Would you fly a single-engine airplane across the Atlantic???

[Hawker rider]

Sign me up!

 

[mayday1]

There is a good book called The Cockpit by Paul Gahlinger. A true story about a university professor who quit his job and flew his single-engine Cessna from California to South Africa.

yeah, good book.. very inspiring.

 

[AA717driver]

I agree with FastMover. Maybe 20 years ago, but not now. I do have a friend who did a lot of that on his days off from the airline job. He said it was no big deal with good preparation and knowing the plane he was ferrying.

All I know is when you look down from 35,000' and see the whitecaps and waves, that's not somewhere I'd want to ditch.

Knock yourselves out guys! TC

 

[AKAAB]

C210R - KLN90B - New engine (which I had to insist got a full 25 hours and an it's first oil change before I'd take it across the pond). Gander to Shannon in March, 1994. 8.9 hours and landed with another 3-4 hours of fuel if I recall correctly. The only excitement was about 230 miles off the coast of Ireland when the engine quit. Seems the ferry tank was a couple of gallons smaller than they said and it coughed a few minutes earlier than I expected. Pumps on, all valves open, and she fired back up. I don't think I even lost a hundred feet.

I think I was the last guy that had to go through Moncton to get the Canadian waiver. The guy up there told me they were discontinuing the requirement since everyone had GPS.

 

[414Flyer]

C210R - KLN90B - New engine (which I had to insist got a full 25 hours and an it's first oil change before I'd take it across the pond). Gander to Shannon in March, 1994. 8.9 hours and landed with another 3-4 hours of fuel if I recall correctly. The only excitement was about 230 miles off the coast of Ireland when the engine quit. Seems the ferry tank was a couple of gallons smaller than they said and it coughed a few minutes earlier than I expected. Pumps on, all valves open, and she fired back up. I don't think I even lost a hundred feet.

I think I was the last guy that had to go through Moncton to get the Canadian waiver. The guy up there told me they were discontinuing the requirement since everyone had GPS.

Looks like you had some pretty nice winds for it on that trip. During the winter you can have great winds, but also just really crappy weather too, forcing planes to go via the Azores to Europe.

I know of one pilot who was making a winter crossing, and the oil breather tube froze shut, driving up the oil pressure until it blew the prop seal out, and all of the oil. There next few hours were pretty cold, waiting for rescue in the north atlantic, luckily they lived.

 

[nickfaith]

Unless there are 2 engines burning Jet A... not on your life. Having flown all over Texas.. that's kind've like flying across an ocean. Nothing there unless you're near one of the large metro's.

I guess I'm just a wuss.. but it beats being stuck in a boat in freezing temperatures in the middle of nowhere.


Nick