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Day: 117-121
Date: January 21, 2002
through January 25, 2002
"Why do we ride the carousel?
We do it for the stories we can tell."
Jimmy Buffett
I awoke Monday morning with a
terrible hangover. I had decided to try to empty the mini-bar
the night before as a solution to my frustration over the
delays we were facing. This was not a good idea. As you recall,
Herb and I had flown over from Honolulu to the Big Island
of Hawaii the day before. We tested the extra fuel (ferry)
tanks that had been installed in Honolulu on the way over
and they seem to be working well. In order to make room for
them, they had removed all of the seating in the cabin and
there now remained a narrow 12" wide aisle that led to the
cockpit. With all of that extra fuel, the airplane would now
be 2,000 pounds overweight.
We had discovered two major problems
with the airplane on that flight. First, we had a right bleed
air failure. Fortunately, the left bleed air was working fine.
Bleed air is diverted from the air that is compressed as it
enters the engine intake and is used to pressurize and heat
the cockpit and cabin. Next to a fire or loss of both engines,
the loss of pressurization is probably the worst thing that
can happen on a long water crossing. Without pressurization,
you have to descend to below 15,000 feet so that you can breathe
and so that you don't freeze to death. Unfortunately, at that
altitude the airplane is much less efficient and the range
is significantly reduced. The other problem that we had discovered
was that the left fuel flow gauge was inoperative and the
right fuel flow gauge was reading high. Herb announced in
no uncertain terms that he would not leave without better
fuel flow information at the very least. This meant that we
would probably not be leaving for several days.
While I was at breakfast, I received
a voice mail from Claudia at Air Service. She is the Customer
Service Representative at Air Service at the Kona airport.
Ashley and I met her when we flew in to Kona from Christmas
Island on December 21. The first thing you notice about Claudia
is that she is gorgeous. She is a thirty-ish blonde with a
great body, ample assets, Hawaiian tan, long legs, a beautiful
smile, and some intriguing tattoos. The second thing you notice
is that she is very good at her job.
Claudia's voice mail indicated
that the airplane was ready for departure from Kona to Camarillo,
California. I immediately called my pilot, Herb Toney, on
his cellular telephone to find out what had happened. He said
he had gone to the airplane, started the engines, and, to
his surprise, the left fuel gauge had miraculously healed
itself. The right fuel gauge was still reading high but he
said he could live with that.
Herb was shooting for an 11:30
AM departure so I quickly finished my latest journal entry,
sent it to Matthew Cannon, our web master, and headed for
the Kona airport. Leaving on Monday was important because
we had scheduled to have the ferry tanks removed from the
airplane on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Camarillo Airport.
I arrived at 11:33 AM and found Herb on the telephone talking
to the FAA about the weather between Hawaii and California.
He hung-up the telephone and with a grim face said, "We can't
go." With palms upturned I asked, "Why?" He responded, "There's
not enough tail wind. They are forecasting an aggregate nineteen
knots and that's not good enough." He was also unsure how
much our being 2,000 pounds overweight would degrade the performance
of the aircraft (that is our ground speed). He went on to
say, "The winds are expected to become less favorable for
the next three days. Friday looks better."
I pondered what he had said for
a moment and then offered, "Look Herb, why don't we give it
a shot?" I continued, "We can fly for 2 1/2 hours and see
how we are doing. If we don't like the winds, we can turn
back to Hawaii and leave on Friday." I decided to sweeten
the pot, "We can fly into San Francisco instead of Camarillo.
That will reduce the distance by 200 miles." Herb is a very
conservative pilot. (Most pilots that are still alive are
conservative.) He probably used up most of his extra lives
flying Hueys in the jungles of Vietnam and just doesn't want
to push his luck. This proposal, however, made sense to him
so we quickly had an agreement.
We soon had all of the fuel tanks
bulging with kerosene including the extra 2,000 pounds in
the ferry tanks that had displaced all of the seats in the
cabin. Herb boarded first and as he squeezed himself between
the fuel tanks and into the pilot's seat, I closed the cabin
door and sealed us into N982GA for our Great Adventure. Being
careful not to kick any fuel hoses loose, I wedged my body
through the narrow gauntlet and took my place in the copilot's
seat.
