Flying home for christmas (?) - a new USA-Norway adventure.

[flaminghotsauce]

This thread is amazing.

Amazing for one, you have the time to take on this world flying. You must not have 10 offspring and a wife in your house.
Two, you have gone to the trouble to get all these sceneries to fly over.
Three, your story telling and picture taking is a talent. Very nice.

I keep digging up this thread to see where you are on your trip! Love it.

[n421nj]

I agree. Wish I had the time to do this

[Medtner]

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm a musician (classical pianist), and as long as I get my hours of practice and some time to focus around concerts I'm all good. I'm single and not of the heterosexual persuasion, so I'm blessed with exactly 0 (zero) kids.


I'm still watching the weather - I am getting scared that I might have to brave the crossing with some headwind. The wind seems to be prevailing from the east south-east. Not good for a 1100 nm flight.

Stay tuned - one of these days........

[Alan_A]

I'm a musician (classical pianist)

Thanks for mentioning this - just heard your Respighi Prelude on a Gregorian Melody No. 3 via YouTube - very nicely done and you're right about his piano works, I need to spend much more time with them.

Apologies for the thread drift but the classical community is small, we need to acknowledge each other in passing.

Back to your Skylane now and I'll head back to my P-51...

[Nick - A2A]

Yes - like Alan I've just enjoyed listening to some of your videos on Youtube. As I have the innate musical talent of a baked bean I'm very impressed by such accomplishment. Must confess I'm not at all familiar with the works of Nikolai Medtner but see now where your username comes from too.

As for your epic flights - well I'm still amazed at the self-discipline. I for one can't resist admiring myself in spot view, flying through unsuitable weather and so forth.

Good luck with the next leg...
Nick

[Medtner]

It's on, folks!

After many calculations and observations of the weather I've decided to brave the headwinds and go for it. The forecast looks decent and I got a winds aloft report that set my cruise to 9500 feet. I still have about 8 hours to go - time to get back into that book I was reading.

[Medtner]

Leg 19: Fernando De Noronha Airport (SBFN), Brazil, to Ascension Island (FHAW).

Having waited for over 3 weeks to see if the weather would change I had enough. I'm having a headwind of about 10 knots, varying in direction, but never in my advandage. Headwind all the way. However, the calculations said it could be done, barring any unforseen problems.............

Taxiing to the runway at Fernando de Noronha. Really nervous - have I forgotten anything? Will the aircraft take the planned 9 hours? How about those filters that I don't have spares for? What about that small oil leak - will this be a problem? I know I can have this fixed at Ascension Island, but not before...


More grub for thought: the runup revealed a fouled left magneto. It didn't quite clear, but good enough for government work, as they say... But what do they know? (and who the hell are they?)


Having just left the runway I spot a curious body of liquid Dihydrogen Monoxide, called The Atlantic Ocean. Get used to it, Erik! You're going to spend many hours over it, trembling with automatic rough doing all kinds of calculations to see whether to turn back before the point of no return...


Leaving the bosom of Fernando de Noronha behind.


Cruising at 9500, where winds aloft report said that the headwinds would be calmer. This lasted for only the first half or so of the trip - the winds picked up some after 5-6 hours, way after the point of no return.


That feeling......


After 8 and a half hours I'm seeing the ghost of an island appear on the horizon...


Coming for a straight in approach to runway 13, having postponed my top of descent a while so that I could almost glide in if I had to.


A little low on the approach - a little more altitude would have been nice when the headwind gave me a noticable downdraft as I passed over the rocks at the end of the runway. A shot of power is needed to get me down safely.


8 hours and 51 minutes later - almost half an hour ahead of schedule, with some 4 gallons left.
1104 nautical miles in a headwind of about 8-10 knots average. Not bad...


A military base, Ascension Island airport is apparently the home to some rather large aircraft. Here I'm safely parked, looking straight into the nose of the huge Antonov sitting on the tarmac.



A bit of a pucker factor (for more reasons than one!), and the longest leg by far. The rest should be easy. I'll be home before christmas, as I said, it being 10 months away...

[taildraggin68]

Great trip so far Erik, next time, just put a piece of electrical tape over the low fuel light , no need to torment yourself with calculations while looking at that besides, you had enough for a go around....maybe

[robert41]

That was a great flight. Congrats on making it to Ascension Is.

[BPL]

Dang, that was a long flight, Erik! And that low fuel light is a scary sight. Looking forward to following the rest of the trip!

[jfarinha]

This is P3D v2.4, with FTX Global and Vector installed. Will install OpenLC EU when I cross the atlantic. (and FTX Norway will be installed way before I come there, I fear/suspect/reason/contemplate/accept)

Speaking of scenery. Anyone here know about any good scenery for updating the Bahamas, Caribbean and South America? Don't need payware airport quality, but just something to make it look less repetitive than good ol' FSX...

In my opinion, the best site for FSX free scenery from all over the world is http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx.html#us

Cheers.

[Neon]

Dear all,

I'm awaiting FAA charts of the eastern coast of the US plus the Bahamas and the Caribbian. When they arrive in a week or so I'll be on my way.

You should try Skyvector.com they have all the charts there ready to use, including plates, all the charts you could want. All there
digitally for you. Though nothing beats having the chart in ur hand.

[n421nj]

Never a good feeling seeing the low fuel light on

[Medtner]

Leg 20: Ascension Island (FHAW), to Lungi International Airport (GFLL), Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Having had a lot of work lately, I have apparently spent a month here on Ascension Island, and I feel like Edmond Dantes (AKA "The Count of Monte Christo") sitting in Château d'If for over a decade. Time to leave...

My beloved Skylane was in need of some service after some long legs and hard work since last check on St. Barths' in the Caribbean. I changed spark plugs, got some new oil into the engine, and had to replace all kinds of filters in the engine, as well as repairing an oil leak.

After this I was good to go. Here I'm taxiing out to the runway - I'm just above the huge Antonov monster (a picture taken by my prison guard sitting in the tower).


A crowd of tourists gathering to say goodbye after my long stay.


Traffic being light at this time in the morning, I was allowed to do an immediate turn back over the airport to get on course.


Cruising along at 11500 feet. An annoying sidewind kept me busy doing course corrections, but otherwise an easy trip - "only" about 900nm this leg.


After almost 7 hours, I make landfall on the west coast of Africa.


On my approach into Freetown I'm passing a town called, hilariously, Hastings.


Coming over the hills into Freetown I get the Low Fuel warning. No prob - only a few minutes to touchdown.


The runway is over 10K feet long. I should have made a "long landing" - I had to taxi forever and a day to get to the parking.


7 hours, 31 minutes. 74.9 hours on the tach.


Finally I'm finished with the monstrous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

[BPL]

Congratulations on completing your Atlantic crossing, Erik! That was quite a harrowing trip.