Delivering the first airplane for USMP Ciencias Aeronáuticas
Alternate title: flying to South America by Cessna 172.
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I delivered the first airplane for Universidad San Martin de Porres (USMP) last week. Universidad San Martin de Porres is a major university in Lima (Peru) and they are starting Peru’s first university accredited pilot training program. Here is some info about USMP Ciencias Aeronáuticas on the web and on Facebook.
Personally I think this is a great idea, I didn’t go to college until later in my career and in hindsight I wish I had done so when I was younger. To have a good career as a professional pilot the 2 things that matter most in terms of checkboxes on your resume – at least in my opinion – are 1) military experience and 2) a university degree.
The first airplane for USMP Ciencias Aeronáuticas is a brand spanking new Cessna 172SP. The friendly folks at the international Cessna dealership for Peru had arranged for us to pick up the airplane at Eagle Aviation in Columbia, SC, where it had been painted in a custom paint scheme for USMP.
New C172SP with custom paint for USMP Ciencias Aeronauticas
We arrived in Columbia (KCAE) on a lousy rainy day and decided to postpone our departure by 1 day to allow some finishing touches at the paint shop and wait for better weather. The next day weather was more reasonable and we took off for our first leg of the ferry flight: Columbia, SC (KCAE) to Tamiami, FL (KTMB).
The weather was generally good VFR for our flight to Tamiami but we had to stay around 3,000 feet most of the time to avoid strong headwinds. At Savannah (GA) ATC asked us if we wanted to go around or over the top of their class C airspace and I decided to climb to 6,500 feet for 40 miles or so. You can tell by the headwinds on the Garmin 1000 MFD that I may have made the wrong decision at that point. A diversion around their airspace might have been quicker.
You know it's going to be a long day when you have a 50kt headwind in a Cessna 172
We had an uneventful trip to Tamiami which was our first overnight stop. The next day we completed the mandatory 25-hour oil change for a new aircraft as well as US Customs export paperwork in Tamiami. All that took up most of the day but in the afternoon we continued our trip with a short flight from Tamiami to Nassau, Bahamas (MYNN), our second overnight stop.
The view from our hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.
In a late model Cessna 172 you could theoretically cross the Gulf of Mexico with just 1 stop in Jamaica, but I wanted to go from Florida to the Bahamas and then on to Jamaica because flying direct from Florida to Jamaica in a C172 is a bit of a stretch range-wise. We refueled in Kingston and after a quick turnaround continued on to Cartagena, Columbia (SKCG).
Jamaica to Cartagena is about 4:15 hours in a Cessna 172, well within range but obviously you want to be very careful with winds and weather.
Our handling agent in Cartagena, Colombia (SKCG). They always take good care of us.
I work with an excellent handling agent in Cartagena, they take care of our Customs notification, make our hotel reservations and have our flight plans ready to file the next morning. From Cartagena we headed over to Cali (SKCL) in mostly good VFR weather until the last 70 miles or so, when we ran into some cloud buildups over the mountains just west of Cali.
From Cartagena there are various direct routes to Cali but we flew a bit west so as to avoid having to fly at higher altitudes over the Andes mountains. In Cali we shot the ILS but had the runway easily in sight from 4 or 5 miles out. When approaching Cali from the west in any airplane without speedbrakes you will usually need 1 turn in the holding to lose altitude for the instrument approach after crossing the mountains.
The ILS at Cali programmed in the Garmin 1000 MFD
Weather between Cali and Guayaquil was a bit marginal and we decided to overnight in Cali. The airport hotel in Cali had sold out all of its 12 rooms, so we took a taxi to Palmira and found us a nice hotel there for only 80,000 pesos per night (~$50).
