Aviation Question, hoping there are some oversea-experienced pilots here...

Enquiring Mind | 11/30/2001 | MississippiMan

[Travis McGee]

^ Pilot Ping ^

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Oh heck, I am just single engine rated, so I don't fly over water. I am sure there are a lot of very qualified pilots here who can give you all the answers.

[JackelopeBreeder]

What time of year? Personally, I'd have him top off somewhere on the east coast, say Newfoundland, and again in Keflavik, Iceland. Just a touch exotic, but conservative if the North Atlantic is being her normal, bitchy self.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Toss in a co-pilot and some colorful weather (and related profanity) for a couple of paragraphs. I'll send you authentic details if needed.

[Squantos]

I just e-mailed my USAF KC-10 pilot friend......"She's" gonna give us the straight skinny. E-mail will hopefully be in a few or tomorrow at latest. I know the route, of Gander NF, Iceland, Shannon Ireland, Oslow etc etc but lets see what she says. I know it'll be two pilots for sure though. Pretty sure anyhow. My cousins husband flies the same AC for GM Corporate weenies outta Detroit area but I don't have his e-mail..........darn it !

Stay Safe !

[MississippiMan]

Is the co-pilot a legal requirement or just a common sense one? Time of year is August. Owner of the plane is off his rocker and pushing the pilot HARD to get where they're going.

[patton]

Wow. I love FR.

Beats me. SEL.

[MississippiMan]

Thanks much for the quick responses, folks. Tomorrow will be just fine for the details, or longer if needed. The relevant passage in the book is right now styled as, "blah blah blah" and I'll come back to it and fill it in properly thanks to the help of you good folks. :)

MM

[ChiefKujo]

its almost 4600 NM

[Squantos]

She's deployed right now but e-mail is fast so we'll hear something. I cut and pasted your request so hopefully she'll have time to "inform" us General Aviation Wannabes :o)

Stay Safe & watch the ball !

[MississippiMan]

Sounds great, Squantos. Thanks much.

The breadth of knowledge and experience on this forum never ceases to amaze me.

MM

[Travis McGee]

I'd use an unemployed old pal semi-alcy pickup co-pilot as a plot device to throw in some salty dialogue, and I'd have this convenient character do the planning and logistics and flying while your protagonist catches much needed shut-eye, and ponders his problems and future.

The convenient plot device pilot could even be an old ex-Soviet Air Force Colonel, or a smuggler recently out of prison.

Good dialogue opportunity to reveal more about the protags past, and the CPDP can take care of most of the technical aspects of the flying "off page".

[patton]

I actually put a 152 into a spin on my first check-ride. FAA type said, " Well, I was going to flunk you, but that was the best spin recovery I have ever seen."

47 feet.

[Travis McGee]

You are rated for one more engine than I am!

[Balata]

4000+hrs. (8 yrs) C-141 Mostly international flying.

The route would be a Great Circle route, which is the shortest distance betw two points on a sphere. This is why flights to Europe will fly over the North Atlantic on what we call the NAT Tracks. Remember, flights that are in the same direction as the jet stream (West to East) will be significantly faster than flights in the opposite direction.(approx. 30-60min for flights to Europe.)

There would be at least two people in the cockpit. Eventhough English is a truly international language (except in the countries that were behind the iron curtain) when it comes to flying, one person will have their hands full with the radios when flying in Europe.

Flying out of McGuire AFB one of our missions was Presidential Support. One memorable mission was to USSR when Nixon went there in the early 70's. If any of this is of intrest let me know. I've got many hours worth of stories.

[MississippiMan]

Well, the owner of the plane, sitting in the cabin, is actually the antagonist. The pilot is just a straight-up guy who took the job of flying this nut around because he was tired of late-night FedEx flying and the pay is exceptional. The boss man is gonna push him really hard to get there yesterday and is not gonna be reasonable in the least when it comes to pesky little details like sane flying. ;-)

MM

[MississippiMan]

I'm interested in all of it; I want to absorb all I can.

BTW, if I disappear here shortly it's only because it's approaching bedtime here in MS. I will indeed check out all the responses tomorrow. ;-)

MM

[patton]

Some day, we have to meet.

Wait - did we not meet in DC?

[Travis McGee]

True story: my brother in law's brother was a local C.A.P. honcho in OK. In the 80s the Thunderbirds were coming for an airshow, and he was taking the T-bird's advance man out for an area check flight in the local flying club's 172. You know, this road to that silo to that radio tower.

Anyway, on the way back the T-bird advance team guy says, "mind if I take it?"

"Sure, why not."

The T-bird advance man put it into a dive, climbed straight out vertically until it stalled standing on its tail, then he killed the engine and he pulled out the key. Then he said "you want it now?" with a big grin at my bro-in law's brother, who was having an MI.

Naturally, the T-bird advance team pilot recovered it and restarted it and flew back and landed.

This is no lie, I saw the newspaper clipping about it from the local weekly paper.