Although N982GA was built in
1976, I trusted her completely. She had already carried us
32,000 miles over most of the oceans of the world including
the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian
Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean,
the Tasmanian Sea, and the South Pacific. Our longest leg
thus far had been 1,400 miles. Our range with neutral winds
is 1,800 miles but unless one wants to hear the engines stop
running, 1,400 miles is a good limit. With the ferry tanks
installed, this leg would be over 2,000 miles.
With the preflight checklist
complete, we started our taxi with the entire crew of Air
Service waving goodbye. Claudia had given me a farewell kiss
(on the cheek) followed by the words, "Give Ashley my best."
Thus ended the fantasy. She told us she would leave the key
in one of the rental cars in case we returned after she had
left for the day.
Our twin Pratt and Whitney turbines
proved more than equal to the task as we lifted off at 12:40
PM with plenty of runway to spare. (It was a very long runway.)
We ascended to the south and then circled clockwise 270o to
an easterly heading that would take us the forty miles across
the Big Island and over the Pacific. We could see the snow
capped Mauna Kea volcano to our right as our 850 shaft horsepower
engines lifted us toward our assigned altitude of 27,000 feet.
The land soon began to disappear behind us and we continued
to climb as we began our crossing. President John Kennedy,
a PT boat commander in World War II, had a plaque on his desk
that read, "Oh God, Thy Ocean is so great and my boat is so
small." It seemed at that moment to apply to airplanes equally
as well.
Herb and I watched the Garmin
530 that was displaying our ground speed. During our climb
to altitude, it had been reading around 175 knots. We were
approaching 27,000 feet and we were anxious to see what our
forward progress would be now. We needed in excess of 250
knots to feel comfortable. The autopilot reported an audible
tone indicating that we were leveling out, and Herb began
to adjust the propellers and the engine power to achieve maximum
efficiency. The ground speed was now reading 270 knots. We
were "lookin' good." We had a wind quartering off the tail
at 35 knots, better than the forecast.
I was quite talkative now but
Herb was in his own world. He seemed even more attentive than
usual to the myriad of displays and gauges that were laid
out before us and not terribly interested in my babbling.
He was feeling the weight of his responsibility to get us
safely to land. At one point, I said, "Herb, it's not necessary
for you to listen to me but it would make me feel better if
you would grunt occasionally to acknowledge that you can hear
me." He smiled and said, "Okay."
We were now outside of the range
of Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar in Hawaii and hours from
radar contact with California. We were also out of range of
their VHF radio, which means our only method of communication
with ATC was the HF radio that we had installed before leaving
Scottsdale in October. VHF is only effective for about 300
miles, line of sight, where as HF signals bounce off of the
ionosphere and, although less predictable, are effective for
much longer distances. What we had installed was a Ham radio
that cost about $15,000 less than the fancy units that normally
go into airplanes. As had been our experience for the past
three months, it worked about half the time.
Air Traffic Control requires
that if you are beyond radar contact, you must give periodic
position reports to let them know that you are okay and to
keep them informed of your location and altitude. When we
couldn't get through on the HF radio, Herb would rely on the
VHF to contact a nearby Commercial Airliner on a frequency
that is monitored by all airplanes. It went something like
this. He would transmit, "This is King Air 982 Golf Alpha.
Is anyone monitoring 123.45?" The reply would come back, "This
is Delta 932. Go ahead 2 Golf Alpha." Herb would then tell
them that we were having difficulty contacting Oakland Control
on the HF and asked if they would relay our position report.
The reply was invariably positive and Herb would then give
them the time (Zulu) at which we had passed a specific point
in the ocean, our altitude, estimated time to the next way-point,
and the following way-point. Within a few minutes, they would
call us back to advise that our position report had been successfully
relayed to ATC.
On one occasion, the airline
pilot joked, "What are you doing in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean in a King Air? Did you take a wrong turn somewhere?"
