Today, a pilot is going viral for what sounds like an insane, if not impossible-seeming flight. Tom Lopes flew a 2018 Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP on a ferry flight between California to Hawai’i. He flew the small single-engine general aviation aircraft an incredible 2,425 miles over more than 17 hours over the Pacific Ocean to the aircraft’s new home. This feat is even more mind-blowing when you learn that this was a nonstop flight that was more than three times the normal range of the aircraft. Here’s how Lopes did it.
Perhaps the coolest part about this journey is the fact that it’s something that Lopes has done before. Tom Lopes, the owner of Gateway Air Center, is a ferry pilot. He’s the guy you hire when you’ve just purchased a plane from somewhere far away and you want it delivered to where your home base is. Two years ago, Lopes flew the same crazy journey we’re talking about today. Lopes flew a different Cessna 172 between Merced Regional Airport/Macready Field in Merced, California, and the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawai’i. I wrote about that trip two years ago and it took Lopes over 18 hours to fly the little plane 2,521 miles, or 2,190 nautical miles.
Back then, Lopes was surprised that his routine job went viral. Well, it’s going viral all over again as he completed the same awesome flight another time.
The Flight
We were tipped off to the repeat of the 2022 flight by @InfantryPilot on X.
Someone is ferrying a c172 to HNL. It’s going to be an 18hour flight. pic.twitter.com/C8hJaOXGIn
— FL410_over_ICN (@InfantryPilot) August 6, 2024
InfantryPilot is currently a Captain flying an Airbus A330 but has an impressive resume from time spent in the Army. This pilot’s gotten to fly McDonnell Douglas DC-9s/Boeing 717s, McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, Boeing 767s, and of course, the Airbus A330.
Yesterday, InfantryPilot pulled up a flight tracker and found that 2018 Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP, registration N176TA, was on quite a weird flight. It took off from Merced Regional Airport/Macready Field in Merced, California at 5:58 AM Pacific bound for Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Looks like he climbed up to 8000’ now. His position will only updates when he does position reports. pic.twitter.com/4JgP4wNyzg
— FL410_over_ICN (@InfantryPilot) August 6, 2024
Normally, a flight from California to Hawai’i is nothing much to write about, but this is different because a 172 isn’t usually the right tool for the job. My previous entry on Lopes and his flying antics will clue you in:
First flown in 1955 and still on sale today, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk has the distinction of being the most popular single-engine aircraft on the planet. These planes are easy to fly with slow landing speeds and forgiving handling characteristics. You can find 172s in the hands of private owners or making up the backbones of flight schools all over. All of my own flight hours are from behind the controls of one built in the 1970s.
But one thing that a standard 172 doesn’t have is the range for a flight like this. A 172 Skyhawk like the one Lopes flew has up to 53 gallons of usable fuel. The 180 HP Lycoming IO-360-L2A under the cowling will burn that fuel in about 638 nautical miles (734 miles) when cruising at 45 percent power at 10,000 feet.
Textron Aviation, the current producer of Cessna Skyhawk aircraft, says if you translate the Skyhawk’s range into metric units, you get around 1,185 kilometers. That’s great if you’re flying to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh or training a student, but doesn’t come close to the 3,903 kilometers required to get to Hawai’i without swimming the rest of the way.
According to the flight’s data on Flight Aware, Lopes flew the Cessna at about 5,975 feet for most of the trip with a peak of somewhere around 8,000 feet. He was also going about 130 knots (150 mph) with a peak of around 155 knots (178 mph) towards the tail end of the flight.
This has left a lot of people online wondering how on Earth do you get such a tiny plane to fly so far. It’s clear that Lopes had to carry extra fuel, but how and most importantly, where?
