Unnecessary OverWater

[Jeff Hartmann]

When I was instructing at Palm beach International, sometimes they would extend the downwind until our 150 was offshore. If it got too far, I would advise that we had no flotation devices on board., half as a joke, but it got the message across.

[Dave Siciliano]

All it takes is one :-)
I’m cautious over water in a single, but have done it in my own plane which I knew was well maintained. I still planned close to shore when reasonable. Flew over the Gulf with raft and survival gear. I treated cold water with respect.

[Terry Carraway]

Just being a devil's advocate, how many of us have had a cruise flight engine failure?

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

I've crossed Lake Michigan more than 200 times in a single. Usually 11-12,000 feet.

Gil - When the water is 46 degrees and it's shorter to go over land only? Just checkin'....

[Gil Buettner]

I've crossed Lake Michigan more than 200 times in a single. Usually 11-12,000 feet.

[Andy Alson]

Certainly doesn't make much sense to fly that route in that aircraft.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

This is the one that I was mentioning this afternoon, Andy A....

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Sitting and paying bills today at the computer (;-( ), I was watching traffic in and out of HPN on a rather bumpy but 6-800 foot ceiling kind of day. The heavy rain of earlier has cleared out, no peals of thunder since about 7:30AM.

What caught my eye was a light single taking the so-called Shark Route (V139) from SIE VOR in southern NJ off the Atlantic coast to RICED (nearing the HTO VOR on Eastern Long Island), as a way to get to HPN. It did this at 9,000' - 7,000', I assume rather than flying at 5,000' up V1 to DIXIE, then V276 RBV V249 SAX V39 DIXIE (the west route over land).

Seems an odd choice....the overland route is 25 nm (12% shorter) (200 nm versus 175 nm), and there wasn't any wx in the way (it had to fly through moderate rain on the over water route). And, the water temperature at a buoy near the off-shore route is 48.4dF.

Maybe the a/c is outfitted with a raft, I don't know. And, I'll do over Lake Michigan in the summer at 16,000' or so, limiting being out of gliding distance to about 10 mins., rather than go south of Chicago to get around the Lake (but I went around the Lake 2 weeks ago....that water is just too cold now and the extra 80 or so nm of routing was well worth it). And, I've flown Sidney NS to St.Pierre, about 100 nm over water, in summer with a raft. So, overwater isn't a problem always in my risk analysis (others may differ even with those choices).

Anyway, an interesting route choice for what advantage I'm not quite sure.