The Final Leg

We start the final leg to Denmark with my parent's having joined. Mom's Grandfather emigrated from Denmark and this is fantastic opportunity for her to see the town (Ribe) he left. We depart on a beautiful morning and stop at Biggen Hill to fuel up for this leg. The flying weather is terrific as we cross the garden of Kent and the channel. We have some great views of the White Cliffs of Dover and then track along the coast at FL100. Over Holland the weather closes in under us (as forecast). Unfortunately when we arrive in Aarhus the weather is worse than forecast and we are on the ILS 10 down to 300-400 feet with the wind from 360 at 15-20. We breakout - bang on the localiser and glide slope to see the APLS 30 degrees out our left window. The landing is a good cross wind landing and we taxi to the ramp with rain bucketing down around us. After a soaking walk to the terminal and a quest for a cab, my family and I are finally on our way into town. And even better luck, the weather in Aarhus is much better and our soaking wet walk across the ramp is the only rain for my parent's visit to Denmark!

On to England

It transpires that this is going to be our most challenging leg of the trip. A low pressure system is funnelling warm air up towards us at 80 knots just to the right of our track. This will give us a 60-65 knot speed reduction - taking us down to as low as 115 knots for the 600 mile run. We choose very early on to go for our diversion airport, Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, rather than Oban. In addition, the warm air coming up from the South gives us much warmer outside air temperatures and we roast in our blobby suits. Eventually we arrive at Stornoway in quite turbulent conditions and need to slow down to below our manoeuvring speed. After a very bumpy approach, we land in what seems almost no distance. After a slow taxi with wind gusting all around we finally arrive. The wind is so strong we can play the "How far can you lean into the wind without falling over game" and the answer is quite far!!.

After lunch and refuelling we are off again with a very short takeoff roll we are back into the turbulence with most of the runway in front of us. At this point Nigel suggests, "abandon the normal procedure of keeping landing gear extended until there is no runway to land on and just get the gear and flaps up". We do this pretty sharp so we can accelerate and have the airplane in a more stable configuration. A few minutes later and we are at FL 75 (7500 feet high) over the highlands. With the gales on the ground and the mountains we experience a weather phenomenon called mountain wave. This is where the wind follows a pattern that looks like the waves on the surface of the ocean. George - our faithful autopilot, keeps us reasonably level at FL75 but the wave is generating alternate updrafts and down drafts of about 2000 feet per minute. This means our airspeed ranges from about 100 knots when George is fighting a down draft to about 200 knots with power pulled back and us pointing at the ground when George is fighting the updraft. The cloud deck is about 2000 feet below us and rather than the normal flat surface we can see these waves with peaks about 1000 feet below us and the troughs 2000 feet below with probably 10 miles between each peak. This wave effect was reaching well up into the atmosphere with a cloud called Standing Lenticular (associated with the turbulence of mountain wave) - and a lot of airliners asking about the ride!
Eventually we make our way down to the Lowlands and the effect dies away. We are now left with the long trudge against the headwinds down to Cranfield to drop Nigel off and the leg over to Fairoaks. We have a welcoming committee of Nigel, his wife and children and several people from the airport. After a some quick good byes we are off to Fairoaks so that we can be sure to arrive before dark. This is uneventful except for the very hazy conditions. We have had a great experience and done about 5000 miles of flying since Sunday!!

Across the Atlantic

I have been delayed in posting as Nigel and I have flown two long days and the internet access in Reykjavik is only in a corner of the lobby.

