I live very close to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, so I'm starting my trip from there. I haven't planned the whole route yet. I'm toying with the idea of getting to every continent, except Antarctica, but South America and Australia will add a lot of time to this journey. I guess I'll see what happens when the time comes. So far, I know a few of the places I want to go. I'll be partially retracing my route from last time, so the first couple of days will be relatively easy.

Today, I need to get to Pittsfield, Massachusetts to pick up my brother. From there, we'll go up to Moncton, New Brunswick to have dinner with some friends and get some gas. After dinner, it's another few hours up the Canadian coast to Goose Bay, Newfoundland.

After getting a few hours sleep in Goose Bay, we'll get up a little before dawn and start the first over water leg, out to Greenland. There's an airport at Narsarsuaq, a little inland on the southwest coast, where we can refuel. The airport is nestled in between several hills, and requires a sharp drop flying straight in, or several tight turns with very little wiggle room if you fly in over the water. It's 674NM out there from Goose Bay.

We'll leave out of there, and climb over the glaciers of southern Greenland, rather than fly back out to the coast. That should save several hours at the expense of a little more dangerous climbout. We'll get to the southeastern coast of Greenland, and then cut across the Denmark Strait to Iceland, landing at Reykjavik. It's 667NM for this second leg, and that should pretty much do it for flying on day two.

Day three will find us flying down to Scotland and England, and then on to Germany for the night. Day four will be the trip south through (and hopefully over, this time) the Alps and down to Italy. Day five takes us to Egypt and a visit to the Pyramids. After that, the plan is flexible. We'll probably fly down the Nile a bit, then out to the Red Sea. I'd like to try to get down to Kenya to see Mt. Kilamonjaro. From there, it'd be over to visit a friend in Dubai, then on to India. I'd like to get up to the Himalayas, too, but that probably can't happen this trip. From there, the general idea is to go through southeast Asia, possibly to Australia, then up the Pacific Rim to Alaska, down the west coast, maybe all the way to Ecuador, back up north and over the Panama Canal, the Yucatan, the Caribbean, and up the east coast back to Teterboro.

It's about 2pm EDT, Wednesday, October 24th, 2001. I've just finished loading up all the stuff I'll be needing. I've changed quite a bit of money into the various foreign currency we'll be spending. The plane is fueled and ready to go....

I get clearance from the tower and start taxiing out to runway 19. I was hoping runway 6 would be the active today, as I could pretty much fly straight up from there. I'm going to take her up to 5,000 feet to enjoy the scenery of the lower Hudson Valley and the Berkshire Mountains. Of course, I get extra time to think about things, because I'm 4th in line to go, and we all are waiting for a plane on final. It takes a few minutes, but finally the tower clears me for departure. It's nice weather this afternoon, and the hop to Massachusetts should take just a little more than an hour.

The leaves are pretty much off the trees I see as I approach Pittsfield Muni's (KPSF) runway 26. ATC was great in vectoring me up this way. There were quite a few small planes out and about as I flew up here, but none of them were going into Pittsfield at the same time I was, so I was #1 to land. Landing is a breeze, and I taxi over to general aviation, and there's my brother waiting with a car full of goodies.

It takes about 15 minutes to load his stuff into the plane. One of the great things about the Caravan is the extra space. We've got a cooler packed tight with water and soda. We've got a bunch of deli meat, cheese and rolls to make sandwiches. We've got chips and nachos to feed a small army, and sleeping bags and some extra blankets in case we decide to sack out in the plane. We've got lots of batteries for all the little gadgets we're bringing. Everything seems to be ready to go, and it's only 3:30 in the afternoon.

We leave Pittsfield on runway 26, and ATC immediately turns us right for our 3 1/2 hour flight over New England to Moncton. The weather is still good, but some darker clouds are starting to pop up every now and then. We're at 5,000 feet, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire are off in the distance to our north. It's a little past 5pm now, and the sun is starting to sink behind us. I would like to get to Moncton before 6... no wait, we are crossing into the Atlantic Time Zone, so it's going to be 7 there already. Oh well, I guess we'll skip the Moncton Wildcats hockey game, and just do dinner.

It's 7:00, ADT, and we're cleared to land at Moncton (CYQM). There's very little air traffic tonight. The clouds are really starting to build now, and it looks like it could start raining any second. It's a smooth landing, and we taxi over to parking. It's a quick check-in at international arrivals, and my friends are waiting to take us to dinner. We head over to Boomerang's for some steaks.

We take our time eating dinner, and I explain the plan to my friends. They think we are crazy for trying to do this in the fall, and not the summer. I hadn't really taken that into consideration. I want to do most of my flying during the day, and since my brother isn't a pilot, I'll be the only one flying. I'm sure he could make sure the autopilot was on top of things if I tried to catch a nap up in the air, though.

It's 8:00 now, and time to make the last quick hop up to Goose Bay. There are several gravel strips on the Newfoundland coast, and going there would shave a few miles off tomorrow's journey to Greenland, but Goose Bay is a decent sized town with a good airport (CYYR), and good services. We get back into the Caravan, and taxi over to get some fuel. We probably have enough to make it to Goose Bay, but I'd rather not chance it. The weather reports say that some not-so-good weather is on the way in, and I want to have enough fuel to wait out any possible delays.

Three hours and 45 minutes after lifting off from Moncton, we are closing in on Goose Bay. The weather reports weren't lying, as a full blanket of clouds is hugging the ground, and ATIS is reporting snow. The tower clears us for an instrument landing on runway 8, so I tune in the radio and lock on to the localizer.

It's another surprisingly smooth landing, and the tower directs me to general aviation. I find a spot to tie down for the night, and we head over to the Aurora Hotel for a few hours sleep. Even in the snow, there's a lot of activity. One of the airport workers I chat with briefly tells me that they rarely close down because of weather. I look back out to my plane, and see two others taxiing out to fly off into the night.

I could have sworn we were still on Atlantic time, but I guess we are really back on Eastern time, as the clocks say it's only 11pm. Sunrise is at 6:12 in the morning, so I'd like to be back in the air by 5:30.

LEG	Start	Start Time	Land	Land Time	Distance	Trip Time	Fuel Used
1	KTEB Teterboro, NJ	18:00 GMT	KPSF Pittsfield, MA	19:05 GMT	101 NM	1 hr 5 min	50 gal
2	KPSF Pittsfield, MA	19:30 GMT	CYQM Moncton, NB	23:00 GMT	430 NM	3 hr 30 min	140 gal
3	CYQM Moncton, NB	00:00 GMT	CYYR Goose Bay, NF	03:45 GMT	463 NM	3 hr 45 min	156 gal
Day Total					994 NM	8 hr 20 min	346 gal
Trip Total					994 NM	8 hr 20 min	346 gal

Pictures

The Cessna Grand Caravan, loaded and ready at Teterboro	Arriving at Pittsfield Muni. My brother better be waiting!
Looking north into New Hampshire's White Mountains	Sunset over Bangor, Maine
Looking out over the coast to the Atlantic Ocean, near Bangor, Maine	Arrival at Moncton, 7pm local time. I can't believe it's this dark already.
There's the snow as we break through the clouds on our way into Goose Bay	Tied down at Goose Bay. Two planes are taxiing out for takeoff

Where we've been so far

---