Chapter 45 - Pago Pago

Depart Christmas Island 21/3/2010 - Arrive Pago Pago  20/3/2010

The flight from Christmas Island to Pago Pago was uneventful. Good weather and favourable winds.

However, one important event occurs which captures the imagination and also tests the talents of would be photographers in this age of GPS. The challenge is to photograph the exact moment of crossing the equator. This made all the more difficult with digital cameras that have a focussing delay period. My attempt was about 37 metres too early or 00.02' before crossing. Check my calculation and advise if incorrect.

Organisation isn't easy with the dates changing backward and forward. The refuelers wouldn't refuel us because they had expected us the day before, and they were doing a stocktake of the fuel. It was suggested to them that they refuel us and add the quantity we use into the stocktake. That was too difficult and we were told to be back at the airport early the next morning. This would mean departing the hotel at 5:45 am.

Ray & Dan completed the arrival details with the authorities while we prepared the aircraft for an early refuelling. As at Christmas Island, showering wasn't of much use because within 1/2 hour our shirts would be soaked and faces dripping with perspiration.

As David Ind had warned me - "it is not glamorous", and he was right. Not much time for sightseeing, photo taking or anything other than fueling, heading for the hotel, showering, eating, going to bed, getting up and taking off.

We had about 20 minute drive to our hotel, Sadie Thompsons, which was beside a Port with a couple of shops which included a MacDonalds.

Needing to do some washing, I asked 'Reggie' our more than effeminate employee (with flower neatly tucked behind his ear) where I could find a laundomat. Unable to find it, Reggie offered to 'look after me' and he did it for me - "as a favour". No favour for him in return other than a monetary tip.

Had the obligatory shower, went to the MacDonalds for a coffee and returned saturated with perspiration, off to dinner another shower and then to bed.

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Chapter 44 - Christmas Island, International Date Line and more

Arrive 20/3/2010 - Depart 21/3/2010

Christmas Island is part of the Line Island Group which are part of the Republic of Kiribati. The Republic includes 32 atolls and one raised coral Island. The Republic of Kiribati covers approximately 3,500,000 sq kilometres in the Pacific Ocean. The present imaginary International Date Line, defined in 1995, takes an enormous step to the east to encompass the Line Islands and the easternmost of the group has been re-named Millenium Island as it was the first to greet the new Millenium.

All this is rather useless geography, except for those who live there and for those who struggle with what day it is and what time it is when following the course we took. For me, it was impossible trying to work out the day, date and time with the added complication of daylight saving thrown in. As a brief summary, we left Hilo and after a 7.8 hour flight, landed at Christmas Island almost a day later. We then headed west to Pago Pago where after an 8.2 hour flight, we landed a day earlier than we left. After a 9.6 hour flight from Pago Pago we landed at Noumea about a day later. Flying roughly south west we crossed the International Date Line three time.

Not a geography or history lesson but the Christmas Island people lead a subsistance life, with little to trade and little to trade with. Their island is the largest coral atoll in the world.  The airport is 5' above sea level. Its highest point is 42'. Christmas Island will be the first to go under IF the oceans rise. Its towns are named Paris, London & Poland. It was used by the Japanese and English for NASA space studies and was used for testing nuclear weapons in the 1950s & 1960s. People were not allowed to live permanently on the island until 1979. 4000 US soldiers died in one day taking nearby Tarawa Island from the Japanese, and given the isolation, one can but wonder why?

The bures in which we slept were about 10 metres from the edge of the ocean. They were left as part of the hotel complex built by the Japanese for the scientists. The resident's houses are largely built using materials such as timber, iron, plaster board scavenged from the abandoned buildings.

Fishing is apparently great, with fly fishing from the beach being a particular attraction. We dined with a sunburnt Canadian who appeared to be the only other hotel guest but he told us of another 4 fishermen who were also on the island.The hotel served an excellent meal which included baked whole fish, lobster with a number of side dishes followed by cake and ice cream.

The evening meals were enjoyable, because other than at Hilo, we did not have breakfast on any day and our lunch consisted of muesli bars or stewed fruit, chips or nuts with water or fruit juice and later in the flight the obligitory can of heart pounding Red Bull.

