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Published: July 12th 2011
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final approach in Burlington
large airport with many small airliners Last step of the Atlantic crossing is completed with the arrival in the US. It was actually quite a routine flight, but still the one I worried most about. There are many stories about big problems with immigration in the US, and although I believed I had filled all the required forms - but the final proof is to do it.
So in the morning (after finishing the blog entry about the beautiful rainbow fight at 4:30 local time - jet lag!), I started preparing the flight from Sept-Îles to Burlington (both airports selected on their merit to have customs on the field and official status as 'Airport of Entry'😉. Of cousre, the internet and the computer were slower than expected, breakfast too longer etc - I got late. And noticed that the original flight plan was 15 minutes faster than the new one - replanning again. Half way I stopped as I expected to get professional help at the Sept-Îles airport. So I got a taxi and rushed there - as I had announced my arrival at 12 local time to the US-customs, and I knew that that time would be difficult to make.
Arriving at the airport,
in Burlington
after the successful immigration the first problem was to find anybody who knew what 'General Aviation' means (no, its not another airlines - the small planes out there...) - finally I walked into the office of the airport director (a nice lady), and she actually found the phone number for the customs people and also called somebody at the Flight Service Station to help. And calling the customs number, they said essentially that they don't care whether I stay or leave, they only work for people getting into Canada - the documents seem to say different, but what do I know? And the Flight Service Specialist brought me into a room with an old terminal, but at closer inspection it turned out that I first would have to register to get access (by experience, that process takes 30 minutes or more), and the weather briefing covered Canada only - I had better on my own computer. And about calling the US customs to update my arrival time, he only found a phone number that has been disconnected in the meantime. That is the real adventure in flying!
I decided that I had done the best possible, filed my IFR flightplan with a phone
this Atlantic crossing
but most of the flying was done by the autopilot number that I had written down some time ago, tried to get out to my plane (somebody had to find the security officer first to open the door - another 10 minutes - but friendly chats in between), and finally loaded DDN with my baggage, preflighted and left with a full IFR clearance. Once airborne, everything was easy - friendly and competent controllers as before (but they are talking half the time in French).
The flight was over beautiful landscape, but unfortunately it was quite hazy and the cloud base was about 1000 feet below my altitude, so view was not remarkable (but what would beat the previous flights anyhow?). So no nice pictures today.
After some three hours I crossed the US border and there were no F-15s trying to intercept me (as they actually did with three planes over Camp Davies this weekend), and the US controller guided me straight to Burlington airport - all fine. After landing, the controllers asked my further intentions (at least they didn't search for me yet), and then sent DDN straight to the Customs building (at least the officials didn't have to wait for me). The arrival procedure says that you have to stay in the plane until the customs officers arrive - but after 5 minutes, I walked to their building, which was apparently fine, as they looked a bit sleepy ('but you should have stayed in the plane...'😉. But it was a friendly immigration processing, and after the usual finger printing and the picture taking I was finally in the US, at least in legal status.
Walked to the FBO (the aircraft handlers) next door - very fancy, geared for expensive business jets, not for small old Mooneys, but a very efficient service - they had the maps and approach plates that I need, got me a hotel, gave me a car (big fancy machine), so I went out to see Burlington. And now I'm just returning from that lovely college town after an excellent steak dinner - now I have really arrived in the US.
That finishes the my first Atlantic crossing with my own plane. The statistics are quite simple:
6 flying days, 31:09 hours flying time (about 5 hours per day), of which the autopilot flew about 30 and I did only the remaining 1:09 hrs. The real time and effort went into preparation and planning, and deciding what to do next, which is sometimes quite difficult.
The total flight distance is about 8000 km (as measured by the GPS), average speed was over 250 km/h, and average fuel consumption a little over 33 l/hrs (8.8 gallons/hrs). Not bad for a 47-year old airplane!
Now I'm on vacation for a few days until I pick up Regina in Boston on Thursday, and then we are heading further South - first to New York (I have to fly around the Statue of Liberty), then to Kitty Hawk 'First Flight' airport, and finally to visit Marga & Steve in Orlando. And somewhat later we fly North to the Oshkosh fly-in (one week camping!), then West to Denver to visit Suzan and give a talk on Aeolus in Boulder, and then its going over the Atlanic again towards Rotterdam. But that seems still in a far future.
I plan to continue this blog, but not every day as before, as my big first Atlantic flight is now over - the return flight will be a much lesser event for me, as I know now what to expect.
In the meantime, I'm in the process to upload more pictures to my Picasa-website. If you want to see Icebergs in the midnight sun, this is the place.
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Gilles
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My congratulations ...
... to Didienne. Indeed it was hard work to move a pilot to the other side of the Atlantic. And indeed you had to let him do a little bit by himself otherwise he would get very frustrated. I know that. Now that the temperatures are OK, I wish you a nice stay ... and take care of your pilot. Cheers, Gilles