Chapter 33 - Ray Clamback has returned to Australia

Ray Clamback has been in the US since mid January, overseeing the installation of long range tanks and HF radios into VH-EXS and the Beechcraft Baron and Mooney which will accompany us on the flight out.

For the last couple of weeks he has been waiting for the winds to change, but has now given up and has returned to Australia.

All we can do now is wait for the lows to go north and give us high pressure with clockwise winds, so that we have nil wind or preferably and light tailwind.

Other than maybe editing some of the previous posts, I will not be adding to this blog until we decide to go or something even more dramatic occurs (whatever that may be).

If you click on the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) at the bottom left of this page, it will put a small icon on your toolbar through which you can access latest post without actually going to this site. The icon will be followed by the words 'Australian Piper Society'.

Chapter 32 - Tontouta, Noumea to Gold Coast, Australia

This is the last leg. Noumea to Gold Coast.

I am sure that I will experience a major sense of relief when we first make contact with Hawaii Air Traffic Controllers and by the time we land in Noumea, I will have a developed an increased level of confidence in VH-EXS and be reasonably certain of reaching Australia.

At this point of time, I expect the first contact with the Air Traffic Controllers at Coolangatta will be the moment I will breathe a big sigh of relief.

Don't know what happens at that time in relation to Customs, AQIS and Immigration, but I guess we will be met and welcomed and checked.

Then it will be a flight to Bankstown where the tanks and radios will be removed, before I take off on my first solo in EXS from Bankstown to Moorabbin where it must undergo another annual inspection and check that all Australian AD's have been complied with before it is given a Certificate of Airworthiness.

With all of that in mind, I anticipate that VH-EXS will finally be allowed to fly in Australian airspace some time in May.

Click on images to enlarge

Chapter 31 - Pago Pago, American Samoa to Tontouta, Noumea

Have been told that this is the most picturesque leg of the journey. Leaving Pago Pago we head south west directly over Nadi airport, Fiji and all of the surrounding islands.

Haven't been to Noumea, so this will also be a first. Hope to get a few minutes to wander around the streets and soak up the local atmosphere and maybe fine a nice French restaurant.

Visiting these far away places is just business for Clamback & Hennessy and their pilots, not a sight seeing adventure, so I assume that we will be landing, clearing Customs and Immigration, refueling, eating, sleeping and getting up early in the morning to get going to our next port of call.

Click on images to enlarge

Chapter 30 - Cassidy International, Kiritimati to Pago Pago International, American Samoa

This leg takes us over the equator into the Southern Hemisphere and we will now head south west for refueling and overnight. Don't know much about Pago Pago or American Samoa. Seems the town may have a population of about 14,000.

I guess that knowing very little about the island countries we are landing at is one of the major reasons I chose to do the trip. It is unlikely that I would have ever gone exploring  to these far away place as a tourist, so this is an opportunity which, after much consideration, I could not refuse.








A couple of photos from the internet.

The airstrip, which is 10,000' long and I read a note from a round-the-world flyer in 2007 who said to land 3000' long to avoid the rough surface and save your tyres.

Think they have had a devastating tsunami since then and it is probably in 100% condition.

Click on image to enlarge

Chapter 29 - Computer generated weather forecast looks promising

Just had a look at the forecast for 384 hours ahead - 12th March. It forecasts a series of highs replacing the present deep lows which have been passing right above our course.

The forecast shows three of four highs following one after the other, and which offer to give us easterly winds for our route, which is exactly the opposite of the wind direction we have had for a couple of months.

Based on the above and with my limited knowledge, I predict departure around 16th March.

Click on image to enlarge

Chapter 28 - Hilo, Hawaii to Cassidy International, Kiritimati (Christmas Island)

The second leg heads south from Hawaii to Christmas Island, which is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The Republic of Kiribati comprises 32 atolls and one island. It covers 3,500,000 square miles and includes the former Gilbert & Ellis Islands and Banaba which was formerly known as Ocean Island.

All blue ahead I hope the blue is always 8000' below. The further south we go, the less US Coast Guard protection we will have. From here on we will have people who are very willing to help if we have a problem, but without the planes and boats to help in the same way as the Coast Guard.

Not to worry. We don't expect problems and we have our life jackets and our life raft and our 406 ELTs - and of course, our rosary beads.


All downhill flying to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) and when we land at Cassidy International Airport we will be just 2 degrees north of the equator and 5' above sea level.

My understanding is that Cassidy International Airport has an NDB which doesn't help me much because VH-EXS does not have an ADF. That's been my favourite IFR instrument. Guess I will just have to get better with RNAV (GNSS) approaches.

