The last leg for the Crossing to Europe.

We have been keeping a close eye on the weather., the words, rain, icing, wind, gust, freezing level, came way to often in my discussion to prepare the briefing.

The decision came to avoid Scotland and to fly to Norway instead, might be a little longer ( 80nm) but a lot easier on the approach and the wind.

This crossing I decided to fly to Stavanger. The airport offers an ILS, fuel, custom but most important acceptable weather and wind.

Man, the moto of air journey was online today..tails winds....we did up to 444 kts at our 280 flight level for a good 40 minutes and we had blue skies for the above cloud portion.

We burn the most amount of fuel and the TBM the least with most of the time shy of 620 liters and us at nearly 1100 liters, the 2 other Mustang are doing well in the low 800.

Our first route was an easy one to Stavanger and we were under radar contact the whole way

The second leg...another story:

Here is the revised flight plan:

ENZV KARLI DCT UPGAS UN866 LARDI UL74 TOPPA DCT GMH UL603 ESATI UL984 SULUS UZ650 TONSU UZ35 LOMKI LKPR

A route that added nearly 200 nm to the original one.

But we had tail wind

Then the flight plan of N510WH disappear from the system, so we had to refile..great that G was in the office and did a great job.....

But we only got the startup clearance and then the magic word..."Rest of the flight plan in route"  can you imagine the port pilot with no support having to enter the flight plan above in the GPS while flying....

During the flight we had numerous controller changes and transponder code too...

After Stavanger we flew to Prague, the legs today were 865 and 620 nm. 

Again on the second leg a lot of tail wind and a long arrival and approach in Prague, but we were greeted with partial blue skies finally....

6 landing and 6 approaches so far on the journey

Amazing what we did in 5 days:

look at the latitude of Prague compare to a similar  latitude in the US.

This is Doug N510KB contrail....way above us.

Our Journey in Iceland

Iceland has always been a hot spot in my heart.

It is a very welcoming place and great sights.

We started with  a stop at the Blue Lagoon , on our day of arrival, nice place to relax and enjoy a unique experience.

Enjoy:

 Nori-san and Hiro-san at the Blue Laggon

Jerry and Lori enjoying the local concoction

And the Blue Lagoon is the one to go for

Lynn and Lorne at it.

Even for Katy and Megan enjoying the Strawberry one

Katy is a great swimmer, but Icelandic regulation 

forces the wearing of floaties.

Then a great next day with 4 wheel drive to the corny side of Iceland:

Sophie did very well, we had the best looking trick in all Iceland

Look at this unique shell base!!!

Gulfoss , the largest and deepest waterfall in Iceland

Glad we had our rain gear along, windy, rainy and cold...but

a great day to see the beauties of the island.

The name "Geyser" come from here 

we were not disappointed with our sights.

May 11 Across the Ice Cap to Iceland

Keeping an eye on the weather and the tail wind, we are gearing up for the crossing to Iceland. The Greenland weather center is at the Kangerlussuaq airport and they always love a visit.

The weather was showing a slow moving front with icing and snow accumulation.

But this was far away and we took off to BIRK, Reykjavik. The spacing across the ice was based on altitude and since we have not received our RVSM LOA, we are flying at FL280.

We are fast but we burn about 40% more fuel then the other 2 Mustang, but we are faster. It seems that the engine are very sensitive to temperature above the standard ISA and the atmosphere above the ice across the atlantic is warm ( from ISA +7 to ISA +14)

Nice leg with a new route...we are becoming expert in creating way point in the G1000 and pro in the position reporting.

Here is our route of flight:

I like the leg across the ice cap from Kangerlussuaq because half of it is above the ice, no luck today in seeing Kulusuk on the east coast of Greeland.

A nice approach into ILS Runway 19 at BIRK with a well trained pro, making sure we did capture the ILS from under the glide...work like a charm.

Our route:

Our weather

our airport

Weather for the leg Quebec Greenland

We have a French TBM joining us in Granada

One more plane will be part of the journey joining us in Granada, Spain.

He is missing us and provide us with entertainment, this one is to the advantage of traveling as a group:

Quebec to Greenland

After reviewing the weather, actual forecast, SIGWX etc..., the decision was made to amend the program legs and to reach Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, in one day with a technical stop in Kuujjuaq.

We have a great weather site for the Around the World Journey at AirJourney-weather 

Based on our decision we filed the flight pan our of Quebec to Kuujjuak with the following route:

CYQB-ML-J555-YBC-J561-VP-CYVP

N510HW was the first plane airborne and at FL270

The 2 other Mustang the Phenom where at different altitude in the upper 300 and the TBM was also at FL270.

Great tail wind for us at FL270 400 KTS but a heavy fuel burn.

Kuujjuak welcomed us with snow and an 1200 feet ceiling but great and efficient stop and a warm welcome at the tower.

we did choose the LPV Approach RWY25

Then our our way for Greenland with again a nice tail wind and a heavy fuel usage at FL270

The route was CYVP-GRIBS-6360N-6555N-SF-BGBW and a radar vectored LOC-DME into runway 09 with an 1800 foot ceiling

Refueling upon arrival and basically I can tell you that a Mustang at 270 burn about 40% more than one in the upper FL300.

I can also say that the longest leg we would be confutable in these condition would be 850 nm keeping at least 600 lbs of fuel for landing.

Greenland is not far from many places in airline dram and speed...But nothing beat the private plane concept.

Today was a discovery day of the Russell Glacier, the Kangerlussuaq Golf course and some of the local wildlife.

It is time now to plan the next leg to Reykjavik with a stop at the local Met Office

Weather tomorrow should be acceptable with a front should of us and a little rain approaching BIRK.

More to come

On our way to Quebec City

While the journey officially begins Wednesday May 9, 2012. We have to get to Quebec City. For the duration of the journey I will be flying right seat on N510HW a 2010 Cessna Mustang.

Tanabe-san from Japan and his wife are the owners. He lost his previous airplane in the 2011 Tsunami.

Both he and I took our Mustang Jet Rating in Orlando, in the weeks prior to this journey.

The plane is all set for the journey with all the appropriate navigation equipment and gadget, just to name a few:
Garmin 796 with Jeppesen Approach plate on overlay.
2 IPads with Jeppesen JD, Foreflight, Air Nav, and a bluetooth GPS
SpiderTracks
Spot for iPhone
CloudAhoy subscription
Sat Phone
Contour Video Camera hookup to audio transmissions

There must be more gadget, when they will come out of the bag, I will share them with you.

Our first leg to Quebec is to Richmond, VA, my daughter Alisson and her husband Nick are meeting us at the Richmond Jet Center to wish us a Safe Journey.

This is the real Mac Coy

Cannot say better, the departure from Orlando is even agreeing with us.

Easy flight to Richmond, John Azma our FAA examiner is with us on the right seat for the last recommendations on our journey.

Flight to Richmond was uneventful, right on time. Our only restriction is the lack of RVSM LOA, we are stuck at FL280 max.

Our next leg is to Quebec with eAPIS filing and CanPass in the box we file the FP on FlightPlan.com and made in on time to Quebec.

a GPS rwy24 greeted us in Quebec City is visual condition, easy taxi to the ramp for the Esso/Exxon FBO