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  #21  
Old 05-06-2014, 08:25 AM
Norman CYYJ Norman CYYJ is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Victoria B.C.
Posts: 1,266
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Are you aware that you have to have a current IFR rating and a plane that is certified to fly IFR to cross the North Atlantic?
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  #22  
Old 05-06-2014, 12:21 PM
tspear tspear is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Boston Area
Posts: 135
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Also check with Trans Canada. They have a very specific gear requirement list to make the flight and fly through Canadian airspace.

Tim
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  #23  
Old 05-06-2014, 12:26 PM
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walkman walkman is offline
 
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Don't forget to cath up before you don the suit. I presume you would normally for a long x-country anyway. rochester wide band FTW
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  #24  
Old 05-10-2014, 06:04 AM
F1R F1R is offline
 
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Posts: 829
Default How is the crossing going?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevlor View Post
Wow great to see Mark Albery's name on this thread. The Kitplanes article is a gem.

I'm Noah's "Frugal Friend" from the beginning of this thread. First time posting. I have a musty private ticket but am basically a (hopefully) helpful passenger on this trip from Minneapolis to Scotland via Greenland and Iceland. I'm mostly focused on the safety gear and other details.

Equipment: My friend's aircraft is a Cessna 206 that's maybe 8 years old. It's been retrofit with long range tanks. He's an IFR pilot with about 3500 hrs. He flies to the coasts, up into Canada and to the Rockies so I feel pretty good about his experience.

We have 2 weeks to get to Scotland so we can wait for good weather which also makes me feel better about risk (and sightseeing).

This thread is about survival suits so I'll get to it.

We plan to use Scuba dry suits (with boots) that zip across the front. These will be worn with torso out. I know from dry suit diving in Superior that under layers are key. When upright in the water the suit is basically vacuum sealed tight to the body esp legs.

My underlayers are a 3mm neoprene farmer john bottom under wool pants. On top I have a long underwear undershirt and a thick wool fisherman's sweater. Neoprene hood and either neoprene gloves or mits.

I've practiced donning and zipping in the car and it works pretty well. The zip across the front is quite long and allows reasonably easy donning. I might even try having it on totally with the zipper open to see if its bearable.

My life vest has a big pocket where I'll keep the PLB and other most important survival gear. I'd also like use my "fanny pack" type dry bag to keep more gear on my person but am reluctant to get too encumbered for exiting the aircraft.

The remaining lowest priority (if there can be such a thing) survival gear will be in two parcels - life raft and dry bag . These will be on the floor.

We have the Delorme Inreach tracker, Sat Phone, handheld vhf radio and other stuff that's a composite of Marks list and others. The bulk of this stuff adds up!

Lots of info out there - some from people selling stuff. After shopping around for survival suits I decided the solution was right in my dive bag. Any opinions?

When I first started researching ditching I imagined it would be a very violent, low percentage survival situation. I was heartened to learn that it CAN be much less so. Really interesting subject. This helps to temper those early morning ruminations of "WHY are we doing this?"

We are working on a ditching procedure that sort've combines the list for the aircraft with the stuff specific to our team. Hopefully some rehearsals will eliminate the real show stopper problems during an actual emergency.

This next thing may cause you all to think I'm nuts. During spring Kayaking in MN we wear a neoprene hood under a paddling helmet. Since we have LOTS of room in back of the aircraft I thought I'd bring my helmet and don it given time. Really can't hurt - and I sorta feel naked without it.... I can't think of a good reason not to. Thoughts?

THANKS for allowing me into your community for a bit and for any input!

Kevin
Send me a PM with your delorme map address . I keep checking this thread for an update. Best of luck with the WX and AC.
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  #25  
Old 05-10-2014, 07:36 AM
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Noah Noah is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Rhode Island
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https://share.delorme.com/KevinLorang#
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All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men? for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. -T.E. Lawrence
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  #26  
Old 05-19-2014, 08:53 PM
Kevlor Kevlor is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Minneapolis MN
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I am back in Minneapolis after an excellent experience riding along on the Crimson route trip with my friend. Awe inspiring! I flew back commercially from Glasgow May 14. I am in the process of organizing my notes and photos into a more detailed summary but want to address some of the questions raised in the thread.

1. As Mark said the fuel situation at Iqualit is unchanged. Maybe 6 55 gal drums left as of may 6 when we were there. New batch arrives on ship in July. Actually my friend is coming back in about 4 days and is a bit concerned that there will be any left. Talk to Garth or Lewis at Frobisher Bay Flight services to get the current quantity remaining. Very helpfull, professional FBO.

2. This trip was strictly for fun. No higher motive or even ferrying an aircraft for profit. Simply the realization of my friend's longtime dream. Regarding the issue of liability in the event of a rescue situation, an excellent point has been raised by David in his post. The cost of rescue is staggering. A very knowledgeable pilot I talked to in Reykjavik said the price for SAR is $15k PER HOUR in some cases. The liability insurance for the trip amounted to $3000 which I know didn't cover hull on the airplane and I really doubt covered SAR but I just don't know. Basically I decided midway through the journey I was risking my neck as well as my financial future. If I had it to over I would have researched all the legal what ifs more carefully. Of course then maybe I wouldn't have gone at all and that would have been a shame.

3. As Mark let on the cost of this route is staggering - especially in Greenland. At Ilulissat the "official" policy was to charge $100 per hr (first half hour free) to plug the 400 watt engine heater in! My buddy said "that's not really fair" to which our host in town replied grimly "nothing in Greenland is fair".

Thanks guys!
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