USAIG to insure the North Atlantic crossing.

Thursday, Apr 9th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

Pik-West Insurance has helped secure my North Atlantic and European insurance coverage for the flight.


Julie at Pik-West has been terrific and I would highly recommend calling her for your regular aircraft insurance or anything special like my North Atlantic crossing.


Julie has also procured Mexican insurance in the past for me as well as a War and Ceasure policy for Mexico.


For those that are curious my insurance for this flight is $3000.00 which is very reasonable. There are not many insurers who will cover you on this type of journey. If Don Ratliff was not in the plane with me they would not insure me for my first flight.


She can be reached at 805-522-3428. Tell her I sent you, she is the best.


Filed under: Insurance | Tags: , ,

Ditching and Survival class at Camarillo airport with Doug Ritter

Thursday, Apr 9th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

On Saturday March 21st I took a great ditching and survival class at the Camarillo airport conducted by Doug Ritter a well known survival expert. Doug is also the editor of Equipped to Survive an excellent source of information.


Doug started out his most excellent presentation with busting myths about ditching. I sure am glad I attended this class, was I ever wrong about some things that should be done when ditching.


BTW, after his class, I contracted Doug to be my consultant for this flight across the North Atlantic.


First of all, did you know that in 88% of all aircraft ditched everyone survives and that 85% of those ditching don’t flip? Sad to say, Doug says it’s a little lower statistic for survival when doing a North Atlantic crossing.


My first thought would have been to stall the aircraft just above the water. Doug says that’s a sure way to flip your plane over. You must fly the plane about 10 knots above stall speed into a perfect normal landing while keeping your tail low (or nose high).


Did you ever think of the term “Minimal Decent Speed”? I sure didn’t…I would have used best glide speed. Think about it, when you are ditching in water you want the most time before you get your feet wet to prepare for that ditching. That speed is somewhere between best glide and stall speed. In other words, we’re looking for hang time here.


Another fact, did you know that fixed gear and retractable gear aircraft have the same survival rates ditching and the same percentage of success? True!


Filed under: Ditching and Survival Gear | Tags: , , , ,

Fear overcame me while buying ditching and survival gear.

Thursday, Apr 9th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

Buying Ditching and Survival Gear can set your mind to fear!


This happened a week ago, but I was too busy to write about it at that time. Heretofore I shall blog about feelings as they appear to me.


I was quite surprised to find myself fearful of the flight while in the middle of buying all of my gear. Things like life raft, immersion suit, first aid kits, laser flares, signal mirrors, personal locator beacon (PLB), packaged sealed water, 2400 calorie rations, knives, saws, whistle, Iridium satellite phone, HF radio, safe air, spare oxygen, etc. It kind of sets your mind to ditching in 32 degree water instead of flying over it.


I wonder if some of my friends that do this trip will also feel that way while preparing. I’m happy to say that stage of my preparation is over and now I’m thinking about enjoying the flight.


I can’t wait 26 days and a wake up!


Filed under: Jeff's Comments | Tags: , , , ,

April 8th, 2009 Spidertrack

Thursday, Apr 9th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

Team Miss Behavin’, that would be me and Martina on this day, set out to fly from Van Nuys, CA to Santa Rosa, CA.


We met up with some fast forming rime ice on Miss Behavin’ starting at 10,000 feet near Gorman VOR. This caused us to climb to 14,000 feet above the clouds to stop ice formation and to contemplate what to do.


We prudently turned around back to Van Nuys as you can easily see on our tracks. With Southern California (SoCal) flight center we picked a nice steep decent through the clouds and approached Van Nuys on the ILS approach. All went well and SoCal was terrific.


This was our first flight with Spidertracks hooked up…it’s pretty neat. Try enlarging the image or changing it between map, terrain or satellite views.


I have set the tracks to show feet instead of meters, and speed in knots instead of meters but something appears to have changed. I will talk to the Spidertracks team to correct the problem. I must admit Samantha and Lisa my Canadian friends are quite please with the metric system displayed; however, for us Yanks I’ll go back to feet :-)


Martina my friend and flight instructor, who is helping me prep for the North Atlantic excursion will be blogging on the site shortly to give her perspective. Martina used to pilot the Goodyear blimp. That just tickles me!


If you haven’t checked out the Spidertracks already go up to the pages section and click on Spidertracks Log.


Filed under: Spidertracks Descriptions | Tags: , , ,

Track My Flight Path With SpiderTracks

Wednesday, Apr 1st, 2009 by jeffrey | 2 Comments

<br /> Hey take a look at where I’ve been, beginning May 5th, 2009 I’ll be flying the North Atlantic. To check it out click on the title of this post. You can also see a description of all my SpiderTrack flights under “Spidertracks Daily Flight Description located under Categories below.


Filed under: Spidertracks Descriptions | Tags:

Spidertrack is being installed on Miss Behavin’ for the North Atlantic journey

Thursday, Mar 26th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

My new friends at spidertracks sent me my new gear to install on Miss Behavin’. I have yet to read the instructions since I was dealing with Miss Behavin’s Flint Wing Tip surgery yesterday down at Montgomery Field.