The next day we had good weather for our flight to Guayaquil (SEGU) where we refueled and did another quick turnaround. Guayaquil is an interesting airport, the preferred runway is RY21 but the General Aviation facility is all the way at the end of the runway. While we were strapping in and doing our before start checklist a C152 taxied out just before us. When requesting my startup clearance I asked ATC for RY03 if available. With light winds Guayaquil tower will usually approve General Aviation aircraft to land RY21 and takeoff RY03 to minimize taxi time and minimize traffic/delays on the ground. If taking off on RY03 when RY21 is technically in use the tower simply requests a quick right turnout.
The Guayaquil control tower approved RY03 for us and as we rolled out of our 180 degree right turn after takeoff I looked down and saw the C152 which had taxied out just before us, the airplane was still on the ground taxiing, almost reaching the departure end of RY21 
Taking off out of Guayaquil, Ecuador (SEGU).
From Guayaquil we flew to Trujillo, Peru, where we overnighted for the last time on this trip. The next morning we had a delay taking off out of Trujillo because our international flight permit for Peru specified Pisco (SPSO) as our final airport but the university had requested that we change our destination to Lima (SPIM). Once that was cleared up we took off and headed down the Pacific coast to Lima.
The beach / resort town of Huanchaco, near Trujillo, Peru.
As usual Lima was landing runway 15. We were lucky to arrive at a fairly quiet moment (Lima can be very busy at times) and shot the ILS to RY15.
On final for landing at Lima's Jorge Chavez Intl Airport (SPIM)
Here’s the first airplane for USMP Ciencias Aeronáuticas in Lima, Peru.
The first airplane for USMP Ciencias Aeronauticas, at the completion of the delivery from US to Lima.
Ferry pilot ditches just short of Hawaii
Video from the US Coast Guard:
Ferry pilot flying a Cessna 310 from mainland US to Hawaii was forced to ditch just short of his destination due to fuel exhaustion. Luckily the pilot is ok.
It’s going to be another long day at the office
Next month I’m scheduled to deliver a couple of airplanes from the US to Peru. I’ll be picking up a Cessna 172 and a Cessna 182 for the ferry flight to Peru.
Here’s my planned route of flight to Peru in the Cessna 172SP:
Cessna 172 ferry flight route from US to Peru
Image courtesy of Great Circle Mapper.
Notice after South Florida how I worked in stops in the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cartagena. Another long day in the office of a ferry pilot
Realistically this is the best route to fly down to Peru in a Cessna 172 and there won’t be any time for touristy stuff at each fuel stop – but they are still beautiful places to visit.
In a Cessna 172 you could probably go direct Florida to Jamaica, but I’m a wuss when it comes to fuel reserves so I’ll make an extra stop in the Bahamas. When flying a light airplane from the US to South America I usually stop in Montego Bay (Jamaica), but in a Cessna 172 I prefer Kingston so the leg to Cartagena is a bit shorter. Baranquilla is also available as a first point of landing in Colombia, but I just happen to be familiar with Cartagena and know the handling agent there. After Cartagena I’ll stop in Cali and Guayaquil before heading to Trujillo, Peru, where I’ll clear Peru Customs.
For this route I’m required to have Cuba overflight permit, Jamaica landing permit as well as permits for each of the South American countries. I work with a good handling agent who coordinates all my overflight and landing permits for me.
A few more pictures of ferry flights to South America:
Approaching Cuba
Landing at Cali, Colombia (SKCL)
The Pacific coast just south of Lima, Peru. Visual approach to SPLX, Libmandi, Peru
Tough job but somebody’s got to do it
Low cost ferry pilot
I’m not the lowest cost ferry pilot. I think this guy here is:
Seneca V crash in Greenland during ferry flght to Europe
Please let me be perfectly clear: over the years I’ve come to understand bad things happen in our industry, and they happen to good people. I’m not above making a mistake and you can even read about my mishap here.
I’m not the most expensive nor the cheapest ferry pilot, I charge about the same as other professional and reputable ferry pilots. I’m not saying that a person who charges $300 per day is a better or safer pilot than the one who charges $200 per day, or that the pilot who charges $4,000 for an Atlantic ferry flight is a safer pilot than the pilot who charges $2,000 for the same ferry flight, only that I charge what is fair and allows me to reasonably provide for my family.
