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BuiltByNOF

Thursday, April 10, 2003, 22:41 UTC (6:41 pm EDT)

Report from 7,500' over Lake Erie, by Karl Hipp 

The day began in Paonia, Colorado with us arriving at my home airport (7V2) at 08:30 MDT -- a little later start than we'd planned.  After parking John's Twin Comanche in my hangar, we departed in severe clear weather for Oshkosh, Wisconsin (OSH).  The flight at 17,500' was uneventful with a 10 kt tailwind.  Once at altitude, John began to hook up the iridium satellite phone. Neither of us knew anything about this equipment, which had just arrived from Icarus Instruments the previous day.  We have 2 antennas; one that I had mounted atop the cabin a few days earlier, and another that we velcroed on top of the glareshield.  Once we mastered the equipment, we made calls to John's parents in Oregon, Friedrich  and Monica Reichkopf who were at Sun-N-Fun, to Princess Judy back in Colorado, and to John's cousin, Dini Nugturen and her husband, Jaap, in Amsterdam.

John dialing the iridium satellite phone

 Our first fuel stop, OSH, was planned for Basler Aviation because of the $1.99 fuel price.

John at the Basler Aviation fuel island - OSH

 After departure, with John now in the pilot's seat, I contacted Green Bay radio on comm 2 to file and open our VFR flight plan to Ottawa, Canada.  A stop at Ottawa was planned at the last minute because our friend, Dave Buttle, happened to be there on business.  The deviation from the great circle route of 7V2 to St. John's, Newfoundland would take us 14 miles out of our way.  John and I debated whether the deviation was worthwhile to see Dave and finally decided it would be best to stop at Ottawa so we didn't hurt his feelings (John and I are real sensitive guys).  So, I contacted Canadian Customs via the sat phone and advised of our intended arrival at 00:30 Z.

 

11:41 pm EDT, Ottawa, Canada, from the downtown Marriott

After John skillfully executed (I hate that word when used in relation to aviation) a night landing at Ottawa Carp airport (CYPR), we took a cab to the Marriot and met up with Dave Buttle.  We had a couple beers and a couple dozen chicken wings, and Dave, who has an interest in an electronics business in St. John's, says he has a memorable evening lined up for us tomorrow night there with some of his friends.

John and David relaxing at Hooters in Ottawa

Karl on the ramp at Ottawa (CCRP)

 

 

Friday, April 11, 2003, 21:24 UTC (6:54 pm goofy newfy time)

(Newfoundland time is 1/2 hour off from the rest of the word -- or the rest of the world is 1/2 hour off from Newfoundland.) 

Today, I flew the 950+ miles from Ottawa.  Weather was clear with a tailwind, and groundspeed was mostly 200 kts. 

En route to Newfoundland

We landed at St. John's at about 3:30 local; very windy.  We loaded 248 gallons aboard 8256Y, sumped the tanks, and added alcohol (don't need ice in the fuel over the Atlantic).  Then, it took an hour to negotiate the flight plan.  Still don't know if we are set to go in the morning; will have to see what clearance they try to give us. Whatever it is, we will probably accept it and then go direct once 100 miles out.

Weather looks good tomorrow; 10 to 20 kts on the tail at 10,000'.  Frost was predicted for in the morning so we paid $50 Canadian ($30USD) to hangar the airplane for our 07:00 launch.

Couldn't get an E-mail connection at the Marriott last night in Ottawa (will try tonight at the Airport Inn here in St. John's).

 

Sunday, April 13 2003, 23:47 UTC

Report from Blackbushe, England, by John van Bladeren

We arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland on Friday night and met friends of David Buttle, who does work in St. John's.  St. John's is the furthermost eastern point in North America, and seems to have a lot of ties to Ireland.

At the airport, the plane was filled with 258 gallons of fuel weighing approximately 1,500 pounds. The plane empty weighs 2,710 pounds, and normal gross weight is 3,800 pounds.   When we took off, our gross weight was approximately 5,000 pounds.