On Thursday early morning we set off from Woodward Aviation, dressed in our immersion suits (aka blobby suits) for the trip to Iceland. Our first stop will be the bustling metropolis of Narsarsuaq (population 300). This is potentially the most challenging stop of the trip. We check the weather carefully and it looks ok, so off we go. The temperature at altitude is -20 C - This is great for the engine and also good for us in that the cabin is nice and cool so we are comfortable in our suits. After 3:00 hours of going in a straight line - out of contact except for our hourly "Ops Normal" reports being relayed by airlines - we make contact with Sonderstrom Radio (Greenland). At this point we hear one of Nigel's friends on the radio leaving Narsarsuaq and we realise we are going to meet up 40 miles West of Simutaq beacon - separated by 1000 ft. 6 minutes later we have the photo opportunity as we wiz past each other at about 400 mph. Unfortunately we are close enough to see each other but the photos only show a little dot in the sky.

When we arrive the weather is even better and we have fantastic views of the approach our approach up a fiord, over an escarpment and then down to the runway - with the go around into the heart of Greenland with mountains rising thousands of feet in most directions.






The approach is very exciting going between the mountains. But the departure is even better. We start out the fiord and then make a left climbing turn trying to get to the 13000 feet needed to clear the ice cap as quickly as possible. This is a great opportunity to show off the terrain warning system. We start with red blocks (i.e. terrain above). all around and as we zoom up we start to see the red disappear. When finally there is no red on our planned course we turn and head towards our next stop Reykjavik.

We have some fantastic views of the ice cap (what looks like low cloud between the mountains is actually snow thousands of feet deep). We then coast out over another fiord full of small icebergs tumbling down from the glacier and are off to Iceland.




We had reports of strong headwinds on this sector - but fortunately our track took us just outside the area of high winds and onto Reykjavik. Here we had a night IFR descent into ok conditions - but a tremendous surprise for me. As we were lining up to land, I am looking at an improbably short runway. The red end lights look only a thousand feet down from the start. As we get on short final the reason for the illusion becomes clear. This has got to be one of the widest runways in the world for its length - so it looks short and fat. It really is normal and very fat. On this next sector we are going to meet up with Peter, however his airline flight is delayed into Iceland. So after over 8 hours of flying across three time zones, Nigel and I decide to have a quick dinner, head for some much needed sleep and catch up with Peter in the morning.

Off to To The Great White North

Today was the first leg of our Journey where we started off the beaten path. After a wonderful breakfast courtesy of my parent’s – Nigel and I (plus my family were off to the airport). We are flying to Sept Ilse which is North of Quebec in the Saint Lawrence Seaway. ATC at White Plains struggle with this and ask if we can give them a nearby airport to help them located it. There is nothing within 100 miles – so after another 10 minutes of searching we get our clearance and are good to go. Another administration challenge in the aviation challenge – but our best admin problem is waiting for us.

We have a wonderful flight above the clouds coming out of White Plains and as we go North the view improves. We fly over Concord Mass and then up into the beautiful Maine forests, which are already turning colour for the autumn. Finally, as we approach the Saint Lawrence, the cloud cover closes in below us. We land in grey and raining Sept Isle to clear customs take on fuel (slightly cheaper than at Goose) and then go. Here we enter the world of Catch 22. To get back to the plane we need a pass which is issued in the pilot briefing office. Unfortunately this is closed until November and has been replaced by a nice voice on the phone. For a while it looks like we may be stuck here for the next month!! Finally, we find the appropriate security man and are on our way.

The trip to Goose Bay is even faster than plan as the tail winds are building, driven from the tropical storm off Florida. Hopefully this will speed our trip across the Atlantic tomorrow. The arrival into Goose Bay is startling for me. Almost 30 miles out we can see the airport – and the fact that there is nothing except for one light (maybe a logging truck) on the ground about 10 miles from Goose Bay. This is way way out back. The illusion is perfected by the enormous runway. We are asked if we can hold short of the crossing runway by landing in less than 9000 feet. My home airport only has 2500 feet in total!.

The First Day of flying

Our day started well in Oklahoma city. A few minor technical issues to resolve and then we will be off to have dinner with my family and see my sister and her children. Ha - but it was not to be. We realized that there were a couple of administrative errors in the log books and the weight and balance schedule. While the airplane would fly it would be a lot easier to have this rectified before we left. Four hours later we finally had everything proper and legal.