Having said that, I’ve turned down quite a few flights over money-issues lately. Not so much over what I charge for my time as a ferry pilot, but typically the conflict is over flight expenses.
Accidents – often fatal – do happen in our business, such as this one or this one. I didn’t know either of these pilots but as far as I’ve heard they were both good people and conscientious pilots. There should be no reason they lost their lives and their families lost a loved one over doing a job.
Speaking in general terms, not to be specific about the cause of any particular accident, BUT in my opinion you cannot rule out the pressures of delivering an aircraft in less time and for less money as contributing factors in many ferry flight accidents.
I won’t have any part of it. Again, I’m not above making a mistake, but if someone wants me to do a flight and will not afford me the flexibility or budget to do the flight as safe, comfortable and correctly as possible – I simply won’t take the flight.
Here are some typical things ferry pilots are asked to do to keep costs down:
- Charts and databases: I’m asked sometimes: “you just did a ferry flight last month, why don’t you use those charts?”.
- Survival gear: it’s expensive and cumbersome and we never plan to use it. But it’s required and if you ever did need it…
- Fuel: buy less fuel or carry fuel in the baggage compartment to avoid paying more at higher priced airports.
- Route of flight: the accident databases are filled with ferry flight accidents due to fuel starvation (such as the picture above). I’m often asked to take a more direct route of flight that might save 3 hours of flight time but doesn’t afford me a comfortable fuel reserve.
- Winds and weather: this is probably the biggest one. In the Artic you’ll easily pay $250 per person per day for hotels and meals, so nobody wants to get delayed, but you really can’t rush into winds or weather over the ocean in a light airplane.
I have a lot of stories. A while back I saw a ferry pilot take off out of Bangor in a Cessna 206 direct to the Azores, literally overflying a perfectly good fuel stop 700 miles enroute at St. Johns. He may have saved $500 in handling fees and less expensive avgas, but to me it wouldn’t be worth the extra risk of extreme overweight takeoff and less fuel reserves. Maybe if I had no choice, if someone was shooting at me, but nobody was shooting, the pilot was just trying to save $500 for the owner of a $500,000+ airplane.
Most of the things we’re asked may not pose an immediate safety risk but do reduce the margin of safety a bit for no reason other than money. Think about it, flying a light aircraft over oceans, into the Artic or halfway across the globe is a challenging task. To take away any margin of safety at all for the sake of flight expenses is nonsense.
As for the accident aircraft pictured above, you can read the story here. The pilots are very lucky to be alive (no one should ever fly an untanked Seneca from Goose Bay direct to Narsarsuaq) but as far as I understand the pilot is still up to the same stuff.
How much is my fee as a ferry pilot?
For most trips I charge a daily rate for my time plus expenses. For most Atlantic ferry flights, the fee for my time is a flat-rate fee, so you don’t have to worry about paying extra in case of weather or other minor operational delays.
For aircraft expenses, on most trips I will charge the actual expenses as incurred during the ferry flight. I provide an estimated budget prior to the trip and at the end of the trip I provide an accounting of the actual expenses.
I prefer not to charge a flat (fixed) rate for the expenses but charge actual expenses as incurred. The reason for this is so that in the case of weather delays I don’t feel pressured due to lack of funds (if you provide a cut-rate quote) but at the same time I don’t charge my customer any more than what the actual expenses are.
Some of my ferry pilot pictures:
Cessna 182 delivered to Germany
Mooney Acclaim ferry flight to Europe - fuel stop in Sondre Stromfjord (BGSF)
Piper Archer delivered to Switzerland
Cessna 182 ferry flight to Lima, Peru
Maule M7-260 delivered to England
Piper Seneca delivered to Biggin Hill
Atlantic ferry flight checklist
On my most recent Atlantic ferry flight, halfway between Egilsstadir and Wick, my copilot Phil (and owner of the airplane) asked for a bottle of camelsweat, aka Gatorade. I reached around to the back seat of the pretty Maule M7 and grabbed a bottle of camelsweat.
