Aircraft Secured

This morning I spoke to the CFI at Big Red Kite Keith Jones, who has secured us the use of G-BBPP, which is a Piper PA28 Archer (180bhp), to normal people it's a powerful enough 4 seater aircraft.

We have rented this for the first week in August (and hopefully the weekend before in July too) where we will initially relocate from Membury back to Shoreham, take on fuel then start the journey off from there where press will be waving us off.

As you can see below the aircraft looks in great condition.  We will be flying upto Membury next Tuesday to have a look at the aircraft (which will be in maintenance), pay some money and arrange a check ride by the chief pilot.

http://www.bigredkite.com/

T-Shirt Print Idea

St Catherines hospice have sent us through a couple of shirts to wear on the trip, however we really want to get another couple done up - in the spirit of the trip...otherwise we might start to smell!

This is the idea we currently have, the thoughts behind this are to be nice and tacky but still get across the message what we are doing, it's only the first draft so I've just plonked the sponsors etc on at the moment.  The personal sponsors are currently not up to date.

UK to Majorca - The Crew

Just so that you can get to know us a bit better I've copied a few photos of us both with a caption underneath!




Tom - Ready to fly




Mike - Just landed on the Isle of Wight




Tom - Mid Flight




Mike - Mid flight on what looks like a Ray Ban advert in the '80s




Tom - Two words...Lucky Man!




Mike - Checking the Checklist for the Checks




Mike - Obviously finding something funny!



Tom - Sitting in the Captains seat of a 744..after the trip Tom!




The Office

We Do It For The View...

French and Spanish Charts

On our trip we need a plethora of charts which cover France and Spain. Tom made the trip to the local pilot shop at Shoreham Airport to buy these...which cost around £20 each. Have a look how many he had to buy:

SPOT GPS Tracker

We now have a GPS tracker, so you can all track us in real time via the link. We have three buttons on the device which do the following:






- Check in / OK (which enables us to let people know we're doing ok)
- Help (which enables us to ask for help from a pre defined email/SMS list I.e. Family/Friends)
- SOS (which will call out the local authority rescue services)


A sample of the map below; it will track our footprint and plot our position every ten minutes

Oxford to Majorca - Meeting One

Tom and I met up on a showery afternoon at Redhill to discuss the arrangements that we have made, the aircraft owner that I've recently been in contact with, the route in which we plan to take and any other business.






Fig 1.0 - Sat at Redhill airport discussing flying

Firstly we both made sure that we both wanted to do the trip, ensuring we can both spare the time and both able to financially back the trip as it will take substantial amounts of both time and money. We were both extremely excited about the trip, and I think if the aircraft were sitting outside we would have gone today!

But we didn't. We sat down and very very roughly planned the route on an iPad running an aviation gps moving map which was fairly limited in planning 900 nautical mile trip, but we got the right idea. As were now planning to fly from Oxford and not the coast there are further ways of crossing the coast. One way at Lydd which is a shorter crossing over water (but longer) and is cheaper with fuel or a longer crossing over water (shorter in total). We decided that the longer water crossing shouldn't be discounted straight away as were looking to rent a life raft.

The route were planning to take is as follows (please ignore the directness of this, when it comes to planning properly we will need to avoid danger areas, avoid airspace and TMAs, CTAs, CTRs etc this was just a brief overview of which direction we will be heading in)




























































































































Current shopping list

French VFR Charts
Spanish VFR Charts
PLB
Life Raft
Backup Radio
Lifejackets
Tools for aircraft
Tent
Aircraft

Location:Redhill Airport

We have found a light aircraft broker!

This morning I have been in contact with a guy called Chris Alexander from Pilot Flight Training in Hinton just north of Oxford. Chris leases out aircraft with either dry or wet rates. A dry rate being excluding fuel, a wet rate includes the fuel.

We have decided for obvious reasons to take an aircraft with a dry rate, this will enable us to only pay for aircraft hire so we will then have to settle fuel with most likely cash or credit cards. Refuelling in France and Spain may cause issues with payment and thats without the usual staff strikes, so to minimise hassle we will take plenty of €uro's

Chris states that he has aircraft available in the week we require for around £32.50 per hour dry, this is a good price and will leave us to pay for fuel on top. A single engine piston aircraft usually guzzles 30 litres an hour, at £1.95 + a litre (we have to use Aviation Gasoline) it will work out approx 100 per hour.

I will be meeting with Tom (the other pilot) to have a look through charts and discuss!

Flight Planning

French AIP: https://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/default_uk.htm
Spanish AIP: http://www.aena.es/csee/Satellite/navegacion-aerea/en/Page/1078418725020/
Eurocontrol: http://www.eurocontrol.int/aim/public/standard_page/web_eur.html

Our first sponsor!

Exciting News! We now have our first sponsor, Ray Cassar the owner of Mid Sussex Cars. Thank you for your kind donation.

We will be looking to create a decal with the Mid Sussex Cars logo on and stick it to the aircraft.  Mid Sussex Cars provide a prestige car chauffer service who mainly deal with airport runs with their executive cars. If you need a run to LGW, LHR or LCY give him a call as I can guarantee the prices are the cheapest, plus he's always suited and booted!

+ 44 (0) 7716 852315

http://www.midsussexcars.co.uk/

We have decided on a Charity

As a good excuse to raise some money for a charity we have decided to ask for donations in the way of money where 100% of the amount you donate will be given to St Catherines Hospice.  Tom and I will be funding the trip out of our own funds - we're expecting it to cost around £1200 - £1400 each.

I have set up a Just Giving page, the reason why we have chosen this local charity is evident in the page's description.  Take a look and give 'em some money for a great cause.

http://www.justgiving.com/mikeandtomflytomajorca/

What started as a small discussion...

Which went a little like this:

Tom: Hey Mike, have you thought about doing a flight into Europe on a trip to build some hours.
Mike: Actually, funnily enough yes I have, but I'd possibly like to go somewhere further like Ibiza
Tom: Even better! Wonder if we can get a plane
Mike: I'm sure someone wouldn't mind us putting 17 hours on their aircraft in  3 or 4 days?
Tom: I think I know someone who will lend us their aircraft
Mike: Brilliant! How exciting.

After some discussion we decided on Majorca, I'm still unsure why.  Although it seems like a good place to go for a few days!