At Christmas Island, I started to realise the complexity and formalities involved in ferrying aircraft through different countries, each with its own immigration policies and procedures. There was also the Declarations which were required by the Countries with forms requiring details of whatever it is they needed to let us in and out. At some airports we were met with Customs, Immigration, our equivalent of AQIS and all of these organisations had to be advised in advance of the date and time of our arrival, sometimes with forms lodged prior to arrival.

In addition the fuel had to be pre-arranged and in the case of Christmas Island, the fuel was obtained primarily for and at the request of the ferry organisation. Whilst an individual could probably bring an aircraft from US to Australia, it would take months of preparation and organisation and would then probably be very difficult without the contacts and relationships developed over many years. In Ray Clamback's case, he has been ferrying aircraft for 40 years and has probably over 300 crossing. He says there are two Australian ferry pilots who have done more crossings than he has.

I also started to appreciate why the cost was what it is. A very rough guesstimate of the fuel costs for the Saratoga would be around $10,000 and on top there are landing and airport fees, accommodation, food, wages etc.

Having confirmed the specks on the windscreen were grease from the hub of the propellor we were ready to depart at sunrise.

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Chapter 43 - Into Hilo, a rest day and off to Christmas Island

Santa Maria to Hilo 17/3/2010

Skies were clear and blue for most of the 14.1 hours we flew from Santa Maria to Hilo. However, the forecast for Hilo itself was for broken cloud at 2500', so out came the approach charts. Approaching from the east is fine as you are over water and the airport is on the eastern side. However, right on the western side looms the tall mountains around the volcano. We split up and descended through the cloud, coming out over the water, east of the airport and followed each other, joining base as instructed.



Hilo airport on a good day (above)
Hilo airport on our arrival (below)

Hot and humid with passing heavy showers. We unpacked between showers, sheltering behind the fuel trucks during the heavy showers. During the flight Ray had discovered a small weeping leak in the fuel bladder caused by being pinched by putting the pilot's seat back. Jose got into the back and moved the bladder so that the puncture was at the top. The local LAME was brought in to repair the bladder and secure the knob on the Saratoga's rudder trim. Dan had used 5 quarts and had 3 remaining. I cleaned Lyn's window and noted that the specks were greasy and looked like grease rather than oil. The aircraft were refueled and we
headed for the hotel and a lay day.

Rained most of the next day so we retired to our rooms for the day.

Repaired and inflated fuel bladder

Next morning we planned a 'late' 7:30 am take off as the flight south to Christmas Island was the  shortest leg of the trip.

Checking the Saratoga I noticed a slight discolouration around the right air intake and pointed it out to Lyn who said not to worry about it as it was fairly normal. At the time we didn't associate it with the specks on the windscreen.


If Lyn had palpitations when the speed brakes came on, she was about to have a much higher level of anxiety.

Depart Hilo 19/3/2010 - Arrive Christmas Island 20/3/2010

Whereas my Turbo Arrow requires little right rudder pressure on taxi and take off, the Saratoga required left rudder on taxi gradually going to right rudder during the take off. It is also much heavier than the Arrow.

Rolling down the runway and reaching about 80 knots, the Saratoga swung quickly - almost violently - to the left and the grass verge loomed until more right rudder and we were back on the centreline. Lyn said "You certainly got my attention there".

No time to think about what had happened. We were into the cloud and turning south. We went west to keep out of the way of the aircraft ahead. Our allocated block level was between 6000' and 8000'.

On the way down Lyn's windscreen had much heavier specks than the day before. We couldn't work out what it was or where it was coming from. I suggested it may have been refrigerant oil from when the gas was removed from the airconditioner.

Little bits of cloud approaching Christmas Island and we came down to 1500' about 15 NM out.

Cassidy International Airport is nothing like Los Angeles. It has one flight in on a Tuesday and one flight out on a Tuesday. Notwithstanding, we were met and greeted by the Customs Officers and processed the paperwork before returning to refuel from the drums.

Cassidy International Airport, Passenger Terminal and Customs Offices

On the walk around the Saratogo, I noticed that the slight discolouration was now a thick greasy substance a couple of millimetres thick around the right air intake. It looked and felt like grease, but we were not able to find where it was coming from. No LAME, no facilites, sitting here for 3-6 weeks wasn't an exciting prospect.

