View Full Version : Atlantic ferry flight live(ish)
Fly Stimulator
22nd Sep 2004, 10:17
My friend Ian (an occasional poster here) is bringing his latest Cirrus back across the Atlantic at the moment and is keeping a web diary of the trip as he goes.
There's some nice video there already.
You can find it here. (http://www.cirrus147.com/GT_FerryTop.htm)
Good luck to them, I hope it all goes to plan for them coming back.
Will the aeroplane be based at Denham when it arrives back?
Fly Stimulator
23rd Sep 2004, 09:24
BRL,
Yes, I think that's the plan.
They've just left Goose Bay this morning.
Sturmvogel
23rd Sep 2004, 21:26
Amazing-I must be from the old school-I've never heard of a Cirrus aircraft-who makes them? Cirrus engines, YES! I guess I just can't get a handle on the fragmentation of light aviation now, with all the old established names vanishing and these cottage industry GRP home built type appearing. Good luck I say, if they fly well nothing wrong with them, and anyone prepared to feery across the pond must have faith in the product.
Fly Stimulator
23rd Sep 2004, 22:38
They are indeed machines of the new-fangled plastic variety. They come in small cardboard boxes with a tube of glue and some pots of Humbrol. With a few hours of labour you too could be off across the Atlantic! ;)
Sadly the reality is somewhat more prosaic - Cirrus aircraft are made by the eponymous company in the States. They come fully-formed from a factory with no assembly required (even the batteries are included) and are now one of the biggest-selling light aircraft in America.
They even have one of those so-called 'web sites' at www.cirrusdesign.com (http://www.cirrusdesign.com/)
Fly Stimulator
24th Sep 2004, 07:18
Lots of updates (http://www.cirrus147.com/GT_FerryTop.htm) to the online diary overnight, including some great video of their arrival and departure at Nuuk in Greenland.
GroundBound
24th Sep 2004, 07:46
Just checked out the web page, the videos and the pictures.
Absolutely stunning! Huge admiration for what they are doing, and maybe a little bit of envy too ;) Although I'm not sure I would have the courage.
That Cirrus looks brilliant! Gotta have a go in one of those :ok:
MichaelJP59
24th Sep 2004, 15:33
Looks like they're in Iceland now, but the weather doesn't look too good - Hurricane Karl is heading that way as well!
Karl predicted track (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphics/AT12/refresh/AL1204W+GIF/241453W.gif)
- Michael
Fly Stimulator
26th Sep 2004, 08:20
It seems that those winds worked in their favour - they completed the ferry flight in style with a non-stop flight from Iceland to Denham, never dropping below 200 knots ground speed the whole way! Just over 1,000 miles with 20 gallons in reserve, and that in a standard aircraft with no extra ferry tanks fitted.
david viewing
27th Sep 2004, 11:29
Wonderful thread! Many thanks for posting this.
Just a question about the audio on the camcorder: is that a feature of the Cirrus audio panel, and do they supply the lead?
valenii
3rd Oct 2004, 23:46
David
I've been back a week now and just about to post the final Day 4 and day five material from the trip on the web site. _ check it in a few hours!
I could find time to update it on the Ferry flight, but not once I was home!
The way I did the audio was actually very simple. I has a small Tandy electret microphone, on a thin lead plugged into the mic input of the CamCorder.
I then placed the mic in the ear cup of my Bose noice canceling headset.
This has the effect of 1) Cutting engine noise 2) Picking up anything we say through the intercom 3) Picking up (in mono!) the music that is playing through the aircraft's intercom from my Tablet PC (aka Kneeboard). You will hear the aircraft's intercom nicely fade the music when the squelch is broken, just as we hear it inside the aircraft.
FWIW this is also the way we used the Sat phone for position reports (but in the other ear!!!) The Sat phone i hired has a standard mobile phone style ear piece. Which when I needed to use the phone I shuved in my right ear, under the Bose ear cup, with the dangley mic bit ALSO shoved into that same ear cup of the noise canceling headset.
The phone then picks up the sound of the Bose's headset microphone, being piped through the intercom (in the same way you hear your self speak in an aircraft) from its own mic in the ear cup. I then hear the guy the other end of the phone through the phone's ear piece in my ear.
Works a treat!
Ian
Marvelous reports.... I must admit it all sounds a tad too adventurous for my own nervous system but congratulations to you for doing it. I understand this is not the first time!
When I watched the videos I imagined you were putting the music on afterwards - but only because it always seemed to be the same tune - it's been a few days but I think it was 'fields of gold'. Was it Eva Cassidy? Did you particularly like that tune or is it merely coincidence that it seems to be on more often than not when you were videoing? It is a good tune and a particularly fine rendition!
MichaelJP59
4th Oct 2004, 08:20
Great stuff, Ian - a really good idea to do a web log all the way, was very interesting to watch it "live". Cirrus ought to sponsor you as it's a great advert for their product!
Not flown a Cirrus myself yet, but it's certainly one of my ambitions once I get my PPL and out of the spamcan:)
- Michael
valenii
4th Oct 2004, 11:38
GRP
The music was indeed piped from my laptop, and "live", it made the post production SO much easier!
It was pure chance that she seemed to always be playing, I didn't realise it untill done, but I have a few favourites that I like to put on when the flying is particulaly "visual" and of cause these tended to coincide with the clips I filmed and used....
Ian
Micheal
Not flown one yet?? Be careful - they are carriers of a highly infectious condition known in our group as CFD - "Compulsive Flying Disorder"!
Ian