Katamarino's Round the World flight

geezer said:
In Hawaii, can you position the plane at Hilo, travel to Honolulu and do the paperwork for a Hilo departure?

That would also cause a change in fuel availability to Hilo.
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The FSDO are confident they'll figure out a way to make the Hilo departure work. It's just paper shuffling after all!
 
Since you have mentioned that your pre-existing drums of fuel should be available on your flight, I wonder if you have altered any of your legs since the plan 2 years ago?
Also, given prior discussions, I would guess your flight matches up with the usual and expected favorable winds for that time of the year. But what do you expect your tightest segment will be with regard to available fuel reserve to account for unanticipated winds?

I do not follow anything on Facebook, so I was surprised to hear about the cam and valve issues and that that contributed to some of the 2 year delay. When and how was that discovered?

Anyway, Good luck on your plans and safe journey.
 
Wow! Could this happen at anytime? I heard so many stories of newer engines running into trouble. Is this normal? My mechanic is trying to get me ready for a new engine in the coming future but if it works why fix it.
 
MajorTurbulence said:
Since you have mentioned that your pre-existing drums of fuel should be available on your flight, I wonder if you have altered any of your legs since the plan 2 years ago?
Also, given prior discussions, I would guess your flight matches up with the usual and expected favorable winds for that time of the year. But what do you expect your tightest segment will be with regard to available fuel reserve to account for unanticipated winds?

I do not follow anything on Facebook, so I was surprised to hear about the cam and valve issues and that that contributed to some of the 2 year delay. When and how was that discovered?
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The route has changed a little. Originally I planned to depart from New Zealand; given that I returned to Australia this has of course changed. This gave the opportunity to add New Caledonia and Fiji to the route; both have Avgas available from the bowser.

The Hawaii to CA leg is the longest by a factor of two, so definitely the tightest on fuel. I won't go unless winds are looking good and expect at least a 3 hour reserve.

The engine issues were discovered during routine maintenance!
 
Lindberg said:
How do you keep yourself awake on a 16? hour flight?
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Snacks/drinks, subsequent gymnastics to have a pee, occasional messaging back and forth on the InReach, reading my e-book, podcasts/music over Bluetooth, maybe a cheeky movie or two on the tablet. Not much traffic around at 10,000ft between Hawaii and CA so I am happy to divert a bit of attention to staying alert, especially overnight.

The thought of all that water underneath does help too, as @murphey points out.
 
Lindberg said:
How do you keep yourself awake on a 16? hour flight?
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The Ian Toll Pacific War audiobooks would be good for about 86 hours of entertainment, and there's no better venue to listen to them than this portion of the trip around the world. You can skip past the portions talking about how many planes were lost to mechanical failure and weather.

https://www.audible.com/series/The-...eativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c

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Katamarino said:
Very presumptuous of you to assume I'm not also worried about being shot down by the Japanese.
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You shouldn't be. They lost their best combat pilots long ago.

And also the war.
 
This has been going on four years now! That's epic. It's like a lonesome dove series. Really enjoyed following along.
 
Katamarino said:
Very presumptuous of you to assume I'm not also worried about being shot down by the Japanese.
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Something you haven’t shared about your relationship with the Japanese? (Com’on, make something up!)
 
iamtheari said:
It's remotely possible that there is a surviving, airworthy Zero, a holdout pilot, and a holdout crew chief somewhere in the Pacific, but, from a purely mathematical standpoint, @Katamarino will have more problems with sharks jumping out of the ocean to get him. :)
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Great, one more thing to worry about!!
 


I arrived in Australia on Monday morning and spent yesterday afternoon and today preparing the aircraft. Still plenty to do, but most importantly the ferry fuel system is re-fitted and tested and seems to be working fine.
 
The full write-ups will be on my website in due course with more pictures and details. Internet access (and time/fatigue) don't allow the full write-up while en-route.

I spent a few days flying in Australia before departure, visiting a few old and new friends, and generally taking time to think through everything. The night before departure I flew into Brisbane's Archerfield airport and filled up the wing tanks, plus 30 gallons for luck in the ferry tank. This done, it was time for a relaxing final night in Australia.


Brisbane

I was up before dawn the next day, in an Uber to the airport with copilot Juvy. As dawn appeared over the horizon we fired up and headed out on the short flight to Brisbane International. It took them a while to slot us in but before long we were parked on the GA apron waiting for Border Force.


Pre-flighting at Archerfield


Left base to arrive at Brisbane Intl.

They were a bit abrupt in their attitude, telling us that this sort of "Off Terminal Clearance" was unusual and typically refused. I thought better of pointing out that they had in fact approved it days ago, so don't moan to me. They performed the most thorough inspection that Planey has ever had to date, and were quite convinced that Juvy and I must be sleeping together. The concept of old, entirely platonic friends of opposite genders was apparently alien to them.


Flight plan entered

They buggered off in due course and we were good to go with a short taxi out to the active, and clearance for our IFR flight. A left turn over the harbour on departure had us climbing en-route to La Tontouta, New Caledonia.


Here we go!


Coasting out


A pleasant day to fly

The weather was ideal, and the wind neutral. About 100 mile out we were told to switch to HF and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this time around it worked pretty well. We droned on, reporting "ops normal" at 30 minute intervals, without much excitement until the IFD540 decided to lose GPS. The iPad and Aera 660 were still fine, confusingly. This was it though folks, the dreaded 2-GPS nav exercise.


Failed GPS

10 minutes later it came back.


The route


A lot of nothing

The almost-6-hour flight passed quickly and soon the island was in view. The arrival was stunningly beautiful.


Arrival in New Caledonia


On the ground at La Tontouta

We stopped at the international airport for formalities. Nobody was there to greet us; a few minutes later a flustered lady trotted over saying that despite my official arrival notification being sent 2 days ago, her colleagues had only just told her. Immigration and customs were quick and friendly and soon we were back at Planey for the 10 minute hop to Magenta, the GA airport in the city of Noumea and the only place with AVGAS.


Evening in Noumea

Cumulative totals
Flight time: 579 hours
Nautical miles: 63,568
 
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I’ve been searching for news of your journey, and happy to vicariously follow.
Interesting paradox to see your leg on the IFD 540 showing 784nm miles in 4 hrs 32 min. That is 174 kts ground speed in reported neutral winds. I would take that any day. But your reported flight time of 6 hrs makes more sense at 130kts. That must be because of an improper default TAS used for on the ground calculation before actual flight.
 
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Do you feel your comfort level with the long over-water crossings has increased? You have done all of the due diligence and preflight for such excursions, just wondering if you notice any less anxiety about it having a few of them under your belt so-to-speak.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Do you feel your comfort level with the long over-water crossings has increased? You have done all of the due diligence and preflight for such excursions, just wondering if you notice any less anxiety about it having a few of them under your belt so-to-speak.
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I must admit that yes, that seems to have gone away, rightly or wrongly. Just getting in the air is a bit of a triumph after working through all the bureaucracy, so it feels like time to celebrate a bit!
 
Keep 'em coming. I know you're up for it after watching you navigate the tax route at DFW!
 
Dude! Thank you for taking the time to share all of this. I'm only on p4 but it is amazing, nice to love vicariously. Will check out the rest of your stuff when done here.

We need more journals like this, for all kinds of trips.

It reminds me of reading these bike touring journals: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/
 
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