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  #11  
Old 05-01-2013, 10:47 AM
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rv7boy rv7boy is offline
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Location: Austinville, Alabama
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What an adventure! Please share your trip narrative with us!
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Don Hull
RV-7 Wings
KDCU Pryor Field
Pilots'n Paws Pilot
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?Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights;
it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Miriam Beard
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  #12  
Old 05-01-2013, 11:11 AM
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Mark Albery Mark Albery is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Warwickshire UK
Posts: 703
Default Preparations

OK, you've pursuaded me.
I'll start with a bit about the preparations.

I'd had this trip in mind for a couple of years. I even bought the RV-8 to replace my previous RV-4 as a more versatile platform for the journey.

The 'Crimson Route' was established in WW2 when Ltnt Jack Crowell surveyed Baffin Island for a site for an airfield that would allow shorter range aircraft to get to the European theatre in 4-500 mile stages, together with Sondre Stromfjord in Greenland. These are now civil airfields and provide a route for shorter range aircraft to cross without a requirement for HF radio.

The critical leg for fuel planning purposes is the crossing of Greenland from West to East over the ice-cap. This is 380nm on my planned route, but there is only one usable airfield on the East of Greenland and a diversion would add another 350nm to the trip, add contingencies for winds and IFR reserves and I settled for a planned endurance of 7 hours at 150 KTAS, to give me a comfort factor.
In principle, the 42 galls standard fuel would be OK, but to get my 'comfort factor' I added a 10 gallon fuel cell in the front locker. I spoke to Jon Johannson about this and he agreed with my plan to plumb this directly into the spare inlet of the Vans fuel valve and vent it at the bottom of the firewall.

Equipment required was partly dictated by the various national regulations and supplemented by my personal choices. For the trip, I had:
Single place Beaufort Liferaft
Life Jacket
Immersion suit
Insulated swimming suit
406MHz ELT
PLB
Hand held radio
Delorme InReach satellite tracker and messenger
First Aid kit
Axe, folding saw and knife
Aerial flares, laser flare, Day/night hand flare
Flourescin
Stove, billy cans, water, waterproof matches, candles, string, compass, foil blanket, water purifying tablets, insect repellent, bear spray, emergency water pouches.
Tent, sleeping bag and thermarest (as used at Sun'n Fun)
oxygen bottles (9 & 6 cu ft) and canula
Oxymeter
3000 calories worth of snacks
Travel Johns
2 5 gallon fuel jugs

In addition to my personal luggage and charts etc.

Charts:
US is nicely covered by Foreflight with backup WACs and a TAC for the Hudson River route.
Canada, I used the VNCs plus IFR charts and electronic plates from fltplan.com
Greenland has no official VFR charts, so I got hold of some ONC/TNC charts
Iceland has a very expensive VFR chart from their CAA.
UK I used the new one millionth VFR chart that covers the whole UK.
EuroFPL provide PDF sets of European plates and some charts for a small subscription.
I bought the Jeppesen Europe nav data for the GRT EFIS and a world database for my Garmin 695.

Most valuable planning was talking to and reading reports from several people who had been that way before. The overwelming emphasis was; don't take chances with the weather, carry sufficient fuel for all contingencies, make sure everything is working properly before heading for the Arctic!
Bad weather and fuel planning claims many more victims than mechanical failures.
Avoiding known icing conditions is a big part of the weather planning.

Overflight and landing permissions:
With an experimental, you don't have an automatic right to fly anywhere outside the USA. Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas have free and simple procedures, but beyond that requires specific application and payment of fees.
Denmark will authorise flight through Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
Iceland and the UK provide time limited authorisations.
All of these require liability cover of 1.5M SDRs ( about $2.5M)
That insurance is very difficult to obtain in the USA so I got it eventually from a UK broker - Trafford's. That also included the SAR cover required by Greenland and Iceland.
You need to present evidence of that insurance when applying for landing permissions.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon with more about the trip itself.
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  #13  
Old 05-01-2013, 01:57 PM
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bsacks05 bsacks05 is offline
 
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Location: Warner Robins, GA
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Mark,
Congratulations! What a brilliant experience that must have been. I remember talking with you about this trip at SNF then forgot all about it until I saw your post. Hope to see you again some day!
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Hatz CB-1 - Fabric covering with Polyfiber.
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  #14  
Old 05-01-2013, 02:24 PM
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Location: Richmond, VA
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Awesome trip. Looking forward to more details when you have the time.
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Virginia
RV-9A 257SW Purchase Flying - O-320, Dynon D100
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  #15  
Old 05-01-2013, 02:38 PM
BillFear BillFear is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sherrills Ford, NC (Lake norman area)
Posts: 432
Default Wow

Keep the information coming. Amazing what these little planes can do with the right people in them!

