Did anybody lately fly from Canada to the Azores and can report if HF radio is required or if you can get away with a sat phone?
Last November and no, HF mandatory, sat phone in lieu was not accepted.
Out of curiosity: how long is that leg?
Looked it up: to Ilha das Flores LPFL about 1.050 nm.
That’s crazy, it’s a distance my Comanche could do on a low power setting with zero wind and nearly 2 hours of fuel would remain in the tanks. Is there any chance that one would be allowed to fly that in a SEP?
It is mandatory. Even for CYYR BGBW BIRK it is mandatory below FL250.
The only route you can do VHF at piston altitudes is CYFB BGSF BIRK. And I strongly prefer this route as it has the most alternates and minimum overwater distances.
UdoR wrote:
Is there any chance that one would be allowed to fly that in a SEP?
It’s been done by SEP many times, and will continue so. Used mostly by ferry pilots, or RTWers. The northern equivalent of Dakar – Natal… 😉
There is no restriction on SEP per se.
Louise Sacchi has a good discussion of this in her book Ocean Flying. The book was written in 1979, but it still makes useful and enjoyable reading. Navigation and weather planning is the biggest evolution since then. The rest still very much applies, although most of the airport details have changed. She makes some good arguments in favour of an SEP over a twin, and I suspect that a large % of her 333 ocean crossings (at time of writing) were in singles. It was common at the time to flying Gander to Shannon direct if sufficient fuel was available, and she actually flew to France nonstop. The route to the Acores is shorter. There is a chapter on the various transatlantic routes.
chflyer wrote:
There is no restriction on SEP per se.
Whoa. Didn’t know that. Crazy. Never thought about that option.
Taking the typical westerly winds into account that would be the northern route over Greenland to go there and a direct flight for return.
Now I leave the thread for the thread starter, my apologies for taking it over. I have something to think about 
mike_miller wrote:
CYFB BGSF BIRK. And I strongly prefer this route
Very true but in winter the weather can be a real challenge in the north. I did one crossing on this route in December. It was so incredibly cold at CYFB that my PIC did have a series of technical problems with the aircraft. Then there was very little daylight etc. So for next winter my thoughts are that the Azores might be a bit longer over water but with much better weather on the ground and in flight.
UdoR wrote:
Looked it up: to Ilha das Flores LPFL about 1.050 nm.
Flores does not seem to have immigration so it would usually be CYYT – LPHR which is 1179NM. Not sure if LPHR does have AVGAS, we will not need any but if AVGAS is required the leg might even be longer to LPAZ at 1370NM.
UdoR wrote:
Taking the typical westerly winds into account that would be the northern route over Greenland to go there and a direct flight for return.
Those guys did take it a bit further not even stopping in Canada but they went from New York direct. On the return home they had to take the usual northern route ;-)
https://www.avweb.com/ownership/tbm-930-sets-new-york-to-paris-speed-record/
MichaLSA wrote:
Last November and no, HF mandatory, sat phone in lieu was not accepted.
Thank you for the update. So I will start a new thread on HF solutions ;-)
Sebastian_G wrote:
Thank you for the update. So I will start a new thread on HF solutions ;-)
Just to give some first hint, we tried two carry solutions on the trip – one a ‘manpack’, which did its job well and a Chinese handheld cracker, which was doing soso.
