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I took my Cirrus SR22 airplane across the pond and back a few months ago [KFRG CYHU CYZV CYYR CYKL CYFB BGSF BIRK EGPC]. Two things surprised me: the manner peo

I took my Cirrus SR22 airplane across the pond and back a few months ago [KFRG CYHU CYZV CYYR CYKL CYFB BGSF BIRK EGPC]. Two things surprised me: the manner people live up North, and how modernized technology is changing the risk profile of the flight. People up north (well, native people anyway) live a sustenance lifestyle of of necessity. Far from being a "cultural attraction," for them, it's a choice between a $20 stick of butter and a free whale from the ocean. When you're living on government subsidies in a town plagued by joblessness, there's not much of a choice. The economic condition up in arctic Canada was saddening in other ways. Imagine living in -40F climates, and not having a place to stay. There are often 15-20 people per tiny house, with children's mattresses strewn across the ground of the living room. On top of the living quarters, the communications infrastructure was horrendous - a satellite backbone for internet that was next to useless for getting a weather briefing. While the situation on the ground was... enlightening, from the air, things are becoming immensely more modern. Historically dangerous aspects to ferry flights are now void: communication, navigation, and rescue are all radically transformed. Communication used to be a huge challenge (think clunky HF radio with a 25 foot trailing link antenna), but is now a non-event with a satellite phone. My Iridium candy-bar phone, while expensive, now gives me the ability to call ATC worldwide and let them know my exact position. By next year, ATC will automatically get real-time position updates from any ADS-B equipped aircraft: https://aireon.com/ https://aireon.com/. Navigation used to be a combination of LORAN, NDBs, and looking at the stars (no joke). Now, it's GPS direct. You know exactly where you are at all times, with 0 ambiguity. And you have an iPhone in your pocket as a backup, even if your plane goes totally dark. Rescue is now a matter of hours instead of days. I carried a PLB with me. If I pressed a button, satellites would be pinged with an SOS signal and my exact GPS location. Rescue aircraft could be dispatched immediately and on-site within hours. For anyone thinking about this trip, do it! The adventure will give you an appreciation for the frontiers of technology.

