Pitts2112 :

( I finally got to fly a Pitts S2B in Holland this past summer and am hooked on it, it was a really fun machine and I have decided to get back into aerobatics just to stay young. )

There are very few people with the gift of writing that Ernie Gann had, I knew Ernie quite well and in my mind no one has ever written aviation stories as well as he did. Last time I saw Ernie he was complaining about a Storm Scope he had just installed in his Wing Derringer, he lived in Friday Harbour about fifty miles from where I live.

Unfortunately I am merly just another pilot with limited brain power and very limited ability to write stories, not to mention that if I ever got started it would take years to relate some of the stuff I did during the past fifty one years trying to out think aircraft.

I have decided to cancel my decision to retire soon because I am going to take a crack at the unlimited aerobatic flying contests just for the hell of it.

So my new retirement date will be in 2015, I will be eighty then and want to change careers, by then I will have had enough of flying and plan on getting a job as quality control manager in a whore house. :ok:

Chuck

Chuck is too modest. I can refer you to the following samples of his writing here ("Arcturus, the Missing Hours and Fate"; "Out of Africa - Four days in a Cat"; "The Highs and Lows of International Flying"; and "The Tobacco Fields").

I enjoyed reading his stories, and hope that he will write more.

Er, that's not an excuse.

I have a (small) collection of books about northern flying (albeit mostly about Alaska rather than Canada), and I can't find you in the index of any of them ... so you must have lots of stories as yet unrecorded that are worth recording.

Sure, such books are sometimes written by pilots and sometimes not the sort of thing that would win literary prizes, but we're not buying them as works of literature!!

OK, AerBabe, I give up. What type was it?

8 hours @ an average speed of almost 120 mph.
Mega ferry-tanks or in-flight refuelling?


Tudor :D

Sad, that!

Here's a few about flying in the Canadian north that you might want to obtain (Christmas presents for yourself?), if you don't already have them:

Don C. Braun, The Arctic Fox *

E.C. Burton, Wheels, Skis and Floats : the Northern Adventures of a Pioneer Pilot

Peter Corley-Smith, 10,000 Hours: Reminiscences of a Helicopter Bush Pilot

John Dale, Snowshoes and Stethoscopes: Tales of Medicine and Flying in the Canadian Far North

Manley Fredlund, Skydancing

Robert S. Grant, Bush Flying: The Romance of the North *

Walter Henry, Uncharted skies: Canadian Bush Pilot Stories

Jim Lang, Papa X-ray *

Denny McCartney, Picking Up the Pieces

Rex Terpening, Bent Props and Blow Pots: a Pioneer Remembers Northern Bush Flying

Dick Turner, Wings of the North *

Charles O. Weir, Vertical Ascent

Larry Whitesitt, Northern Flight of Dreams

Al Williams, Bush and Arctic Pilot

And finally, four books that are not specifically about the North but I include anyway because I know you like float flying in British Columbia:

Justin De Goutiere, The Pathless Way (aka Pilot: Self-Portrait of a Brave Man) *

Roy Mason, Ice Runway

Jack Schofield, Flights of a Coast Dog: A Pilot's Log *

Jack Schofield, No Numbered Runways

I have marked with a * all titles that I specially recommend.

Happy reading!!!

MLS

P.S. Another book about a flying trip (in a float-equipped DHC3, natch) in the North that you might enjoy is Farley Mowat, High Latitudes. The author is not a pilot, but it is still quite an interesting book.

Well FL... it wasn't quite non-stop. I didn't have to climb out on the wing in my pink fluffy slippers to empty another can of unleaded into the tanks. ;) However, it was in one day...

That's cheating! :O

I've had 2 days where I have logged over 5.5 hours total time but the longest at once has so far been 2.6 hours. Must try harder :D

I don't wish to detract from the reports here but a lot of the times are easily achievable in certain popular planes. A TB20 for example will stay up for >10hrs, probably nearer to 11, at 45% power, LOP, which is about 110kt ias. Even at 65% power, 140kt or so, it will go for 7:30 hours.

The need to pee is very easily addressed with the plastic bottle thingy from Transair etc. It just isn't wise to have a drink in the hour or two before takeoff, or a coffee in the preceeding few hours. To stay fresh, eat strawberries when up there :O

MLS-12D,

Thanks for those links. Having read a little, Chuck is indeed being modest and I also hope he can spare a little time to write some more of his stories.

Regards, SD..

