The International, Transoceanic and Raid Flights

Here you are! You've got your IFR rating, now. You're now able to larger horizons! You're now able, first to a flight under any weather and at with no time limitations, all over the territory of your home country. Second, you can now reach to the international flights, being able to fly abroad. Even the transoceanic flights are at reach now and, at last the 'raid' flights, those adventure flights

. General Sights About the International Flights . The Transoceanic Flights . The Raid Flights

General Sights About the International Flights

As far as the international flights are concerned, English-speaking is a necessity. Should you fly from a country where English is not the native language, you'll be obliged either -like the case, for example, in France- to deem by yourself whether you're mastering English enough to communicate in that language during your flights, or -like the case in the previous French rules- you'll be obliged to train for some type of international radio-communications rating or diploma. Thus, aboard a Beechcraft Baron 58, you'll be already reaching such locations like the northern West Indies, from Miami, or some parts of Central America, from the same, or from Texas, for example. Some general data about international flying are mandatory however for any flight of that kind

• the national aerial flight regulations are varying from a country to another, mostly as far as the flight levels and the distinction between high and low IFR routes are concerned. To complete an international flight in the most realistic fashion, the most good idea is to search for documentation on the Internet. The site of the national, air authorities of the countries concerned may be a good starting point. Such regulations may be too found through the ICAO site, this organization for the international civilian aviation. In the USA, for example, the border between the high and low IFR routes is set at 18,000 ft as, in Europe, it's mostly set at the flight level 245
• any first landing into another country than your departure one, must, generally, be done on a terrain which is agreed to procede with the customs formalities. The ruling depends on the countries concerned. There too, to find documentation on the Web is a good practice. You'll generally have to have onboard and with you, the documentation and certificates related to the plane, your doc about yourself as the pilot, and the ID cards, passports, etc. relating to yourself, your possible passengers, and the luggages
• any flying over large surfaces of water needs, according to the most usual regulations, is regulatory considered 'flight over water' as soon as you'll fly at a distance from the coasts further than the distance your plane can glide. In that case, a flight plan is mandatory and the presence onboard of life-jackets. For a flight which will unfold at a distance of above 100 nautical miles from the coasts, you'll further need onboard, on the other hand, an emergency, inflatable raft
• as far as the weather along your route is concerned, a good idea is to use the site (in English only) of the US weather agency, the NOAA, which allows to use a database worldwide of METARs and TAFs
• about the charts en route, the approach, and the terrains' ones, the Internet may be of some use too -albeit not necessarily with success. The IFR routes charts, specially, are mostly of no free access on the Web, as the national, civilian aviation authorities' sites -or the virtual air traffic control ones too- are often good starting points. A good page, in French, was the page 'Documentation' for the IVAO French section's training (it might however not be available anymore)

The Transoceanic Flights

Flying over the oceans is bringing to other considerations. The first main trouble encountered for the transoceanic flights is that you'll be flying mostly outside of the range of any of the usual navaids, like the VOR/DMEs or NDBs. Such a flight is categorized then a 'Class II long distance navigation operation'. Such a flight, theoretically, can be flown VFR, or night VFR, as numerous countries however make mandatory that those flights be flown IFR. The regulations also point to what electronic equipment aboard the plane is mandatory. A flight plan must be filed. As far as the Atlantic Ocean, for example, is concerned, the oceanic part of the flight is managed through the 'CTA/FIR Oceanic Airspace'. The radio-communications between the planes and the oceanic air traffic control are relayed by the 'international flight service stations' or the 'Aeronautical Radio, Inc.' (ARINC). Shanwick Oceanic, in Ireland, Reykjavik Oceanic, in Iceland, and Gander Oceanic, in Canada are the main controled areas ('Controlled Airspace', (CTAS)) for a transoceanic flight

A other consideration for a transoceanic flight is weather, as summer flights are adviced with a relatively more clement weather and more daylight available. Pilots have to be aware of harshness of weather conditions over northern Atlantic as Canadian rules, for example, require that crewmembers and passengers carry hypothermia protection (survival suits) during all flight and that the plane be equipped with a life raft featuring a attached survival kit

A transoceanic flight, in any case, unfolds inside a controlled airspace ('Controlled Airspace' (CTA)). Thus, your navigation will have to match the usual rules for an IFR navigation flight: to follow any route assigned by any ATC authority, any altitude, or any filed -or instructed- speed, respecting any vertical separation between planes, etc. The plane further will have to match the regulations as defined by the International Civilian Aviation Organization (ICAO), that is that it will have to feature the instruments, and navigation equipments appropriate to the flight you'll consider. As the usual, VHF radio equipment of your plane usually will be of a range too short to be useful during the flight, your plane will have to feature a HF (high frequency) radio and navigation equipment in case of flight operations occurring beyond the range of your radio, VHF, abilities. Using those HF radios, you'll have to maintain a permanent watch on the frequencies instructed by the ATC. The pilots flying over the oceans, further, are sharing informations between them, using the 123.45 MHz frequency, as, outside the periods when they are communicating, they tune their radios onto the 121.5 MHz emergency frequency. Airliners cruising in altitude are also monitoring that frequency

You'll take note that the rules that we described above about the transoceanic flights do apply too to the flights above the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and above the Carribean, as, also, to the flights occurring over vast areas which are unhospitable and/or desertic

The Raid Flights

The enhanced abilities that your IFR rating is allowing to you as a pilot, further, may bring you to the possibility of flying 'raid flights', those flights which are containing some sense of adventure. You'll meet pilots, or associations, or aero-clubs, worldwide who are flying ancient, famed aerial routes (like, for example, the postal ones), or famed flight premieres, like some transoceanic, or transcontinental flights. A world tour, at last, may be another center of interest!

As far as how to fly such raid flights is concerned, the rules and points which have been pointed to in the previous developments of this tutorial (like the airports fitted to exert the customs operations, the charts, the flights over the oceans or the unhospitable areas, the aerail regulations, etc.) are applying there too. A pecular caution, of course, is to be provided as far as the question of the fuel availability -and/or plane maintenance- along the route is concerned. On such a long duration flight, for example, some mandatory maintenance flight time limits for you plane may be reached. There too, the Internet may be useful where to search for those data (like, for example, some good database of terrains worldwide, allowing to know what facilities -in term of fuel, maintenance, or otheres- are available at such or such terrain). The websites of the national, aviation authorities are useful too to that purpose. You'll take note of that, in Flight Simulator (and even, maybe, in the real world), the question for a realistic world tour is mostly found between Japan and the Kamtchatka Peninsula, on one hand, and between the Kamtchatka Peninsula and the first US Aleutians. The large distances in that area of the flight, the few availability of terrains and/or the fact that the fuel availability is available for the army planes only, for example, may be a cause for trouble. Some other parts of such a world tour, when thoroughfully studied in a realistic perspective, might too be with some problems. A good idea, at last, for a world tour, or for a raid flight, consists simply into finding on the Internet the organizational -or personal- sites which are dedicated to such flights in the real life. A good site (in French only however) for a world tour is at 'Vols solitaires autour du monde'

A plane is finely rendering the spirit of adventure in aviation, with the Grand Caravan 208B in FS2002 Professional Edition, which is a kind of advanced bush plane. As her pilotage however needs that the pilots master a turboprop plane, a tutorial is to be found in the 'Airliners' section only