The final Chapter

It is now time to finish this blog.

Ray Clamback & Lyn Gray at Redondo Beach - not a good one Lyn - sorry.

When I decided to buy a Saratoga in USA, nothing was further from my mind than the thought of flying across the Pacific. To the contrary, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever do such a thing. I had never given much thought to who brought planes across the Pacific, how many came across, how many didn't make it, how many did and who it was that flew across in them.


It wasn't until David Ind told me that he had flown back with his Saratoga two years earlier, that the thought occurred to me and was rejected even quicker. However, given the delays due to the winds, I had time to contemplate the possibility which then took me on a journey where I looked at what the real risks were, and if in the event that we finished up in the Pacific, what were the chances of survival. After doing all of that and reading the reports of Ray Clamback's two swims, the chances of survival looked pretty good. Overcoming the fear is really about overcoming your mindset rather than the real prospect of a ditching followed by drowning or being taken by a shark.

Dan McGowan at Torrance

Having come close to deciding to do the trip, I bought a download of a Saratoga II TC for use with Microsoft Simulator and 'took off' from Torrance, flew to Santa Maria and then took off from Santa Maria and flew for 1 1/2 hours out over the Pacific toward Hilo, Hawaii. Whilst not real, it had a mentally calming effect on me and I thought that this wouldn't be all that dangerous.



The preparations with Ray, Lyn & Dan in Torrance were confidence building as they went about checking everything, getting all the safety gear together, making sure everything worked, and where the life rafts, ELB's, strobe lights, rations etc would be placed for quick access and exit.

When it came time to give the Saratoga full throttle for take off at Santa Maria, all doubts, fears and nervousness had gone, and as we climbed out, it was just like any other flight.



Would I do it again? Probably not!

Jose Gamero awaiting his fate at Torrance
 
If I bought another aircraft I would probably fly out with it. Having done it once was exciting and an adventure that few undertake, but at this time there doesn't seem to be any point in doing it again.


Going to faraway places and even utterly remote locations has it's exciting moments, but it is not glamorous. There is little (virtually no) time for sightseeing or exploring and most of the photographs were grabbed opportunistically in the few spare seconds or minutes available between fueling and packing and traveling to and from 'hotels' or Customs offices and for a lot of the time it was hot, humid and uncomfortable.

It was a good experience and one I can look back on as some sort of achievement.

Megs in the President's chair - AOPA, Frederick, Maryland
 
Ray said to me on a number of occasions "You will be in a very select group of owners who have ever done this trip. I could probably count them on one hand". I now know of two other members of the Australian Piper Society who flew their newly purchased Piper Saratogas to Australia - David Ind, who has been mentioned several times in these posts and Pat Evans from Queensland. Lyn told me that she flew out with Pat a couple of years ago. Ray qualified his comments later, by saying that there might be more than a handful but it wouldn't reach 20. I suppose that is quite amazing given that there are 12,000 - 13,000 aircraft currently on the Australian Register and a very large percentage of those would have been flown here.

When you consider that over 2700 people have climbed Mt Everest and it has been climbed more than 4700 times, even if 20 owners flew the Pacific, we do form a reasonably select group.


Tom Courtney at Du Page airport Chicago - 2008
 
Maybe I could try to claim a world record for the Guinness Book of Records as being the only 70 year old, balding, fair haired, Australian owner who was flown his own 2000 model turbo charged Saratoga across the Pacific, leaving from Santa Maria at dawn on a Wednesday morning in February, accompanied by a Bonanza and a Mooney in a race against five FA 18 Super Hornets, arriving at the Gold Coast and completing the flight at Moorabbin. This is a feat, meeting all of those criteria, which will never be repeated!

It is easy to set records if you manipulate the parameters to suit.

I recount Ray's conversation with me, telling how he kept list in his office of people who wanted to do the flight across the Pacific with him. If the timing and logistics of the flight suited both, he would take another pilot as safety back up. At one time he had over 20 people on the list who wanted to do the trip across. Then he ditched in the Pacific and spent 9 hours swimming in a life jacket. When he got home and went to the office, the number had shrunk dramatically to just 2.

In the next couple of months, Lyn and her husband are moving from suburban Sydney to a small farm at Cowra. She is looking for a Piper Warrior or Cherokee and intends to continue instructing around Cowra, Orange, Bathurst area.

Megs (Megan Jackson) doing what she loves most

For those who may buy an aircraft overseas and import it into Australia, whether you fly back with it or not, the process is really very simple. There are matters which you will need to attend to personally. The problem  I encountered was lack of knowledge of the requirements until it became necessary to provide a form or obtain the authority or get the approval etc. The AOPA US Members Only web site was most helpful, with an article on the procedures for exporting an aircraft from the USA.

The most stupid aspect is that surrounding the importation of refrigerant gas into Australia. The Permit requirements are stupid enough on their own. Although I had several weeks to organise a $300 permit, which would have taken about 2 weeks to get, I didn't find out about it until too late in the process and we were never sure whether or not we would be taking off in the next couple of days, so I couldn't afford the 2 week wait. That will eventually cost about $700 and we didn't have the air conditioning available at those hot, humid airports.

If you intend to personally buy an aircraft overseas, then:

1. Get a quote for the ferry flight
2. Appoint an Agent in USA to handle the local issues.
   
   
   
   • Prepare a Contract or Bill of Sale (you can do this yourself - 2 pages).
   • Arrange an escrow agent who checks ownership, liens etc and arranges the exchange of funds and registration. Again, you could do this yourself via the FAA register.
   • De-register the aircraft with FAA if flying out on Australia Register. You can do this yourself.
   • Arrange and oversee a maintenance to meet FAA Export Certificate of Airworthiness requirements - virtually an annual maintenance, but it is not an airworthiness certificate.
   • Obtain and charge you for hangar facilities.
   • Remove and certify compliance if you are stupid enough to take the refrigerant out of the unit.
3. Appoint a US Customs Agent to handle the export documentation
4. Appoint an Australian Customs Agent to handle the importation documentation, GST and other charges.
5. Get a permit to import the Refrigerant gas into Australia.
6. Obtain an Australian Certificate of Registration andCertificate of Appointment of Registered Operator.
7. Appoint your LAME organisation to carry out checks and upgrades to meet CASA requirements for a Certificate of Airworthiness - virtually an annual maintenance plus any ADs required.
8. See you Bank Manager or Finance Company to see if you can afford it.
9. Check with your wife or partner to obtain final approval.
10. Get a better job or rob a bank so you can pay for it.

If you wish to fly the aircraft yourself, the rules are:

1. With a US pilot certificate, you can fly a US registered aircraft
2. To fly an aircraft with foreign registry in a foreign country, you must have a pilot certificate (licence) issued by the same country in which the aircraft is registered or obtain a validated foreign pilot certificate for that country. Eg to fly a VH registered aircraft in foreign countries ie US or New Caledonia you must have a pilot certificate issued by that country.

Megs and me at Bar Harbour, Maine - 2008
 
In my case, I could fly the Saratoga VH-HKZ in foreign countries because I have an Australian License. I could have also flown the Saratoga as N6PL because I have a US license issued by the FAA.


Thanks to Ray, Lyn & Dan for their friendship and their good company and a special thought for 18 year old Jose Gamero who at a moment's notice, jumped into the pilot's seat as the official ferry pilot and who has almost certainly become the youngest ferry pilot to cross the Pacific.

Click on images to enlarge

Contact me at:
courtney@datafast.net.au
tel: 61 3 5156 0412
mob: 61 412 389 294
http://courtneyeastgippsland.com