SEP & north pole
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Captains don't meet virgins twice
Getting serious for a moment though, I find it easier to imagine a protractor on a map measuring the true track, then rotating the protractor to mimic variation and deviation. The mnemonics always confused me.
Thanks for the Svalbar hint, but my location is irrelevant. Since I haven't found someone willing to rent me a plane to cross the ocean, I'll probably rent one in USA or Canada if I ever do it. Which would make the range the most important factor to find a reasonable priced airplane.
An utterly clueless Walter.........
The world is full of people like SoCal App, who might think that the trip over to Catalina for a Bison Burger is the most terribly exciting flying, and like to rubbish anyone who has a little more imagination.
Luckily, there are people (such as Timothy Nathan, or Polly Vacher) who also thought at one point "I'd love to fly my GA aircraft over the North Pole", and went out and did it. No doubt they had a lot of people like SoCal App rubishing their plans, and I'm very thankful that they ignored them.
Let's face it, the flying itself is easy. None of us here can pretend that flying a GA aircraft, especially after you've been doing it for 150 hours or more, is hard. So it all comes down to planning and organisation, and you don't have to be a grizzled pilot for that; I'm sure there are airline pilots with tens of thousands of hours who couldn't find their way out of a cardboard box without their ops department.
When I had 150 hours, I decided to rent a Cessna 172 for 5 weeks and fly from Florida to California and back. Not as adventurous as the flight mentioned here, but I still got plenty of "the usual crowd" telling me I was an idiot, and needed at least 500 hours and an IR. Thankfully I ignored them, and had an excellent time...
There are some people on here who really get off on trying to keep others down. Thankfully, you soon spot them and learn to disregard their "wisdom"! Happily, some of the more valuable contributors filled out page one.
I have no interest in the North Pole, but I'll certainly fly round the world some day, and to South Africa. If that offends you; tough! I'm doing it anyway! It's not like it hasn't been done 100 times before.
Luckily, there are people (such as Timothy Nathan, or Polly Vacher) who also thought at one point "I'd love to fly my GA aircraft over the North Pole", and went out and did it. No doubt they had a lot of people like SoCal App rubishing their plans, and I'm very thankful that they ignored them.
Let's face it, the flying itself is easy. None of us here can pretend that flying a GA aircraft, especially after you've been doing it for 150 hours or more, is hard. So it all comes down to planning and organisation, and you don't have to be a grizzled pilot for that; I'm sure there are airline pilots with tens of thousands of hours who couldn't find their way out of a cardboard box without their ops department.
When I had 150 hours, I decided to rent a Cessna 172 for 5 weeks and fly from Florida to California and back. Not as adventurous as the flight mentioned here, but I still got plenty of "the usual crowd" telling me I was an idiot, and needed at least 500 hours and an IR. Thankfully I ignored them, and had an excellent time...
There are some people on here who really get off on trying to keep others down. Thankfully, you soon spot them and learn to disregard their "wisdom"! Happily, some of the more valuable contributors filled out page one.
I have no interest in the North Pole, but I'll certainly fly round the world some day, and to South Africa. If that offends you; tough! I'm doing it anyway! It's not like it hasn't been done 100 times before.
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Katamarino, I wouldn't pay too much heed. Indeed, look up SoCal App's post history.
You'll soon see that EVERYBODY is a troll in his eyes!
SoCaL,
Why not? That's what insurance is for.
If the insurance does not cover the planned expedition, then fair enough. PERSONALLY I would pursue it further and put questions forward - "What would be the excess premium IF...?" etc, but for the purpose of this thread, FAIR ENOUGH.
If the insurance DOES cover it... No reason to disallow it. If I knew my car was fully insured for the purpose and I would redeem the full value in any problematic/disastrous event, I'd happily let someone rent it and try to drive it across the Atlantic! I'd get about 5 hrs worth of rental income before the inevitable happened!
As to the MORAL issues, well, a different kettle of fish.
You'll soon see that EVERYBODY is a troll in his eyes!
