Living on an island I have no option but to make long overwater flights if I want to actually go anywhere.
We carry a raft and lifejackets. In the winter if it’s a long crossing I usually have an immersion suit (the type you can easily put on over your clothes, not the blue water operations things that ferry pilots over the Atlantic use). From what I’ve read having the life jacket and raft is the most important factor in surviving a ditching. The vast majority of ditchings that aren’t crashes into the water leave the aircraft in a state where exit is not a problem and the crew are largely uninjured.
A friend of mine ditched a Twin Comanche in the Irish Sea. That has a single door. Exit wasn’t a problem. The Twin Comanche ditches at a much higher speed than a Cherokee. The only injury she suffered was a broken fingernail.
I went to Fair Isle last year wearing jackets (wearable ones) with a raft on the back seat, cord clipped to the aircraft. Lovely place, but best not to get a tech problem there.
Weather is a much bigger issue than the sea, especially as it can change in the duration of the crossing. Have sufficient fuel out of Kirkwall to reach England!
I think the door is a red herring. (Sorry no pun intended). Anyone who has changed a PA28 window, especially the pilot one with the DV opening, will know how easy they are to break and push out, and that’s without the adrenaline. i broke mine with a power cord to a de-humidifier.
Peter
The aircraft is yours, you know its condition, if it is good trust it and trust your maintanence, if you can’t stay on the ground.
I flew our Comanche from LFMD to the bottom of Italy, all over water all out of glide. The first time I did it, when the land disapired, a cold chil passed through my guts, the scond time was fun, the theird was nothing out of the ordinary. We also crossed low level from Liverpool to Isle of Man, all was done VFR.
Enjoy the trip.
Ben
As Maoraigh says, it’s not quite as far as you think.
(Sorry for the blurry image…I resized it with paint to make it 800pixels for the forum, but lost some clarity in doing so).
As you can see there is Fair Isle in between which gives a bold hole in case something starts to go wrong. It’s a gravel runway of 537m (including over runs). 486mtr LDA/TDA (excl over runs). So not brilliant, but any port in a storm! ;)
With that as a ‘get out of jail free card’ you’ve now got two over water legs. One of 27nm and one of 23nm. They aren’t too bad, and don’t give a lot of time for a problem to develop. So anything other than sudden catastrophic failure, should see you on dry land.
I’d be happy to do them with life jackets + life raft.
Fair Isle seems eminently Cub-able – has any body visited? Oops just spotted Aveling’s post – Aveling did you spend any time on the Island or just landed there?
I spent 3 nights there in the lovely bird observatory, the only accomodation on the Island. A brand new building shipped in sections from Sweden. First class facilities, very nice modern rooms and excellent catering. Even wifi. And exceptional company. The Islands’ airport manager was once meteorologist in S Georgia and will entertain you endlessly with tales of retracing Shackleton’s steps, etc. Call for reservations – they understand about private flying, and it’s not expensive.
However, 3 days is adequate in Fair Isle unless you are seriously into twitching. It was fascinating to walk up to the Puffins (but not too close, because quite a few visitors have fallen over the cliff edge) and to watch my friend being dive bombed by Skuas while climbing up to the airport. The main problem is fog which can roll in without notice and stay for days.
There is a boat connection but that can be seriously rough. And flights, but if you can’t fly, they don’t either. I gather the record for being marooned there (in winter) is 62 days. Very strongly recommended as one of the most amazing places I’ve flown to. (Perhaps the other is Catalina Island).
Edited to add that Cub-wise, there’s not much in the way of tie-downs. But it might be possible to arrange something with the previously mentioned airport manager. I can supply contact details on request, or a bit of Googling should find it.