The Modifications
The answer comes from my story two years ago. Back then, Lopes flew a new Cessna 172 G1000 NXi Skyhawk worth $486,000 across the Pacific. Lopes then hopped onto the aviation YouTube channel blancolirio run by Juan Browne:
In the video, Lopes explained that the trick to more than tripling the range of a Cessna 172 is by fitting every spare inch of the aircraft’s interior with a gigantic fuel cell. When Lopes performs these ferry flights, the aircraft interior is reduced to just the tiny amount of space he needs to safely fly the aircraft. The rest of the space, from his seatback to where the rear seat would be, is a fuel cell which ups the aircraft’s total fuel capacity to 210 gallons.
Here’s a screenshot from George Hanzawa of George’s Aviation. In the video of his arrival (below) you can see how crunched up Lopes had to be to fit the fuel tank inside:
It’s about as cramped as two years ago, which looked like this:
Now, your eyes will note that the fuel tank could have been moved back. However, Lopes noted that doing so would have thrown off the aircraft’s balance, so he had to sit in a tiny alcove and let the fuel tank sit right where it was.
There are a couple of ways to achieve what Lopes did with the fuel tank. You could either rig the tank to feed the engine directly, or you could rig the tank to pump fuel into the aircraft’s existing tanks. In 2022, Lopes plumbed the fuel cell into the Cessna’s existing fuel system. That required routing a fuel hose through a wing root, out of a fairing, and into the wing tank’s drain. This modification process alone took about three weeks. It looks like Lopes did the same thing for this recent flight.
Two years ago:
Of course, you can’t just make modifications like these without approval, so one of the steps Lopes had to take was getting this fuel tank rig approved for the single flight to Hawai’i. After touchdown, the plane was reverted back to stock and the rear seat was installed. It then began living out its life as a trainer for George’s Aviation not even 24 hours later. George’s Aviation is a tour operator, rental outfit, and flight school in one.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, this Cessna was recently sold to George Hanzawa’s George’s Aviation in Honolulu, Hawai’i. This is confirmed with the videos on George’s Facebook page from early this morning. So, this plane is likely to go into service as a trainer just like the last one did.
These ferry flights also aren’t just a matter of hopping into the plane and flying away. Lopes has to make sure the winds are in his favor so he doesn’t burn too much fuel. Of course, the weather also has to be relatively calm as well. There are other factors as well, from my previous piece:
Every hour he had to report his position to air traffic control. At that same time he also checked his fuel levels to ensure there’s enough left to complete the flight. In addition to that, he also had to work with his team on the ground to calculate the correct power setting for his fuel burn. As Browne notes, the aircraft flew at 100 percent power for a number of hours before Lopes burned off enough fuel and began pulling back the power.
In other aircraft, Lopes might also have to use a system to top up the engine’s oil. That wasn’t required here as the new engine wasn’t expected to consume a lot of oil. And remember, he’s by himself, so that’s a long 18 hours by himself with that workload.
Lopes does all of this because many aircraft owners prefer having their plane flown across an ocean as opposed to the alternative. If your plane cannot fly home, it’ll have to be disassembled, loaded onto a truck, and then loaded onto a ship. Then that ship will sail to its destination, where the plane will once again be loaded onto a truck and sent to you. Finally, the plane will then have to be inspected and put back together. This whole process can take several weeks and that’s assuming it didn’t get damaged during the whole disassembly and shipping process. It’s just much easier and significantly faster to have a guy fly a Cessna 17 or 18 hours across an ocean.
Oh, you’ve probably noticed how I didn’t say anything about bathroom breaks. Well, when you’re crammed into a tiny space in a small plane there aren’t a lot of options. Whatever you’re imagining is probably how it works. In the 2022 flight, Lopes brought along bottles and for the worst-case scenario, a bucket.
As I said before, Lopes does flights like these as a whole business. While Lopes is known for flying these little Cessnas, he will also perform the ferry fuel system modifications before ferrying all sorts of aircraft to their owners. Just like two years ago, the Internet watched in awe as Lopes flew that little plane across the Pacific. With another success under his belt, Lopes is off to another adventure. Here’s to more years of great flights!
Just a note that Juan Browne is an aquaintance mine and well known in the Grass Valley area of Californa. A really nice person who videos from flights around the local area with great narration.