Herb replied, "Nope, we are ferrying a King Air 200 from Hawaii
to California." The voice on the VHF then responded, "I flew
a King Air 200 (G-12) in the Navy; it's a great airplane."
As they finished their brief conversation, I could feel the
sense of fraternity that exists between pilots no matter what
size airplane they fly. They all share the same sky, share
the same dangers, and depend on each other for their safety.
We were now level at 27,000 feet
with blue sky above and a fairly consistent cloud cover below.
There were intermittent glimpses of the ocean but most of
the time it was hidden from our view. The clouds would occasionally
extend upward into our line of flight. This can be a problem
because the outside temperature at that altitude is -40o F
and if the moisture content of the cloud is high enough, ice
will form on the leading edge of the wings and the tail. The
King Air 200 has rubber Boots on the leading edges of the
control surfaces that can be inflated in case of ice buildup.
This causes the ice to pop off and the Boots are then deflated
to restore the aerodynamic shape of the wings and the horizontal
stabilizer.
In addition, ice crystals entering
the air intake of the engine act as tiny projectiles that
can damage the turbine blades. To combat this problem, the
Ice Vanes are extended to deflect the ice crystals through
an opening at the bottom of the engine. This action unfortunately
reduces the airflow to the engine, thus slowing our air speed
by about 10 knots. As luck would have it, we only had to extend
the Ice Vanes once for about 30 minutes during the entire
flight.
Our fuel was distributed as follows:
| |
|
Pounds |
Gallons |
| Main tanks (Outboards) |
2,500 |
370 |
| Auxiliary tanks
(Inboards) |
1,060 |
160 |
| Ferry tanks
(three) |
2,000 |
300 |
| Total |
5,560 |
830 |
Fuel Flow Diagram
The way that the fuel reaches
the engines is from the Mains. The Auxiliary tanks feed into
the Mains and, with our setup, the ferry tanks feed into the
Auxiliary tanks.
Each of the three ferry tanks
were connected to each other and to the Auxiliary tanks with
ordinary translucent garden hose. The hoses were secured with
clamps similar to what you would find on an automobile radiator.
The largest tank had a check valve to allow air to enter the
tank and prevent a vacuum from forming when the fuel exited
from the bottom. This also allowed the cabin pressurization
to assist in forcing the fuel out of the tanks which otherwise
depended on gravity feed. The tanks were connected to each
other at the top to equalize the internal air pressure. There
were five manual valves (shown in the diagram above) that
were located on the floor directly behind the cockpit.
We were about one and one-half
hours out of Kona when we made our first fuel transfer from
the Ferry tanks to the Auxiliary tanks. We were burning about
520 pounds of fuel per hour so that in 90 minutes we had burned
almost 800 pounds or 400 pounds per side. First, we emptied
about 300 pounds from each Auxiliary tank into the Mains and
then, popped the circuit breaker to stop the flow. We then
recorded the fuel remaining in the Auxiliary tanks. Next,
we drained a similar amount from the Ferry tanks into the
Auxiliary tanks. We again recorded the fuel in the Auxiliary
tanks and, thus were able to determine how much fuel we had
drained from the Ferry tanks. We drained fuel from only one
Ferry tank at a time so that we could determine roughly how
much fuel remained in each of the three tanks.
We continued this process about
every 90 minutes until no more fuel was flowing into the Auxiliary
tanks. We discovered afterwards that we had not been able
to drain the last 15 gallons from each tank. We presume that
the reason for this was that the airplane was flying with
a slight nose-up attitude and, since the tanks drained from
the front, some of the fuel was trapped in the back. One other
note was that the sheet metal tanks made a loud banging noise
every time they would expand or contract which happened often.
It was certainly effective in keeping us alert.
I had my Iridium satellite telephone
with me in the cockpit and was able to call Ashley and my
daughter, Robin, every hour or so. I had an extra charged
battery for it in my pocket and two zip lock bags to protect
it from the seawater in case we had to ditch in the ocean.
I also had a hand held GPS unit and a zip lock for it as well.
