Sling 4 Around the World

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Captain Durango
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Captain Durango »

According to my GE, ZU-TAF is on an aircraft carrier 38nm SE of Madagascar.

Any news on whether the Indigo Tracker will be active again for the next voyage?
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Christopher »

Bruce, go to TAF's homepage and scroll right down to bottom (right-hand corner); double-click on the icon that says something like "where the hits come from"... (Look out, Bruce: BOOF!) :D

Stop press: Bruce -- it's the "latest news" page -- sorry, friend!
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by jpitman »

Wednesday night 10 August 2011 – One obstacle after another, exhausted, but still planning!

“Never give up, never, never, never give up” said Winston Churchill.

We’ll it feels as if we’ve been fighting a war today.

It’s too late to really explain all the administrative problems that we’ve run up against. The long and the short of it, however, is that the Mauritians will not allow us to traverse their airspace at all without an HF radio. That means we have to go around, namely through the Seychelles and Mumbai FIR’s.

So we’ve filed a flight plan for Male, Maldives at 6am local time tomorrow (0200Z), the long way around. That’s a 19 hour flight. (Unless we “shave” it a bit and encroach on Mauritius’s precious waters – Jean’s the pilot in command, after all, and he has a strong tendency to pull to the right).

Meanwhile there’s no avgas or suitable Mogas at Male, so Jean has managed to buy, beg, borrow and more or less steal 4 plastic containers which together hold 100 liters. They’ll be on the back seat providing the extra range required to make Colombo, Sri Lanka once we obtain the permission we require in order to go there. Right now we’re waiting on it. (Colombo is the only practical place to get fuel for the next leg to Phuket, there being none in the Maldives).

So, in answer to the questions, we’ll have 440 liters of gas in the wings (it’s sadly not 450 liters) and another 100 in the back. It looks like this – we burn 21,5 liters per hour and do 200 kph (110 knots) TAS. That means, without allowing for unusable fuel, take-off and landing or any reserve, 20,5 hours endurance on the wing tanks, giving about 4 000 km.

The extra 100 liters gives just less than 5 hours, nearly another 1 000km, or a total, very optimistically, of about 5 000km. Colombo from Reunion, around Mauritian airspace, is 4 680km, so there’s a 320 km margin. Direct through Mauritius airspace it’s about 4 200km, a far better proposition, but not allowed. Anyhow, right now we’re waiting on permission for Colombo in any event. If it comes before 0200Z tomorrow we’ll consider re-filing for Colombo, if not we’ll fly to Male and wait.

Added complications include the fact that we have visas for Reunion which expire at midnight tonight (2 hours!) and that we don’t yet have permission to fly either through Seychelles or Mumbai airspace, though as yet neither seems to have raised a red flag in response to our current flight plan.

If you’re confused by it all, don’t worry, so are we. The Sling 4 is magnificent and makes it possible to change plans when situations require it. But there’s little doubt the hardest part of flying around the world has nothing to do with aircraft, flying, weather or fuel - it has to do with overcoming regulatory constraints.

Meanwhile, hold thumbs and let’s see how we go.

(In answer to the questions, there seems to be a problem with an element of the satellite tracker computer system somewhere – the device on ZU-TAF is working perfectly. It looks as if there probably won’t be tracking tomorrow, but we’ll keep trying to get it right and we’ll have it showing on our website as soon as it’s possible to do so.)

More when we get a break.

J and J
Testing the Reunion cannons.jpg
Roland Garros holding a propellor - great tennis player, great aviator.jpg
James enjoying the sea air.jpg
Dinner with Laurent and Graziella.jpg
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Rob K
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Rob K »

Glad you guys are going East - that margin looks awfully tight.

Please triple-check winds before departure - we're already stressed out guys.

All the best for this leg - it's a grinder.

Rob
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by B.hawker »

Hi James, I agree with Rob, looks really tight, I'm sure you guys have considered every possible scenario though, one of those must be a 180 back to departure at a critical point in the next leg, let us all hold thumbs for tailwinds - on this leg especially. [-o< [-o< [-o<
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Warbirdsfly »

See they have left for Sri Lanka
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by flysouth »

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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by don »

James and Jean. Glad all is going well. Glad to see the stickers lasted through the rain. Be safe and fly high. Fingers always crossed. Don
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Wingnutter »

Do they have any satcoms on board?
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Rob K »

Apparently not
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Wingnutter »

Not even satphone?
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by pieter001 »

This thread is the most exciting thing on the web for me at the moment. Love every moment of it! May be the closest I ever come to flying around the world...

One has to love the digital age that allows us to share this experience to the level we do. Pitty one cannot live for 150 years to see what is still to come??

Keep it safe and enjoy your adventure =D>
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by zuclc »

Hi All, with reference to the pitot icing, way back in my days of study I recall the effects of icing on the pitot and static system something as follows: During icing the pressure is trapped inside the system and the airspeed will continue to read the last pressure reading unless there is a leak or no ice on the vent etc. The static freeze will affect the other pressure instruments and airspeed as well with a vast range of false readings. Also, from the pictures it looks like they have the heated pitot head installed?

This forum is great for learning and my statement is from memory and I would like someone with acurate up to date knowledge to advise so that we can all benefit from an experience like this.
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by Wingnutter »

From the TAF Facebook page:

‎#sling update - Malé spoke to ZU-TAF at 2005 UTC. Estimating POS MLE at 2140 UTC. DESTination @ 0150 UTC

1 hour to go!

http://www.facebook.com/TheAirplaneFactory
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World

Unread post by AirplaneFtyWeb »

Jean and James are down safely after an exhausting and hectic flight dealing with storms and an in-flight fuel pump blockage. They are refuelling and getting through passport control and then off to a hotel. Well done guys. =D>

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