Saturday, August 31, 2013

Departure: JETZT GEHTS LOS!!!

We slept well and began our departure day rested and organised.
Arrival at Hildesheim Airport at just before 8h00. Gela & Lisa took over our car keys and we proceeded to fill up the plane and then to climb into our Immersion suit.

Our not too comfortable immersion suits

Then we got a phone call from Andrew, our handling agent in Schotland, asking us for a form which we did not think we need to send him. First delay, the form was send to him via a special data communication card from the plane parked next to the fuel pump and then we took off. 
Below us my sister and my niece and our friends Sigrid and Heinz were waving GOOD BYE enthusiastically.


Just now we flew thru Amsterdam Air Space and the Air traffic controller greeted us with "Goe Dag"  and "Tot Siens" , that made us feel at home.
The wind is against us. 40 knots/65 km. No surprise. Our first leg to Wick in Schotland will take one hour longer. 
Timewise do we gain one hour to Wick UTC +1. Hildesheim is UTC+2. Reykjavic will be UCT00.
The suits we are wearing take up a lot of space, we are not really comfortable. A good thing: we are not hot nor cold, Temperature wise we are comfortable.
The outside temperature is minus 18 degree celsius and we just noticed our heater is not functionally. We have to investigate, good thing we are wearing our suits.
Along the way the most wonderful weather, clear and blue skies, scattered clouds below us. That is for now.

Below us the North Sea

Good weather conditions stayed with us right thru refuelling. This time around we filled the turtle tank first time on the trip and all worked very well.



Coastline of Scotland
The plane performed excellent during take off and the pilot was very pleased.
What he was not pleased about was the fact that the tank in the back was forgotten and not filled. Thank goodness it was noted and rectified.
Now we are on our way to Reykjavic.
We are experiencing an 85 knots headwind component, we will arrive late and it will be after sunset at 20h45 UTC00.

Friday, August 30, 2013

What a day...and so many Guardian Angels

The last day before departure, the trial packing was postboned from hour to hour, because there was always something more important to do.
Tension was rising, up till now we were totally relaxed. That changed today. Dietmar kept saying, he needed another week to get ready, me looking at the different bags and hold-alls asking myself: where must all the stuff go? It will never fit! Once more it was time to distract myself, Iam getting very good at that.
Therefore I took photos of the different guardian angels we received and Farewell cards and good wishes and blessings. Thank you very much, it means a lot to us.
Finally we got going with our trial packing, the first one with an empty turtle pac, reshuffled stuff, then took everything out again. 
Every piece of luggage was weighted and packed again.
Some was taken out once more, tie downs were installed, the extra fuel tank was filled, and bags were secured at their final storage space. Well, we are packed right up under the roof and it took us over 4 hours.

Baggage to be loaded



Dietmar attaching "the Family"











Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Communication Equipment

There has been some interest in what type of communication equipment we carry and how it all fits together. Here is a short summary of what equipment we carry and for what purpose.

Besides various navigation receivers installed in the aircraft, we have two VHF aviation radios. They represent the prime equipment for communication with air traffic control (ATC) and aircraft air-to-air. Speech quality is typically quite good, but range is line-of-sight only, limiting us to between 100 to 200 kms. In addition, we have installed an HF transceiver specifically for this trip, as it is required by some countries, most notably Russia. While the speech quality of HF is poor, range can be quite far, but this is somewhat unpredictable and we don't consider this radio reliable and hence prefer to rely on additional equipment.

We carry two satellite telephones. One operates on the Iridium network and is installed in the aircraft. It is suitable for use in flight and allows us to maintain contact with ATC, when we're out of VHF range and HF is not working reliably. The second satellite phone operates on the Inmarsat network and will be with us when we leave the aircraft at our various destinations. It will allow us to communicate when there is no other means. This will come in handy when flight plans need to filed or amended. While satellite phones work reasonably well, calls are fairly expensive and hence will be restricted to important stuff only.