“Last bottle”, I said.
Phil nodded and then shook his head in disbelief. When we got ready for the trip about 10 days earlier we had gone shopping for supplies at Walmart (where else). I grabbed an 8-pack or 12-pack of camelsweat and as I put it in the shopping cart I turned back and grabbed an additional big bottle of the stuff. Phil looked at me at the time and shook his head.
I get that reaction a lot when I go shopping before a ferry flight. I am often accompanied by the owner of the plane I’m flying, and they are generally astounded at how much drinks and snacks I buy. That combined with an email suggestion of a faithful reader inspired me to write an informal checklist of what to buy and get before an Atlantic ferry flight in a general aviation airplane.
Of course this is not the end-all be-all checklist of flying over the North Atlantic, just a reasonable checklist of what to get and what to do before a ferry flight over the North Atlantic in a typical single-engine airplane. Preparation is key to an easy and uneventful flight:
1) Walmart:
I don’t like Wally World any more than any other big box store, but you get the idea. Here’s the stuff I stock up on:
- Drinks: get at least one drink per person per leg of the flight. You don’t really want to spend a lot of time at each stop trying to find a store/cafetaria or correct local change for the vending machine. Forget the carbonated sugary stuff. Water or Gatorade works best for me. The big Gatorade bottles also double as emergency bathroom
- Chocolate and Snickers bars or the like. Sufficient for snacks and emergency supplies. If you’re going someplace warm (like Latin America) change chocolate for something that doesn’t melt
- Peanuts or any other flavor nuts that spins your proverbial propeller.
- Cereal bars.
- Paper towels.
2) Airplane:
Now that we have the important stuff covered, let’s look at the airplane…
In all seriousness, it’s very important to make sure the airplane is ready for an Atlantic ferry flight. Too often people just assume they can take any airplane from the US or Canada and it will be ready for export and ferry flight. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although the US and Canada may be the biggest General Aviation markets, most airplanes that are simply flown and maintained to US standards are not ready for export or Atlantic ferry flight. That does not mean the airplanes/standards are not as good, simply that there are different regulatory requirements based on ground infrastructure and the like in various parts of the world.
Again, not the end-all be-all list but here are some common things to check on your airplane before an Atlantic ferry flight or export:
- Export Certificate of Airworthiness – unless you plan to continue flying under FAA registration.
- US Customs aircraft export documents. This is often overlooked but legally required.
- Valid registration for the ferry flight – I will do a post on this subject later, unfortunately many people assume they can fly an airplane with the previous owner’s registration certificate, that is simply not true.
- Valid insurance, which is a legal requirement in Europe and many other areas, as well as a sensible thing to have. Ferry flight insurance is best bought as part of the annual policy that will cover the airplane in it’s new home country. Many insurance companies nowadays require a minimum of 5 previous Atlantic ferry flights for the ferry pilot.
- Aircraft equipment: depending on requirements of your home country, you may need to install traditional ADF and DME. You may also need to install a 406Mhz ELT and mode-S transponder. This is true even if you intend to keep flying under FAA registration: you must comply with the operating requirements of the countries you fly in.
- A good recent inspection. You don’t want to incur maintenance costs somewhere far away from home, plus it’s safe to assume if you’re exporting a US-made aircraft that any maintenance you need will be less expensive in the US than in your home country.
- Ferry tank: most airplanes don’t need a ferry tank to cross the Atlantic, but if you do have a ferry tank, make sure you have it installed by a reputable shop who will give you correct FAA paperwork with validations for Canada or other countries that may require it.
- HF radio: with few exceptions Atlantic ferry flight routes require HF radio. In most general aviation aircraft it makes more sense to fly the routes that DO NOT require HF radio (CYFB-BGSF-BIKF).