jsmthrowaway 8y ago
There’s an imagery created by your story of you, standing next to your half million dollar airplane in your aviators and fancy khakis you bought just for this trip, annoyed you can’t get LTE for your next leg’s wx, and putting your hands on your hips and muttering to nobody in particular, wow, these native folk sure have it rough, huh? No Starbucks in Greenland, it turns out. Please, enlighten me of the point of your story. You ferried across and stopped over in several less advantaged places, then felt compelled to explain to a community of mostly wealthy people that one time, while flying your airplane to Europe (and for some reason while thinking an iPhone has any relevance whatsoever to your situation in an RNAV emergency), you discovered the fabled “worse off” people that you knew existed but had never seen. What would you like me to feel in response to that story? Sad, like you? I am sad, but I’m sad that you’re describing a community in which you stopped over as if you’d discovered a species of three legged unicorn. Had you been in trouble, those sad, poor indigenous cultures likely would have given you everything off their back. Then you swing that brush everywhere: first it was “people up north” (of where? Atherton?) then for some reason instead of deleting that silly grouping, you decided to correct it in a parenthetical and swing right for the natives. Did you take a bunch of pictures of the communities? When you got back, did you lay awake, troubled, wondering how you could write an app or raise some VC for a nonprofit to help them? When you told this story to your buddies at the FBO, did you include even worse observations that you chose not to type here? The weird irony of your story is you casually refer to “arctic Canada,” of course completely unaware that those First Nations cultures you were prodding and dissecting for a couple hours predate the word “Canada,” all the while lamenting a subtext of “why don’t we help them?” while discarding centuries of colonial attitudes. And then sharing one. What the hell is a “cultural attraction?” You think they’re hunting whale to amuse you? Congratulations on your... enlightenment?... that there are people out there who can’t afford a SR22, I guess, and thanks for taking the time to call out the specific model so the rest of us pilots know you’re not screwing around. (If you don’t fly, specifying ‘my SR22’ instead of saying ‘my airplane’ or even ‘my Cirrus’ is in the same vein as saying ‘my Lamborghini,’ a phenomenon unique to SR22 owners.) I’m happy you got to experience that and teach a bunch of tech folks that the natives sure are a disadvantaged and lesser species somewhere up north, where the trolls live. EDIT: Pump up the jam, it’s a using a flag as a super downvote party! Silence the uncomfortableness of the heathen! WTB a vouch
- mikeash 8y ago
  I have to wonder about the point of your comment. The one you replied to is an interesting tale posted in the comments of a very similar story. It seemed to have many points: technology is making the trip easier, it’s well worth making, and there are a lot of seriously poor people living along the route. Your point, on the other hand, seems to be that the other poster should feel really bad for being wealthy enough to make the trip. Which is a pretty crappy point to make.
  - jsmthrowaway 8y ago
    That’s what you got? Calling out a very colonial, otherizing view of the world, and I’m upset he’s got money? The money is illustrative of the sentiment, not the call to arms. That’s twice now I’ve called out a serious cultural issue on HN and the reply has reinterpreted my meaning along an axis of wealth generation, which is a pattern I’m starting to notice (and it fits). Literally, you replied the words “seriously poor” to me, while knocking me for calling him rich, in your interpretation. The best part of you saying that is that, like the guy you’re sticking up for, you fail to understand those cultures predate your opinion of economics. They’re not pursuing capitalism and dominating the world with tech, and instead fish to survive instead of $20 butter (horrors!) and somehow this is worth noting because the white people showed up, took everything, introduced currency, then started looking at them funny for not having currency. To buy the $20 butter THEY BROUGHT TO THEM. Pop quiz: do either of you, at this moment, understand the role of butter in Arctic First Nations cuisine? ARE THERE COWS IN THE ARCTIC? Christ, I’m almost emotional at the display of complete idiocy. And now they’re cultural attractions for Cirrus owners on their way past the non-West where there are no Starbucks. People who speak like him and you, and reinforce the idea that there’s weird shit outside of this bubble, are a significant contributor to the cancerous toxicity this community injects into the industry and the larger world. The problem is one you’ve spotted: it just sounds like a nice story. It isn’t. It reinforces a divisive view that a lot of wealthier white people have about people who aren’t them. And that comes across largely unconsciously in a lot of the economic output of this very community. So yeah, I call it out, and wait out the very people who need to understand that downvoting it to hide that unpleasantness rather than even acknowledge my side, and continue sighing.
unionemployee 8y ago
While this is true, many of the aircraft that are ferried lack this equipment. Even plenty of airliners are still crossing the pond with just HF and SELCAL.
- cjrp 8y ago
  Why though? ForeFlight + iPad + bluetooth GPS module is all you need, doesn't have to be part of the panel/approved/etc.