Again, second hand, but I have heard that the clouds at Cassidy are NEVER below 1000' so the let down is over the ocean and then to the airport. Also I have been told that if the let down is over the island, it is no problem as the tallest part of the island is 43' high.

Wikipedia states that Kiritimati will be the first island to go under if the oceans rise. Hopefully, we will have taken off before then.

However, Australian comedian Rod Quantock stated in a recent lecture at the Canberra University, that rising oceans are now unlikely as the Japanese are taking so many large whales out of the ocean that the water level is actually falling dramatically.

Not going to bore you with information about the Republic of Kiribati, but it really interesting. Concentrated on Kiritimati (Christmas Island) history which includes WWII action, US and British nuclear testing, attempts to commercialise, permanent settlement not allowed until Independence from the British in 1979, population about 5,500, infrastructure is largely that left behind after the nuclear tests, abandonment of OUR runway by large commercial aircraft due to cracking and potholing.

There is a photograph of our intended accommodation below.

Ok. This may not be the 'Excelsior Grand' Hotel but I am told it is quite comfortable and appears to be one of the buildings constructed for the nuclear tests.

Also told that  it is reasonable and the room and dinner will be about AUD $140. Take cash, as credit cards are not acceptable.



That is not going to be a great worry for me as someone used my Amex card for a $99.40 feast at the Burger King in Instanbul on 23rd January and my card has been cut into three pieces.

There appears to be other accommodation and hotel(s) on the island for tourists who seem to be largely bird watchers or divers.

These islands are closest to the International Date Line and Caroline Island has been renamed Millenium Island because it was the first to see in the new millenium.

Click on images to enlarge

Chapter 27 - Where have you been?

Nothing happening in terms of departure. Nothing to report other than that the weather, in what I would call the north east Pacific, is just a series of lows following each other and giving us strong head winds across to Hawaii.

I was searching to find out how to interpret one column of the published weather forecast by the NOAA for the aviation route and came across the personal blog site of Tom Bravender who happens to be the Aviation Program Manager for the National Weather Service, Honolulu ,HI which forecast for the air routes from USA to Hawaii. He explained the data in the particular column and sent me a chart detailing the zones for which they forecast along the route. The zones are simply 5 degree segments along the Great Circle route between US and Hawaii.

He also wrote: 'Good luck with the winds! This season has proved to be pretty typical of an El Nino winter, with a nearly zonal jet and persistent westerly wind component'. You can work out what a nearly zonal jet is because I don't know.

Tom has picked up on this blog site and is passing it on to the Hawaii forecasters as he thought it  would be interesting as they were probably unaware of  the degree of planning and preparation required to fly the route for which they were forecasting.

All we need is for them to 'on their toes' and to be extremely accurate in forecasting the precise weather for the day we depart.

I intend to continue loading the route segments as in Chapter 26 and then go back to sleep while we wait for better winds, which I don't see happening until some time after 12th March.

Chapter 26 - Santa Maria, California to Hilo, Hawaii

Some of these Nav Charts will look pretty boring. Most of them are dots in blue, as they are intersection points and not land mass. However, if you find it boring looking at mostly blue for a couple of seconds, then spare a thought for us who will be looking at blue for hours on end, punctuated by a few white caps below and maybe white clouds for some of the time. Hopefully no black ones or towering and turbulent white ones.

This is basically the international airline route from Los Angeles to Hawaii. I have been told that the traffic is heavy as is the shipping below and like guardian angels, the US Coast Guard is ever present in the air and on the water.

The Nav Log is largely self explanatory to pilots, and not too difficult for non aviators, given a little time work out what the abbreviations mean.

The fuel is in US Gallons. Multiply by 6 to get pounds for use with weight and balance. For conversion to litres, multiply by 3.78. It's easy if you fill with 100 US gallons. That equals 378 litres. If you don't have a calculator, it gets more complicated when you have used 13.5 US gallons.

On the first leg, you will notice we ran out of fuel and ditched with around 1200 NM to go. Not really. The built in fuel tanks hold 102 US gallons usable, so the additional fuel is in the temporary fuel bladders strapped in where the middle passenger seats were - right behind the pilot and co-pilot's seats.
The Jeppesen computer program knows that the maximum usable fuel load for VH-EXS is 102 US gallons so it won't load the additional fuel. I can 'force' it to change but the 'Fuel' column will be corrected by hand. For this exercise you can assume that the fuel loaded for the flight will be the Route Total (236) at the bottom of the page plus about 51 US gallons to give about 3 hours extra fuel margin. In the case of the first leg, the fuel loaded will be 236 + 51 = 287 US gallons. The exact amount will be adjusted to keep us at 30% max. overweight.

