Transatlantic crossing :)

BenZwebner

BenZwebner

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Apr 21, 2009
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156
Location
Gaithersburg, MD
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Display name:
Ben Zwebner
Every now and then in the past few months I would post something about trans atlantic flying.

About a month ago I was hired for the job and a week ago I ferried a Glasair II from Germany to Tronto, Canada.

Here are some of the pictures that I took.

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Life Raft
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Immersion suit
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On the way to Scotland:
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Wick Airport:
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One the way to Iceland I had some weather:
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Caught a bit of ice:
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CB off to the east:
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Reckyavick Iceland:
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Greenland:
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Fueling in Narsasuaq:
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On the way to Goose Bay, Canada:
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Breaking out on the ILS to Goose Bay:
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And a little bit of Northern Canada:
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The route:
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I hope you enjoyed!

BTW, I need to send out a huge thank you to Tim M. for helping me with much needed information about crossing the atlantic.
 
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Man, that is always something I wanted to do. Someday...someday.
 
Did you wear the immersion suit for the full flight of all legs over water? I can imagine 4+ hours in that thing would be a bit long.
 
Looks like a lot of fun! Hoping to do a trip like that myself someday before long.
 
How close to reserve fuel did you get? For that crossing you have to have 1 hour, right? How large was the ferry tank and where did it go is there a back seat in that plane? Solo or did you have someone in the right seat? (one of the shots shows two headsets plugged in) Would you do it again?

It looks beautiful, congratulations.:thumbsup::cheerswine:
 
FlyNE said:
Did you wear the immersion suit for the full flight of all legs over water? I can imagine 4+ hours in that thing would be a bit long.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that the immersion suit in a glassair has to be a TIGHT fit.

Awesome flight Ben!!
 
Wow. That is too cool! Congrats! How big was your ferry tank?
 
Hi all!

It was an amazing adverture and I would definitly do it again.

I wore the immersion suit up to my waist on the legs from scotland till I got to Goose Bay. boy was I happy to fold that suit up and store it in the back at goose.

Not only is it a tight fit in the Glasair but its very warm in that thing... I suppose its supposed to be right?

The plane didnt have a ferry tank. When the owners built her, they designed her for around the world air races. She has SIX, count them, SIX fuel tanks.

you have the two main tanks in the wings, 28 GAL each.
Each wing has a 7 GAL tip tank
There is a fuselage tank that holds 32 GAL (its location is where the Glasairs cargo would be

And on top of all of that, behind the engine there is a Header tank with 8 Gallons. (thats the "DO NOT TOUCH" fuel used only in case of extream emergency.

All in all it held 110 gallons of AVGAS but I never filled the fuselage tank to its full capacity (its located in the aft of the plane, and I didnt want to add to the aft CG that I already had).

So, thats regarding the tanks.

I always landed with at least 3 hours of fuel remaining. (except on the last leg into CZBA, I landed with maybe an hour remaining)


I did the crossing solo, the other headset in that pic is from when the previous owner and myself went up to make sure that I knew how to fly a Glasair.

Flying wasnt much the problem. It was finding all of the utilities that aid us in flight planning here in the USA that they dont have elsewhere.

Airnav (equivilent), ADDS (equivilent), hell even an FBO or flight school that sold charts cant be found there.

On my first leg between germany and scotland I didnt have enroute charts. The owner told me that he would supply them but he didnt. I went and found a Net Jets pilot and I borrowed one of his, photo copied it onto 5 or 6 sheets of A4 paper then I took scotch tape and made myself a chart. (yeah, I am keeping that forever, gonna frame it and put it on my wall )
 
Ben great story and a great adventure! So tell us were you nervous at all with the crossing?
 
Dear Ben,

You, really, Really, REALLY suck.

Love, Tim.

PS - I need to get my books back. Maybe we can meet up after OSH.

Congratulations!
 
How did you handle radio communications while IFR over the ocean?
 
Tell more, Ben. This is really cool.

Heck's bells, I could almost do that in my Bonanza (scurries off to scribble on back of envelope) - heck, wind cooperating, I get there (longest leg) with 1:47 reserve.

Add a set of tips, I'm gol-den!
 
Your immersion suit is more stylish than mine....
 
That aircraft looks nicely equipped.

What is the screen below the engine monitoring system on the co-pilot's side?
 
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