SoCaL,
If you honestly think an FBO is going to rent one of their aircraft for the purpose of such a trip to somebody who has no experience of such flying is probably dilusional - or has a sufficiently large bank balance.
If the insurance does not cover the planned expedition, then fair enough. PERSONALLY I would pursue it further and put questions forward - "What would be the excess premium IF...?" etc, but for the purpose of this thread, FAIR ENOUGH.
If the insurance DOES cover it... No reason to disallow it. If I knew my car was fully insured for the purpose and I would redeem the full value in any problematic/disastrous event, I'd happily let someone rent it and try to drive it across the Atlantic! I'd get about 5 hrs worth of rental income before the inevitable happened!
As to the MORAL issues, well, a different kettle of fish.
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North Pole Journey
Digits,
A friend of mine alerted me about your post.
In July of 2010, I piloted a SEL aircraft, a Cessna 350, over the geographic north pole.
My departure point was Resolute Bay (CYRB). It's 1,000 nm from the pole. I equipped my plane with a 100 gallon ferry tank from TurtlePac in Australia. I also had a life raft, a GPS Tracker (a Winnipeg Company) and a sat phone on board.
My return trip included a stop in Eureka (CYEU) which is 600 nm from the North Pole. It's a fantastic stop! A weather station is located there at 80 degrees north. John and his crew are very hospitable.
My insurance also includes Canada, but my 2,000 mile round trip into international territory was added at a cost of $1,000, with a 30% deductible.
An outfit called Global Rescue out of Boston was hired for backup rescue. They charged about $300.
Please pm me and I'd me happy to discuss my journey.
Wayne R. Maynard
Wayne Maynard
A friend of mine alerted me about your post.
In July of 2010, I piloted a SEL aircraft, a Cessna 350, over the geographic north pole.
My departure point was Resolute Bay (CYRB). It's 1,000 nm from the pole. I equipped my plane with a 100 gallon ferry tank from TurtlePac in Australia. I also had a life raft, a GPS Tracker (a Winnipeg Company) and a sat phone on board.
My return trip included a stop in Eureka (CYEU) which is 600 nm from the North Pole. It's a fantastic stop! A weather station is located there at 80 degrees north. John and his crew are very hospitable.
My insurance also includes Canada, but my 2,000 mile round trip into international territory was added at a cost of $1,000, with a 30% deductible.
An outfit called Global Rescue out of Boston was hired for backup rescue. They charged about $300.
Please pm me and I'd me happy to discuss my journey.
Wayne R. Maynard
Wayne Maynard
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Flying to the North Pole would be a wonderful adventure, the navigation an aviator's challenge but I hate the cold. The Nordkapp and midnight sun was fun but I don't think I'll fly further north.
Kat, not in the immediate future but I too will one day fly to S.Africa, hopefully in a Piper Cub.
Two ship formation?
Kat, not in the immediate future but I too will one day fly to S.Africa, hopefully in a Piper Cub.
Two ship formation?
The fact that it has been done doesn't make it a good idea.
13 Rescued Near North Pole After Plane Crash in Blizzard - NYTimes.com
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - North Pole man 3 others survive plane crash near King Salmon
Alert, Nunavut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What happenend to the Africa flight?
That's exactly the attitude that gets these "wonder" pilots killed.
13 Rescued Near North Pole After Plane Crash in Blizzard - NYTimes.com
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - North Pole man 3 others survive plane crash near King Salmon
Alert, Nunavut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What happenend to the Africa flight?
None of us here can pretend that flying a GA aircraft, especially after you've been doing it for 150 hours or more, is hard
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Let's face it, the flying itself is easy. None of us here can pretend that flying a GA aircraft, especially after you've been doing it for 150 hours or more, is hard. So it all comes down to planning and organisation
and you don't have to be a grizzled pilot for that;
Over the last couple of years there have been a number of high profile accidents in the USA which involved pilots who completely under-estimated what they were getting themselves into and have killed themselves and others in the process. When you look into the accident reports with the benfit of hindsight you have to wonder what they were thinking at the time. The only conclusion that I can come to is that they weren't at all prepared for the flying environment that they encountered.
