The general principle with a ferry is that the pilot is paid an all in amount on delivery of the plane and he pays all costs. The problem with my ferry pilot seemed to be that the pilot didnot have the funds to do it. As a result he did not put in a ferry tank and could not afford the hotel bills when he was delayed by weather, which you could expect at this time of year.
Without a ferry tank you have to take a longer route overland. His route was to be:-
Thunder Bay
La Grange Riviere
Fort Chino
Iqualit (Frobisher Bay)
Narssarssuaq (Greenland)
Kulusuk Island (Greenland)
Reykjavik (Iceland)
Scotland
Holland.
He hot to Thurnder Bay, the next leg to La Grange is 540NM over sparseley populated land with not good alternatives. The weather was poor he waited three days and as I have said before, gave up, left the plane and went home. Cirrus very kindly recovered the plane to Duluth where it still is.
The alternative is via Newfoundland which is about 1500NM from Duluth but all the way over populated areas with plenty of Airports to divert to so weather is not such a problem.
At Newfoundland, probably St. Johns, ferry tanks can be fitted. Then there are three choices the Northern route which is either direct to Reykjavik - Scotland or Greenland - Reykjavik - Scotland. The Southern route via the Azores - Portugal. The third option is direct Ireland. The advantage of going over water is that it is warmer and you know exactly where sea level is if you have to go low. The distances involved from St. Johns are approx. Reykjavik 750NM Ireland 1600NM Azores 1300NM. Temperatures in the Azores are substantialy warmer around 15C this time of year so freezing level is 7-8000 feet.
I now have a new ferry pilot. An American who lives in Newfoundland. Very experienced, over 200 crossing 17000 hours total time.
After Xmas he had to ferry a Warrior to the UK. Go to Sweden pick up an Arrow take it to the States, Chicago I think, then go to Duluth to take my Cirrus to the UK.
He has been E-mailing me with his progress. His route with the Warrior was direct to Bournemough on the South Coast of England that must be 1900NM, it took 13 hours. You almost always get a tailwing going East. This is now his problem,strong trying to get back with the Arrow, strong headwinds, along with some very bad weather. His routing is via Bergen Norway, delayed one day, Reykjavik delayed two days. He is currently in Nuuk Greenland trying to sort an engine oil leak.
The last 7 weeks have seemed a long time since I paid for my plane. In a week I go ski-ing to Austria so I will not be able to go to Holland until second week in February. Yes, I know, lifes a bitch.
Best regards to you all.
Robin Taylor.