To give that some perspective, that's roughly equivalent to four (4) 44 gallons drums in the back of the aircraft, in addition to the fuel in the wing tanks.


Hope that makes sense to the non-aviators. It confuses the hell out of me.

Click on images to enlarge

 

Chapter 25 - Saratoga N6PL

I have been asked to load a photo of the Saratoga, but all I had was a couple of partial shots which I took of the passenger side tail and wing.

I recalled that in December, I had seen a photo on Flightaware.com. Have loaded a small slightly blurred photo but a larger and clearer photo is available by clicking on the Saratoga N6PL link below.

Saratoga N6PL

Chapter 24 - While we are waiting - the route

The route from USA to Australia is shown on the image, with stop over locations for fueling and accommodation shown.

First leg is the long one to Hilo, Hawaii. It is on this leg, which is 2061 NM and 13:31 hours of flight time, that we need the massive load of fuel which puts the aircraft 30% above its maximum take off weight. The next longest leg is Pago Pago, American Samoa to Noumea which is 1397 NM and 8:41 hours.

For non aviators, the maximum take off weight of an aircraft does not mean that the aircraft will not fly if it is heavier. It is the maximum weight for which flight is approved and the weight the landing gear is capable of withstanding if forced to return immediately for landing. Naturally there are safety margins built in, but 3600 lb is the maximum take off weight for which this aircraft is approved. Also, the published performance data for the aircraft including take off distance and rate of climb will be degraded. An application for special approval together with engineering data is required and after inspection of temporary fuel tanks etc, FAA gives approval for flight above the take off maximum. Approval is given subject to conditions in relation to turbulence, non use of automatic pilot, advice to controllers etc..

The aircraft will take much longer to get airborne and will climb slower. As we get closer to our destination, and have used the overweight fuel, the aircraft will be back to its normal flying weight.

Initially, the settings of Manifold Pressure, propellor RPM and mixture will be based on maximum range and not on maximum speed or endurance, as distance is our main priority. This will mean lower MP, and the fuel mixture set for exhaust gas temperature (in our case Turbine Inlet Temperature) 50 degrees F Rich of Peak. Later as we burn off fuel and are sure of reaching our destination with fuel to spare (3 hours looks good to me) we will increase the speed (and fuel burn) to get there quicker.

Click on image to enlarge

Chapter 23 - No we're not !

In Gippsland at the moment it is raining with cloud TEMPO down to minima and we are not going today.

The weather in Gippsland is not the problem.

Apparently, the FAA checks have not been done and there is another HF radio to go into one of the aircraft. Don't know what it is all about, but the radio is yet to leave Australia, so I guess the checks come after it is installed. I assume that will happen some time next week.

I found another web site which gives computer modeling for the weather for the Eastern Pacific for the coming 16 days and the weather doesn't look all that good to me. Don't know how accurate the modeling is and I am not a weather expert, however, my reading of it is that the most favourable winds for departure will be between now and Tuesday. Even if the winds were ok until Tuesday or even Wednesday, I suspect that the engineering will not have been completed by that time, so it will be no go. If the modeling is close to accurate, the weather will deteriorate after Tuesday. If we haven't gone by then, I don't see us leaving USA until some time after 28th February and probably into March.

If anyone is interested, goto :

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/npac/gfs/00/model_l.shtml

Chapter 22 - From Torrance to Santa Maria

We will fly the aircraft from Torrance to Santa Maria, which in itself, will be quite an experience for me. Megan and I flew in eastern US for five weeks in 2008, and did magical things like landing in New York and flying down the Hudson River at 700', past the Statue of Liberty, below the level of the skyscrapers and between the pylons of the Verazzano Bridge, and into Washington.

This short flight heads south west on the runway heading to pick up the 170 Radial into LAX. We go right over the top of LAX at 3000' before being cleared to 6000' as planned to Santa Maria.

As a member of AOPA USA, I have access to the AOPA web site and their Jeppesen online flight planner, which is totally free. Here is the chart and the Nav Log for the flight.

Click on images to enlarge

Chapter 21 - We're off !

Well the winds looked to be improving yesterday and I got a call from Lyn saying she was off to USA on Friday with the third ferry pilot, Daniel, leaving on Sunday or Monday. I thought I would go on Saturday, but changed to Friday so I can spend some time going over the Pilot Operating Handbook and go flying with Lyn when she checks out the aircraft.