Drum refueling at Christmas Island - think it cost over $1000 per drum

We were not able to contact Mark Howe of Blue Demon (Saturday in Australia) and we contacted Tom McCrea in LA on the satellite phone. Tom told Lyn not worry about it and just fly on. "What is it?" I asked. "He didn't say". I then rang Tom and asked what it was and where it came from and was told "I don't know. It could be oil". All I know is that if oil comes out of the engine and if there is no oil, the engine stops.

Finally got Mark Howe who was brilliant. "Saratogo. Will have a Hartzell prop. Is there grease up the back of one of the blades? "Don't know" I replied. "Well if it is on the windscreen it is not likely to be oil from the seal as that will go back over the engine. If it is grease from the prop hub it is likely to go up the back of the blade and flick onto the windscreen. If it is grease you can fly for 100 - 200 hours. If it is oil you will have 1 - 2 hours before the engine stops.

First check in the morning was the back of the blades. The first two were clean but the third had streaks of grease running up from the hub.

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Chapter 42 - Santa Maria to Hilo rest stop.

Well we discussed the bodily functions in an earlier chapter. We have now reached the 'moment of truth'.

Lyn had climbed into the back and was comfortably quiet when I asked her where the rear view mirror was.


With an hour and a half to go to Hilo, I told Lyn that I didn't need to go, but that by the time we reached Hilo it would be 14 + hours since my last rest stop and I would not like to have a full bladder when landing at Hilo.

"Lyn. I think I will have to give this a try." She turned in her seat to look out the window in the opposite direction. I reached into the back for the screw top milk bottle.

Not too easy getting into a good position in an aircraft seat with a vertical back.

"I'll have to get into a semi reclining position Lyn". "OK" she replied.


"Lyn! The zip on my jeans doesn't come down far enough. I can't bend it that much or I will put a kink in it". Short burst of laughter.


"Lyn! Going to have to take my jeans and underpants down". "Well I had to' she replied.


"Lyn! Still can't bend it enough". Burst of laughter accompanied by shaking of the body.


"Lyn! The hole in the top of the milk bottle is awfully small". Almost continuous laughter with increased shaking of the body.


"Lyn! I've got it in". "That's good" she replied with increased loud laughter.


"Lyn! There's a problem. The bottle is in a vertical upright position. Seems to be a good seal but that will be broken when I try to get the bottle off". Laughter has become close to schreiking.


"Hey Lyn it's working ok". "That's good" she replied.


After a minute or two.


"Hey Lyn! I need a hand". "What's the matter"? she asked.


"I need a hand to get the bottle off". Laughter is now uncontrollable and body shaking violently.


"Hey Lyn"


"Yes Tom"


"Lyn, could you cut the top off the bottle for me please" - More shrieks of laughter.


I then thought 'I don't need another circumcision' - "Don't worry Lyn. I'm sure I can manage this."

Don't know why,but that was the only time we had a rest stop on the whole trip.

No images available for this chapter

Chapter 41 - Santa Maria, California to Hilo, Hawaii

16/3/2010

The afternoon and evening at Santa Maria before our departure we unpacked the aircraft and checked the position and the security of the fuel bladders in the rear of the aircraft. For the Saratoga, we needed to ensure that the bladder was as far forward as possible to keep the centre of gravity within the aircraft's aft weight and balance envelope. Obviously we were way outside the envelope in terms of excess weight. Additionally we needed to ensure that as we burned fuel out of the bladders, we would not exceed the forward centre of gravity limit. A requirement of the permit was that the fuel from the bladder was to be used before fuel from the wing tanks. Although we had two transfer fuel pumps, it was also our priority to use the bladder fuel first, as in the event of transfer pump failure we could be left with fuel in the bladder and insufficient in the wing tanks.

Our limit variety but ample quantity of food rations consisted of muesli bars, biscuits, tasty sweets, chocolate (which quickly melted on the ground in Hilo), water, salted potato chips, tomato juice, some preserved breakfast fruit and Red Bull for when we got tired, was placed immediately behind the other person's seat, in easy reach. The food was on top of our individual life raft, strobe light, ELB, torch and survival blanket. It would have taken less than 10 seconds to have that gear with us in the front seats.

It was early to bed and early to rise. Unfortunately so, because the room was one of the best for the whole trip.

17/3/2010

Our plan was to leave the hotel at 5:00 am, get to the aircraft, check them out by torchlight and be taxiing just before dawn, so that we could take off as soon as we had beginning of daylight.