3) Survival equipment:
You must have the required survival equipment for the type airplane and route. Canada and Greenland both have specific requirements. Generally speaking you will need a raft, immersion suits and a survival kit. It’s also a good idea to carry a personal satelite ELT (EPIRB) and a satelite phone.
In addition to the minimum requirements, I usually carry some sleeping bags, extra flashlights, lighters, etc. I also carry a Walmart first-aid kit so that I don’t have to open my $350 sealed survival kit when someone bumpes their head on the wing of a Cessna.
It’s also important to bring some warm clothes, gloves, scarf, etc. Even in summertime you will see very cold temperatures over the North Atlantic. If the aircraft heater should fail, you must have some means to stay reasonably warm.
4) Pilot supplies / operational requirements:
Some really important items:
- Paper charts: like it or not, you must have paper charts applicable to your route. Transport Canada can and will violate you if you don’t have appropriate charts.
- Current avionics database: No ifs, ands or buts. If your avionics require a database, you must have the current dbase applicable to the route you are flying.
- Valid licenses: make sure your ferry pilot meets all applicable recent experience requirements. Even if flying VFR, Transport Canada requires that the ferry pilot has a valid instrument rating, that also means meating the recent experience requirements.
- Fuel pump: this is important if you plan to stop at some remote airports that may have fuel in drums and no pump. In Kuujjuaq (CYVP) you MUST bring your own pump if you plan to buy avgas 100LL.
- Hat, sunglasses: flying over the Greenland icecap or a uniform cloud layer with sun on top…
Last but not least: Souvenirs for mamacita: don’t forget to pick up some souvenirs at each stop
Finally, make sure to pack light and leave out anything not needed for the flight. If you have spare parts or other airplane supplies that you don’t plan on using during the flight, send it home instead of packing it in the airplane baggage compartment. With few exceptions, most light airplanes will be near gross weight during an Atlantic ferry flight just with the weight of the fuel, pilots, supplies, survival gear, etc. You don’t want to load the airplane down with any unnecessary stuff, because you will often want to maximize altitude performance to avoid weather or take advantage of favorable winds during the flight.
If you have any suggestions or I have overlooked any items, please leave a comment or send me an email.
Putting on my immersion suit before the overwater legs
Pumping avgas from a drum in Kuujjuaq (CYVP)
New link
I’ve added a new link Trip reports & flying in Europe under “Blogroll” on the RH side of the blog. This site was kindly suggested to me after my earlier post about UK ATC.
The site has much information about flying in Europe as well as detailed and illustrated trip reports, some to places I’ve been to such as Newcastle and Locarno, but many more I have not yet been to.
Flying in Europe - trip reports
Any suggestions of relevant content to link to or publish here on the blog are always appreciated!
Cessna 210
Take a look at the sweetest flying plane I’ve flown in quite some time. Here she is:
Cessna 210J
She’s old and has a peculiar – some might say ugly – paint scheme due to being used as a fire spotter aircraft. She doesn’t have a glass cockpit, TKS or forward looking infrared. Heck, she doesn’t even have a working GPS.
But she’s a Cessna 210!!!!
That’s right people, a Cessna 210! The airplane your father always wanted. In it’s day it was the ultimate single-engine airplane.
Those shiny new Cirrus and Corvalis airplanes go to bed at night dreaming of waking up as a Cessna 210, a real airplane with retractable landing gear and a big cabin made out of real aluminum. An airplane with sweet handling characteristics, stable yet responsive. An airplane with a laminar flow wing yet docile and forgiving enough for the average private pilot.
Sure a Cessna 210 doesn’t have the capabilities of the newer pressurized single engine aircraft like the Malibu, Meridian, TBM or PC12. But none of those aircraft will ever be built in the sheer numbers of Cessna 210s. The 210 was in reach of the average private pilot / aircraft owner, in terms of budget as well as pilot skill. The 210 didn’t have the big cabin door and club seating of the Piper Lance/Saratoga, but it was faster and generally seen as a better flying airplane, more of a pilot’s plane than the Piper. The Bonanza 36 was competitive, but I don’t think it ever had the production numbers of the Cessna 210.