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Who in his right mind would want to go to that frozen bit of nothing? Think Palm trees, azzure blue seas, hot sun 
Done both the North Atlantic crossing (have to do it again on the 16th feb another ferry! yawn ) and south Africa and know which i would choose Give me sunshine!!!! Grass skirts and a cocktails not polar bears! dont like ice in my drinks anyway!
10540 only .53 posts a day compared to your 4.34 posts a day
need to get that up to catch you up hence stupid posts like this. Hope you liked the hansome pic of me surrounded by angry natives enroute to SA I sent you 
Pace
Done both the North Atlantic crossing (have to do it again on the 16th feb another ferry! yawn ) and south Africa and know which i would choose
Give me sunshine!!!! Grass skirts and a cocktails not polar bears! dont like ice in my drinks anyway!10540 only .53 posts a day compared to your 4.34 posts a day
need to get that up to catch you up hence stupid posts like this. Hope you liked the hansome pic of me surrounded by angry natives enroute to SA I sent you Pace
Last edited by Pace; 4th Feb 2011 at 21:46.
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Let me explain some things. It is true I have been posting questions that might seem a bit farfetched, but let me assure I've been exploring these possiblities for a while, and they are still on my list of things to do.
The first time I asked about Africa trip was many years ago, when I first had my PPL. The information here gave me better information and made me decide it was perhaps a bit too early. 3 years and a little experience later, I asked the same question again. This time, with some pprune people, I got a travel plan and a rough indication of the costs. We found some lead on an airplane, but due to personal reasons, the copilot and passenger had to cancel. Since I can not pay for South-Africa on my own, I am looking into other original and a little adventurous destinations which are financially within my reach.
To give you some more background information: it took me 4 years to find someone who was willing to fly with me from Belgium to Romania. In those years there were 6 people who "seriously wanted to fly there" and cancelled at the last minute. I do not want to go through that again and waste a few years until someone finally wants to fly to Africa with me. Hence the backup option of something else I really want to do. So basically, if somebody wants to join me on the trip to Africa, that one will have priority, but in the mean time, I didn't see any harm in looking for alternatives.
And yes I am a dreamer, but without that, I wouldn't be flying in the first place. I completely agree all these things might have tons of issues that are not visible at first glance, hence the quest for information, of which pprune is a valuable part.
The first time I asked about Africa trip was many years ago, when I first had my PPL. The information here gave me better information and made me decide it was perhaps a bit too early. 3 years and a little experience later, I asked the same question again. This time, with some pprune people, I got a travel plan and a rough indication of the costs. We found some lead on an airplane, but due to personal reasons, the copilot and passenger had to cancel. Since I can not pay for South-Africa on my own, I am looking into other original and a little adventurous destinations which are financially within my reach.
To give you some more background information: it took me 4 years to find someone who was willing to fly with me from Belgium to Romania. In those years there were 6 people who "seriously wanted to fly there" and cancelled at the last minute. I do not want to go through that again and waste a few years until someone finally wants to fly to Africa with me. Hence the backup option of something else I really want to do. So basically, if somebody wants to join me on the trip to Africa, that one will have priority, but in the mean time, I didn't see any harm in looking for alternatives.
And yes I am a dreamer, but without that, I wouldn't be flying in the first place. I completely agree all these things might have tons of issues that are not visible at first glance, hence the quest for information, of which pprune is a valuable part.
Digits,
A friend of mine alerted me about your post.
In July of 2010, I piloted a SEL aircraft, a Cessna 350, over the geographic north pole.
My departure point was Resolute Bay (CYRB). It's 1,000 nm from the pole. I equipped my plane with a 100 gallon ferry tank from TurtlePac in Australia. I also had a life raft, a GPS Tracker (a Winnipeg Company) and a sat phone on board.
