Travel Day: TEB-YUL-AMS #pondcrossing

Update 17:19 UTC: Greetings from the North Atlantic! After a quick hop from Teterboro to Montreal-Dorval, we gassed up for our second leg to Amsterdam, filling up with 10800L of fuel. Our track today takes us above the commercial aircraft flying the pre-set North Atlantic Tracks crossing over Golf through Charlie between FL410 and FL450. We’ll get our clearance to cross the Atlantic via on-board datalink then switch to HF radio to report our position every 10 degrees. Before you ask, yes the Global 5000 can make the trip direct from TEB to AMS, we had to pick up three more people at Bombardier HQ.

One funny moment from our arrival in Montreal. The ground controller inadvertently called our aircraft “Gulfstream 340GF”. The controller – whose office is right next to the Bombardier factory – realized his faux pas saying “My apologies for calling you a Gulfstream.” One of our pilots, Phil Seaver, replied “No worries, I’ve been called worse.”

Update 18:55 UTC: We’re headed rapidly for the Shannon FIR which begins at waypoint DOGAL, roughly an hr and a half from Amsterdam. This is my first time doing a daytime eastbound crossing and the day is rolling along quite rapidly. My body will think it’s the middle afternoon when I’m supposed to be getting ready to go to bed. I have a feeling that’s the worst kind of jetlag. Interesting note, the aircraft we’re on has 180 min ETOPS certification, but can be extended incrementally up to 240 min as needed. On this flight we never get beyond 180 min with our alternate airports in Gander, Keflavik and Shannon.

More to follow.