Very smart, with a nice four blade prop. Probably running the trip at best economical cruise for the range.
http://www.mikejonesaircraft.com/starfire.htm
Nice upgrade..
Very nice airplane, indeed. The only thing I doubt is that the 4-blade prop makes it faster. My SR22 became 2-3 knots slower. But the climb and t.o. roll did improve.
JasonC wrote:
Yes, an amazing flight. Bet he needs a pee.
Bet he peed (before he landed).
Toughest assignment while wearing a constant wear immersion suit. For guys its at least possible there is a zipper but for women?
Well, he’s made it – congrats! What a trip…..
You mean Erik the Brave?
Understand he went through a cold front curious how that worked out.
Very cool, congrats!
Understand he went through a cold front curious how that worked out.
A front, as depicted on a pressure chart, is a boundary between two air masses of different properties. I don’t know what rules the metos use to draw the line. But provided a front has no TCU/CB in it, and you fly below the 0C surface, and you fly below Va, it is safe to be there. It might even be VMC, where you are, between layers etc. Probably, it will be rough.
That’s for a cold front.
A warm front OTOH is usually solid IMC, very low level up to say FL200. Same rules apply for flying through it.
I will do fronts if I can fly above them, and often one can especially if the front is in a high pressure area. But only the IR image will give an indication in advance whether you can do that. It would be interesting what wx data this pilot obtained before the flight. But he is obviously on some sort of Iridium phone connection so with the right gear he can get some data.
How do you know there are no TCU/CB in there? Sferics and using your stormscope. Bigger planes have radar, but most of them can’t detect lightning and often they do get hit.
Well there are cold fronts and then there are cold fronts. Ive gone through plenty but some I would not even attempt. You never know till you get there and 4 hrs is a long time in the life of a cold front which means it can change rapidly. Louise Sacchi basically said penetrating fronts up north is not as bad as in the more temperate climates which makes sense. But Erik was not that far north. My biggest concern is options. What do you do if you are past the point of no return when you get to the front only to find out you cant get through or not enough range left to get around?
Here is some of Eric The Brave’s comments on BeechTalk before he probaly passed out at the hotel:
Just a quick check-in from the fbo. It was a great flight! I was mentally prepared for 50kt headwinds but they were practically nil down at FL060 until the very end. Landed with nearly 6 hours of fuel still in the tanks – I barely got the ferry tank emptied before landing. The last two hours were IMC with a localizer into gusty winds. It’s cold here compared to Malta! But really nice to walk into an American-style fbo with friendly, cheap service.
He’s on his way. Not the best flying day from a headwind/tailwind standpoint.
I couldn’t see the FL you plotted with windyty.com, but I had been watching Friday at the lower flight levels for a week thinking how awesome it would be if I could go Friday. Otherwise it looked to me like the southern route would close up for days after Friday and the northern routes also didn’t look promising for several days at least due to precipitation. However, it had seemed unlikely that Espen and I could get the HF installed in time for it to be a possibility to do the southern route today.
When the install went so well, suddenly it seemed a possibility and I hurried across Europe to get in position in the Azores. I had always thought of doing trips like this at FL150 or higher to get a better TAS, but this time the winds were much more favorable (even a tailwind at times) at the low levels.
For what it’s worth, I used the GFS model output under “expert charts” at weatheronline.co.uk for the most part for planning this trip, especially the precipitation, 500 mbar, 950 mbar, and CAPE charts. I expected that the cold fronts across the route weren’t so strong based on the models and I had a decent assessment of the headwinds too. Against all odds, the forecast turned out to be very precise in all regards, from beginning to end of the flight.
It’s amazing to look out over the wing to the ocean and just feel like you are sitting on a magic carpet. What an amazing machine the Bonanza is!!!
You sounded like the ace of the base on the radio. What was it Gordon Baxter said – “Steely-eyed missile-man.”
I know I am unlikely ever to do such a flight – but you remind me…
…I COULD
Oh no! Could you hear me on the HF?
Funny story: one of my aviation friends in Malta used to use HF when flying to Libya. He said you have to practically shout into the radio to come across clearly. This among many other anecdotes had me expecting HF to be finicky and nearly worthless. I was amazed when testing over Switzerland and I heard the New York controller (on a frequency shared with Santa Maria, which I was trying to tune) so clearly that it sounded like he was sitting in the copilot seat next to me speaking on the intercom! On the other hand, when I spoke into the handheld mike, I sounded like a cylon (some resonance with the prop), so I asked several controllers how they heard me. Most said “4 by 4.”
So when I first called New York when entering their sector from Santa Maria, I gave my position report. She then volunteered without me asking that I was “5 by 5.” At first I thought she was complimenting me and Espen on our HF install and how well it worked, but then I told myself “you nerd, she is just diplomatically saying that you don’t have to yell into the microphone every time you talk!” So I toned it down a bit after that…
The HF really was amazing. I couldn’t imagine crossing (even the northern route) without it now. I remember being out of contact over the ice cap at times when I came across in the other direction without HF in 2010. Today I was over 500nm from the nearest airport for a little while! It definitely gave some peace of mind to be able to give position reports.
I will post a few remarks about the install and experience later on my other topic about HF with a V-tail. However, I will also make the same offer to others that Espen made to me: if anyone wants help installing an HF and can come by Miami (where I’ll be hangaring soon), I’d be happy to lend out my HF and assist with the install. So yes, you COULD and you SHOULD! Let me know and I’ll help you in any way I can.
Cheers! It’s good to be (almost) home…