Of course we carry our cellphones as well. Vero has her iPhone 4S with her South African SIM card. This means that she will be reachable both on voice as well as for SMSs. I carry a Samsung Android device with dual SIM capability. One SIM is my SA number, ensuring that I am also reachable under my normal number. The 2nd SIM is a special world-wide roaming SIM with data capabilities. While roaming data is still an expensive option, even with this card, it's a reasonable scenario, given that I need to obtain weather and make all sorts of other operational calls.

Besides our notebook machines, we also carry our iPads. Again for weather and flight planning purposes, I have a world-wide roaming SIM in my iPad. I also carry an iPad mini as a backup device, as I will be relying on iPad capability in flight. Vero will rely on WiFi connections for forward planning and social communications.

To keep all these devices working and powered up, we carry a fair selection of interface cable, chargers and power supplies. Specifically, we also carry several USB power packs, capable of storing enough energy to charge our phones more than once or even an iPad in the middle of nowhere. We also carry a battery-driven A4 printer.



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Fuel System Test

Today I spent several hours testing the fuel system of our Silver Eagle. We have installed a temporary rubber tank, to be used to transfer fuel from Adak (Aleutian Islands) to Attu. The intention is to create a fuel cache on Attu on 7th Sep. On the 8th of Sep we want to come back to Attu and fill up with the fuel from the cache, for departure to Russia the next morning (9 Sep). Arrival in Russia would be on the 10th, as we cross the dateline during the flight.

The rubber tank holds around 250 litres of fuel and for the test, I filled the tank completely. I then drained some of its contents via a special installed drain pipe into one of our 12 containers, holding 20 litres each. The next test was to single-handedly transfer the contents of that container into the main tanks on top of the wings of the aircraft. All worked well, with zero spillage. The final test involved emptying the rubber tank completely to determine the quantity of unusable fuel remaining. I was happy to find that the amount of unusable fuel was in the order of 2 to 3 litres.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Maps and Maps

I have now sorted out the paper maps that we will be taking along. What you see below are the Jeppesen airway charts for the entire world. These are overview charts, used primarily for flight planning and printed on fairly thin paper to save weight. Generally, I fly almost paperless, but for this trip it is advisable to carry at least the airway charts in paper form, as we may need to do a fair amount of planning and re-planning as we go.

I will only be taking the two binders on the left; the other charts cover those parts of the world that will not be included in our trip.

All other charts, specifically airport approach and departure charts, are stored on my iPad, with a 2nd iPad in my bag as a stand-by. If they were to be carried in paper form, the worldwide material would not fit on the table shown below and represent a huge weight and space penalty. I am very happy to be able to use my iPad for this purpose, something many airlines have also converted to. Anyhow, just a few years ago, this was unthinkable and again I realise that modern technology helps a lot for our planned adventure.

Aufwiedersehen and Good Bye,

My dear loved ones, my family, my friends, 
today I feel quite emotional about the departure of the long trip ahead of us. 
It's all triggered off by me thinking about where to place "the Family" onto the plane!
The trip ist kein "Zuckerschlecken", by all means. When will we see each other again? WILL we see each other again? All those silly questions just because of a few silly stickers;)
Anyhow I distracted myself by arranging my/our Family on the table and now I have taken a wonderful picture and have also included the Guardian Angel given to us by Karin.
And I have also looked for some more Emergency Landing Sites in the North Pacifik and I found one additional one. Not a nice one, unmanned, which I am not surprised about. They used to test nuclear there, anyhow as an emergency landing site good anytime. It is called AMCHITKA.
Enough of that: Here is our Family.







Sunday, August 25, 2013

What a drag....

Tent no 1 was looked at, bought and taken back within the hour, wrong tent in right package.
Tent No 2 was found" im Sperrmuell", okay,  we must not complain about that one...but the water column was not sufficient. 
Tent  No 3 will withstand the requirements of Attu and its "worst weather on earth".



Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Visas for Bhutan

Today we were informed that the VISAS for Bhutan had been obtained by our Hotel in Bhutan. While we are happy that this has been concluded, the price of those VISAS is another matter. We are being charged more than 1,000 Euros, which translates to around R 14,000 for those VISAS. This is for a stay of 4 nights for two people. Amazing. Still we are really looking forward to visiting Bhutan as it seems to be a truly special place.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

More about Attu

Now that we have made the decision to spend a night in Attu, more research is being conducted. In the process, Vero came across the following most useless information: The airfield in the world which is located furthest from Attu is - wait for it - CAPE TOWN! It is in fact 17,104 kms away from Attu.


Stand by while we spend more time looking for the most useless information relating to our trip.


SIXT Car Rental

As part of our preparation for the big trip we flew into Straubing on Sunday afternoon. I had made a car reservation with SIXT well in advance a week before. Unlike with other car rental firms, there was no confirmation email, even after several days. So, to make sure there wouldn't be any nasty surprises and to make arrangements for the delivery of the vehicle to Straubing airfield, I called SIXT on the central reservation number on the 15th, 3 days before rental start. I mentioned that I had not received e-mail confirmation and the lady said "no problem, I will send it now", which she did. I again confirmed the vehicle class (a Mercedes CLA) and I requested the phone umber of the local station in Sraubing, which would be responsible for the vehicle delivery. I was told that I wouldn't need that phone number and that I should be calling the central reservation number again when I arrived at the airfield, and everything would be handled from there. Not happy with that answer, I requested the local phone number two more times, to no avail, eventually accepting that I would call the central number on arrival.

When we arrived in Straubing, I immediately called the central number, which - after going through the usual menu selections etc. - eventually got me speaking to an agent who ultimately got me connected to the local station in Straubing. Speaking to the local lady, I was informed that the station did not have ANY cars of the selected group and instead would "upgrade" me to the next higher group, which happened to be an Opel Vectra. Besides not being happy with the "upgrade", there were some other issues with the lady telling me that they were actually closed and all sorts of issues which made a vehicle delivery difficult. At that point, the call was lost due to a poor cellphone connection. By that time I still had no local number to call and I expected the lady t call me back, as SIXT had all my contact details including cellphone and email address. I waited 10 minutes, but no luck.

I learned from the airport staff that car hire firms usually deliver their vehicles and leave the keys at the airport counter. Why this could not have been arranged in my case, I will never know. I also learned from the airport staff that a local car hire company was far more flexible and accommodating and I then contacted that company. Within 20 minutes, a vehicle was at the airport. There is no doubt in my mind that SIXT was in breach of contract, as they did not deliver the vehicle on time, nor did they even have the booked vehicle class available. Worse, they made no effort whatsoever to contact me to resolve the issue.

Imagine my surprise, when on Monday morning I saw a  notification that my credit card was debited with R 8736. As I still had no local telephone number, but an address, I paid the local office a visit in the afternoon. The lady in attendance clearly did not believe that there was anything wrong with how SIXT had handled this contract. I explained to her why I was upset and why I believed that the behaviour was not only unacceptable but may be construed as fraudulent. I also demanded the return of my money within the next hour. The lady's reaction was that she ordered me to leave, which, she pointed out, was quite entitled to do.

A check of my credit card statement on Tuesday morning showed no SIXT transaction, so hopefully the reported transaction was a "reserve" type transaction only.

The bottom line is that SIXT provided shocking service by

a) not confirming the reservation when it was made
b) not releasing the local station phone number when asked for it 3 times
c) not contacting me to make the necessary delivery arrangements
d) accepting a reservation for a vehicle group known not to be available at the station
e) not notifying me of the unavailability of the booked vehicle group
f) not having a clear plan of how to hand over the vehicle
g) not contacting me after the failed phone call
h) executing a credit card transaction after being in breach of agreement
i) not making ANY attempt to resolve the issue

I guess this now moves SIXT to the bottom of the list of car hire companies I will use in future.

