during the return flight

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Back in Europe, as of an hour ago. I'm in the middle of the return trip and have selected this time the fast route via Goose Bay and Narssasuaq, and will be flying form Boston to Rotterdam in only three days - more about that tomorrow, when I have actually completed it.

Today just a brief description on how it is to fly these long hours (like 11 hours today) over the Atlantic. But before that, a brief look back to the stay with Ira & Linda in Sudbury: we had a rather lazy Saturday, going swimming in Walden Pond, and in the afternoon Linda and I flew a bit around Boston area. But the weather was not brilliant, and it was rather humid and hazy - still a nice flight.

And that was the last vacation day - Sunday it was time to start the return trip. Unfortunately the weather was very bad, so it was an IFR departure from that small VFR airstrip - no problem in the US, the controllers are so nice pragmatic. So I went through the clouds to Bangor in Maine, to pass the passport control and to fill up the ferry tank with the cheap US fuel. Unfortunately it rained heavy, and its no fun to fill up the ferry tank even in dry conditions. But I got over 230 l into it (more than ever before), and DDN noticed the heavy fuel load on take-off. But eventually we reached or 900 ft altitude and cruised to Goose Bay in Newfoundland, the traditional starting point for the Atlantic crossing. Its a large military field with little to do, as the military doesn't train there anymore. It looks quite deserted, but the FBOs are both very friendly and tell the stories of all the planes they handle.

This morning I had planned the departure for 7:00 Newfoundland time (6:00 Boston time), Slept too long, but still made the departure time (cancelled breakfast instead). The first leg leads to Narsassuaq in Greenland - about 680 nm over water. And after an hour over water, the engine did make some strange vibrations and became uneven - so the plane does feel the long water distances. All was fine when I switched to the ferry tank, it was some water contamination in the main tanks - maybe from the rain in Bangor? At least I drained some water out of one tank in Narsassuaq, so probably that was the cause.

Now I was alert, and noticed that the ampmeter read zero - broken alternator? Gong back to Goose Bay would have been far, but in Narsassuaq it would be more difficult to get help. But I monitored the system voltage, and there was no slow drop, and it all behaved quite normal - so decision to continue and to monitor closely. But after maybe one hour with no charge, the ampmeter slowly recovered and showed full charge current. It is an instrument error, an not critical. And on the rest of the flight it all behaved nominal.

Arrival in Greenland was as spectacular as before, very impressive views. And since I let an airliner land ahead of me, I had some time for additional sight seeing.

This time no long stay, after an hour I was back in the air, flying through the fjords up the the high iceplateu of Greenland. Unfortunately, the Eastern side of Greenland was cloud covered. And the clouds stayed with me for the next 4 hours, until Iceland became visible between the various cloud layers, and I could see Reykjavik from far out. And I got a beautiful sunset for free.

Tomorrow it will be two more 5-hour flights, I'll probably be very tired afterwards. So maybe the last blog entry follows on Wednesday, summarizing the trip.

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Photos

departure from Ira & Linda
in the Sunday rain

many hours flying
thanks for the new in-ear headset, its comfortable and quiet

Greenland with meadows
just across the fjord from the airport

one of the many glaciers
just behind the airport

Reykjavik
after a long flight