Hi all,
It is 6:15 Thursday evening and we just got a call from the company who has done the ferry tank installation and paperwork. Effectively we need 2 separate approvals.
1. The tank and the installation itself requires engineering approval.
2. On the strength of this we need a special flight permit which allows us to fly overweight.
The call this evening was to say that they had heard from the engineer annd that he would have the tank engineering installation approval completed tomorrow morning. This is good news, because that allows us to fly the plane with the ferry tank installed.
We will only be able to fly the plane overweight with a special flight permit. This will need to be issued from the FAA office closest to the place where we depart overweight. This will be from the Portland, Maine, FAA office. The only consolation is that we are not the only ones to be caught up in the wake of the FAA cutbacks and confusion. Add to this a new director of the Portland, Maine office. The Cessna Caravan that went on to Bangor heading along the same route as we will take, had no problems with the tank installation, but he is still in Bangor trying to get his special flight permit from the FAA. He was hoping to have that this evening, so may get going sometime tomorrow to St John's.
The aftermath of the rain and storm is still lingering. The weather window for Bangor and St John's has opened nicely, but we may still need to battle some weather tomorrow if we get to fly. There were parts of New Jersey along the coast that had flooding from the storm surge and are still without electricity. This is a part of the USA that is still reeling from the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy late last year.
We have also used the time to complete our HF radio installation completely and the antennae is installed and tunes properly with the radio, so we think that is a go as well.
Blessings,
John
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