There’s always a bit of trepidation when
embarking on something that one has never done before and is certainly not the
run-of-the-mill kind of job – ferrying an airplane across endless hours of
water. So it was with an added bit of “what have I signed up to” when Dylan
wrote and said he couldn’t make the initial date. But as there were so many
things lined up with this date MAF did a risk assessment and opted to fly the
first two Caravans with the help, knowledge and support network of Dylan.
So after the usual 24 hours of travel to
get to the other side of the world I was happy to crash into bed in Newton – a
small town just south of Moundridge where the 3 airplanes were parked.
The next few days were spent trying to
convince and dupe my body clock into thinking that everything was business as
usual. The 5 days available prior to launching were busy enough. I spent some
hours emptying the two planes and taking stock of everything in the pods and
reloading them with a better weight distribution. Also a good number of
shipping boxes were waiting to be opened that contained most of our emergency
equipment. And then the next 3 big boxes arrived with all our navigational
paperwork. I ended up waiting at the airport a day early to pick up Christiaan
the second pilot because I was off on my dates – having crossed the
international date line. I got a bit of a quizzical look when I asked the lady
what the date was. But by Saturday afternoon everything was ready to go after
the G1000’s finally received their up-to-date databases for the trip.
We had also spent some time getting a
number of last-minute items to supplement and complement the emergency equipment
that had been purchased. Even though we’d been watching the weather patterns
all along we were now closely looking at what was happening along our ca 7500
nm route.
Monday morning we got up early and drove up
to Moundridge where we loaded our own gear on board and said our good-byes to
the great folks at Southwind Global who had shown us great kindness and where
nothing was a problem. Thanks guys! With the break of dawn we fired up the
PT6’s and with a bit of trepidation and lots of excitement the throttle was
pushed forward, and we took to the skies for our first – wait for it – 10
minute flight to Wichita! Yeah, we first needed to load up a whole bunch of Jet
fuel and of course have a quick look at the Constellation parked at Wichita.
Our turn-around there was quick and efficient with FastAir having organized
fuel releases for us. Within the hour we had picked up our first IFR clearance
and were in a slow climb up to 11000 feet that would only vary as we had to
climb to 13000 to climb over some higher enroute terrain.
We enjoyed the simplicity of the FAA system
as we joined that group of people that spends hours on end looking down from
the sky onto the rest of humanity. The flight took us from Kansas through
Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and finally into California. As you can
imagine the landscape was forever changing and just as one “wow” was just
fading the next seemed to form on my lips. This leg of 1200 nm was also the
chance for Christiaan and me to engage with our cockpit and work the fuel
system. We had three extra fuel tanks on-board holding between them an extra 445
gallons (2980 lbs. or 1680 liters) giving us a total flight time of just over
17 hours when including the fuel in our wings. Just as the sun was starting to set,
we were giving radar vectors that brought us both down for a visual landing
into Santa Maria. We finished our post-flight in the dark and abandoned our
planes in search of dinner and a bed.
The next day we re-fueled the planes and
then went in search of a shop that could fill our hand-held emergency breathing
tanks. We also got some final purchases that we had forgotten and then filed
our flight plans for the next leg to Hilo, Hawaii.
It was still dark when we got to the
planes. We finished our pre-flight and then jumped into our dry suits for the
first leg of our journey over open water. We again picked up our IFR clearance
and with just a glimmer of the impending day appearing on the horizon launched
northwards into the still dark night sky. Once clear of a prohibited area we were
given left turns and before long, we were glancing back at the receding coast
line with the sun just coming up over the horizon. From here on it was blue on
blue – blue skies, blue water and blue GPS screens (with a lot of white clouds
all over the place). We had a steep initial learning curve as we figured out
the procedures and made sure we had the correct clearances and radio channels.
From there on it was hourly calls on top of the mandatory reporting points as
the propeller turned its way through the 2200 nm towards the next speck of dry
land called Hawaii. The synthetic vision on the GPS was the by far the first to
“see” that there was land coming up. As we received decent clearances into Hilo
we soon descended into lower cloud and ended up on the ILS approach over the
ocean into Hilo. I landed just at dusk and Christiaan touched down just after night
finally enveloped Hilo.
We parked the planes and followed the same
procedure of two days previous with dinner and bed on our minds. We got picked
up the next day and returned to the airport to refuel the planes for the next
leg. We also did a detailed post and pre-flight knowing the next time we’d see
the planes would again be in the dark. And after all the jokes of spending
extra days on Hawaii after watching and tracking the weather we decided to
delay the flight by one day to hopefully see some big storms on the way start
diminishing rather than continue to grow.
