In the plane we both had gone over the services in case we were spat out into no mans land IFR and decided that a "basic service" was a wonderful example of British humour.
Steve,
As I take it you speak german, you might like to read (parts of) this
London Info can be busy on a summer weekend, but the scare stories you have heard are over rated ;) It's always possible to get your message across.
However I was going to say "Why call them when they can't give you and radar derived traffic, and you're better off calling someone else who can." But then I saw that Peter already said that.
There is no need to speak to London Information (124.60 in the south east); in fact there is a good argument to not do so because they have no radar (actually they have but since the staff are not ATC pay grade they are not allowed to indicate they can see you) and if you really want to speak to somebody then speak to a radar unit e.g. Farnborough 125.25.
I agree 100%. The French/Jersey Zone will possibly tell you to contact London Info, but you can always tell them that you'd like to contact someone else if you wish ;)
Don't believe the scare stories. It's not that bad at all.
Boscomantico:
Thanks, that was really helpful..... Now I can only hope that the weather stays reasonably good in Spring to allow me to make the trip over.... There's only so many times you can visit Hanger 7 in Salzburg as a stop-over on the way down to Hungary & Slovenia.....
Regarding the weather. When the week you are planning gets closer, please don't expect to find a nice big high pressure area "sitting" over UK for three or four days. It just won't happen. When you want to go to UK, at a certain point, you just have to "go". But remain flexible with your schedule.
please don't expect to find a nice big high pressure area "sitting" over UK for three or four days
We've had that plenty of times, but often it brings haze, which can be heavy (3km vis, etc). OK if using a GPS... Very frustrating for people doing their PPLs because the instructor won't let you go solo in vis under 10km, usually.
Hi all,
I am contemplating to visit my cousin in Edinborough. He lives there with his family (our family is quite widespread ;)
First things first, and the first “problem” seems to be crossing the channel in a single engine Bonanza, from a safety perspective (airspace and ATC communication later).
My thoughts are the following: The distance between the two closest points (Cap Gris Nez and Dover) is 22,5 NM.
My Bo has a best glide at ca. 90-95 kts with a sink rate of 1000-1200 fpm (1:stone), which would give me a maximum of 16 NM if the ventilator quits at FL 115. The longest distance over water seems to be 11 NM and that should be doable. So, in theory…. but that’s best case of course. If I can fly at that altitude at all. I would at least, over the water, try to be as high up as possible….. and I am not afraid of controlled airspace and have a level 6 in English.
I just wonder if I need to go the whole nine yards of buying vests or life raft, training water emergencies including exiting the plane under water, and all that. Or not ? How do the frequent continent flyers among you cope with that challenge ?
Or is it not a big deal anyway ?
First of all, the aircraft doesn’t know if it flies over water or over land. And flying over land you might as well regularly fly over areas where you cannot easily put your bird down. The likelyhood of your fan dying right there at that moment where you are crossing the channel is very unlikely. It only takes a very short time to cross and before you know it you are at the other side. If you fly VFR don’t think you can easily cross at FL115 or higher. But even crossing at 2000 feet or lower should not be a real issue as the time over water is quite short. Dover is there right in front of you. The odds are in your favor.
Certainly the commonly accepted practice for UK pilots is to just treat it as a normal flight with the exception that most people wear life jackets.
When over the channel always keep an eye out for small boats and in the event that your fan does stop try to ditch next to that small boat.
(Small boats are more manouvreable and better able to actually get you on board if required).
In aviation one should have a Plan B whenever possible.
For me, it is a life raft over water, because one will be dead in 30-60 minutes, life jacket or not, and a helicopter will usually take longer than that to reach you. However, not many people carry a raft, partly because (I have the US Survival Products lightweight one) they cost about 1000 quid… and there are issues with them in a school/club environment.
As Stick says, one would try to ditch near a boat – the smaller the better. Usually there are some visible but I have done many crossings where there was nobody, or maybe just some big tankers or container ships.
FL115 implies you have an IR and are filing Eurocontrol IFR. You could go higher in that case (if you have oxygen). But this may be quite a detour, depending on the route you are able to file and get from London Control on the day. Usually, when I fly from EGKA (Shoreham) to SE Europe, i.e. the KONAN KOK route, I am at FL100+ by then and out of glide range for only 5-10 mins, but coming up from France there is a lot more water unless you can get a routing over e.g. LFAT and then straight north.