Ray seemed to have delegated the flight organisation to Lyn who was calling the shots and decided that Ray Clamback in the Bonanza would go first; Dan McGowan in the Mooney would start rolling as soon as the Bonanza left the runway; we would go last in the Saratoga, as soon as Dan's wheels were off the ground. The plan was to fly at different altitudes so that from the Saratoga, we could keep the two aircraft ahead of us and in line of sight. The best laid plans don't always eventuate, but we went close for most of the way.

Not having been the pilot of an aircraft taking off at least 1000 lb over maximum allowable weight was not daunting, as Lyn had run through the take off with me. "Just let it fly when it wants to leave the ground. Fly in ground effect until you have the speed to climb. Don't pull up too early or sharply or the aircraft will settle back onto the runway". The most comforting was that Lyn would have her hands close to the control yoke.

It all went smoothly with a little bit of forward pressure assistance from Lyn just after the wheels left the runway.

Wheels up and we started to climb at 500' per minute up to 6000'.

Surprisingly, I felt no sense of anxiety or concern. We just climbed out over the water, past a few lazy clouds and we were on our way. After all of the planning and emphasis on safety and provision for emergency situations and comforted by the calm and experience of Lyn, it was almost as if we were going on a 50 NM local flight.

Lyn later obtained a block clearance to operate between 6000' and 8000'. Clear skys. No turbulence. Winds OK. And that was to be the basic weather for most of the trip home to Australia, with the added benefit that we had favourable tailwinds on most of the legs.

The first couple of hours pass quickly - setting the aircraft up; chatting back and forth on 123.45; checking on each of the aircraft and adjusting the speeds so that we could stay close and preferably in sight of each other.

In the Saratoga, we quickly encountered problems. The magnetic compass was not out of calibration, it was the HSI which was 25 degrees out. This meant that we would not be able to use the auto-pilot in NAV mode and would have hand fly or use the heading bug manually with reference to the GPS data. Still this was a long way better than for thousands of aircraft ferried before the advent of GPS.

Prior to take off we found that the trim needle had again disconnected. As a precaution, at Torrance I had counted the number of wheel sections required to position the trim in neutral. Then when I tried to set the rudder trim, the trim knob screwed off the spindle. The slight out of trim was costing us 1 knot so it was not a concern.

Soon we had the pilots from the 'heavies' - the airliners - on our chat channel. They had picked us up either during our HF transmissions or on the 'chat channel' and called us on 123.45. The pilots wanting to know who we were, where we were going, how many of us, how long would the flight take, how much fuel we carried, how much overweight etc etc. From the "wows" and "awesomes" and "that's incredibles", they were more in awe of us and our flight than we were of them.

About 7 hours out from Santa Maria, the nose took a 5 degree swing to the right. This was followed by slight but steady vibration.

'Oh no' I thought. 'Not 7 hours from land in both directions. We haven't even reached the warm currents'. Those thoughts took about 1/1000th of a second, before I started looking at the instruments. I looked at Lyn and although I could see her scanning the instruments, I still had to ask 'Can you feel that'? I looked at her and the answer was obvious.

She said she could and we both kept scanning the intruments. I asked if she had seen the nose swing to the right, but she hadn't. Lyn said it took one and a half minutes, but for me everything happened so quickly it was just a blur. She reached in front of me and pushed the speed brake button which projects from the top of the right hand section of my control yoke (much too far and required much too light a touch).

In her scan she had noticed that the speed had dropped by 25 knots. She looked at undercarriage and magnetos unable to find the cause until she remembered that the aircraft had speed brakes in the wings. She looked and saw that they had been activated. Best guess is that I had touched the button with the flight plans and had and inadvertently activated the speed brakes. This happened again on another leg (when I didn't have anything in my hand) and three times while on the ground, so modifications are required to the switching mechanism. I don't want that to happen on take off on a short runway.


Lyn commented that she doesn't often get palpitation of the heart, but that she certainly had it for a few moments.

About 11 hours into the flight, Dan asked Ray for details of work done on the oil system of the Mooney. He then advised that the oil pressure had been largely on the white line separating the green normal operation range from the yellow caution range for much of the flight, but had now moved lower into the yellow.