At the two and one half-hour
point, we were doing 258 knots ground speed and had not been
below 245 knots since we had reached altitude. I said, "Well
Herb, it's decision time. It looks like we are a go." Herb
responded, "We'll go another 30 minutes and look at it again."
Herb is a very careful man. We actually discussed it at the
three-hour mark and again thirty minutes later. At that time,
we were up to 265 knots and Herb made the final decision that
we were not turning back.
It was dark now and I'm wondering
if it was such a good idea to leave Hawaii so late in the
day. In case of trouble the odds of landing successfully in
the Pacific Ocean without catching a wing on a swell and flipping
over is iffy at best. Doing it in the blackness of night is
highly improbable. We both had flashlights and life jackets
but to get the life raft out of the airplane and inflated
without losing it in the high seas would be difficult. To
compound the problem, the emergency exit was almost half covered
by the ferry tanks and we weren't sure we could fit through
it. The main cabin door opens by dropping down and is quite
heavy. If the airplane were upside down, it would be impossible
to open. If you recall, the man who installed the tanks had
told us that most ferry pilots keep an axe in the cockpit
to hack their way through the skin of the airplane in case
they are trapped. Maybe we should have listened.
"I'd rather die while I'm
living than live while I'm dead."
Jimmy Buffett
We were one thousand miles from
Hawaii when I announced that we were half way. We had been
flying for four and one-half hours and the airplane had been
performing beautifully. We were both a little anxious, however,
because we were aware that we were also a thousand miles from
California. About two minutes later, a yellow warning light
started flashing. My heart was in my throat. Herb's response
was, "Oh shit!" A few seconds later Herb leaned over to the
right side of the panel and turned down the cabin heat. The
alarm went off. It was an overheating air duct. It was possibly
related to the right bleed air failure. Another possibility
is that heat vents in the cabin that were covered by the ferry
tanks may have caused it. It started to get cold in the cockpit.
Before long it was very cold. Herb turned up the heat and
within minutes, the alarm again sounded. A little later we
tried again but to no avail. We would have to put up with
the cold.
Nature began to call me for my
second pit stop of the flight. I began working my way back
through the cabin to the toilet. On my first trip, it had
been very warm in the cabin. Now you could hang meat back
there. In addition to the toilet seat, there is a relief tube
that is preferable to the male gender. The relief tube uses
the pressure differential between the cabin and the outside
air to force the fluid out of the airplane. The process makes
an audible hissing sound as the air exits the aircraft. I
was nearing the end of the process of relieving myself when
the hissing sound abruptly stopped. The urine had frozen in
the tube! Did I mention that it was cold?
By the five-hour mark, I announced
to Herb that according to my calculations on the HP 12-C,
we were doing great on fuel. I had been working the numbers
for three hours. By then I was feeling better and better about
our range. I said, "I think we should change our destination
from San Francisco to Camarillo. We have plenty of extra fuel."
Herb replied, "I like extra fuel." I went on, "Our tail wind
is getting stronger but is coming more from the north and
less from the west. It will help us more if we assume a heading
for Southern California." Herb said, "We'll talk about it
in an hour." Herb is a conservative man. I joked, "I wouldn't
suggest it if I thought it would be putting your life in danger."
At that, he laughed.
At the seven and one half-hour
mark, we were about 300 miles off shore and were picked up
by Air Traffic Control radar. We were also able to communicate
with them on the VHF radio. Herb requested a change in destination
to Camarillo. A few minutes later, with ATC approval, we tipped
the right wing and changed our heading to the southeast. The
65-MPH wind was now almost directly on our tail and our ground
speed increased to 320 knots. We were moving! Forty-five minutes
later we spotted the lights of the mainland and boy did they
look good.
At 11:10 PM we touched down at
Camarillo airport. We had been flying for eight and one-half
hours. We had 800 pounds of fuel remaining that would have
carried us another hour and one-half. Our Great Adventure
was over and we were grateful that we had had the opportunity
to experience it. Once again, N982GA had performed admirably.
