Glen-L.com

What route is he flying?
What is the longest leg of the trip?
That is certainly different from the Skylanes I used to work on. Wow! Glass cockpit, 3blade prop, all the goodies.
That is cool.

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God Bless our Troops; especially our Snipers

If you click on the link in the earlier post it shows the track almost live. It was heading for Hawaii from the US mainland this leg if I read it right. 18-ish hours. Complete flight is USA to Gold Coast, Australia.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

Man i would imagine that he has redundant avionics ,...hard to believe he had to turn around. Let us know when it starts up again. It showed him arriving in Helo but maybe that is just the schedule not the actual flight path.
Steve

He was supposed to head off again yesterday. Maybe he did and has arrived. The plane avionics are all A-OK, just the HF (long distance) radio the ferry pilot took along for the ride that failed.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

I was in communications in the Navy and I have always maintained that we would be lost without HF communications...there/.... I rest my case!
Steve

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God Bless our Troops; especially our Snipers

Wow Kens.. did you not get your coffee this morning...

Ray noticed that the plan was for 125 knots over that leg but they were doing only 108. Maybe there was another stress in there, like an unanticipated headwind and he just got plain nervous. He had to land with 1 hours fuel left. No less for safety reasons, but also not much more as she isn't rated to land with that much fuel (weight) on board.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

Kens, I remember how bitter I became when I had my first beer too!! Don't worry this too will pass !!!

Well, the kind of Navy I was in had nothing to do with planes...we had those floaty kinda things..you know the grey ones!!! We kept the ships talking to the subs and the .....oh nevermind!!!

Steve

Latest from the ferry company"

Ray,

Ryan and your aircraft are safely on the ground in Hilo.

The flight was just a bit over 16 hours and your plane flew great!

The last 5 hours there was a nice tailwind.

Ryan was in early enough to get the plane fueled and is doing customs
tonight. We are going to look at the weather and see if it is good and Ryan
is not feeling to tired he is going to do the leg to Pago Pago tomorrow.


Ray said she burns 54 litres an hour but wasn't sure just how much they loaded onboard. 54 litres for 17 hours gives 918 litres which would have been absolute minimum but they probably calculated for a little more.

Edit: Next leg is 2209.8 Nautical Miles according to an online calculator.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

Hmmm, I wonder if those extra tanks will fit into Gentry????

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

Certainly it must have been the headwind that turned him back the first time. The C-182 crusies around 145 knots, if he was only doing 108, that is quite a headwind. Even though he was over halfway when he turned around he would have been going about 175 knots or more once turned around so it still could have been shorter to turn around. HF radio is used on oceanic flights for air traffic control communication. If it stops working you can still transmit to other aircraft nearby over the normal VHF radio who can then relay via thier HF radio to ATC for you. So its failure isnt reason to turn around especially past halfway.
He likely had 2 GPS on board so navigation shouldnt have been an issue.

Talk about a nerve wracking profession. Stuffed in a airplane with a temporary fuel tank behind you, a life raft beside you, wearing a PFD and/or survival suit and staying awake for 18 hours or more isnt my idea of fun. Oh and the plane is new, did you know piston airplane engines are statistically most likely to fail the newer they are. Think about that and every other little piece that can fail, leak or catch on fire for the next 18 hours straight. They earn every penny.

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My Zip build log...
http://www.vupilot.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/vupilot/Chr ... O0x7SvsQE#

"Nothing screams poor craftsmanship like wrinkles in your duct tape."

I perhaps gave you the wrong impression... it is not brand new, just new to him.

I learned to fly in C152's at Auckland International Airport (they don't allow that now). It was fun to learn something new, but doing 16 hours on your own in a flying fuel tank.... you are right VU, rather him than me.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

That's awesome.......... Flying a 182 Australia.
I was stationed in the Philippines on C-12 (King-Air 200) contract. Every so often an airplane had to return to the states. We could give the Navy pilots a 200 model KingAir with ferry tanks and they still chicken out on the Hawaii-California route; they would go Japan-Alaska route instead.
My hat is off to that guy taking a 182 trans-pacific.

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God Bless our Troops; especially our Snipers

That has to be scary as hell to look down and the earth is blacker than the sky. I was flying at night out over Lake Michigan off Milwaukee and it was a little un-nerving to go out over that black water. I can only imagine what thousands of miles of ocean could be like. Not for me.

Roberta

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Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Looks like the next leg is estimated 20 hours. Ouch!!! He leaves at 3AM tomorrow Hawaii time.
When it arrives here it gets the tanks removed, gets registered and then Ray flies her from Coolangatta to Coffs Harbour for the first time. He will be excited. Might even get a ride myself.

Now Roberta, you don't have tiem to be browsing the web, you have a date with G5 in your new boat... Get to it!!!

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....