After some discussion Ray said "That's not good. What about the oil temperature"? That was OK. "What about the rpm and the constant speed propellor"? That was OK. We dropped back behind Dan to keep him in sight. The Bonanza and the Saratoga both have Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems, so we were also able to remain in contact on the screen.

About the same time I noticed some tiny deposits, like specks, on Lyn's front window. They were in a column, mostly on Lyn's side with just a few splattered on my side of centre. We tried to work out what it was. It looked greasy but Lyn said it wasn't oil.

With three hours to Hilo, the fuel bladder in the back had deflated enough and the human bladder in the front had inflated enough for Lyn to decide that a 'rest stop' could be undertaken and she climb into the back of the aircraft.

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Chapter 40 - While still in Torrance - Mojave

Ralph Mailloux, the previous owner of N6PL - now VH-EXS came down to Torrance Airport to see us before we departed and probably to have a last look at his Saratoga on American soil. Ralph plans to visit Australia - maybe next year - and we hope to catch up again.

While waiting for the winds, we had a trip to the Mojave Desert to visit a friend of Ray who is an avionics specialist and HF radio expert. Wayne has his hangar and factory at the Mojave airport which is adjacent to Bakersfield Air Force Base, where many of the space shuttles returned.

 It is also a graveyard for many of the airliners which have been retired from the various airlines and which end their days being disassembled and cut up for spare parts.

When the Mexican Government grounded the entire Air California fleet, many of them - maybe all of them - ended up at Mojave. A remnant of the once proud Ansett fleet remains in the graveyard.

The site operates just like a car scrap yard. You want a door from a Boeing 747 they don't even bother to remove the hinges. They just cut out the whole door with about 200 mm of the surrounding fuselage and ship it to you. You then remove the door, seals etc and get what you want. If anyone wants a door from a Boeing 747, just let me know and I will organise it for you.


Probably the most interesting history relates to two aircraft which (I think) are C-130 Hercules. These were apparently purchased new about 20 years ago by an intermediary for one of the Middle East countries - said to be Lebanon. The US Government refused to issue Certificates of Export and these brand new aircraft were flown from the factory to Mojave and have remained in the same spot for the last 20 years.

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Chapter 39 - The day before

Nearly ready to go.

Before we leave the USA, a photo of the aircraft at Torrance, with our young LAME assistant, who did a lot of the work on VH-EXS. He honed out the valve guides when Ray & Lyn had the rough running before their planned pre-flight test.

After the guides had been honed, Lyn and I had taken it out for a great trip around Catalina Island but found that the position indicator needle on the elevator trim had become disconnected. This was supposedly rectified later.



On the same flight we noticed that the magnetic compass was not giving the same reading as the HSI. We had an approximate 25 degree difference. We assumed, as it turns out, incorrectly, that the magnetic compass was being affected by the temporary HF radio gear on top the front panel console. We decided to check the magnetic compass against the runway heading when we returned but we neglected to do so.



Going tomorrow. The three aircraft are fully loaded and fueled, parked in the same hangar and ready to be pulled out and depart.

For those who fly in Australia and who are aware of the excessively costly stupidity of the Government security policy for airmen, aircraft and airports, have a look at the photographs and take note of the cars inside the airport and beside the aircraft. Private cars are allowed onto the airports and can drive up and down the taxiways in Class D airports. Pilots don't need security passes. Yes there is security. I recall seeing one of the security personnel when the gate stuck closed and he came down and opened it for us. When you consider that it was the USA, not Australia, which was attacked by terrorists and compare their level of security with ours, it just shows what a great political stunt John Howard and the Liberal Party pulled over the ignorant Australian public.


Ridiculous airport security costing hundreds of millions of dollars and achieving nothing that couldn't be breached with a pair of cheap bolt cutters or a short walk around the fence. Maybe the Australian Government thinks that a terrorist wouldn't think of that or wouldn't be able to use bolt cutters.

On the weekend before our departure, we were treated to police practicing their technique to be able to spin and stop a car being pursued in a car chase. Two practice cars going around a circuit which was laid out on a taxiway right at the end of the active runways. Cars accelerating,  nudging the tail of the lead car, wheels screeching, cars spinning, rubber burning and smoking. That's right. All inside the active Class D airport just
a couple of miles south of one of the largest cities in the USA in a country which sees itself as being under attack from international terrorists. Look what our politicians do to us - just to scare people so they can get a few extra votes from the ignorant.

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