You can still get a good used Cessna 210, even though the newest models are a quarter century old. If you so desire you can retrofit a glass cockpit and still come in at a budget less than a late model Cirrus or Corvalis. You can even retrofit the much improved IO-550 engine to replace the 210′s IO-520 engine.
I think Cessna made a mistake not resuming production of the 210 in the late 1990s. Until the acquisition of the Corvalis line, Cessna had ceded the high-end single engine market for faster airplanes entirely to Cirrus.
Don’t get me wrong, the newer airplanes with glass cockpit and integrated autopilots are nice, especially for someone like myself who flies them halfway across the world on delivery flights. But the newer airplanes are also more complicated. I personally also don’t think the newer airplanes are as safe or fun to fly for the average private pilot. All the avionics and automation are really not required for the type of flying most private pilots do, and it leads to a lot of head-down time and a possible false sense of security. Unless you fly a lot of actual IFR, all the automation and avionics has little practical benefit.
A Cessna 210 didn’t need all that automation. It had great handling characteristics. I only flew the airplane pictured above for about 3 hours, but other than takeoff and landing I rarely touched the yoke. No autopilot – I only looked outside following my roads and rivers and other landmarks on the chart. I occasionally made my course corrections with just a touch of the rudder. Even though I hadn’t flown a 210 in years I easily landed using no more than 1,500 feet or so of a 3,000 ft runway.
Oh the nostalgia
A beautiful summer day flying over Quebec in a Cessna 210
Update:
Interesting Cessna 210 history from Cessna Pilots Association.
Airbus A380 at Toronto
Airbus A380 in Toronto
I caught a view of the Airbus A380 while I was waiting on a flight in Toronto the other day. It was my first time seeing an A380 up close. The airplane has a distinct gull-wing appearance, which I had not noticed before.
This particular airplane was an Emirates Airlines A380, which have the GE/P&W engines, not the Rolls-Royce engine that was in the news a while back due to the spectacular uncontained engine failure on a Qantas Airlines A380.
Maule ferry flight to Europe
The trip got off to an ugly start. I ran the beautiful, brand new, yellow and blue Maule M7-260 off the runway before we even left our departure airport. Never before in my career as a pilot have I done anything like that.
Phil – the owner of the Maule and an experienced pilot – and I had decided to take the airplane up for a local familiarization flight before departing on the ferry flight from Indiana to England. It was a fairly windy day and on our last landing of the day we drifted off to the left of centerline a bit. I overcorrected with right rudder and at about 30 miles per hour the airplane swerved to the right and into the grass beside the runway. No excuses, I know better. You just don’t step on the rudder like that in a tailwheel airplane, but instinct or dumbassery got the better of me in that instant.
Phil was extremely cool about the entire incident. Nothing got hurt other than my pride. Not everyone is so lucky: on my previous ferry flight a brand new Challenger ran off the runway in Iqaluit a few hours after I landed. I don’t know the details other than the airplane sat beside the runway in the snow for several days until a maintenance team from Bombardier was flown in to get the airplane out of the snow.
I don’t have a picture of my screwup (Phil does), but here’s the Challenger in the snow at Iqaluit:
A Challenger corporate jet off the runway in Iqaluit.
Over the years I’ve come to realize bad things happen in our industry and they happen to good people. Years ago anytime I would see a mishap or accident, I would think something along the lines of “how on earth could they do that”, unable to believe it could ever happen to me. I’m not saying that even one accident should be considered acceptable in aviation, only that nobody is above making a simple mistake. The best we can do is build in as much system safety as possible, so any one screwup or fault by any one person or piece of equipment doesn’t result in an accident.