It looks like a very easy plug and play operation from what I’ve seen so far. I’ll tell you more in a day or two when I get Miss Behavin’ back and start laying spidertracks :-)


Let me give you an explanation of what spidertracks is and will do on my journey:




Spidertracks – Is kind of peace of mind for me. Offering me simplicity of tracking and some additional security.


Spidertracks is a satellite-based flight following solution that enables you to follow the flight path of Miss Behavin’ in real-time, wherever it is across the globe, at all times.



Here’s how it’s supposed to work.


At certain time intervals that I can select, the spider tracking device sends a signal with GPS coordinates, speed, direction and altitude of my aircraft at that moment in time via the Iridium network to Iridium’s Earth station and on to spidertracks’ secure servers. The GPS coordinates are translated by easy to understand spidertracks software into a visual record of the aircraft’s flight path and overlaid on to topographical maps (very cool I might add). The tracks can viewed in real-time by any nominated users, anytime from anywhere in the world via the internet. And a permanent record of the tracks creates a virtual flight log that can be accessed at any time in the future. The servers are said to be 99.99% reliable and the data is encrypted so only I can access your information. However, I’ll be sharing it with all of you on my website here.



The spider tracking device is small, seems robust and best of all it’s portable. It has no external antenna so it can be moved easily between any aircraft I fly and does not require certification or complicated installation. Now that’s ease of use.



Spidertracks is a simple tracking solution used by many pilots and fleet operators around the globe to watch over their crew and aircraft. For us, it’s a beautiful way to track where in the world I’m at on my flight across the North Atlantic.


I just can’t wait to lay down some tracks and see how I feel about it. I’d love your feedback too.




Filed under: Spidertracks Descriptions | Tags: , ,

Picking up Miss Behavin’ from Flint Wing Tip surgery…she’s hurting.

Thursday, Mar 26th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

Yesterday I flew down with my instructor/friend Martina along with Henry in his vintage Comanche to pick up Miss Behavin’ at Montgomery Field in San Diego, Ca.


She looked wonderful with her new tanks and I couldn’t wait to crank her up. She started just fine but when I idled her for a moment at 1000 rpm she would just stall . After two tries at this I pulled Mike over from Spider Aircraft Service, who installed the tanks, to check her out.


She would only stay on with the auxiliary pump on and was blowing smoke.


Mike told me that the first night he tested the pumps on the auxiliary tanks he saw leakage (This was the first time that had happened to him in 30 some years). This required him to get some new parts from Flint which fixed the leak. Sounds like maybe some contaminants got into the engine fuel pump and fuel filter. He did not crank the engine since installing the tanks.  I’ll know more today when I talk to Mike this morning.


Needless to say I’m not too happy and I’m a little worried.


On a more pleasant note, it had been three decades since I was in a Comanche and it was a sweet ride from the back seat. Henry was taking a long overdue IFR lesson with Martina. It was fun to see how a pilot has to work without a Garmin 1000.


I really love my glass panels they’re amazing. Once you’ve flown a Garmin 1000 with integrated autopilot you can’t go back in my humble opinion.


Thank goodness for friends and a flight taxi home.


Filed under: Outfitting Miss Behavin' | Tags: , , ,

Should we make spidertracks available for all to follow our North Atlantic journey?

Tuesday, Mar 17th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

My new friend Pierre Josefsohn a pilot flying around Mexico at this time showed me his spidertracks. You can click on a little bubble superimposed over a map or satalitte view of your flight path.


It’s pretty cool and not inexpensive.


Why don’t you all look at the demo at http://www.spidertracks.co.nz/Home.mvc/Demo and tell us what you think.


Pierre has actually sent me a link to his but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post it here.


Comments would be greatly appreciated in making this decision. Afterall, I’ll know where I am :-)


Filed under: Spidertracks Descriptions | Tags: ,

Flint Tip Tanks added for greater distance across the North Atlantic.

Sunday, Mar 15th, 2009 by jeffrey | 0 Comments

At this very moment Miss Behavin’ is being outfitted with Flint Tip Tanks by Spider Aircraft Service on Montgomery Field San Diego, California. These tanks will add 23 gallons usable fuel to our standard 87 usable on N2423C…bringing us up to 110 gallons usable.


Don made this decision over a ferry tank of 124 gallons that would require an FAA G337 for taking off over weight limits.


This decision was possible due to our choice of route choosing not to fly the brutal 15 hour flight direct to Shannon, Ireland. We chose to enjoy the stops in some of the most unvisited countries in the world…namely, Greenland and Iceland.


These permanent tanks on N2423C cost approximately $6,000.00 and another $3,000.00 to install.


We hope to see whales and polar bears along with the rest of nature’s magnificence.


Filed under: Outfitting Miss Behavin'
Newer Entries »