My friend and I watched (the very terrible) Resident Evil: Afterlife yesterday, and I rolled my eyes and complained about them flying a WWII-era Japanese fighter for thousands of miles, so it’s funny that I finally see this article today!
“This feat is even more mind-blowing when you learn that this was a nonstop flight”
Actually my mind would be blown if he had done it in a series of shorter hops.
It’s definitely impressive because of the sustained danger of flying over open ocean, but until the DOT got serious about logbooks, this was just any ol’ Tuesday for a long-haul trucker, and a 20+ hour motorcycle ride is just the admission requirement for the Iron Butt Association.
It’s interesting that the added fuel cell had to be positioned so far forward for weight & balance principles: with the constantly diminishing weight as he burned the extra fuel, you’d think that would throw out the balance at landing. Unless (duh), the new tank was centered on the unladen fulcrum.
I remember years ago reading how critical it was to chart every pound of weight on these light craft, and how little it took to move the fulcrum, changing the airborne behavior. Considering personal experience in small boats, stink or sail, it makes sense.
Looks like the tank’s a bit behind the center of the wings, and a bit behind the rear wheels, so I’d guess it did actually shift the center of gravity backwards a little when full even when it was crammed up against the seat. Probably made takeoff and the bit afterwards a bit interesting, since it’d want to nose-up instead of being aerodynamically stable.
I’m more confused by the overall weight. 210 gallons of 100LL plus even a small person with no gear would put a Cessna 172 of any variety pretty significantly over maximum takeoff weight.
I thought maybe he wasn’t filling it up all the way, but even assuming a mere 150lbs for pilot and gear that’s enough weight for 2.29x the normal range, which would put him a good 1200km short of the destination. Maybe a partial fill combined with the higher-than-stock engine power to go over the MTOW a bit, plus flying slower for higher-than-rated range? Sounds beyond sketchy either way. That math’s not mathing.
Actually this is Lopes attempt to quit smoking.
Wow, this is the equivalent of David packing a few Duracells and driving a whopping 60 miles in his leaf!
Coincidentally you fill up the engine oil from the cockpit in the De Havilland Canada Beaver.
Consider me old fashioned but I don’t like flying planes over water if said planes cannot land and takeoff from the water.
Now now, as Sully proved, you can land any plane in water at least once. 🙂
Still wouldn’t be able to get out
Can they rent a few barges, plank then over, and park them somewhere along the way? A Cessna can probably do VTOL in a stiff headwind.
I name thee Ghetto Flattops.
Or what would be really fun for the pilot would be if the flight could be timed when there are a couple of aircraft carriers that just happen to be 1/3s of the way across, where he could land, refuel, and take off again. Tax payer dollars at work during idle/transit times? Could be a good bathroom stop as well.
I’d bet the USN *sailors* would get an enormous kick out of that; idk about the *brass*. My granddad flew off of carriers in the 60s, some of his stories were wild.
As recorded in the documentary “Planes”.
Carrier crew may help to lighten the load by adding speed holes to the airframe and/or the pilot.
“Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport” by Victor Appleton, 1934
Can’t they just ship the plane over? How cheap does this guy charge.
In addition to the difficulties mentioned, you’d also be putting the whole airframe at risk of salt water exposure. Obviously this is something that every float plane that goes near the ocean has to deal with (adding floats to a 172 like this is done sometimes) but most airplane owners are going to treat their planes like a classic car and only take them out in ideal conditions.
It all made sense until you got to the bathroom part. Taking a leak into a Gatorade bottle while hunched forward against the controls at 150 knots? That deserves flight pay!
Do those really cost a half million bucks?
New ones cost that much depending on options. Yeah, I know! A 172 was worth $12,500 in 1970, or about $104,000 today. But I guess spending 4X that does get you all of the modern tech of the 2020s, plus Alcantara.
What about a backup camera?
Android Aviation and Apple PlanePlay are pretty important to me.