After our ominous start the trip was great. We took the scenic route so to speak. Since the airplane was brand new and Phil has family in Saskatchewan, we decided on a shake-down trip from Indiana to Yorkton, SK (Canada) before starting the ferry flight over the Atlantic to England. We cruised VFR along the beautiful Chicago lakeshore to Sheboygan, WI and Duluth, MN (KDLH) on our first day. (Click the images for full size)
Flying along the beautiful Chicago lakeshore
In Duluth we completed the aircraft export and all of our outbound US paperwork. We headed to Winnipeg (CQWG) for fuel and inbound Canada customs and then over to Yorkton, Saskatchewan (CYQV). Agriculture is big business around Yorkton and Saskatchewan in general. Phil’s cousin farms about 4,000 acres of land and took us along to the annual farm show that just happened to be taking place in Regina. I only regret that I left my camera in the airplane because there was all kinds of cool guy-stuff at the farm show. Tractors that cost more than airplanes!
Maule M7 approach to landing at Yorkton, SK.
After Yorkton we started Eastbound, getting started in earnest on the ferry flight to Europe. We routed from Yorkton to Red Lake (CYRL) and Moosonee (CYMO). In Moosonee we overnighted and ran into a bit of an issue when the hotel reception apparently called 2 cabs for us the next morning when we were ready to leave. Or maybe they just called one and the other happened to be driving by, I don’t know. Both of the drivers claimed that the reception had called them and got into a bit of a contest, with one driver accusing the other of being a drug dealer and corrupting the local youth (who are mostly native Indian). It got a bit awkward before we finally jumped in one of the cars and rode out to the airport.
From Moosonee we turned North and headed for La Grande Riviere (CYGL) and then to familiar Kuujjuaq (CYVP). On the flight from La Grande to Kuujjuaq we ran into lousy weather for the first time along the trip. Conditions were marginal VFR over most of Quebec and since we wouldn’t have been able to climb above the weather we stayed around 1,500 ft AGL below the weather most of the way from La Grande to Kuujjuaq.
We arrived in Kuujjuaq on a Friday and with no hope of crossing the Atlantic before Greenland closed on Sunday we decided to lay over in Kuujjuaq until Sunday morning. Our plan was to get some good rest, set out to Iqaluit on Sunday and get a 3:00 am start Monday morning for the Atlantic crossing.
Speaking of rest, I guess I should mention here just for context that the airplane, while very well equipped with Garmin 430 and Aspen glass cockpit, had no autopilot.
The layover in Kuujjuaq was quite interesting. We chatted up the staff at the only restaurant in town and one of the servers kept making fun of Phil, calling him “the man who talks funny”, because of his British English. We also learned that the native Inuit population refers to us Caucasians as “whities” (obviously) or “oui-ouis” – pronounced “wee-wees” as in the French “oui”. This apparently because most of the Caucasian residents in Kuujjuaq are French Canadians and in conversation they often say “oui oui” (yes yes).
Posing with the Inukshuk by the hotel in Kuujjuaq.
We had an uneventful flight to Iqaluit on Sunday and got a few hours of rest before starting of on the Atlantic crossing to Greenland. Early Monday morning the weather was perfect for our Atlantic crossing, except for the departure out of Iqaluit. There was an area of weather moving in from the North as well as a larger area to our South that was forecast to move in later. Bottom line, it looked like we would have to toughen up and get out of Iqaluit, or be stuck for at least a day or so and waist a day of perfect weather over the Atlantic.
I felt comfortable with the weather on departure. I could tell Phil had his doubts but he deferred to me for the decision. Iqaluit was reporting 600-800 foot ceilings and models showed 3,000 foot tops with no icing. Only trouble was that the winds were 10 kts from the South, and in Iqaluit the only approach is the ILS to runway 35. I told Phil that if we had to turn back for any reason after takeoff, we would plan on shooting the ILS and circle to land, but depending on the actual ceiling at the time we might have to land straight in with a 10kt. tailwind – not something I’d look forward to doing in a Maule.