My return trip included a stop in Eureka (CYEU) which is 600 nm from the North Pole. It's a fantastic stop! A weather station is located there at 80 degrees north. John and his crew are very hospitable.
My insurance also includes Canada, but my 2,000 mile round trip into international territory was added at a cost of $1,000, with a 30% deductible.
An outfit called Global Rescue out of Boston was hired for backup rescue. They charged about $300.
Please pm me and I'd me happy to discuss my journey.
Wayne R. Maynard
Wayne Maynard
A friend of mine alerted me about your post.
In July of 2010, I piloted a SEL aircraft, a Cessna 350, over the geographic north pole.
My departure point was Resolute Bay (CYRB). It's 1,000 nm from the pole. I equipped my plane with a 100 gallon ferry tank from TurtlePac in Australia. I also had a life raft, a GPS Tracker (a Winnipeg Company) and a sat phone on board.
My return trip included a stop in Eureka (CYEU) which is 600 nm from the North Pole. It's a fantastic stop! A weather station is located there at 80 degrees north. John and his crew are very hospitable.
My insurance also includes Canada, but my 2,000 mile round trip into international territory was added at a cost of $1,000, with a 30% deductible.
An outfit called Global Rescue out of Boston was hired for backup rescue. They charged about $300.
Please pm me and I'd me happy to discuss my journey.
Wayne R. Maynard
Wayne Maynard
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To be fair, there is nothing wrong with having dreams. We used to call my brother's kitchen table the "dream table" as we'd often sit around and talk about doing things like this. His was to sail across the Atlantic, so he did, in a 45' yacht and ended up in St Lucia.
I posted a while back on the other Forum about flying South into West Africa, which I'd love to do (Africa can be a real s*ithole but has a strange attraction to it)...However after taking advice from many people with far more experience than I decided the logistics were too much of a nightmare and too costly in an Avgas powered aeroplane and so can't be bothered. I'd do it in a DA42 though due to the availability of JET-A.
People often cite Insurance as a reason not to do something. Well a friend of mine ferried a Diamond DA40 to Australia, from California (actually Florida originally) and this included direct from California to Hawaii (17 hrs non stop), followed by 1200nm legas over the South Pacific. It took them about 5 days I think and the insurance loading was in the couple of thousand $ range, so not horrific.
A friend of mine just drove his Porsche 911 from London to Saigon, and he wants to redo the trip in a year or two by air (he's a pilot too)...so I'd be up for that in my aeroplane. There is a Gardan Horizon at our airfield which flew UK to Australia some years ago.
Good luck!
I posted a while back on the other Forum about flying South into West Africa, which I'd love to do (Africa can be a real s*ithole but has a strange attraction to it)...However after taking advice from many people with far more experience than I decided the logistics were too much of a nightmare and too costly in an Avgas powered aeroplane and so can't be bothered. I'd do it in a DA42 though due to the availability of JET-A.
People often cite Insurance as a reason not to do something. Well a friend of mine ferried a Diamond DA40 to Australia, from California (actually Florida originally) and this included direct from California to Hawaii (17 hrs non stop), followed by 1200nm legas over the South Pacific. It took them about 5 days I think and the insurance loading was in the couple of thousand $ range, so not horrific.
A friend of mine just drove his Porsche 911 from London to Saigon, and he wants to redo the trip in a year or two by air (he's a pilot too)...so I'd be up for that in my aeroplane. There is a Gardan Horizon at our airfield which flew UK to Australia some years ago.
Good luck!
Katamarino.
You appear incapable of reading what was written.
I did however suggest that this is a continuing troll by this person based on his prior 17 posts over the past 5-6 years in this forum - which you have obviously not taken the time to review.
Your comparison of a flight from sunny Florida to equally sunny California is hardly comparable and well within the capabilities of any new PPL.
As IO540 already indicated the logistics and paperwork is the far greater effort.
