SonexBuilders.net

Interesting page. I remember communicating with Nick when he worked for Scaled Composites and asked him what his employers thought of him building a metal aircraft. None of their business of course but they were OK with it. I have to admire his (and Peggy's) courage in doing the long water crossing and would like to hear more about it. Even on long trips over land I imagine odd engine noises. After a recent long trip I had to remove my head set when I landed just to listen for the engine knock I was hearing. The engine was purring.

Peter

Peter - do you happen to know which Caribbean Island he flew to? The Bahamas is over water but the exposure is not for too long. Anything else - not for me!

Hi Graeme, I don't know any more than was written on the web site but it talked about a 250 mile crossing which would get them to most places in the Bahamas. Just checking on Google Earth it appears the biggest over water crossing is about 60 nautical miles which is still nearly 10 times my longest over water flight. I would prefer to fly at an altitude at which I was within gliding distance of land. 20,000 feet would just about do it for a 60NM crossing ;-)

Peter

I just came across this post and realize it is over a year old - sorry for the delay here but thought a few details would help.

The rout we flew on this flight was direct from Ft Lauderdale Executive FXE to Nassau, MYNN (overflew, did not stop there), to Exuma International, MYEF on Great Exuma Island. The flight path was a little over 280 nmi, but there were emergency landing options along the way at the Bimini Islands, Nassau, and a few spots down the Exuma island chain.



During the flight we wore life vests, and each carried PLB's attached to ourselves, as well as some other basic survival gear (see attachment taken from a slide show that i made of the trip). Additionally, what gave us some comfort before doing this was that we made the trip in a flight of three with two other couples. (An RV-6 and an RV-7). It was our thinking that if one of us went down, the wingmen could help coordinate rescue efforts with exact locations, etc. In practice however, the RV-6 was delayed by a good bit on the way out there with a dead battery that needed to be replaced, and my (now) wife and I made the return flight solo - as our vacation was a bit shorter than our companions. But we did keep close contact with each other during the flights by radio & text message.



Single engine flights outside of glide range to land (or over any non-land-able terrain for that matter) are not for the faint of heart.

Would I do it again? - probably, but after this experience i would probably make a few changes:

-Fly earlier in the spring - there were T-Strorms every day in June in this part of the world and dodging cumulonimbus clouds over the water without an infinite amount of fuel added to the stress levels. Also, there was no ADSB in-flight radar service, that I had grown so accustom to, over the Bahamas

-Have our act together with our flight of 3 a little better. There was some element of time pressure here, in that we only gave ourself a limited window to enjoy this trip. Due to the maintenance issues of the RV-6 and our differing calendars, we didn't take advantage of the extra safety that our group flight could have provided as best as we could have

-With more time, I would have also considered a rout over Grand Bahama Island, Abaco Island, Eleuthera Island, and then to the Exuma chain to maximize time over land - however this would have required a stop for fuel and a bit more customs paperwork.