not so much worried about the technicalities of stuff failing (plane does not give a poop where it is) but more about the effects of pilot fatique and the changes in range, once in and out of good heavy ice.

Google "Don Ratliff" for some ferry insights. I'm sure it's a very interesting field to get into but you need and experienced mentor. Having flown all over Europe for 10+ years is beneficial, I guess, but the insurance companies seem to prefer "140.000" hour guys and gals with at least 5.009,5 crossings under their belts...