The Story Behind the Cessna 172 that Flew from California to Hawaii

Not surprisingly, to some, not that uncommon actually.

More Common than most people think... I think the worst part of it is being in that seat so long... Look at the video of him getting out of the Cockpit! 18 hours in a 172 and many here complain about sitting 1 or 2 hours in a CRJ200... In a CRJ200 at least you can get up and move around and have a LAV to go to if needed!

Well, I run my Ferry Company since 1999, unfortunately I never did much self-promoting or advertising, quite bad at it, in 2001 I ferried a Piper Cadet from Haward airport to Hawaii, 22 hours - 150 gal of extra avgas, Hf radio on the 50 gal tank in the right seat, 100 gal in the back - which actually supposed to be just a hat shelf area, had to climb over it to get in to my left seat, no autopilot, no GPS in those days yet, dead reckoning only, but I did it with not much self promoting or advertising just going along in my quite way....however only doing Turbines and jets now....getting too old for this small stuff

Blancolirio did a great video on this flight, and plane and a couple on the pilot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4WPjwCxJvM Thanks Juan B.!

If I couldn't see my destination by the time I reached my cruising altitude I would return to base.

Once knew a chap who ferried Piper Cherokees from Central Florida to Australia. Like the 172, they stripped the interior and installed aux fuel tanks. He flew from Florida to Northern California, topped off, then flew to Alaska and along the Aleutians followed by a good bit more island hopping over Japan, the Philippines and ultimately to Australia. He didn't have a ground crew and I'm guessing life insurance was also hard to come by. But he did build LOTS of time. His company also ferried ag planes to South America with the hoppers converted to fuel tanks. I would see them take off and for as far as I cold see them over Florida's flat terrain, they were barely able to climb very much higher than tree-top altitude. That never had too much appeal for me.

congrats on your new plane. The engine is fully broken in. When would you like to schedule the next engine overhaul?

The 1982-83 season (Season 3) of a Magnum P.I. episode ‘Two Birds of a Feather’ involved a light plane almost making it to the Islands.

Proper link:
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/news/the-latest/2022/08/30/the-story-behind-the-cessna-172-that-flew-from-california-to-hawaii/

Over and 18 hour flight, the pilot will encounter about 4 hours of darkness. Would not this cause the pilot to become disorientated with no visual reference?? A Cessna 172 is obviously not pressurised which means it cant fly at higher altitudes.