This morning the next low is looking more threatening for the next few days and the winds are up to around 25 - 30 knots from the west.

Just received notification that we now have an Export ID, so all the paperwork will be completed after the FAA engineering check in the next couple of days.

Now to pack the essentials for the trip. Going very light with one pair shorts, one pair trousers, about five light shirts, one warm jumper, one pair shoes, spray jacket, cap, glasses, torch (for early morning departures), camera, licences (Aust & US), medical certificate, headset, Original of Certificate of Registration, waterproof mobile phone (wrapped in plastic bag), 406 & 121.5 ELB's, life jacket, tooth brush and paste, razor, rosary beads, some underclothes, cash & credit cards and a small hand-held GPS (two Garmin 430s installed in EXS) & passport, plus my notes of power settings etc.

Why 121.5 ELB? Because the US have not made it a requirement to have 406 ELBs and many continue to monitor 121.5.

Chapter 20 - FAA checks and Export documentation

Waiting on the weather. While it looks promising at the end of the weekend, Lyn wants to be more certain that the high will stay there and give us the option of a couple of days on which we could depart USA. The aircraft are at Torrance airport, a few miles south of LAX and need to be flown north to Santa Maria.

The FAA have yet to inspect the aircraft and approve the installation of the tanks, HF radios etc. but that is expected this week.

Just filling out the export documentation. As best I am able to ascertain, there is a general export licence in US which covers most goods. Exporters don't need to get a specific licence except for items such as nuclear warheads and goods to specific countries which are on the USA watch or 'don't like them' list. There is not much paperwork involved in getting the aircraft out of the country. A form is required for goods worth more than $2,500 but this is required for statistical purposes. Pretty easy. Much easier than trying to get 1000 grams of HFC (refrigerant gas) into Australia.

Noticed a comment to the last Chapter from 'David'. He had the same problem with a yacht. David commented that they removed the refrigerant but it didn't matter too much as the crew were Poms and didn't mind the warm beer. I suspect that if it had been sailed by Australians they would have paid the fees and gone through the pain of the paperwork, just to make sure the beer was cold. Alternatively, they would have let the gas go into the atmosphere just before they sailed into Australian territorial waters and saved the fees and the pain of paperwork.

I plan to put up an image of Google Earth with the individual routes and with a flight plan for each leg. Haven't checked with Lyn, but I planned with maximum fuel for the long leg from Santa Maria to Hilo, and for the other legs planned to have 3 hours fuel in the tanks on landing. Also planned other than the first leg at higher power settings and air speeds which will obviously use more fuel, but we are not so restricted in fuel consumption after the first leg. Lyn will no doubt have slightly different plans, but mine are good enough for this exercise. We are fortunate that the Saratoga, the Bonanza and the Mooney are about the same speed and we can to stay relatively close to each other.

Chapter 19 - Weather improving

AustraliaThe 84 hour forecast on http://aviationweather.gov/adds/winds shows some improvement. A high is coming in from the north-west and the winds at 9000' are tending toward east north easterly. The other factor is the temperature and cloud relationship.

The temperature at 9000' has been below 0 degrees C and usually -5 to -10 for the last few weeks. As the aviators reading this know, flying through cloud at below zero introduces the strong possibility of ice forming on the aircraft which may result in a splash and a very small momentary ripple in the Pacific. At the moment the temps are around -10 degrees C.

I suspect we may leave Australia around Thursday or Friday and maybe depart California on the weekend.

Spoke again with the Customs Agent, Alan O'Leary, who told me that he is currently handling the importation of 5 other aircraft and they have been waiting in California since some time in December for the weather to improve.

I will suggest that we all take off well apart, as this number of aircraft approaching Pearl Harbor as a group may be a bit dangerous for us.

Chapter 18 - Export & Import

I knew that the aircraft had to be exported from the USA and imported into Australia and I had read the CASA documentation on the importation but the issue of what was to be done, by whom and by what time, had not registered until Lyn Gray reminded me yesterday that now the aircraft was registered by CASA, it was my responsibility. She gave me the names and email addresses of a Customs Agent in Sydney and another in Honolulu.

Alan O'Leary of Hudsons Global Logistics was back to me immediately with a list of things to do and information he required. All of that was easy until I read that if the aircraft had air conditioning, I would need to get an import license from the Department of Environment and Heritage. As soon as I saw the word Environment I knew things were about to go pear shaped. How? I didn't know, but it would go pear shaped for sure.

Onto the appropriate web site and up came the guide - to insanity. Whilst it didn't mention aircraft, VH-EXS was covered by 'Other'. Need to get a licence prior to importing anything containing hydrofluorocarbon (refrigerant gas). Cost of license $3000. What!!!!