jsmthrowaway 8y ago

There’s an imagery created by your story of you, standing next to your half million dollar airplane in your aviators and fancy khakis you bought just for this trip, annoyed you can’t get LTE for your next leg’s wx, and putting your hands on your hips and muttering to nobody in particular, wow, these native folk sure have it rough, huh? No Starbucks in Greenland, it turns out. Please, enlighten me of the point of your story. You ferried across and stopped over in several less advantaged places, then felt compelled to explain to a community of mostly wealthy people that one time, while flying your airplane to Europe (and for some reason while thinking an iPhone has any relevance whatsoever to your situation in an RNAV emergency), you discovered the fabled “worse off” people that you knew existed but had never seen. What would you like me to feel in response to that story? Sad, like you? I am sad, but I’m sad that you’re describing a community in which you stopped over as if you’d discovered a species of three legged unicorn. Had you been in trouble, those sad, poor indigenous cultures likely would have given you everything off their back. Then you swing that brush everywhere: first it was “people up north” (of where? Atherton?) then for some reason instead of deleting that silly grouping, you decided to correct it in a parenthetical and swing right for the natives. Did you take a bunch of pictures of the communities? When you got back, did you lay awake, troubled, wondering how you could write an app or raise some VC for a nonprofit to help them? When you told this story to your buddies at the FBO, did you include even worse observations that you chose not to type here? The weird irony of your story is you casually refer to “arctic Canada,” of course completely unaware that those First Nations cultures you were prodding and dissecting for a couple hours predate the word “Canada,” all the while lamenting a subtext of “why don’t we help them?” while discarding centuries of colonial attitudes. And then sharing one. What the hell is a “cultural attraction?” You think they’re hunting whale to amuse you? Congratulations on your... enlightenment?... that there are people out there who can’t afford a SR22, I guess, and thanks for taking the time to call out the specific model so the rest of us pilots know you’re not screwing around. (If you don’t fly, specifying ‘my SR22’ instead of saying ‘my airplane’ or even ‘my Cirrus’ is in the same vein as saying ‘my Lamborghini,’ a phenomenon unique to SR22 owners.) I’m happy you got to experience that and teach a bunch of tech folks that the natives sure are a disadvantaged and lesser species somewhere up north, where the trolls live. EDIT: Pump up the jam, it’s a using a flag as a super downvote party! Silence the uncomfortableness of the heathen! WTB a vouch

mikeash 8y ago
I have to wonder about the point of your comment. The one you replied to is an interesting tale posted in the comments of a very similar story. It seemed to have many points: technology is making the trip easier, it’s well worth making, and there are a lot of seriously poor people living along the route. Your point, on the other hand, seems to be that the other poster should feel really bad for being wealthy enough to make the trip. Which is a pretty crappy point to make.
- jsmthrowaway 8y ago
  That’s what you got? Calling out a very colonial, otherizing view of the world, and I’m upset he’s got money? The money is illustrative of the sentiment, not the call to arms. That’s twice now I’ve called out a serious cultural issue on HN and the reply has reinterpreted my meaning along an axis of wealth generation, which is a pattern I’m starting to notice (and it fits). Literally, you replied the words “seriously poor” to me, while knocking me for calling him rich, in your interpretation. The best part of you saying that is that, like the guy you’re sticking up for, you fail to understand those cultures predate your opinion of economics. They’re not pursuing capitalism and dominating the world with tech, and instead fish to survive instead of $20 butter (horrors!) and somehow this is worth noting because the white people showed up, took everything, introduced currency, then started looking at them funny for not having currency. To buy the $20 butter THEY BROUGHT TO THEM. Pop quiz: do either of you, at this moment, understand the role of butter in Arctic First Nations cuisine? ARE THERE COWS IN THE ARCTIC? Christ, I’m almost emotional at the display of complete idiocy. And now they’re cultural attractions for Cirrus owners on their way past the non-West where there are no Starbucks. People who speak like him and you, and reinforce the idea that there’s weird shit outside of this bubble, are a significant contributor to the cancerous toxicity this community injects into the industry and the larger world. The problem is one you’ve spotted: it just sounds like a nice story. It isn’t. It reinforces a divisive view that a lot of wealthier white people have about people who aren’t them. And that comes across largely unconsciously in a lot of the economic output of this very community. So yeah, I call it out, and wait out the very people who need to understand that downvoting it to hide that unpleasantness rather than even acknowledge my side, and continue sighing.

unionemployee 8y ago

While this is true, many of the aircraft that are ferried lack this equipment. Even plenty of airliners are still crossing the pond with just HF and SELCAL.

cjrp 8y ago
Why though? ForeFlight + iPad + bluetooth GPS module is all you need, doesn't have to be part of the panel/approved/etc.