If you honestly think an FBO is going to rent one of their aircraft for the purpose of such a trip to somebody who has no experience of such flying is probably dilusional - or has a sufficiently large bank balance.
I'm with Big Piston Forever on this one.
You appear incapable of reading what was written.
I did however suggest that this is a continuing troll by this person based on his prior 17 posts over the past 5-6 years in this forum - which you have obviously not taken the time to review.
Your comparison of a flight from sunny Florida to equally sunny California is hardly comparable and well within the capabilities of any new PPL.
As IO540 already indicated the logistics and paperwork is the far greater effort.
If you honestly think an FBO is going to rent one of their aircraft for the purpose of such a trip to somebody who has no experience of such flying is probably dilusional - or has a sufficiently large bank balance.
I'm with Big Piston Forever on this one.
You have based your opinion of this poster on a few, isolated posts that you have read over the years, and decided that he is a troll. I have a little more to go on than that. He is entirely serious about doing some real flying. He is already a licensed pilot, so hardly a "Walther", and has put in the effort needed to obtain a JAA IR, and ATPL theory. I've sat planning routes around Africa with him, and he has an entirely common sense understanding of some of the issues involved, as much as a 150 hour PPL without African experience could have, IMO.
I have no doubt that he'll complete his South Africa trip before too long (perhaps in a 3-ship with myself and African Eagle!), and while the North Pole trip is a hell of a challenge, you never know if you never try. We've already seen that a number of people have done it before; and it's entirely possible that there's someone out there who wants to do it in their twin, but can't find a copilot to accompany them! This forum is a goldmine of information, when you sift the wheat from the chaff, and a great place to kick off this kind of enquiry and ambition.
So, you keep plying your boring views, and people like myself, digits, and many others on the thread can keep going with the really interesting flying
AE; I'm entirely up for South Africa
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Back in 1982 BA were exploring polar routes to Japan using the then state of the art INS nav equipment. I was flight engineer on a 747 trip to Alaska, with the fleet chief pilot as captain, and various avionics engineers keeping a watch on the nav gear.
All went well as we approached the pole, CAVOK viz and white flat ice with bright sun. Then 30 secs from o/h the pole one of the INS units failed, shortly followed by the other two. Failure mode was due to 'degraded nav data' 'standby mode' Frantic efforts by the experts failed to convince the INS units that all directions from the pole are South. This was during the cold war and a Korean airliner had recently been shot down by the Russians. It was essential to not be heading towards Russian territory and we needed a reliable heading to steer. But the three compasses were useless, our two VORs were useless, and the two ADFs refused to pick up anything. I remember suggesting that the boy scouts taught me to point the hour hand of my watch at the Sun and read off North at 12 o clock. Four faces looked at me and someone said pi*** off eng! But the First officer dug out a set of astro sight reduction tables and after much pencil work came up with a bearing relative to the Sun which we took up. Two nerve racking hours later the ADFs picked up a faint signal from a Canadian beacon and we were able to get a position. Feeding the data into the INS sets got one of them back on line, and we began to relax a bit.
All went well as we approached the pole, CAVOK viz and white flat ice with bright sun. Then 30 secs from o/h the pole one of the INS units failed, shortly followed by the other two. Failure mode was due to 'degraded nav data' 'standby mode' Frantic efforts by the experts failed to convince the INS units that all directions from the pole are South. This was during the cold war and a Korean airliner had recently been shot down by the Russians. It was essential to not be heading towards Russian territory and we needed a reliable heading to steer. But the three compasses were useless, our two VORs were useless, and the two ADFs refused to pick up anything. I remember suggesting that the boy scouts taught me to point the hour hand of my watch at the Sun and read off North at 12 o clock. Four faces looked at me and someone said pi*** off eng! But the First officer dug out a set of astro sight reduction tables and after much pencil work came up with a bearing relative to the Sun which we took up. Two nerve racking hours later the ADFs picked up a faint signal from a Canadian beacon and we were able to get a position. Feeding the data into the INS sets got one of them back on line, and we began to relax a bit.