NW_Pilot's Trans-Atlantic Flight -- All the scary details...

From NW_Pilot's adventu
Apparently the added pressure in the fuel
tanks pushed the floats in the fuel tank
up, which got the Garmin confused, causing
an error that made it reboot.

Steam gauges don't get confused like that. While they do sometimes go
bad or give an incorrect indication, the fault is isolated to that one
gauge; it doesn't cause the entire airplane to have an apoplectic fit.
That is left to the pilot. One of the real dangers of glass is that it
usurps the pilot's perogative to panic (or not) by doing so itself.

If there's ever an argument against glass (or "advanced integrated
flight instrumentations and controls"), this is it!

ibid:
Day 5: Shut down in Iceland with 55 knot headwinds. I make the call "No Go"!!!

NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

ibid: (spelling note, day 11)
After everything else that has happened, this makes me not want to every own a newer model Cessna, or anything with a G1000.

....not want to ever own...
(public service, not nitpicking)

(same day)
Everything else was uneventful, as I went direct KAD and had a small dialogue with the tower about my permission to land.

Anything interesting in that "dialog"?

Anyway, that's quite an adventure! Would you do it again?

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In a previous article, Jose said:
Day 5: Shut down in Iceland with 55 knot headwinds. I make the call
"No Go"!!!

NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

Why not? 55 knot headwinds cut into your fuel reserve, 55 knot tail winds
help it. I've flown with a 70 knot tail wind, it was great. Except when
I had to descend to land, then it was bumpy as hell.

At one point my GPS was showing a 210 knot ground speed, and I felt like
asking Buffalo Approach what they were showing as my ground speed, just to
brag at what a Cherokee can do. But then I remembered the story about
people doing that just as an SR-71 checked in on the frequency.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Windows, another fine product from the folks who gave us edlin.

On Sun, 1 Oct 2006 16:20:18 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote in :

NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

Why not? 55 knot headwinds cut into your fuel reserve, 55 knot tail winds
help it. I've flown with a 70 knot tail wind

Have you ever attempted to taxi a high-wing aircraft in 55 knot winds?

In a previous article, Larry Dighera said:
On Sun, 1 Oct 2006 16:20:18 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote in :
NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

Why not? 55 knot headwinds cut into your fuel reserve, 55 knot tail winds
help it. I've flown with a 70 knot tail wind

Have you ever attempted to taxi a high-wing aircraft in 55 knot winds?

I thougth we were talking about winds-aloft, not surface winds?


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"If something's expensive to develop, and somebody's not going to get paid, it
won't get developed. So you decide: Do you want software to be written, or
not?" - Bill Gates doesn't foresee the FSF or Linux, 1980.

On 2006-10-01, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sun, 1 Oct 2006 16:20:18 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote in :

NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

Why not? 55 knot headwinds cut into your fuel reserve, 55 knot tail winds
help it. I've flown with a 70 knot tail wind

Have you ever attempted to taxi a high-wing aircraft in 55 knot winds?

I flew a long trip in a Bonanza in 55 knot tail winds (it cut out one
refuelling stop, too). The SURFACE winds were under 15 knots. The wind
at 9000 feet can be much stronger than at near sea level.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:34:44 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote in
:

The wind at 9000 feet can be much stronger than at near sea level.

I have a feeling, that in the arid, treeless wastes above the Arctic
Circle the wind gradient is not so steep.

On 2006-10-03, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:34:44 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote in
:

The wind at 9000 feet can be much stronger than at near sea level.

I have a feeling, that in the arid, treeless wastes above the Arctic
Circle the wind gradient is not so steep.

You'd be surprised. There's a lot more to the wind speed difference
between winds at 9000 feet and the surface than merely surface friction.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:56:26 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote in
:

On 2006-10-03, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:34:44 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote in
:

The wind at 9000 feet can be much stronger than at near sea level.

I have a feeling, that in the arid, treeless wastes above the Arctic
Circle the wind gradient is not so steep.

You'd be surprised. There's a lot more to the wind speed difference
between winds at 9000 feet and the surface than merely surface friction.

Be that as it may, I'd be reluctant to taxi a C-172 in anything
approaching 20 knots on the surface.

"Jose" wrote in message
et...
From NW_Pilot's adventu
Apparently the added pressure in the fuel
tanks pushed the floats in the fuel tank
up, which got the Garmin confused, causing
an error that made it reboot.

Steam gauges don't get confused like that. While they do sometimes go bad
or give an incorrect indication, the fault is isolated to that one gauge;
it doesn't cause the entire airplane to have an apoplectic fit. That is
left to the pilot. One of the real dangers of glass is that it usurps the
pilot's perogative to panic (or not) by doing so itself.

If there's ever an argument against glass (or "advanced integrated flight
instrumentations and controls"), this is it!

ibid:
Day 5: Shut down in Iceland with 55 knot headwinds. I make the call "No
Go"!!!

NW-Pilot, would you have gone with 55 knot tailwinds?

ibid: (spelling note, day 11)
After everything else that has happened, this makes me not want to every
own a newer model Cessna, or anything with a G1000.

...not want to ever own...
(public service, not nitpicking)

(same day)
Everything else was uneventful, as I went direct KAD and had a small
dialogue with the tower about my permission to land.

Anything interesting in that "dialog"?

Just dialiaog about my permissions on landing.


Anyway, that's quite an adventure! Would you do it again?

Hell, Yeah!!! You Bet !!

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it
keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

x-archive-no: yes

NW_Pilot wrote:
"Jose" wrote in message

Anyway, that's quite an adventure! Would you do it again?

Hell, Yeah!!! You Bet !!


Steven,

Adventure like this was made for adrenaline junkie like you ;-)
Congratulations for an exceedingly well done job. Actions speak louder
than words, it takes both a cool head and good piloting skill to handle
this scary event. I don't think that you can ever silent net armchair
critics, Monday morning quarterbacks etc but I hope that you have
erased some doubts in the mind of some of your 'frequent' critics.

Hai Longworth