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NWPilot's TranAtlantic Flight In early September, Steven Rhine -- a long-time contributor to the aviation newsgroups -- asked if I was interested in helping him document his flight of a lifetime -- from Bangor, Maine to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I responded: "A trans-Atlantic flight in a Cessna 172? You betcha!" Here is the story of his 12-day odyssey...: The Route:
Trip Log: Day 1: I departed Bangor, Maine on September 14th to Goose Bay, Canada. Stayed the night in Goose Bay then ended up in BGBW Greenland. So far it's been a rather interesting trip! Photos from Day 1:
Day 2: Goose Bay, Canada to Narsarsuaq, Greenland. This Is where the fun begins! The plan was to go from Goose Bay to Keflavik, Iceland -- but I had fuel system troubles between Greenland and Iceland. Not Fun! Here's what happened: After switching to the aircraft fuel (from the ferry tank) strange things started happening. The 100-gallon ferry tank went dry after only 7 hours, burning 8 to 9 gallons per hour! Something just did not add up... Then, the G1000 started to go nuts, with the fuel indicators displaying red X's. Next, I received a CO2 detector failure, then GPS-1 failure! At this point I was thinking "What next!?" Well, I didn't have to wait long: The G1000 display suddenly went black, with white text in the left hand corner saying "initializing system"! (Note: All this was happening at night, locked in the soup, at FL070 and 200+ miles from the nearest land -- with almost no communication with a ground-based person!) When the G1000 got done rebooting, I found myself missing my airspeed indicator and fuel gauges -- and it was now displaying a bunch of other errors. Assessing my situation, I figured that I had no fuel gauges, the G1000 is continually rebooting, possible CO2 in the cabin, AND an apparent fuel leak! At this point I am thinking to myself that if I do still have full fuel in the aircraft tanks I could make it the 490 miles to Keflavik -- but I would be cutting it really close. With no indicators showing quantity, and the missing fuel from the ferry tank indicating a possible leak, I figured it would be best if I got on the HF radio, declared an emergency, and turned back to Greenland! So I declared an emergency and went in to a 100FPM climbing turning back toward Greenland. I received a response from a DHL & Air France airliner, who both relayed the emergency call. They responded that they would open the Narsarsuaq airport for me. "Thank You, Portable GPS Units!!" At this point, my handheld was my only reliable navigational aid. Upon reaching FL095 I was on top and looked to my left -- and really got scared!!! The aircraft vent was venting a large amount of fuel out into space! Thank you, Cessna for the under-wing courtesy lights! So I kept the 100 fpm climb going up to 13,000 feet (for crossing the icecap), and finally established radio communication with some one on the HF. I informed them of the fuel venting problem, and the constantly rebooting G1000 PFD. They assure me that they have rescue team waiting and ready, in case I have to ditch! As I grind closer and closer to Narsarsuaq, at about 60 miles out they send up a rescue chopper, locate me, and guide me in, since I am unable to make the NDB approach with the G1000 rebooting itself. (The ADF display is tied to the G1000's HSI.) I spot the airport in the middle of all the black, and ATC has me do a steep spiraling decent all the way down to 3,000'. At that point I must follow the chopper, who will keep me away from the mountains... Who would have ever thought that knowing THAT maneuver would pay off? Everything worked as planned. On downwind I noticed that the fuel gauges were not red X's anymore, and were now reading full. Then, as I turned to final, they go to red X's again, and as I landed the G1000 once again rebooted as I rolled out. Now it's showing 1/2 fuel in 1 tank, and 3/4 in the other ???? I taxied in and parked this bird for the night, still a bit shook up from the events of the past few hours. I find a bed and lay there for a few hours, thinking about the days events
Photos from Day 2:
Day 3: We spent the day diagnosing the fuel system and G1000 problems, spending lots of phone time with Cessna. We finally figured out that the instructions for the ferry tank were not correct, and really need to be changed before the company installing the tank kills someone. The problem was the ferry tank's fuel return line was over pressurizing the aircraft tanks, causing fuel to vent overboard. To prevent this, what needed to be done was to FIRST run the aircraft's left tank down till it was almost empty, THEN turn on the ferry tank. The instructions with the ferry tank said only to "Climb to altitude, then switch to the ferry tank and turn off the aircraft fuel", then run it till the fuel level hits a mark on the ferry tank's fuel level indicator. These instructions turned out to be totally incorrect! Even Cessna engineering was surprised that the FAA had approved the instructions for the ferry tank setup, because it also caused the G1000 to go nuts. Apparently the added pressure in the fuel tanks pushed the floats in the fuel tank up, which got the Garmin confused, causing an error that made it reboot. The loss of the airspeed indicator was caused by fuel vapors entering the pitot tube -- which also caused the CO2 detector failure! This was the scariest incident I've ever had in aviation. Day 4: 9/16/06 -- My 30th birthday. Forecast for the day: Hmmm... IMC !! Didn't take many photos, as there was nothing much to see. What a way to spend your 30th birthday -- locked In IMC over the Atlantic Ocean!
