Final post: Facts, Figures, and Appreciation

By Jack

With RTW 3.0 (westbound) officially complete, I thought I would offer some facts and figures regarding the journey and final words of appreciation for some of the people that helped make the trip possible. For comparison, facts and figures from the two previous RTW trips are here and here.

Facts and Figures

These data cover flight legs from November 25, 2018 until January 23, 2019.

Distance: 29,899 nautical miles (or 34,384 statue miles) per the flight plans.

Flight hours: 139.4.

Average ground speed: 215 knots (246 mph). Several long legs were conducted at long range cruise power which is slower than typical but provides maximum range.

Wind: Average headwind component of two knots (per the flight plans). We got lucky with the winds on several legs. Normally fighting headwinds is seen as a disadvantage of a westbound RTW, but we ended-up almost neutral.

Continents landed in: 5: North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Countries over-flown: 30: United States, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Cook Islands [1], Niue [1], New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives, Seychelles, France (French Polynesia, Mayotte, and French Guiana), Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, United Kingdom (St.Helena), Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Netherlands (Curaçao), and Jamaica.

Countries landed in: 18: United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Niue [1], New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Maldives, Seychelles, France (French Polynesia and Mayotte), Botswana, Angola, United Kingdom (St.Helena), Brazil, Guyana, and Jamaica.

[1] Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand.

In total, I have landed in 44 different countries in N575PC as PIC since acquiring the plane in December 2008. Josh and Becky have been with us for all but six of those countries and Carolyn  missed three.

Most southern point: 37.0 degrees south at Auckland, New Zealand.

Most northern point: 30.2 degrees north at Austin, Texas, USA.

Equatorial crossings: 4 at approximately 82 degrees west, 105 degrees east, 66 degrees east, and 50 degrees west.

Longest flight (distance): 1,784 NM or 2,050 SM (St. Helena to Recife, Brazil)

Shortest flight (distance): 145 NM or 167 SM (Tahiti, French Polynesia to Bora Bora, French Polynesia)

Average flight (distance): 1,068 NM or 1,228 SM

Longest flight (time): 8+42 (St. Helena to Recife, Brazil)

Shortest flight (time): 0+40 (Bora Bora, French Polynesia to Tahiti, French Polynesia)

Average flight (time): 4+52

Flights cancelled due to maintenance issues: Zero (the plane performed perfectly!)
.
Modifications to the plane: None (the plane is totally stock from the factory).

Flights cancelled due to weather: Zero. Other than three instances of paper work delays amounting to a few hours in total, we kept to the original pre-departure schedule almost exactly.

Time in icing conditions: Essentially zero. Maybe a few minutes of light rime ice.

Time in IMC (clouds): 5% approximately.

Time in light or greater turbulence: 4% as a rough estimate. Most of that was about two hours of light and occasional moderate turbulence (in perfectly clear air) flying from Georgetown, Guyana to Montego Bay, Jamaica. I'd say less than 1% of flight time was moderate and nothing worse than moderate.

Scary events in flight: None - just like I like it.  We saw lots of unusual places, but the actual flying was pretty routine with a couple of exceptions (the arrivals at Singapore and St. Helena, most notably, which both worked out well).

Emails: 1,136 emails related to this flight since May 2017.


Appreciation

Making this trip happen required the collective effort of many people.  I was mainly the bus driver. I can't possibly name everyone involved, but here are a few.

The entire Foxtrot Team at Universal Weather provided the overarching coordination of permits and ground handling for the trip.  Despite this being a very complex trip and well outside the type of flights they normally handle, the Foxtrot Team did an excellent job.

We were fortunate to meet many very helpful ground handling folks along the way. While we got great service from many ground handlers, Jose G. of Aerocardal in Chile deserves special mention in that he arranged for the unusual fuel delivery (in barrels) to Robinson Crusoe Island which normally has no fuel.

Josh and Becky were true partners on this trip in every sense of the word. Josh spent many hours in the months prior to the flight taking the lead on important pieces of the logistics, especially the special fuel arrangements at Robinson Crusoe Island and in the outlying islands of French Polynesia.  In the cockpit, Josh took more than his fair share of the workload (including the often difficult task of communicating with air traffic control) and helped keep us safe by double-checking everything I did at the controls. He caught more than one error of mine before it caused a problem. Becky with her ever present good humor and energy helped keep the pilots well fed and hydrated in flight. On the ground, Becky was always up for an adventure encouraging us explore beyond the sky.

There was no support more important to me than that of my wonderful partner in life, Carolyn. Being her third trip of this sort, she has been incredibly patient and supportive of my passion.  It is a generous expression of love for which I will always be thankful. When we started this journey, she said this likely would be her last 360 degree trip. Toward the end of the trip, over dinner one night with Josh and Becky, she said "Maybe on the next trip we can...." I took that as a sign there is hope for another grand adventure in our mutually intertwined lives, but even if not I am grateful for her support on these three long journeys.

That is a wrap on the trip and this blog. I hope a few folks have enjoyed following along for bits-and-pieces of the journey. These three RTW flights and writing the journals for each of them  have been one of the high points of my life. The technical challenge of the trip, the fantastic scenes of remote corners of this earth, and the camaraderie with our travelling companions was simply wonderful.

Until the next adventure...signing-off.