Is it possible to fly a Bonanza from North America to Europe?

I’ve been looking for an interesting route to take and it got me to thinking if it was feasible to fly a G36 from North America to Europe.

Getting to Iceland looks tough. Those are larger distances than I had thought.

I might wait untill we get auroras modeled.

Yes, it’s definitely doable depending on your departure. North America is pretty vast, so if you were leaving from, say, CYFB, you could go CYFB > BGSF > BGKK > BIIS > BIEG > EKVG, your longest leg being under 500nm, whereas the G36 has a range of over 700 with passengers, over 900 with none. You could cut out a few of those stops easily.

Fun fact, the Bonanza named “Waikiki Beech” had a range of over 4,300nm as it cold hold 1010L (268 gal) of fuel with fuselage and tip tanks.

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The key to make sure you’re traveling with Winds Aloft, not against. At anywhere over 12,000 the wind speed sometimes breaks two digits.

Yes, I’ve done it with the Robert Young Tur-Bo mod. Two crew, two pax, some luggage. Get as far East in Canada as you can, make the jump to BGBW, and you can cross the Straits to Reykjavik easy.

After that, the fun part doesn’t end. Making a decision on how to get to Europe is also a little tricky. You don’t have the range to make it to Ireland or Norway in one shot. So where that intermediate stop is and how difficult a landing you want with Live Weather matters. You’ll want the NXi, trust me. For an approach to someplace like the Faroes where it’s constantly gusty and sometimes really poor visibility, you want all the abilities to pull any type of approach leg possible.

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i’ve flown around the globe in a sr-22 , it’s doable…

Think Canada > greenland > iceland > UK

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I recommend Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faro Island International , Northern Scotland for the trip

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Make it more fun, go westward. Scotland → Faroes → Iceland → Greenland → Canada.

Both my around the world trips started this way :slight_smile:

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That’s a good choice with the extra speed and great visibility.

*** Edit *** Oops, the SR-22 is actually slower. I first flew it after the 172, so I remember it being a fast airplane.

And I’ve done it in an Arrow III - USA,Canada,Greenland,Iceland,Faroe islands, Outer hebrides of Scotland & you’re there. CYQM-LFVP-CYYR-CYHO-BGBW-BGKK-BIPA-BISL-EKVG-EGPL. Mind the terrain altitude & the high winds - good luck.

Moved to World Discovery.

There’s a YouTuber named Matt Guthmiller who owns his own Bonanza. I think he may have flown there (it may have been in a Cessna, though…can’t remember). Anyway, it’s possible!

I never know which section to post under. :laughing:

Thanks!

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Current hostilities aside, you could always go the other way. That would be a very long way with a lot of legs though.

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More of a challenge without. I did a round the world trip (P3D) using only old steam gauges for navigation. From memory I was actually out of range of VOR’s crossing to Iceland, just held the heading until I picked up the VOR as I got closer, a bit or course correction and all was well. Was using real weather back then as well. :+1:

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Different preferences. :slight_smile: My guilty pleasure is to take the PT6A modified VL-3 (GotGravel Vertigo) - at 50 percent torque and FL200, I have a thousand mile range at 350 KTAS. Amazing touring machine, and I love blowing out with an 8,000 fpm max performance departure to 10,000 before I’ve even cleared the field’s airspace. That made really short work of the GIUK transit. The G3X aboard gets me anywhere.

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Further reading if you like Atlantic Ferry Routes

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You could always fly from Alaska across into Siberia to Vladivostok and then either across Russia or head down into SE Asia, India and the middle east.

In the real world ferry tanks are used for long distance trips so almost any trip is possible with careful planning.

Probably felt some of the same fear and doubt pilots that used to do those routes did.

Those routes are aviation graveyards.

Came to mind here too.
Distance between Alaska and Russia is in fact peanuts.
Apart from the Bering strait, you’ll only fly over land from North America to Europe
Fuel prices in Russia are pretty low and will compensate the travel distance/time.
But given the current conflict between Russia and ‘the west’ it’s not the safest option I think

I just did it with TBM. Disregarding the huge performance gap between the 2 planes, what makes the difference is weather. Choose carefully wich weather engine you are flying on, follow forecast and metar, set a RNAV approach for every landings. Wait to have tailwinds, that may shorten your flight time by hours! And have fun! There is always some adrenaline in those transfers, even if you are sitting in your studio.
And no, it’s not necessary to buy and wear a suvival suit…

That artice is fascinating - I like the idea of the Arctic route over to Greenland from Canada.