Monday, August 19, 2013

ATTU here we come!

The desicion is taken: we will spend a night in ATTU, the island at the end of the world.
There is no-one, there is nothing, just bad weather, plenty of dropped fuel for planes and, so were we told, a small river filled with fresh water...
Today we bought a tent, 2 Sleepingbags and a bottle of Schnapps. ;)
Attu here we come!

Attu Island
Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska, the United States, and North America. The island is currently uninhabited. Wikipedia
Population: 0
Island groups: Aleutian Islands, Near Islands

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Last Briefing

We are on our way to Egelsbach for our last briefing. Before we left Hildesheim we took some pics of the plane, kind of before and after....?




Briefing:
We met the group. First impression is very pleasant and we are very comfortable amongst the people, all very nice and down to earth.
We listened to the briefing, and we listened to the people, and we were quite
surprised to learn that only two crews will create a fuel storage on ATTU as the others decided to fly either a long direct leg to Petropavlosk or to take an entirely different northerly route. We are one of those crews to land on the lonely island.
After an intense briefing we left the meeting with lots to think and talk about, our head is full of thoughts with a lot of decisions to be taken.

Apron in Egelsbach on Sunday afternoon

All we want to do now is fly to our final destination of today. 
And that is Straubing. Tomorrow morning the plane has do be at the Avionic Company to have a few installations of all kinds done.
Better late than never.
By the way: one of the participants of the world tour, a crew flying a Mooney, have a new motor/ engine fitted this week!!! We thought we were last minute!
Now its time to relax and have a glass of wine.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Life Raft has arrived

16.2 kg, a long tow rope attached, the sailers amongst yourself will know what we are talking about....the raft will be on top of the fuel turtle tank and will have to be pulled out in case we go down into the ocean....
We hope this will never happen but this hope does not relieve us from preparing as best as we can for an emergency.

Dietmar and Gela inspect the bag

Now the emergency supply from > to and more, see picture. 
Dietmar and I can survive on that one for a few days or longer. We hope.
Longer then that it will not be so lekker.


Our emergency medical bag was packed  before leaving Cape Town by our very capable and beloved daughter and her partner. 
Thanks very much to both of you. 
The medical bag contains everything except a scalpel. We are equipped for any medical emergency, again we trust that we will not having to touch the bag. Never ever.
But it does not stop us from preparing as best as we can.


Our Emergency Medical Bag


Now we get to the Fuel Containers:
12 containers for 20 litre each. Tested and nicely folded up to fit into a holding bag.



Thursday, August 15, 2013

Turtle Pac (additional Fuel Tank)

Today a big day for the temporary and trial installation of the Extra fuel tank in the cabin. Will it work? Will it leak?
Juhu!!! everything seems fine.
240l extra fuel for 2.5 to 3:00 h/ 400 nm, for over 500nm in still wind condition which we will HARDLY experience.
The filling with fuel works okay with minimal spillage. It took us about 30 minutes to fill the tank. But now another difficulty: there is no way to get into the back of the plane, once the tank is full. How will we reach our luggage which partly has to be in the back? How will we get the life raft out in case of an emergency? We need to figure this out once the tank is fully installed and strapped in. Next week.


The tank is temporarily installed for test filling

Now emptying the Turtle Pac into small containers

Friday, August 9, 2013

Welcome to our blog


We will use this space to document our progress with regards to our 2013 World Trip, using our Silver Eagle. All flights will be logged within the FBMS (Flight and Business Management System) of Sky Messaging (Pty) Ltd and a special page has been created within the FBMS to allow viewing of such flight data. The relevant link is:


Hopefully, we will find the time during the trip to keep these pages updated.

We are planning to be travelling for just over two months and we expect to be back in Hildesheim by early November and back in Cape Town by mid November.

Dietmar.