Wait on, a few paras below - the applicant may get a reduction in fee if it was a one off or less than 5 items and less that 10 kg of refrigerant. That fee may then be $400. Fill out the form, send in the money and you should have a license within 60 days. Further on it tells you that it may only take 2 weeks.

60 days or 2 weeks!! Why were we concerned with the winds holding us up?

Having spent most of my life in the air conditioning industry and being a hater of buffoon bureaucracy, the mind went into gear. What are they licensing? Just the refrigerant. Answer is to remove the refrigerant from the air conditioner and then there is nothing to license. Recharge it when the aircraft gets to Australia. All that has costs and potential mechanical risk.

Bureaucrats get really stupid, but this one takes the cake. What on earth are they on about. Take the refrigerant out in the USA and put it back in when in Australia? They must go home each day satisfied and reflecting on their daily achievements. Although it is not the fault of the people processing the paperwork, it is the responsibility of the heads of the Department.

Secretary of the Department - Robyn Kruk AM

I know! We just saved the planet! Not sure how we did it, but those sneaky shiny bottomed bureaucrats and Peter Garrett had surely found a way to do it and weren't telling us exactly how they did it.

Back to the task.

Maybe I should look at the form and see if I can somehow fill it in and leave the gas in the air conditioner.  Compare the costs of the two options. There are only five pages and one of them is instruction on how to fill in the other four.

After filling in my name and address as the Director of the company, and doing the same as the person filling out the form and doing it again as the person to whom correspondence should be addressed I went to the section where I had to answer a series of questions related to criminal offences in relation to the use of refrigerant gas. I hadn't realised that breaches of the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 could get you into more trouble than most crimes other than murder. Guessed if you were going to bring something illegal into Australia, the severity of the offence would be far less if it was weapons of mass destruction carrying the 'Saddam Hussein' brand name. Not possible, as he didn't have any.

Put a cross in all of the boxes and then realised that I was not to be trusted. As a possible past offender in relation to the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 my signature was no good. I had to send the form in with a passport photo or some other identification like drivers licence, a stolen rate notice, photo of my non-existent twin sister etc, but it had to be signed by the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court or someone of similar stature.

By this time I have probably wasted more than an hour of my time and threw the rubbish on the floor. That last requirement would take me another 3/4 hour to get a signature involving driving for 1/2 hour using my diesel fuel vehicle and spewing 14 kg of pollutants, including CO2 and black smelly stuff high into the atmosphere. Maybe this was another sneaky trick from Peter Garrett AM MP and his super intelligent bureaucrats. Maybe the smoke gets into the atmosphere and blocks the fluorohydrocarbons from getting into the stratosphere and thereby protects us from further degradation of the ozone layer or whatever. Cunning and clever people those bureaucrats and politicians. They thought of everything.


Peter Garrett AM MP - He has already torn his hair out. I am in the process of doing same to mine.

Two hours later, when my temperature had fallen to 4 degrees below boiling point, I picked the forms up from the floor. I am now at the point of filling out the name of the manufacturer of the air conditioning unit.

How in hell will I find that out? Piper aren't too interested in responding to emails about a 10 year old aircraft. In fact they never respond to any of my emails. The previous owner wouldn't know. Skip that question and come back to it later.

Next question. What is the weight of the refrigerant gas inside the air conditioner which is inside the aircraft which is in USA? You've got to be joking!

No. This is an important question because not far below is the section in which you calculate how much you are required to pay for both the license and the quantity of gas imported. The fee on the gas is charged at $0.000165 per gram of refrigerant.

We could weigh the aircraft, take the refrigerant out and re-weigh the aircraft and the difference would be the weight of refrigerant.

The weight of the aircraft empty of fuel (ah, take the fuel out first) is 2581 lbs divided by 2.2 equals kg and multiply that by 1000 equals grams. Repeat the process after removing the gas and the difference will be the weight of the gas in the air conditioning unit. That's what they want you to do. They have thought of everything.

Threw the forms away. Sent an email directing that the refrigerant be removed in USA and we will recharge the unit in Australia.

Saved the planet. That's another 1000 grams of refrigerant that wasn't brought into Australia. But wait, where will the gas come from to recharge the air conditioning unit. That will have to be imported from USA. Probably by someone who already has a license to import refrigerant gas and who won't have to pay the $400. Just pay for the gas at $0.000165 per gram.

I can't really work out the logic or the benefit in all of this. That's why I am not the highly paid head of a Government Department.

Don't click on images to enlarge.