Katamarino's Round the World flight

probably a faux pas on my part to be watching Unbroken of all movies today on the 'flix, given our illustrious contributor's flight path.

I crossed the Pac a few times, with 8 engines humming along, like a big puss&. This guy is doing the deep blue crossings like they were meant to be done. He's just missing the carabelas and eyepatch :D Good on him, life is worth living!
 
OK, so now I am reading more on your site starting with earlier trips. A couple questions:
For US trips, it seems you mentioned some guide or book for airports. What resource would you suggest?
I read once about wearing a pilot shirt aka captains stripes when travelling makes things easier or begets respect. Any thoughts on this?
You travelled and camped with a handful of the finer sex. Any pointers for travelling to make it easier for them? I want a first such trip with my wife to be enjoyable.
It seems like you break up plane and land travel (walking) nicely!
 
4RNB said:
OK, so now I am reading more on your site starting with earlier trips. A couple questions:
For US trips, it seems you mentioned some guide or book for airports. What resource would you suggest?
I read once about wearing a pilot shirt aka captains stripes when travelling makes things easier or begets respect. Any thoughts on this?
You travelled and camped with a handful of the finer sex. Any pointers for travelling to make it easier for them? I want a first such trip with my wife to be enjoyable.
It seems like you break up plane and land travel (walking) nicely!
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Many states have books of all airports in that state. Check individual state’s Div of Aeronautics or similar. AOPA used to put out a nationwide book of airports, not sure it still does.

Here’s the link to Colorado

https://www.codot.gov/programs/aeronautics
 
4RNB said:
OK, so now I am reading more on your site starting with earlier trips. A couple questions:
For US trips, it seems you mentioned some guide or book for airports. What resource would you suggest?
I read once about wearing a pilot shirt aka captains stripes when travelling makes things easier or begets respect. Any thoughts on this?
You travelled and camped with a handful of the finer sex. Any pointers for travelling to make it easier for them? I want a first such trip with my wife to be enjoyable.
It seems like you break up plane and land travel (walking) nicely!
Click to expand...

I think that those guide books have pretty much gone away now unfortunately, with the advent of smartphones.

I have found that a pilot shirt with the bars helps in the more undeveloped of locations. In Egypt I made my mate wear them. In Benin I had to put them on before they let me out to the aircraft!

When it comes to the camping, I find that taking nice quality, comfortable gear helps; as does choosing airports that have dedicated camping facilities including showers! Somewhere with easy access to interesting things to do also helps. Columbia, Kern Valley, Tehachapi, Shelter Cove have all been great (all in CA, in fact - maybe the best state for that kind of thing). If they enjoy that, you can move on to more remote options.
 
Congrats on HI. I’d like more details of the trek so far from New Caledonia please. I hate Facebook so will not get it that way. Of course, don’t let your response get in the way of your critical planning.
 
Welcome to the US. Ahead of you lies the longest stretch of overwater flying known. At least you won't have to deal with immigration and customs when you reach the mainland.
 
Don't forget your shoes....for traction!
 
MajorTurbulence said:
Congrats on HI. I’d like more details of the trek so far from New Caledonia please. I hate Facebook so will not get it that way. Of course, don’t let your response get in the way of your critical planning.
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I will put updates on here in due course, for sure. It takes quite a lot of time though, especially on a laptop.
 
Exp Pilot said:
Katamarino has filed his flight plan for tomorrow morning, 3:10 a.m., Hawaii time.
I’ll be watching!
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What’s his filed destination and time en route?
 
For fun I plugged that in for my plane. 15.5 hours and I'd need 230 gallons to include the reserve. So my ferry tanks would need to be 150 gallons.
 
Very excited and anxious as if I was flying this. When looking at the weather and winds from the available tools, there maybe some headwinds 10-20 kts from the NE initially. Looks like staying south of some precipitation 500 to the NE is easily doable, but then the winds become less headwind and more calm and later NW crosswind. Looks like there could be a 1000ft ovc at arrival but the good thing IMO about SMX is that it is pretty near sea level with not much high terrain nearby and probably an easy ILS or LPV for a fatigued pilot. And setting in WINCH as the IAF nicely skirts to the north of Vandenberg. In the little I know about cross Pacific flight, possibly intercepting and following R577 for much of the routing seems like the thing to do. But obviously, I will be waiting for the official details after your arrival. Will be setting my clock for tonight around midnight EST.
Godspeed.
 
That is some beautiful test flight around the volcanos. I have done that. And I do remember the turbulence associated with those peaks on that flight on the lee side coming into Kona.
 
MajorTurbulence said:
Very excited and anxious as if I was flying this. When looking at the weather and winds from the available tools, there maybe some headwinds 10-20 kts from the NE initially. Looks like staying south of some precipitation 500 to the NE is easily doable, but then the winds become less headwind and more calm and later NW crosswind. Looks like there could be a 1000ft ovc at arrival but the good thing IMO about SMX is that it is pretty near sea level with not much high terrain nearby and probably an easy ILS or LPV for a fatigued pilot. And setting in WINCH as the IAF nicely skirts to the north of Vandenberg. In the little I know about cross Pacific flight, possibly intercepting and following R577 for much of the routing seems like the thing to do. But obviously, I will be waiting for the official details after your arrival. Will be setting my clock for tonight around midnight EST.
Godspeed.
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Reassuring to see someone else come up with the same analysis that I did!
 
I'm glad that Katamarino.co.uk has better tracking than flightaware.
Flightaware has him stalled out about 14 minutes ago.
 
I wish you well. You inspire me to stretch my legs. I hope you have a seamless handoff nearing your destination and a soft perfect landing after 16 hours in the seat.

Does 5k MSL give you the most fuel efficiency?
 
Just to increase the drama, you’ve probably noted that area of precip is about 300 miles away and dropping into your flight path. What do you think about flying toward CEBEN on R465 before turning more direct to pass north of that precip area? Or wait a couple hrs?
 
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It appears he may be taking a slight southerly path to avoid the precipitation, and since he has daylight, he should be able to visually see the clouds and avoid them. I think that band is only about 60 miles in width.
 
JOhnH said:
I'm glad that Katamarino.co.uk has better tracking than flightaware.
Flightaware has him stalled out about 14 minutes ago.
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Site currently says location disabled or no service from Garmin in reach ?

FlightAware just says estimated location
 
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