Our plan was to stop in Columbus Indiana to have a snack at a highly rated airport restaurant. However, this closed at 6:00 - about a half hour before we arrived. A quick gas and go and we were on our way to White Plains. A bit of a headwind and some ATC rerouting and we finally landed at 11:00. We then had US airport service at its best. Even in the middle of the night the line man was there directing us to parking and my parent's car to the apron so that we didn't have to carry out bags more than a few feet. Great experience.

More preparation

After the tour of Tornado Alley it was time for me to collect all of the bits and pieces that have been shipped over - the life jackets, the Personal Locator Beacon, The oxygen system, and very importantly the charts to get us to Goose Bay Canada. This is a photo of me collecting the plane and getting ready for my first solo flight in the Bonanza. Fortunately a few minutes later Nigel rang to say that he was about to board his connection in Chicago down to Oklahoma and that we could meet up around 6:00. This is fantastic news as I have spent so much time moving around that I missed lunch - so an early dinner would be great.

At this point the only thing left on the agenda for tomorrow is for the FAA to approve the GPS for instrument flying. This hopefully will happen in the morning - and is made more convenient because the headquarters of the FAA is here in Oklahoma City.

Collecting N36665

Today has been in the high 80's here and a bit windy, so a good day to make sure everything is working on N36665. I spent the early part of the day chasing up some minor problems (a warning light refusing to work and a standby pump not actually working) which are pretty much resolved. I got to fly for about two and a half hours and have pushed it the plane and my record altitude up to 17,500 ft. It was still 70 up there, so I was very grateful that the plane's air conditioner works. So far I have started from Wiley Post airport flown into Will Rogers World (the main airport) to collect one of the Tornado Alley Team - and then down to Ada - The home of Bonanza turbocharging. I had a great engineering visit where I got to see there test and development centre and some of the new concepts they are working on. After the necessary training and signoff N36665 was handed over to me to prepare for the journey back to Europe.

Off to Oklahoma

All of the planning is coming together and I find myself at Heathrow about to fly out to the states and finally start the adventure of bringing N36665 back. The 'heavy' tag on the suitcase at check in makes me think I might be over packing! Even more so given that half the charts and oxygen system, life raft and immersion suits are already over in the states - and I am not carrying the heavy stuff like water. Tomorrow I will be checking out the work that the engineering teams have done and doings some familiarization flights. In particular I hope to set a personal altitude record (that is with me piloting rather than the 38,000 Ft I will be flying to the states at - courtesy of American Airlines). This will be the first time I fly an airplane with oxygen in order to stay awake at altitude. The ability to fly high may come in handy latter in the week as there is the potential for some very good tail winds (maybe getting me to England at close to 300 mph! I hope.). Also, if we go into Nuuk in Greenland crossing this island means I need to get up to about 16,000 ft (I believe the glacier is 14,500 feet high).

My copilot friend Nigel also intends to record the adventure in his Blog at www.polestaraviation.com/.

Final preparation

The last couple of days have been a rush of final preparation. So far the most complex part of the flight has been shipping the life raft to the US. It is officially a 'life saving appliance - self inflating' and that makes it a dangerous good. I spent a fair amount of time discovering the regulations for packing, labeling, and documenting this shipment - but now it is safely on its way to the USA. The satellite phone (need for communication with Air Traffic Control) between Canada and Greenland has arrived.

I have bought a set of charts for the trip from Oklahoma to Goose Bay - $79 for charts, airport guide, approach charts covering 1800 miles. This compares to $15 for one chart of Southern England. I also was able down load images of all of the charts onto my laptop - free of charge courtesy of the FAA.

It is now time for final packing and confirming plans for collecting N36665, the final shakedown flights to make sure the engineering work is OK and then to meet up with Nigel who will accompany me across the ocean.