Hitching a Ride to Europe

February 28, 2019 10:01 AM

Here is a video log of a flight from Lawrence, MA to Austria in a Cessna 210.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

posted by backseatpilot (25 comments total)

Mr. Sixswitch has completely fallen down this rabbit hole!
posted by sixswitch at 10:16 AM on February 28, 2019

Avgeek Mefites represent! 🛩

More on other folks who deliver small planes to customers on the other side of the ocean here in this 2015 BBC article.
posted by mdonley at 10:17 AM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Sweaty hands-filter.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:20 AM on February 28, 2019

That plane only has one spinny thing that makes it go. No thank you.
posted by Nelson at 10:20 AM on February 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

Eponysterical.
posted by acb at 10:26 AM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

That plane only has one spinny thing that makes it go. No thank you.

You might like the part where they're headed up through Quebec and Nunavut to Iqaluit. A minute or so later, they start to ice up.

Once they clear the clouds, the view is spectacular.

Then there's the issue of nature's call. Pee bottles to the rescue!

Later on, they radio to ask for the runway lights to be turned on in Iqaluit.

Then they get stuck in the airport for an hour because it's late and nobody's around.

I love having these flight videos on in the background. I learn a factoid or two about flying every time I see one. Thanks for this!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:38 AM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

I watched part 1, expecting to get bored halfway through but this is really good. I'll be watching the other parts tonight.

I wish they could have left out the part where the guy in the back seat picks his nose.

I soloed at Lawrence many years ago (never finished training) in the days before GPS, smartphones and tablets so it's really cool seeing how all those things have changed flying so much. No more tuning in VORs. Do they even teach that any more?

I flew to Martha's Vineyard once with my instructor to ferry a plane (we got a ride back on a pretty sweet twin engine piper with leather seats) and just flying across a few miles of ocean was a little nerve-wracking. We were never out of site of land and were probably in gliding distance most of the time. I don't think I would cross the actual ocean in a single engine plane, even with the bulky rubber suits and life rafts.

I love little planes.
posted by bondcliff at 10:46 AM on February 28, 2019

Holy cripes. I am going to have to come back and watch this. I live outside Boston, and I have a fantasy of stepping out my door and going to another country without taking a commercial airliner, without losing a sense of connection to the outside world. But little GA planes are too connected to the outside world for me. Still, I get excited whenever I get the chance to take a commuter flight on one --
posted by Countess Elena at 11:09 AM on February 28, 2019

Looking forward to watching these later.

No more tuning in VORs. Do they even teach that any more?

Yup, VOR navigation is in the sample questions (PDF) for the FAA instrument rating test. I didn't see anything there about ADF, so some progress maybe...

At the big Oshkosh air show some years ago I had the good fortunate to run into CarolAnn Garratt. She has a Mooney aircraft almost the same as mine (not too dissimilar to the Cessna 210 in these videos) and I think by now she has flown it around the world on three occasions. For her flights she fitted her plane with a HF radio and a ferry tank for extra fuel. Anyway she was very friendly, generous with her time and supportive with advice. If I save up enough to cover the costs of the trip such as fuel in Greenland (they don't sell much aviation gas there, but rather mostly jet fuel, so avgas is super expensive) I hope take the plane to Europe some day, which could be accomplished with stock equipment installed on the plane. So far I have been back and forth across the breadth of the US several times (takes at least two days), and visited Canada and the Bahamas.
posted by exogenous at 11:22 AM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

Missed a couple! Part 6. Part 7.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:22 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Wow, the episode in London where the crew that is carrying on into the rest of the world where GA (General Aviation?) isn't a thing has to go and buy pilot looking uniform shirts and epaulettes lest they be taken for plane thieves or cause other confusion when they're on the ground.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:54 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

My flying exploits are much more pedestrian, I have to admit. The furthest I've ever gone has been upstate New York to Tennessee for a flying competition (in a loaded 172 with hard IMC the whole way, and I was the only instrument-current pilot). I've done Boston to Maryland a couple times which is more than doable in one leg, but I mostly stick around New England otherwise. I'm going to see if I can change that this year as the weather warms up.

I do share his love of airport restaurants, though; I think it's a common thing among pilots to go looking for grub. The only resource I really know of for that is the Hundred Dollar Hamburger website which has been behind a paywall since its inception, so I've never joined unfortunately. I guess I should get over that and throw the guy a couple bucks.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:21 PM on February 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I should sign up as well. There is also the $100 Hamburger print book which I received as a gift, but it is a little outdated (though I see a 2019 edition). Around here it's often $100 crabcakes :-)

The airport at Ponca City, Oklahoma has a great Mexican restaurant. Good service too, with two guys marshaling me in to park and fueling us in the middle of a rainstorm while we went in to eat.
posted by exogenous at 1:51 PM on February 28, 2019

Could finish after the dude in the rear was digging for Yukon gold in his nose.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:15 PM on February 28, 2019

Second video they lose avionics and their pitot freezes over while they’re over the middle of the Atlantic. It is terrifying. Holy shit.
posted by weed donkey at 5:21 PM on February 28, 2019

They had to reboot their fucking airplane!!
posted by weed donkey at 5:22 PM on February 28, 2019

Could finish after the dude in the rear was digging for Yukon gold in his nose.

I was set to consider it confirmation of my shameful preconceptions about white people with dreads but it turns out he had a bloody nose from bonking himself when he was pulling up the zipper on his survival suit.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:38 PM on February 28, 2019

That was unusual, yeah, but I bet it could have been avoided if they turned on the pitot heat for a couple minutes before rebooting everything. Besides, they had enough backup instruments that they weren’t in any serious danger. They mentioned not being able to shoot an approach into Greenland without the Aspen system, but the Garmins in the center of the panel are capable of showing horizontal deviation at the very least, so in a pinch they could do a non-precision approach with that. I think the Garmin 430 will give you vertical deviation on the screen as well, and I’m almost positive that touchscreen 650(?) will do it.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:40 PM on February 28, 2019

Somebody mentioned that they wouldn't want to do this in a single piston. The thing is a twin can be theoretically more risky. Having two engines increases the chance of engine failure and a twin with an engine out might not have enough fuel to make the distance as the engine has to operate at a higher power, the plane flies slower and there is more drag.
posted by Pembquist at 7:53 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

The same (?) guys also have a longer series where they fly around the world.
posted by patrick54 at 10:51 PM on February 28, 2019

You can almost see my house when they fly over Brighton! (during the formation flying in Part 5, after they land at Shoreham which is just down the road)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:07 AM on March 1, 2019

Wow, the episode in London where the crew that is carrying on into the rest of the world where GA (General Aviation?) isn't a thing has to go and buy pilot looking uniform shirts and epaulettes lest they be taken for plane thieves or cause other confusion when they're on the ground.

So is the implication that if you buy a pilot outfit it's easy to steal a plane? 🤔
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:08 AM on March 1, 2019

So is the implication that if you buy a pilot outfit it's easy to steal a plane? 🤔

Yea, the logic kinda failed on me as well. Like if you're a plane thief then you probably have the wherewithal to purchase a fake pilot shirt as well.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:05 AM on March 1, 2019

Not necessarily, Colton Harris Moore didn't even have shoes.
posted by weed donkey at 6:21 AM on March 1, 2019

The Greenland footage in video #2 is pretty great.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:01 PM on March 2, 2019