On Friday night, we filed our flight plan for crossing the ocean.  We thought that the comment of "direct" from St. John's to Shannon would work.  The briefer said that he would need a little more detail.  Points were then filled in for every 10 degrees of longitude.   We met a chap who was flying a Cherokee 180 on the same flight, and got together with him to picked the points of latitude which had the best winds.  Five degrees north or south made a major difference on the winds.  The best winds actually turned out to be on the great circle route.  Our first 1,000 miles had tail wind forecasts of 40 to 50 knots, and those predictions turned out to be accurate.

We arrived at the St. John's airport at approximately 07:00.  The plane had been fueled the night before.  We put on our survival suits.  These are bright orange bulky suits and are required for the crossing, in addition to a 4-person life raft. 

The takeoff at 5,000 pounds gross was fairly straightforward.  We accelerated to 100 MPH with 15 degrees of flaps.  At 100 MPH, the airplane was ready to fly. After lifting off with a positive rate of climb, the gear was retracted and the plane accelerated to 130 MPH.  A 300 FPM climb was established.  Our clearance was to 9,000 feet.  The weather at departure was good, with scattered to broken clouds.

Our initial fix was a set of coordinates.  We continued the climb and eventually reached 9,000 feet. The radio of choice for ocean crossings is normally an HF radio.  We tried ours and it was working, but with weak reception.  On the chance that the radio was a problem, we obtained a telephone number so that we could use the satellite telephone. In retrospect that was a good move. We found the HF frequency to be crowded, with all the airliners talking.  We were required to report our position approximately every 20 degrees of longitude with a time estimate to the next point.  Our five GPS receivers took care of the guesswork for the position reports.

Groundspeed for this segment: 197 knots

 The weather forecast across the ocean was pretty accurate with winds and clouds for the most part as predicted.  For the first half of the crossing, 9,000 feet worked.  We eventually went to 15,000 feet to stay out of the clouds, but could have stayed lower as our friend behind us in the Cherokee did.  By climbing, we eliminated all doubt.  The tailwinds of 40 to 50 knots died down as predicted after the first 1,000 miles.  At this point, the tailwinds began to trickle down to pretty much a neutral wind. Our fuel economy was as high as 11.2 miles per gallon down to 8.7 mpg.  The power settings were typically 2450 RPM and 24 inches of MP (regardless of altitude). During the crossing, we saw the ocean about half of the time and initially could see icebergs.  This is certainly no area to go down in. 

En route to Shannon

 

With time to spare … 13,000' over the Atlantic

Our arrival into Shannon, Ireland was easy.  Darkness had settled, but the weather remained acceptable with a broken layer at 2,500 and 3,500 feet.  Breaking out and seeing the runway was a welcome sight after 9.5 hours of flight. The trip across took 185 gallons of fuel. 

We were sent to a remote ramp for general aviation aircraft. There were two other GA aircraft there at the time.  SRS handling service took care of us (for 50 Euros; approx $50USD).  The landing fee was another 26 Euros.  We bought fuel at Shannon for 1 Euro per liter, or about $4.00 per gallon, which is not too bad for Europe.  Because Shannon is not really set up for GA aircraft, the 100LL fuel was dispensed from a trailer tank with a battery operated fuel pump.

Sunday morning we departed Shannon on an IFR flight plan to Blackbushe, which is a small airport southwest of London.  Our IFR clearance was for 5,000 feet on the G1 airway.  Headwinds were quite strong, giving us a groundspeed of 110 to 120 knots. The two-hour trip down took us three hours. 

While on an IFR flight plan, we were in uncontrolled airspace at 5,000 feet because the base of the controlled area was 6,000 feet.  At our altitude we passed through the Lyneham CTA (which is between 3,500 and 6,500 feet) without contacting Lyneham.  We were asked to contact Lyneham when we landed.  Karl received a stern lecture about not following the English rules and was told that he would be written up.  David Buttle, our host, said not to worry.  Apparently, when Shannon control handed us off to London information, it was our responsibility to ask to stay in controlled airspace. It's different from the United states where controllers are responsible for keeping you clear of controlled airspace when IFR.

At Blackbushem, we were met by David and Jen Buttle with a bottle of champagne, Ben Ayalon, John Vaghatsi, and a number of good friends.  Lunch at the Blackbushe club concluded our enjoyable flight down from Shannon. 

Meeters and greeters toast the Transatlantic Adventurers at Blacckbushe, England

  

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