Ham Radio Aviator On Round The World Flight

*Who* summoned a Magneto?

 

Brian's facebook update on "Spirit" and the "Singapore Situation":
https://www.facebook.com/AmeliaEarhart80/


"People keep asking me what the best part of my trip has been and I just realized that I finally know the answer. The answer is ...
The people I have met who have helped me on my way.
This trip would not be possible without them.


Sorry for not writing more. I have been a bit under the weather. (No, you do NOT want details!) Suffice it to say that I can't be too far from a bathroom. Last night and earlier today were the worst. I think I am finally getting better tho'.

But I have time to get better. No, the replacement magneto did not get here today. The replacement magneto is not even coming from the US. (Surprise!) Yes, I certainly was when I learned that it had never been ordered. But all is not lost.

I am very fortunate to have met Rohan Lloyd here. Rohan (no relation, probably, but who knows) is a Ferry and Charter pilot from Australia who just happened to be here in Singapore with his Piper Seneca twin-engine airplane doing a charter. Interestingly, the Seneca just happens to have the same engines as Spirit and hence uses the same magneto. He also has spare parts. So he has shipped his spare magneto to me from Australia, which I should receive here on Monday, but more probably Tuesday. That means that Spirit will be ready to fly again Tuesday. That probably means that I will be on my way again Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.

Rohan lives near Bainbridge so I will be able to stop in and give him back his magneto and pick up my repaired magneto. He has taken my failed magneto with him and he will endeavor to get it repaired for me over there and ready for me when I fly through.

This is what it has been like my entire trip, people going out of their way to help me. Thank you Rohan!

It looks like it may be possible to get a new set of Indonesian permits in a more timely fashion. I am waiting to hear back from the people there. Please keep your fingers crossed that I will be allowed to travel on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday depending on when the mag gets here from Australia."

 

Here are the latest posts from Brian's facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AmeliaEarhart80/

"Well, I have updated the schedule. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of time in Australia. The new schedule has Spirit going to Bandung, Indonesia, on Wednesday, 28 June, and then continuing on to Darwin in the 29th. We will be heading over to New Zealand on 5 July. This means my 10 days of exploring Oz have been reduced to 6 days. Given the time needed to install the repaired mag at Bundaberg and to replace the HF antenna tuner in Sydney, not a lot of time left for sightseeing. But I will get to see a good bit of Oz from the air."
_________________________________________________________________

"I have provided Bonnie with the revised schedule for my time in Australia but I see she hasn't posted it yet. Given the number of queries I have received over the last couple days I thought I would post the list of my stops. My current plan is to stop at the following places in Oz:

Darwin (29 June)
Ayers Rock (30 June)
Coober Pedy (1 July)
Birdsville (1 July)
Longreach (1 July)
Whitsunday Island (2 July)
Bundaberg (2 July)
Gunnedah (3 July)
Warnervale (3 July)
Sydney (outbound 5 July)

Most of these will be whistle stops. I'll fly around to get the lay of the land, land, grab a bite to eat, meet whoever is there, and then continue on. I will probably only overnight at Darwin, Ayers Rock, Longreach, Bundaberg, and Warnervale.

Thanks to Rohan Lloyd for sitting down with me over beers to map out this route. He grilled me on what I like (I don't care for much for cities) and picked places that are good to fly into and have real "local charm" and exhibit the true flavor of Oz. This is what I typically do with my visitors from out-of-town.

Ask Peter Adderly what it is like to fly across the US with me in Spirit as his first experience with the US. Flying in a personal aircraft and stopping in small towns gives one a completely different taste of any country.

OK, it is off to Wings Over Asia to pull the HF and get it working again. Magneto should be here tomorrow. Wednesday I am off to Bandung to meet Roosdiarto and his friends. He has been so helpful I couldn't bear to pass him by without at least a stop. Like I said in a previous post, this flight is about the people along the way."

 

So far Brian's trek has not been a very good testament for the quality of the MICOM3 radio system.

Wonder if the failures are due to the extra complexity of that unnecessary ALE mode stuff

Somebody lend him a basic opened-up small ICOM / Yaesu and an LDG tuner.

Below copy / pasted from the FaceBook -

Here is the HF transceiver unit opened up for those of you who dig that sort of thing. The Micom3 is a really nicely-built radio -- very rugged and water resistant. The case itself is heavy cast-aluminum and fully gasketed to keep water out.



Comments
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Project Amelia Earhart Everyone seems to think that the problem is heat. It's not. Much of the time the unit is below freezing in that unheated aft avionics bay. There is good airflow back there. The failures are always while the radio is in extended receive, not transmit.
1 · 14 hrs · Edited
View 1 more reply

Project Amelia Earhart The first time it failed it was at room temp, not cold and not hot. I think it more likely it is vibration. But I just don't have enough data to know for sure. I'd like to send it back to Royal Communications and have them pore through it making sure it is 100% but that will have to wait for return to the US.
12 hrs

Jose J Monroy Try pressing on the PCB at various points with the unit on to see if it will fail. The problem may be a cold solder joint or cracked PCB track.
1 · 12 hrs

Project Amelia Earhart I don't have any way of powering the unit up on the bench. This is going to have to wait until I am in a position to do real work on it.
1 · 12 hrs

Jose J Monroy The same happened to Amelia with her HF.
12 hrs

Project Amelia Earhart Fortunately I don't need my HF to navigate and I have backup communications through a sat-phone.

