Newfoundland to the Azores in the P-40

[Hook]

I'm in the middle of an Atlantic crossing in the wonderful P-40. I just landed after a flight from St Johns, Newfoundland to Horta in the Azores, CYYT to LPHR, 1180 nautical miles. That's 6 hours logged, 5.4 on the engine. At that distance I needed a drop tank so I flew Daisy-June. I landed with 10% of my fuel left, 18.6 US gallons, just over a half hour of cruise flight.

While I've made that flight before (and without autopilot), this is the first time I've made it without any radio navaids and I don't use the GPS or other helpers. The flight plan was simple enough: Depart 127 degrees, turn two degrees south after one hour, one degree after each additional hour. I knew I'd have some crosswinds from the south but I wasn't sure how strong, and there's no way I'd try to keep to a single degree heading on the P-40 compass. What I did was depart at 130 degrees, turn to 135 after two hours, 137.5 (halfway between 135 and 140, of course) after another two hours.

When I sighted Flores Island which is about 130 nautical miles before Horta I was 54 nautical miles north of my intended course. That's well within the 10% error at the 990 nautical mile mark. Visibility was good and I saw the small island about 110 miles out.

Plenty of cloudscape to look at along the way, some rain and a tiny bit of ice. Actually a gorgeous flight. Near the destination the sky was severe clear until right over Horta. Funny that it didn't feel like a six hour flight.

Next stop, Gibraltar.

Hook

[TreeTops]

Good stuff. Nearly halfway in a 9 hr flight across the Sahara from Dakar to the Nile in the B377.

[Hook]

Gotta love long flights. One of my longest Stratocruiser flights was from San Francisco to Hawaii and back. I did a similar great circle flight plan but I did use the autopilot. When I more recently did that route in the Connie I hand flew it the whole way.

I don't wanna be a passenger. I wanna drive the plane.

Hook

[TreeTops]

i tend to spend more time as the engineer and navigator. The two blokes up front tend to sleep for most of the trip and only get woken up when Heidi brings food and drinks.

[Hook]

i tend to spend more time as the engineer and navigator. The two blokes up front tend to sleep for most of the trip and only get woken up when Heidi brings food and drinks.

Heh!

Is it my imagination or is the food better on the 377 than on the Connie?

Hook

[TreeTops]

I thought the food on the Strat was tasteless. I must have the corona virus!!!

[K5083]

Nice. I like long ferry flights. They force-acquaint you with new scenery and airports you would never have thought of visiting.

August