Chapter 9 - Estimated costs and weather forecasts

Questions have been asked as to costs of importation, so I will throw them in now.

I do not have actual costs at the moment so I will use those given to me by David Ind when he imported a Saratoga about 2 1/2 years ago - in $ AUD

Ferry set up and flight             21,000
Aircraft Inspection USA           1,500
Annual USA                            5,000
GPS download                        1,200
Escrow                                    1,000
Ferry Insurance                        5,000
Certificate of Airworthiness     10,000
Customs                                   3,000
Painting                                     4,300
CASA                                         500

Apologies that the dollars do not line up. I will fix it when I get both the time and the inclination - which may never happen at the same moment.

We cannot take off on the flight from California to Hawaii with westerly headwinds which at the time of writing average 35 knots on the nose at 10,000 feet.

For those who may wish to look at winds, goto http://www.prh.noaa.gov/data/HFO/RFRKSF

Use the bottom forecast headed SBA/HNL.

For wind direction add '0' after the first two numbers in the list under the altitude or Flight Level - eg 2642 means 26042 or wind 260 degrees @ 42 knots.
Down the bottom of the list the M35 would mean minus 35 knots or an average headwind of 35 knots - that would leave us floating (hopefully), somewhere short of Hawaii.
The above weather information came courtesy of Lyn Gray, Clamback & Hennessy.