When you fly light aircraft in the Artic and over the ocean you have to be very conservative with weather. I never “go” unless the forecasts are well above minimums. Forecasts can change quickly, as I found out on my previous Atlantic ferry flight. Having said that, meteorology is really quite good and the actual observations are generally right on.
We got our clearance and runup out of the way and took off on runway 17 at Iqaluit. Phil was flying and I was watching the altitude as we hit the cloud base. Between 300 and 400 feet we were in solid IMC. So much for the reported 600-800 feet ceilings. Now the decision had been made for us, if we had to turn back we would shoot the ILS straight in and land with a 10kt. tailwind.
Around 3,000 feet we approached the freezing level and were still in solid IMC. Phil was nervous. I told him not to worry because the tops were supposed to be at 3,000 and no icing was indicated on any charts. At 4,000 we were still in IMC and picked up a trace of ice. I started to think about turning back. A moment later we broke out on top in perfect sunshine and miles of visibility. 50 miles further East we were in clear sky all the way to the coast of Greenland, where a cloud deck formed below us again. We shot the localizer approach at Sondre Stromfjord but easily had the field insight from about 5 miles out.
After refueling the conditions at Sondre Stromfjord had improved to the point of severe clear, so we filed VFR over the icecap at 13,500 feet. At this low altitude (the icecap has a mean elevation of about 10,000 feet) we noticed some kind of research station in the middle of the icecap and made about a 10 mile detour just to check out this strange lonely building.
A lonely building in the middle of the Greenland icecap
Severe clear weather conditions with light winds continued in Kulusuk (BGKK) and over the ocean to Iceland. On approach to Kulusuk we got some great views of the coast of Greenland. Continuing VFR from Kulusuk to Iceland we managed to land at a reasonable hour in Reykjavic.
Approaching the east coast of Greenland
Maule in Kulusuk (BGKK)
In Reykjavic we found out that since my previous trip the LoftLeidir hotel has completed most of it’s ongoing refurbishments. In other words, the bar is open again! Phil decided we’d celebrate a successful day with a double gin-and-tonic for the both of us, but I honestly have to say mine must have been a triple or better. I only made it through half of my drink before I decided to share with Phil as well as an innocent bystander who happened to share our table.
From Reykjavic we flew to Egilsstadir (BIEG) for fuel and then the final overwater leg to Wick, Scotland (EGPC). We overnighted in Wick and completed our U.K. import there the next morning. True to form, the weather over Scotland and England was lousy with low clouds and some strong winds, so we overnighted an extra day in Wick. Another day in Scotland, another 2 Monkey Shoulders 
We made our final destination in East Anglia after 3 hours of dodging summer storms the next day. We landed just before a light shower hit our destination airport.
Maule M7 at our destination in East Anglia
All in all I enjoyed flying the Maule. It’s a good flying airplane but you can’t fly it as if it were a C172 – as I found out. With the big (260HP) engine the M7-260 is quite powerful and leaps off the ground. It’s not as much a STOL airplane as a Super Cub, but still has great takeoff and landing performance. Along with power the big engine Maule has a lot of torque but the big rudder easily compensates.
It’s fun to fly an airplane that’s suited well to flying close in traffic patterns. I think as a pilot you should be comfortable flying a reasonably close pattern, even though few airline pilots do so any more. On numerous occasions in the Maule we had to extend our pattern or slow down for other, faster aircraft that were flying larger patterns – often larger than they really should have been. It happened in Sheboygan behind a King Air, again in Red Lake behind a Saab 340 airliner and by the time we got to Iqaluit and had to slow down again for traffic I just couldn’t help myself on the radio any longer:
“Maule on downwind is slowing down for spacing behind landing Learjet traffic.”
Nobody responded
There are only a few Maules in Europe and I know Phil will attract spectators most anywhere he goes.
