C172 currently crossing the Atlantic

[Razor61]

Not sure if anyone is interested but i was listening to Shanwick earlier on HF Radio and N1763K, a Cessna 172SP is currently crossing the Atlantic between the Azores and the UK.
It apparently left St Johns in Newfoundland on Monday for Santa Maria and is currently making the final overwater leg now towards Cornwall.

Current true airspeed is 120kts at 11,000ft. It must be a very lonely flight if the pilot is on his own.

He has just been asked if he can make the 255 miles between his current location and Lasno in 1hr 15mins before routing to Takas and then i assume Lands End?

Not being a pilot myself, Would a pilot opt for this crossing rather than the northern route via Greenland/Iceland due to weather conditions as that is a vast expanse of water to fly over in a Cessna 172 more so i should imagine between St Johns and the Azores.

[kwachon]

My chosen route delivering a Citation XL from Florida to New Delhi, India was Gander- Punta Delgado-Tunis-Luxor-Al-Ain-Delhi. It is actually quite a short water crossing and the winds and weather are nearly always good.

[Sir George Cayley]

How are they doing?

Sir George Cayley

[Leezyjet]

Last summer someone posted a radar screenshot from one of those flight tracking websites of a C172 routing direct from Gander-Teesside !!!

:eek:

[fisbangwollop]

I used to work at Shanwick and in the past it has been often the case that small light single engine aircraft will make the crossing direct from Gander ewfoundland to Shannon Ireland, in many case's the flights have elected to overfly Shannon and continue on to Germany!!! It is normall practise to carry flexible fuel bag tanks on the rear seats of the aircraft to give the extended range. Navigation nowadays is a touuch with GPS but 20 years ago it was all done on D with the only nav aid being the BBC LW transmitter at Droitwich as a DF aid.

[Shunter]

Blimey. I wish my balls were that big :eek:

[172driver]

Godspeed ! :D:D:D:D

[scooter boy]

It's around 1000nm from St John's Newfoundland to Santa Maria.
Not many alternates at the Azores end if Wx deteriorates though!
I'll bet he had the mixture leaned right back!

SB

[ANW]

Someone posted this link previously http://ottspotters.com/

It lists N1736K on the 18/2

Seems like a few 172/182 & Cirrus SR22s on their way across the Pond around the 11/2

Many more featured on the Jan 08 listing http://www.ottspotters.com/jan08.html

[Razor61]

Thanks for the replies chaps.
I found out that this N1763K was routing from Florida to Poland via Newfoundland, Azores, Dunkeswell and onwards to Poland.

Funnily enough i live inbetween Lands End and Dunkeswell and never saw or heard it come over! Dunkeswell being only 12 or so miles away.

Hope he makes it to Poland after that long flight over the Atlantic. :)

[RollNow!]

I recently spoke to a guy at work who was bringing a C172 back from the states. Said it took him 13 hours to get over the water hop with a 200 gallon tank :cool:

He was then off to Denmark eventually to bring some other poor abandoned a/c back from deepest darkest Greenland... wonder if its the same bloke? :confused: