“I love an emergency,” Kerry McCelli says. IndependentHuman “I love this challenge. I love the situations of life and death. It makes me go. It’s just what I live for.”
And this is useful, because Kerry does one of the most dangerous civilian pilot work on Earth-a new brand-branded light aircraft in the oceans and continents to buyers. These are planes that are not capable of flying on the storms and are not equipped with advanced navigation assistance in the Jetins. Plus, Kerry is alone.
He explains: “If the new owner does not want someone to be stupid enough to fly the plane on the ocean, this is when they say to a ship pilot.”
Every year, three pilots die throughout the North Atlantic. And Carrie, 63, who lives in Monomoni, Wisconsin, knows the pilots who back the keys before leaving the mainland.
When carrying aircraft from North America to Europe or Africa, to “shrink” the Atlantic Ocean, a pit stop at the airport is the farthest East – International St. John is carried out in Newfoundland.
Kerry – which has recorded his ship in two books in two books. Frey Pilot: Nine people live from the North Atlantic Ocean Vat Dangerous flights – Discloses: “There are a lot of kids, they reach the tradition of John, which is the last stop before crossing the North Atlantic, and they look – you can see the ocean from the airport – and you realize that this is just a lot of water.
“They rotate and go to the ground or not even go, just put the keys in the plane and call the customer and tell them they can’t do it, this is a really stupid idea.”
And many agree that it is true.
Flying a light butterfly aircraft across the Atlantic is dangerous for various reasons.
First of all, they cannot fly higher than storms such as Jetin aircraft. Kerry, who lives in nine lives in the Atlantic Ocean, describes that “like a creeping doll” with a storm over Africa, “Most of these small aircraft have no functioning to get there.
At one point, his aircraft plunged in a few seconds.
He writes: “A powerful downfall has made it feel like a trap has been opened beneath me. Loose equipment has been floated around the cabinet … as I tried to arrest uncontrolled descent.”
Ship pilots have access to climate reports, of course, but they cannot always be trusted and often come out of the destination, flying light aircraft between 100 and 150 miles per hour to travel large distances.
And if the situation becomes unpleasant, the pilot just has to deal with it.
Kerry explains: “The weather reports, this is also a challenge as a ship pilot, because you travel in these long distances and many hours-I had legs that last 14 and a half hours. So, before the flight, you get a weather report that you are currently flying for a few hours and you will not be able to fly for 14 hours. Be you.
“And as you know, the air always changes. I mean they can’t predict the right afternoon, so you have to be ready to deal with whatever you find.”
Navigation assistance on a light aircraft is also very low than airplanes.
Kerry reveals: “My first ship was in 1990 and it was on the scene before GPS.
“I did eight crossings with something other than the paper map, the wind -like predictor [for winds and temperatures] And a stopwatch, just like Charles Lindberg [who made the first nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927]Human beings I mean so literally, no difference.
“When I really started, it had fewer navigation equipment than them in the 50’s and 60s. I only anticipated for the entire North Atlantic Ocean and dragged out my huge paper map and calculated every point, what my titles were and what the winds do and do my call.
“And if the weather was enough, I was just looking for it and trusting that my calculations would be correct.
“And the problem? Forecasting the wind is just a prediction. If this prediction is wrong, you can blow up hundreds of miles from the way, or explode to a forehead you do not predict. And the problem is that without navigation equipment, I don’t know if I get into trouble.”
Does GPS reduce the risk? According to Kerry.
“When GPS started, more pilots were killed by crossing the northern Atlantic because that scary part of the navigation came out,” he said.
“But this is not just part of the ship’s flight. You must be a weather specialist. You must be a maintenance specialist. You need to know your plane.”
And the aircraft has butterfly engines, far less than the jet engines on the aircraft, which Kerry said “was kept by a large field of technicians”.
Light planes “are not designed for long distance trips”.
And when you are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there is very little chance of saving.
Kerry reveals: “When you go beyond 150 to 200 miles, you are beyond the access of helicopters. So, if something happens to enter the water, you can’t rescue anything other than a boat.
“They can send a large search and rescue aircraft to see you, and maybe you will leave you from a more beautiful boat than you are in. But if you go 400 miles into the ocean, you are waiting for a ship and the ships are slow.
“And the North Atlantic is very cold. Even if you are in a survival dress, in a boat, it takes 48 hours to sit in cold water.”
Kerry, who runs a Skidarization school, reveals that despite all the hazards and close calls, he had made more than 100 trips of the ship’s pilot, most of which had an emergency in the mid -Atlantic as he followed the Lindberg flight in 1927.
He was flying a Bonanza Beechcraft in 1994 to Paris, a “487 miles with St. John” when his fuel decreased and the storage tanks in the cabin failed.
The pilot remembers: “I had about four hours of flight, from the point of return, and I changed to my ship tanks – large metal fuel tanks to provide the plane to cross the ocean. But the ship’s tank didn’t work. I don’t want to return it.
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“We almost always fly alone. We don’t have a pilot most of the time, just because it is very expensive to accompany someone else.
“I had to find a way to fix it, or I want to die. I had a boat, but I had no illusion about surviving. I was literally in the middle of the North Atlantic. There was no way to come and get me.”
Kerry realized that the pressure system was broken for tanks – the fuel would not be transferred to the wing tanks.
But Kerry remained calm.
Kerry continues: “I didn’t allow myself to be afraid.” “I have had many emergencies and have learned over the years to do any horror and fear.”
He drew on Kerry that he had to manually push the tanks by blowing into a pressure hose that was attached to them.
Kerry explains: “I thought,” If I could blow up the air mattress, I might be able to blow up a steel tank. “And I got it stuck in my mouth and after a few minutes some of the fuels moved.
“I don’t have extremely hypoxic at high altitude, without oxygen, I passed it three times. But there’s nothing to do. You have no choice. You have to dig inside and find a way to survive.”
The elephant in the room for some reading may be the question of why light planes are not just sent to their customers.
Kerry reveals that separating the plane and re -collecting it is not a reasonable program.
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“The wings can be removed from the plane and carried it in a container, but it usually doesn’t work very well. It is much more expensive. There is a lot of maintenance in it.”
“Over and over again, the pieces are lost when the wings are placed.
“Therefore, the vast majority of a plane to be shipped abroad will fly by a ship pilot.”
Kerry explains that his full -time work is currently running his Skydiving school, but he still runs a shipbuilder sometimes.
“I am very selective about what I do these days, because I don’t need to prove anything,” he says.
“I have done this more than 100 times, and have repeatedly endangered my life. But if this is a big adventure, I still travel and if this is an interesting plane I want to fly, or this includes an interesting destination.
“Plus, I don’t seem to stop it. I am good at this job. That’s the kind of thing I was born for.”
For more information from Kerry, visit her website New kerrymcauley.comHuman