Thanks so much for sharing with us.
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Lake Norman, NC (14A)
RV7a N705RP (no longer own)
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  #16  
Old 05-01-2013, 06:08 PM
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Location: Stuart, FL /Hartford, CT/Virgin Gorda,BVI
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the farther you fly the smaller the world seems. get out there and go somewhere to stretch your boundaries. good advice, wait for good wx and have plenty of fuel reserves. crossing the pond and earth rounders are a special breed. ps, i dont think rosie likes diving in a dry suit.
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Stuart, Fl / S WINDSOR,Ct / Virgin Gorda, BVI - under major repair from hurricane damage
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  #17  
Old 05-02-2013, 03:28 AM
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Mark Albery Mark Albery is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Warwickshire UK
Posts: 703
Default Leaving L.A.

The journey started for real on Monday 8th April.

My apartment was empty and the keys handed back to the landlord, aircraft loaded up and car delivered. Fellow RV pilot, Scott, picked me up and delivered me to Hawthorne airport.

Strong, gusty conditions were present over most of CA & AZ. Checking the PIREPs, I abandoned my plan for lunch at Sedona and refiled further south to Carlsbad NM. This was a distance of 720 nm, so a good check out of all systems including the, now full, auxilliary tank. Climbing to 15000' I was getting an amazing tailwind, 85 knots from the west was giving me ground speeds up to 240 kts. I took some pictures for proof of membership in the 200 knot club.
Some light chop, but generally a good ride. Crossing Arizona encoutered some quite strong wave and got an altitude block assigned, so didn't have to fight the 1000+ fpm up and down excursions quite as much.

Carlsbad was chosen for its choice of runways in still windy conditions. The tailwinds meant that I'd arrived in about 3.7 hours and only used 26 gallons!
Quick lunch stop, refuel and on to Texas. I havn't used the RV hotel before, but this time I'd contacted Russ Madden at Denton, and he'd offered me a room for the night. I arrived at Denton, near Dallas, just after dark. Russ met me, got the RV hangared and took me to his apartment over his HVAC business nearby.
So over 1000 nm on the first day, great support from the RV community and a good start to the journey.

Next stop was Lanett AL where I had bought N713MB 2 years ago. Mike and Judy Ballard had been persuaded to sell me their beautiful RV-8 and I'd got on very well with them at the time and had occasionally kept in touch. Mike had been recovering from major surgery, but met me at Lanett and took me in for the night and spent much time talking about the trip and planning. I knew they would be tracking my progress all the way home.

I was still getting used to the satellite tracker. We sorted out a bluetooth contention issue and proved to Mike that the tracking, email and text messages all worked in flight, very useful. The tracking message sight is on http://share.delorme.com/MarkAlbery and let me communicate in flight from my Ipad.

Next morning was a relatively short run to Sun'n Fun in good weather. A quiet Lake Parker arrival and taxy round to HBC to be greeted with a big hug from Mary-Jane. Regulars at homebuilt camping will know what I mean. It's like coming home when you arrive -great bunch.

More later.
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  #18  
Old 05-02-2013, 07:15 AM
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KatieB KatieB is offline
 
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Location: Stilwell, KS
Posts: 1,096
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Hi Mark,

I'm glad to hear you made it home. It was nice meeting you at SNF and I look forward to the rest of the story!
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  #19  
Old 05-02-2013, 07:30 AM
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Ettore Ettore is offline
 
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Location: Verona, Italy
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Awesome Mark, congratulations!!
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  #20  
Old 05-02-2013, 10:28 AM
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JohnCFord JohnCFord is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Good job!!! Looks like an adventure for sure!

~J~
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