Thoughts on single engine ops across Lake Michigan?

Do it! And remember what towlie says:

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I have done this before, twice. Bay City, MI to Meigs field and back on two separate trips. We went straight across the lake both times at 8,000', we had no floatation gear, and after we got back to Bay City on one of these trips we found out that one of the cylinder heads was cracked.

Oops.

I wouldn't do it again, personally. Your chances for survival are already lower going into the water than onto land, and as the water gets colder, if you survive the ditching, you're unlikely to stay alive much longer, depending on how cold the lake is.

There are going to be a ton of tough guys, on the internet and at the airport, that tell you what to do. What you need to consider is the amount of risk you're willing to take with you and/or your family. When you'll be saving a negligible amount of time by hugging the lake until you get to Michigan before you go direct, it is my personal opinion that if I were to do this trip it would not be worth the potential risk of being outside of gliding distance of land.

But what you need to remember is that whether things go right or wrong with this trip, the person that's going to be strapped into the pointy end is you and/or your family, not the people that tell you what to do, and you need to make the right decision for you. Maybe that's flying across the lake. Make it's taking the extra 20 minutes to go around the bottom half. Who knows, but don't let people influence you by saying things like "You're going to die someday," or, "Don't be a wussy," or, "It's no more dangerous than X." It's your ass, and thus, it's your level of risk.
 
did it in a 210 several times. get on with center, stay high. knowing where the zone of no return was was kind of nice, i think there was a 8 minute gap for us.

if you don't trust your engine, don't go.
 
I've done it 4 times and recently I decided I'd never do it in a SE piston again. At the closest point, you'll be feet wet for like 15 miles or something. On a hazy day expect to be out of sight of land for a while.

I'm a wuss.


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Following the logic .............. let's see, it's no more dangerous than roof surfing on a speeding automobile and a lot of guys have done that, so yeah, good idea ........ do it.
 
Ha, didn't mean to cause such a stir...really posed it to start a conversation. To be honest, my mind was already made up...I only have 125 TT, in a rented aircraft that I have no history with, with my wife and 2 year old daughter...not much of a decision to be made. Still an interesting thought if I were solo or with another pilot just going out to smash bugs...If I were by myself, I'd do it in a heartbeat...I've taken a 152 over the Grand Canyon at 11,500 which could be considered a bit crazy too.
 
I did it twice, Detroit to Iowa and return, went north of the Bravo airspace where the lake is nice and wide. IFR at 10000 in an Arrow. Going there was no problem - day VFR.
Return however ... Had a vaccuum failure in IMC whilst picking up trace icing over the lake near mid point. (Yea I did it in winter).
Was it the smartest thing I could have done, no not with 300 hours but I learned a great deal about myself that night.
Decision making and preflight planning go along way.
So would I do it again, in short, yes but I would want better conditions and better equipment, also I would not worry about spending another night and leaving in the morning.
 
Ludington - Manitowoc, about 60 miles; if you're high enough there's only like a 10 minute stretch where you're totally boned.
 
Cool that you already made your decision, but another few quick things about altitudes.

While I agree staying high is preferable, if you're IFR it might not be an option, and even if you're VFR but still in the Bravo, departure might not let you up until you're clear of all of the eastbound O'Hare and Midway departures that are going out over the lake. I was never really paying too much attention to exactly where it occurred, but we'd cross the shoreline on our climb out between 6,000 and 10,000 feet. This is, of course, nothing to say of the arrivals if O'Hare is landing on the 27's.

The larger concern might actually be the Midway arrivals. While I don't know what those arrivals look like, as I've never flown in there, I'd very commonly see Southwest trucking in along the south shoreline at what seemed like fairly low altitudes (less than 5,000'). If you were trying to go the opposite direction while getting high, again, departure might not let you.
 
ozziecat35 said:
Ha, didn't mean to cause such a stir...really posed it to start a conversation. To be honest, my mind was already made up...I only have 125 TT, in a rented aircraft that I have no history with, with my wife and 2 year old daughter...not much of a decision to be made. Still an interesting thought if I were solo or with another pilot just going out to smash bugs...If I were by myself, I'd do it in a heartbeat...I've taken a 152 over the Grand Canyon at 11,500 which could be considered a bit crazy too.
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I have to comment on the underlined statement.
The best advice I was given was something along these lines: "If I make it there, so do my passengers."
Looking out for myself, the pilot, instead of factoring what the passengers think, make decision process easier.
The life of a newborn is no more valuable than the life of a 90 year old War Vet. They both are under my charge as PIC, and it's my responsibility to get them to the destination safely.

So if you aren't comfortable doing the flight with your wife and child aboard, you shouldn't be comfortable without them either.
 
I would just go around. I mean in my opinion there just isn't a reason to take any kind of additional risk that you don't have to take. It will give you a better piece of mind and be A LOT better if you actually ran into an issue. Losing a little time going around is one thing, losing your life is a lot bigger thing to lose. That is just how I look at it.
 
All the airplanes I've crossed Lake Michigan in:

747-400
E170
E145
King Air 90/100/200

Flew up to Wisconsin on the airway that goes out over Gary to DEERE (? Lots of years ago) in a Seneca.

Would I do it in a single? Depends on lots of factors. Basically, if I was enroute, at cruise speed, with sufficient altitude with good weather. Would I last out of ARR, MDW or so and head east? Hell no.

I remember seeing a 210 that popped a motor one night when I got to open the FBO. According to the line guy that came out, it was a little old guy who's knees were shaking when he got on the ground. Blew the motor at 10 or 12k and coasted over land to get in.
 
I wouldn't. I had to do a gear down flight from SBN-ORD in the CRJ a few days ago. One of the limitations of the MEL is that you have to avoid icing conditions. Clouds were OVC at 300ft and it was 5am. After an 8 hour delay it was finally warm enough to go over the lake at 4,000ft. The whole time over I was thinking 1) How much it would suck to nail a flock of birds and have to ditch with the gear down and 2) How there is no way I'd want to do this in a single.

Again, it comes down to "is this job/flight worth risking your life over" when there's a perfectly good option that would take a little bit of extra time. Fly over the lake, but close enough that if things go bad, you can easily glide to land (and preferably an airport).
 
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