 

It looks like everything is repaired/workling now.
Waiting for new permit to Indonesia

 

The comparison of radio comm failures in this adventure to Earhart's fate is fascinating to me.

Allegedly, neither Earhart nor Noonan had much understanding of operating their radios nor any Morse code skills. It's been widely speculated that this may have been an important contributing factor to their getting lost and/or not aided by support ships in the final search area.

Besides, both CW keys, and the 500 kHz antenna, normally onboard, were left behind. They relied totally on the more "user friendly" yet complicated electronics technology of the HF AM radiotelephony voice-only mode.

Today we have WB6RQN flying the same challenging route. A well credentialed and experienced pilot, however Brian is also highly skilled in radio communications.

But instead of relying on that, his aircraft is equipped with a modern "smart" HF transciever capable of (critically dependent upon?) use of the Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) mode system.

Several times now this journey has been thwarted, delayed, by the unreliability of that HF ALE radio. So much for building "intelligence" into the communications system to help out the pilots and operators.

Ironically, instead of the pilot and navigator being (unfortunately) naive and/or careless, this time it's the highly promoted "sophisticated" radio hardware that seems to be wearing the dunce cap, and hindering a smart pilot!

Especially in such situations, it may be better to train the pilots or others properly, and/or when they are, be equipped with simple MANUAL mode (ie, reliable) form of HF equipment for back up. SAT FONES are not the best answer either, for obvious reasons.

Same goes for military Special Forces remote field operatives.

73 de John - WØPV

 

Brian & "Spirit" ready to get airborne again from Singapore...
https://www.facebook.com/AmeliaEarhart80/


"Everything has been on hold while in Singapore waiting for a magneto. The magneto arrived this morning. We installed and tested it. Everything was all ready to go, I was just waiting for the permit to allow flight to Indonesia. We waited and a thunderstorm rolled over the field. We pushed Spirit back into the hangar, canceled the fuel order, and I scrubbed for today. And then the permit came through.

Now we need to get a NEW permit issued for tomorrow. That appears possible but I was advised to stick with the current plan of stopping overnight in Bandung. So now the whole trip through Australia has been set back another day. That schedule in Australia? Add 1 day to everything. This means that I am now probably going to slip a day going into New Zealand and arrive on July 6 instead of July 5.

In any case, I am now back to 100% myself. I am ready to be underway again. Magneto fixed, engine timing set properly again, oil changed, HF fixed, all good. I'm ready to finish the trip!"
_________________________________________________________________

So tomorrow, should be Singapore to Bandung -623 miles- (remaining over-nite), then next hop:
Bandung to Darwin -1629 miles-

 

It looks like weather can be a bit of a pain.

 

Brian's Facebook post an hour ago...

"Good Morning Singapore! (Thank you Robin Williams!)

Just having my morning coffee. Wings Over Asia is a nice place to be. I stayed in their very nice crew quarters, right on top of Spirit. They have a great lounge with a very fancy coffee machine that server lattes. Life could be worse.

The Indonesian permit that was issued yesterday is good for 5 days but everyone still must be notified when I will be on my way. No problem. The handlers here at WOA are taking care of all that for me. I just need to pack up, fuel up, and go at around 10AM local time. Flight time to Bandung is 4 hours, an easy day. Tomorrow's flight to Darwin is going to be 9.5 hours, a bit more ... extensive.

Rohan Lloyd took my failed magneto back with him to Australia and has had the overhaul shop start work on it already. Turns out it was in pretty sad shape. Rohan and I discussed and decided to just repair rather than overhaul the mag. (Yes, that is a safe decision.) Brian Kendrick and I have discussed the findings and have decided to replace the other magneto as well. When I set the timing on the engine yesterday I noticed that the internal timing of the other mag is off a bit suggesting worn points. Brian is sending an overhauled mag to me where I will be staying in Hamilton, NZ, with Rex Stentiford and his lovely wife Alison. (Rex and Alison have invited me to stay at their home while I am in NZ.) That means I will have two known-good mags before my Pacific crossing. I need the engine to be operating at 100% efficiency as I will be pushing Spirit to the limit of what she is capable of for that leg.

Well, according to von Moltke, "No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy." You can plan all you want to but in the end, things change as a result of events. That certainly has been the case on this trip. No matter, even the changes have been interesting ... mostly. I will definitely pass on the gastrointestinal problems in the future, if possible. ;-)

So watch the tracking map starting at 0200z. You should see Spirit starting to move again!"

 

Brian & "Spirit" are airborne from Singapore enroute to Bandung 06/29 @ 0308z. (623 miles)

GPS tracking: http://projectameliaearhart.org/tracker/map.php

Radar tracking: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n916bl/#de6b666

"Reaching For The Sky"... (go SOUTH young man)

 

SAFE TOUCHDOWN Bandung @ 0745z

RON,... tomorrow,... Bandung to Darwin (1.629 miles) !!

(I wonder if Brian will eat some "Spicy" Indonesian 'Grub' during his lay-over??)

TBC

 

Brave guy, wish him a lotta luck.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

Dang, missed working him!

 

Just curious: Trip showed him at 504' for many days, but WIKI?? Shows the altitude of the Singapore airstrip at 22'.

How so?

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

GPS tracking shows that Brian & "Spirit" departed Bandung shortly after 30/0100z, bound for Darwin (1629 miles).

GPS tracking: http://projectameliaearhart.org/tracker/map.php