You know reading the posts by the 'now banned one' reminded me of the old days.
Back in the mid 70s we used to think nothing of jumping into a Jet Commander with a couple of passengers, takeoff from OKC and go non-stop to CUN, which is around 1,100 nm. Right at the limit of the VFR range of the old beast. We'd land with about 45 minutes of fuel and there was one airport very close, Cozumel, in case we had to divert if the one runway was unusable for some reason, which it never was in all the years I flew down there. So, no problems, right?
Flash forward many years and I'm sitting a 900EX heading over the Atlantic toward London one day and started thinking about 'good' old days. About flying from OKC to CUN, two thirds of which was over the widest part of the Gulf of Mexico. So, I have three FMSs in the cockpit with me, so I take number three and run a sample flight plan, with a dry foot print required.
Oops. There was a period of about 15 minutes*, give or take a couple of minutes, that there was no way we could have made dry land, let alone an airport, with an engine loss or loss of pressurization while over the gulf. We could have had a dry footprint if we stopped in Huston and refueled. But non-stop from OKC, no way.
I guess that just proves that God looks out for fools and young, stupid pilots.
* And that is a generous figure, the wrong way, then.