True, AerBabe. But we had to abandon two out of four of our intended fuel stops because of work in progress on the runway, or faulty fuel pumps. And the other two took forever because we managed to get behind RyanAir B737s in the refuelling queue at both of them. At one stage, I was beginning to wonder how far we could get on one tank.....

My personal longest flight without a stop was Phoenix to Los Angeles - or maybe it was Los Angeles to Phoenix, two days later - I can't remember without checking my logbook. About 4 hours each way in a Piper Arrow. Absolutely beautiful flight coming back... but going to Los Angeles I was flying through sandstorms for much of the journey, and was absolutely knackered when I arrived at Los Angeles. And that's not a good state to be in when you have to tackle the Los Angeles airspace for the first time ever!

FFF
-------------

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a PBY?

I was quite chuffed with my 3.5 hours from Islay to Blackbushe in a Warrior until I read this thread!

PBY = PBY Catalina.

http://www.pbyflighttraining.com/images/b-senegal2.jpg

http://www.pbyflighttraining.com/images/b-capetown.jpg

Never mind fuel running out.......after 2 hours, my wallet has run dry!!

I know a guy who flew a PA28 from Le Touquet to the North East of England without any electrics. Not deliberately, the alternator failed. Took him 4 hours following roads and railways to avoid the East coast MATZ's. He had originally turned back to Le Touquet but, being a Sunday, was unable to find and engineer.

To make matters worse, due to weight problems he had put his bag in my aircraft before leaving France and forgotten to take his passport out. Customs at Le Touquet wouldn't let him leave again untill UK customs reported sight of his passport to them. At this point we didn't know we had his passport, so on arrival our backsides were knitting buttons when we saw the posse of HMC&E officers waiting for us.

Nothing too impressive by the standards on this thread, but my longest non-stop is 3:50 VFR from Blackbushe to Konstanz in southern Germany last May, and a very pleasant flight it was too!

10:40, strapped to a bang seat and in a jet with a duff autopilot over the South Atlantic. Oh wot fun! Wet meself without laughter!:{ I know many who did longer but this was my personal low.

Well the longest distance I've done in a single flight is small beer compared to some others here. It was a few years ago now flying a C-182RG back from Le Mans to Wycombe which is a bit over 200 nm. At the time it was the longest distance (>200nm), longest duration (>2hr), and highest (FL075) that I'd flown.

I've done a longer duration flight since then, making up hours for my licence revalidation, but that started and finished at Wycombe. It wouldn't have been so long if I hadn't been told that the 1hr flight with the instructor DIDN'T count as part of the 12 hours :mad:

Brooklands

Flying Lawyer :

Hey, I can even tell you where and when those pictures were taken.

The first one was C-FCRR in Saint - Louis Senegal taken on Oct. 17/1998. We were on our way from Toulouse to Santiago on the Aeropostale memorial flight.

The second one was N9521C taken in December of 1998 about forty miles east of Cape Town South Africa. I was doing type rating training on that lake for the owner and a couple of his friends. Later I flew 21C from South Africa to London England with a seven month stop in Jeddah Saudi Arabia for an engine change ( took three trips to Jeddah to get it done. )

Then we used it in the Merimax film "Below "and finally in 2003 I ferried it to Suffolk Virginia via the North Atlantic route.

Chuck E.

10 days of getting a microlight, the great Thruster 600 SPRINT, no less. An amazing 70kts cruise speed. Did I have fun?
An amazing tour up to the western isles of Scotland from SE England. Scenery to die for. Scenery coming out of your ears. It's all here in good old Britain. The same distance would take you to Bordeaux or Lyons, from the SE of England. Abroad, the food is probably, on average a bit better, but for variety of scenery you can't beat Britain.
One of my assistants came back from a world tour (obligatory apparently for those under 25). She could not believe the spectacular photographs of the West of Scotland or even her native Lake District. They were better than anything, or at least as good as any of hers. She had a limited view of the world, of course, but that is something that you learn when you fly round the world. You can't see it all. It's too big for one person.
That's my furthest so far. I flew out to Gigha and Mull.
Once I'd done that I said, I'm an aviator. Forget your CAA. Yes they gave me a licence long before this event, but as far as I, personally, was concerned, I didn't have a licence until I had completed this trip.
A provocative viewpoint perhaps, but that is my view.
For the first time, since leaning to fly,I said, yes, you can take passengers. You are a competent pilot and navigator.
Anybody else felt the same?