Around The World In 80 Hours

5th August 1998. After obtaining the latest Notams and weather, we set course over the tower at 0624 local time with the aim of setting three new speed records. At long last we were expecting some wind assistance at these high latitudes. We both wore immersion suits up to the waist in case of ditching. These were very hot , uncomfortable and gave us less room than before. The good news was that this was the only sector that we would need them!

We climbed to FL230 tracking over New Foundland for Gander which took two hours 20 minutes which was at an average ground speed of 273.48 knots. We were happy with that as it included an extensive climb. From Gander we nominated our own way points as jet aircraft use flexible routing to optimize the prevailing winds across the Atlantic. We used the great circle track and gave a latitude and longitude at 250 nautical mile intervals. There was a small amount of weather to avoid but mostly we stayed on track. The Bangor to Shannon sector took 7 hours 51 minutes which really puts in to perspective the size of the Pacific as compared to the Atlantic Ocean.