I don’t know why that’s making me laugh so much, but bravo 🙂
From what I’ve heard most of the extra cost is “insurance”. Once an airframe is 25 years old the company that made it no longer liable for structural failure.
Ah, there you go! That makes a ton of sense!
It’s partially insurance, but also they aren’t made in huge numbers on a tuned assembly line. They’re built like Aston Martins from the 90s or the higher end RVs of today. From what I can find only 180 172s were built in 2023. Also, just about every plane off one of these lines is at least semi-custom (especially when it comes to the electronics in the instrument panel).
So, they are built in small numbers, the components are EXPENSIVE (here is where the insurance [mostly liability] angle comes in), and just about every plane off the line is subtly or not so subtly different from the one before and after it.
To top it all off, pretty much all airplane manufacturers facilities are on the property of an airport somewhere. While property next to an airport may be less expensive than average, property ON an airport rivals waterfront property in a vacation destination in terms of price.
So yea, planes are INSANELY expensive compared to most products we are used to.
Can someone explain this? I assume the basic airframe and controls and whatnot haven’t changed that much (do they have PDKs now?)?
See my above comment in this thread.
The thought of a PDK in a plane is making me giggle. Also, gotta toss in a blindspot monitor, full self flying beta, parking sensors…lol
“…so, I was able to swim to a deserted island, but all I found was the S.S. Minnow and an outhouse from Bakersfield…”
AirplaneFactsWithMax tracked this guy on Threads last night. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Thanks for the added detail!
I remember the previous story, but I have newfound appreciation for it now that I’ve been crammed into one of these for a very short flight. Four jumpers and a pilot made it uncomfortably cramped for just the climb up to 13000 feet. I can’t imagine being jammed in there with this fuel setup for that long a journey.
Edit: I looked it up and apparently I was in a 182, so this would be even worse.
I want to know if this can be done with a Piper Cherokee.
Just about every light plane (<12,500#) have been modified for ferry flights, very common practice. For large planes, it’s done but somewhat more complex procedure. By the time you get there, the heavier planes just island hop except for the HI leg.
Thank you.
I often recall this previous story from 2 years ago every single time I need a rest area on a 4-6 hour driving spell. I hobble into the restroom thinking how the hell can a human body sit in same position for 18 hours.
Hospital patients have to be rolled every several hours or else they get bed sores.
This was the entire plot of one of those oddball episodes of Magnum pi, the ones that didn’t focus on Magnum.
Except the pilot there ended up crashing into the water outside Robin’s Nest after the Yakuza hid lead bars in the seats. This is even better.
Beat me to it.
I always remember that episode feeling like a backdoor spinoff attempt, but I don’t think that was the intention?
Supposedly Roger Mosely (TC) was nearly fired from the series more than once, so maybe this pilot character was a test run for that possibility, or to keep Mosely (who was reputedly a bit prickly to deal with) in line.
18 hours in a loud, cramped cockpit, unable to move or stretch or anything?
To borrow a line from Joliet Jake Blues: “No. F*cking. Way.”
And here I am complaining that my employer won’t pay for my premium economy upgrade so my 6’5″ legs will fit between the seats.
My employer lets me upgrade to first class as long as it’s a cross-country flight and the difference is less than $500.
Don’t rub it in 🙂 At least we recently changed to allow premium economy on flights longer than 3hrs.
The trick is letting the guy who flies the most set the policy
I’d get about 4 hours from the coast of CA then realize I forgot something and have to turn around.
My dad did this when I was a kid. Flew a small plane to NZ by way of HI, and had tanks put in the back in place of the seats to do it. Of course, that was a twin engine, and he had a friend as a copilot… so a bit more margin of error. Still, my mom was not really thrilled about the whole thing. The profit made by selling the plane there more than paid for the fuel and the flight back. (And the temporary plane modifications, presumably.)
Since anything I happen to drive, old or new, is probably going to break down somewhere on the trip I’d be a little worried about being the guy who finds Amelia Earhart.