Landed in Iceland at 21:00 Local and Zulu --
hahaha!!! I spent the last 2 hours of my birthday at the local pub!
I can tell you, the locals are really friendly!
Day 5: Shut down in Iceland with 55 knot headwinds. I make the call "No Go"!!!
Day 6: Iceland To Glasglow, Scotland
Day 7: Scotland to Paris, France!
Day 8: Paris, France to Rome, Italy
Day 9: In Rome for 50-hour service on
this brand-new bird. The people in the shop were very helpful and
friendly. I wish shops in the US had this type of customer
service! With the 50-hour service done and the next day's flight
plan filed (and acknowledged) and everything on the plane working correctly,
I retired to my hotel for the night...
Day 10: On to Athens, Greece -- no pix, my camera's memory card was full!
Day 11: Called my client from the hotel and verified that he had obtained permission for me to land in Beirut, Lebanon. He said they would have a "Follow Me" car waiting for me, and everything was good to GO! With camera memory card emptied, and the Africa 1/2 chart in hand, I call the handler's for a ride to the airplane... Paid all my handling fees and another outrageous fuel bill! I waited around for about 45 minutes until my engine start time, called ground, and received permission for engine start. I had an 11 AM +15 minute slot time, so I had to program the G1000 while taxiing out. I launched and was airborne by 11:01 AM. Broke through the tops of the clouds at about 8,000 feet, headed for FL 110 -- thus, not many photos except clouds and water. Then the tach started being erratic, saying that my RPMs were 4000 -- yeah, right! Then it went Red X. OK, Garmin & Cessna, you need to have better quality control. After everything else that has happened, this makes me not want to every own a newer model Cessna, or anything with a G1000. With intermittent tach failure, I am in VFR conditions and there are lots of boats in the water along the route, so I decide to continue on to my destination. I call up control and tell them my tach has failed and they give me an unusual direct-to clearance to KAD VOR, all deviations approved! Everything else was uneventful, as I went direct KAD and had a small dialogue with the tower about my permission to land. When I arrived over Beirut I was cleared for the ILS Runway 17 approach, and was told to report once established and when the field was in sight. Landing was uneventful -- see the photos!
Day 12: At rest In Beirut, Lebanon, while prepping to go home! If you ever get a chance to go to Lebanon, do so -- the people are friendly and the food is great! Just try not to mind the guys walking around with machine guns! The locals are camera shy and I did not want to cause any trouble by snapping photos in public, so not many photos from here!
Here's my final routing text: CYYR LOACH N59000W050000 6045N OZN 6140N N61000W035000 N61086W045325 N60000W040000 6135N 6330N EMBLA VAKLO BIKF ALDAN RATSU STN EGPF DCS POL HON MID DPE LFPB MONOT MTL MTG LUC STP MERLU ELB GILIO TAQ LIRF LIRU PEMAR EKTOL BRD TIGRA KRK KRK38 ARX IXONI N37559E022560 ATV LGAV VARIX RIPLI AKINA LURUS RDS EXELA EVENO DASNI TOSKA TOBAL PHA KUKLA KUKLA OLBA Total Flight time About 70 hours! |
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