Over Pond - Pacific Ocean

[Paul Sharp]

Anyone have experience, or can recommend someone who does, with flying to Australia area? Routes, islands in between, ferry tanks installation?

I'm wondering how it is done, or if you just give up and ship the aircraft over there?

And does your Garmin 430 need a diff. database? And how about the 396 VFR model I have in the aircraft?

[Skymaster337B]

There's nothing cheaper than crating and shipping a Skymaster; compared to the cost of fuel, ferry tank installation, HF radio installation, insurance, landing fees, security fees, etc. I'm not even sure there's any 100LL West of the Hawaii Island chain any more. Although, such a flight would be an adventure. However, just because you can do something doesn't always mean it should be done.

I've looked at this several times myself for a retirement in Thailand. Each time I come to the same conclusion...ship it.

[Ernie Martin]

I'm not so sure, given what we now know about safely separating the wings from the fuselage.

I think that disassembling, crating, shipping, and re-assembling a Skymaster is likely to cost somewhere between:

a) the cost of the wing-fuselage attach point SID, and

b) the cost of all the SIDs.

I don't know the numbers, but my instant impression is that it may be close, perhaps cheaper to fly it, especially if the proper steps are taken at the disassembly and reassembly to ensure that no damage is done to the wing-fuselage attachments.

Ernie

[Paul Sharp]

What if the aircraft is kept registered in the U.S.? Would that mean that the SIDs may not need to be complied with?

[Ernie Martin]

Paul, I don't know the answer to that (although I think not, or everyone would keep US registry to avoid SBs and SIDs), my point was solely one of cost. The cost of the SIDs is not in doing the "inspections", it's the disassembly/reassembly required to expose the areas needing inspection. And now that we know the cost of doing it safely, my gut tells me that those costs (plus crating and shipping) may well exceed the costs of ferrying the aircraft.

Ernie

[Dave Underwood]

There are a couple of folks in Australia who do that ferry on a regular basis. I recall there was a recent article in AOPA about on fellow who did it a lot. The article was about doing it in a C182 and having the engine quit and his rescue.

There have been several earth rounders recently and they did have to ship in their own 100LL for the stretch between Turkey and China as I recall.

I have done the initial planning to fly around the Pacific and spend a bit of time touring Australia and New Zealand and it looks do-able if you add extra tanks in case you do have to tanker fuel.

The US to Australia routing is to Hawaii, Christmas Island, Samoa, Fiji etc. with the Leg to Hilo in Hawaii being 2,025 nm. That is a long time.

All those various places in teh Pacific likely have flying clubs so you could check availability of 100LL.

It would be a great trip.

Dave

[Skymaster337B]

Christmas Island is West of Australia, so I'm not sure the routing is Hawaii to Christmas Island. The problem is 100LL West of Hawaii...but plenty of H2O.

Personally, the safest way is Alaska, Russia, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia. But like I said before...you'll need to pay fees unimaginable in the Western world (and bribes too along the way)...and did I mention no 100LL in most of these places past Alaska. Sure there might be 100LL at a very few select places in Japan and the Philippines, but you'll need more than there are stops available.

To answer the question about the N number...the answer is you need an FAA annual to fly that aircraft anywhere in the world, under ICAO. For example, in the UK it is very expensive to own an airplane; so, about half of the general aviation fleet in the UK have N numbers instead of the UK's registration....then FAA registration rules apply, and is cheaper to maintain. I've seen it when I lived in the UK.