The Camarillo tower was closed and there was no one there
except the security patrol. He gave us a ride to the Comfort
Inn where Herb spent the night. I got a taxi to take me the
30 miles to Ojai where I had already reserved a room. I arrived
at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa at midnight; it had been a long
but rewarding day. Ashley was flying in from Phoenix the next
day to spend a couple of days with me until the tanks were
removed and the cabin seating was re-installed for our final
leg to Scottsdale.
On Tuesday afternoon, I rented
a car and drove to Santa Barbara to meet Ashley's flight.
She was bringing my golf clubs and I was looking forward to
a couple of rounds with her at the Jay Morrish designed layout.
The man who created the Libby glass fortune originally built
it in 1923. We played our first round on Wednesday and enjoyed
it very much. The tenth hole is a 406-yard par 4 from the
White tee with a dogleg to the right. It has an elevated tee
box and an elevated green with the fairway in a valley between.
I hit a nice drive down the right side that carried about
220 yards. My second shot from 188 yards uphill was with my
three-wood. I caught it clean and it hit about five feet short
of the green, bounced on, and began to funnel toward the pin.
I said, "Where did it go?" Ashley replied, "I think it went
in!" It did. The next day we played the course again. Ashley
was playing the Red tees and the tenth hole measured 375 yards.
She hit a great tee shot that caught a down slope and carried
200 yards. Her second shot from 175 yards, a high arching
draw, was with a five-wood and settled five feet right of
the pin. She made the putt for a three. Oh, I forgot to mention
that the tenth hole is a par five for the ladies. Ashley and
I had eagled the same hole on consecutive days.
On Friday morning, we checked
out and drove back to the Camarillo airport. When we arrived
at 1:30 PM, Herb was waiting for us and so was N982GA. She
was looking great with the ferry tanks removed and all of
the seats reinstalled. We were soon airborne and on our way
home to Scottsdale. We landed at about 5:00 PM. We had begun
our journey on October 3, 2001 and we were completing it on
January 25, 2002, 121 days later.
************************************
Ashley and I would like to begin
by thanking Tom and Pam Clements for their professionalism
as pilots as well as their companionship. Their skills kept
us safe and their presence added immeasurably to our trip.
My only regret in retaining them was the $25 I lost to Tom
playing golf.
I would like to express my appreciation
for Herb Toney who did such a tremendous job in being my ferry
pilot. I suggested to Herb that he might consider doing ferry
flights as a full-time occupation. He replied that our flight
was probably the most fun he had had in flying but that it
would be his last ferry flight.
We will never forget the wonderful
dinner party at the home of John and Caroline Oaks. We have
many friends but the ones with which we shared that evening
are in a class apart. Special thanks to Ray Vickery who never
ceases to provide me with inspiration.
Thanks to Peter Little for taking
me fishing on his boat. Peter, the snapper was delicious.
Come to America and let's play some golf.
We would also like to thank Martha
Stanley at Abercrombie & Kent for her work in arranging our
tours. You did a great job, Martha.
We must not forget Matthew Cannon,
our web master, for his tireless efforts in keeping Worldflight2001.com
alive and well. Matthew, it turned out to be a lot more work
than either one of us imagined and we appreciate your hanging
in there.
Many thanks to our dear friend
Rick Wilcoxson for keeping our home in one piece while we
were gone.
Thanks to the controller in the
Queenstown, New Zealand airport for staying late to talk us
down through the clouds and between the Southern Alps for
a safe landing.
Thanks to all of the guides and
drivers around the World that enriched our lives with their
knowledge and consideration. Thanks to the custom officials
who work so hard to keep us safe. Many of you wrote us on
our web site and we appreciate you all.
I have struggled to find a suitable
name for our airplane. N982GA seemed so sterile but I couldn't
come up with anything appropriate. It has finally come to
me. Her name is henceforth Carousel. Thanks to Carousel.
Finally, Ashley and I would like
to acknowledge our friends and family who kept us in their
thoughts and prayers. We are certain that you contributed
to our safe return. We also thank you for keeping up with
us on our web site.
We understand how lucky we are
to have had this opportunity of a lifetime. We will cherish
these memories for as long as we live.
Pat and Ashley
P.S. Thanks to Jimmy Buffett
for showing us the way. .
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