On the third day at 4.30 in the morning we
again checked weather and talked each other into believing that the storms we
were looking at were actually slowly dissipating. One of the challenges and
areas of growth was looking at weather that was some hours old and try to
predict what the weather would probably end up being 8 – 12 hours in the
future. Having had a chat with Dylan the day previous about the weather we were
pretty sure that this flight should now be doable. So we again found ourselves
picking up our IFR clearances in the dark of night and taking off with a fuel
heavy airplane out of the ocean straight into rain and low clouds. ATC was very
helpful and gave us radar vectors to the best of their ability. As we climbed
through 8000 feet ATC was able to give us unlimited radar vectors to get us on
course as quick as possible and out of the weather. And just as that happened, I
broke out of the clouds and was able to see the dawn break with the volcano of
Hilo standing out against the brightening sky. With the other Hawaiian Islands
to our right it didn’t take too long before we again only had water all around
us until 13 hours and 2200 nm later with the sun low on the horizon, I spotted
the first chain of outlying islands leading me towards Majuro, Marshall Island.
The RNAV approach brought us down to the runway where I safely landed though my
flight tracker decided to indicate that I had landed in the bay. This was
clarified about two hours later when we finally ended up in the Hotel and again
had wireless access and were able to confirm numerous queries that all was
fine. We were warned that fuel was not available for 5 days due to a Jet fuel
shipment arriving by boat but because FastAir had procured fuel releases these
were honored and as soon as we shut down the planes, we were able to re-fuel
the planes for the final leg to Cairns.
The next day we spent the morning walking
around for several hours but were glad to step back from the heat and humidity
back into the hotels air-conditioning. The rest of the day we spent watching
the weather and filing flight plans for the last leg.
We again departed early morning and arrived
after a long (slow) drive in the dark at the airport. We finally found an
access gate manned by a security guard who waved us through without getting up
out of his seat. We went through the usual checks and preparations and with
some difficulty were able to pick up our IFR clearance via HF from San
Francisco Center. We were looking forward to this flight that would take us
over the Solomon Islands for which we had overflight clearances and kept us out
of PNG airspace for which we did not have any clearances. At various times
during the 2200 nm the weather was looking a bit dubious but as we got nearer
to these darker areas, we were able to navigate these storm systems without
much problems, sometimes in the clear, sometimes in cloud. We knew that when we
reached the Solomon Islands which was about half way the weather onwards ought
to be pretty clear which it was. Due to the continuous headwinds this was our
longest leg and as we approached the 15-hour mark I was able to witness a
spectacular and beautiful sunset over the clouds looking eastwards towards
Australia. We were handed over from Brisbane Center to Cairns approach and with
the expected clearances we gradually worked our way down into the clouds and
the spreading darkness back towards firm ground and a runway somewhere out
there in the dark. However with broken clouds and decently high bases I was
soon flying down the ILS towards the now lit up runway. On landing and parking
at the international terminal it was fantastic to be met by Peter (MAF Tree
Tops Manager) who has all necessary clearances and training to receive foreign
aircraft. Immigration and Customs was a quick process and was all done and completed
right next to the airplanes. From there we taxied over to general aviation and
parked the airplanes for the duration of the night.
In the morning Peter brought us back to the
planes where we met Border Control agents who after a quick glance over the
planes signed them off for entry into Australia. From there it was only a quick
10 minutes flight up to Mareeba where the planes were greeted by MAF staff who
were happy to see the hard facts of what had been talked about for quite some
time. The planes are now in the hands of our engineers and avionics staff who
will finalize them before they are flown up to PNG where they will commence service
with MAF.
My personal thanks to the many who made
this trip go well. Dylan from FastAir who gave us great briefings and insight
and passed on a huge amount of knowledge and access to flight planning software
that made filing easy. The folks at Southwind global who were so helpful and
kind and where nothing was a problem. People like Michael who worked on
paperwork. To initially Stu and then Hansjoerg who pushed a huge amount of
email out to make it all happen. And also William and Marcus who passed on
updated weather via our trackers that allowed us to compare expected weather
with what was actually happening. To William and his confidence to allow us
unexperienced ferry flight pilots gain a huge amount of new knowledge and
experience. And above all my amazing wife Pam and kids Joshua and Zara who gave
their permission for me to embark on this epic journey despite the many
unknowns and the lurking question in the background “what could possibly go
wrong?”
