Geoffrey Barnes wrote:

Fine, but you also have to get out to the tip of the Aleutians to begin
with.


From the last island in the Aleutian chain to the Russian mainland is
well over 400 miles. And that island only has a military base on it and
they won't let civilian aircraft land there anyway. From the closest
civilian runway in the Aleutian chain to mainland Russia is over 1000
miles. Even if I had the range and wasn't worried about a water
landing, I wouldn't cross there because of the very bad and rapidly
changing weather.

What I am talking about is starting from Wales, which is about 100 miles
NNW or Nome. That water crossing never puts you more than 15 miles
from land. However, from what I have read about Little Diomede Island,
if you have to make a forced landing there, you are almost certain to
destroy the plane. While the weather there is just as bad, you need
less than an one hour window to make it from Wales Alaska, to a runway
in Russia. In the plane I want to do it in, you only need about 25 minute.

If you fly at 12,000 feet or higher . . .


Of course, at that altitude you have other things to worry about, too.


Other than needing O2 what? I would only do it under good VFR
conditions in the summer time. There is still be the possibility of
icing, but is that going to become a big enough problem in a 30 minute
flight that it will force you down?

--
Chris W

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