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So I went to bed rather tired and worried. I woke up about lunch time and called the Hawaiian briefer. I was going to have favourable weather. The cloud was overcast below 6000" and the sky clear above; although in the first 2 hours I was going to have some headwind the average wind was going to be a six knots tail wind for the 2000miles of flight. I planned at 95kts and 22hrs flight time. I filed my flight plan.

The airport at Santa Maria is in the Santa Barbara County on the Pacific Coast and was built in the second war to provide training for the B-25 Bomber cadets. It has a long runway suitable for taking off heavy and without any terrain obstructing in the path towards the Pacific. It is also one of the closest to Hawaii. I slept at Radissons which is on the airport and my window was overlooking the aircraft park. There were a few more light aircrafts heading to Australia and an air tractor and two cirrus planes left early in the morning before I was awake.

I had a nice breakfast and drove to town to buy some sandwiches, water and supplies for the trip. On return I packed my gear and taxied to Central Coast Jet Centre for the final preparations and fuel. What a nice crowd of people here - they were so helpful in every possible way. I rechecked that all the equipment was packed as planned; checked the plane and then filled up all tanks. 220gallons of fuel and the plane was in perfect balance. I dressed up in my flying suit, put my life jacket and strapped myself with the parachute that doubles as a backrest and sat in the pilot seat ready to start engine. The flight plan was already entered in the G1000 and the backup navigation equipment. The only thing I had to do was to start the engine. I wasn’t going to waste time and fuel and headed straight to the holding point. I requested the clearance and a slow climb and set for the take off. The departure was a little cold; I did not take any picture and did not exchange many words with the people on the ground or the controllers. It was a bit of a tense atmosphere and I left with the feel that everyone was looking at me as for the last time. The plane rolled with ease and at 57kts without any flaps I rotate gently, remained above the runway for a few more seconds and at 65kts I started my climb. How surprised I was to see 700ft/min up to 2,000ft at 85kts and 30%over the maximum take off gross weight. The cold air, a westerly breeze and a bit of updrafts definitely helped. However I set my cruise shortly at 95kts and a climb speed of 200ft/min. The engine was reving at 2350 and CHT remained under 350. At these settings the fuel flow on climb was around 8.5gall/hr. At 4000ft I had to pass through some clouds and the clear costal sky made space rapidly to a compact layer of clouds. I looked back at the sunny Californian coast left behind and said a nostalgic goodbye with the promise that I would be back soon for more adventures.

Shortly after departure I was given the HF frequencies and this time I made contact with ARINC San Francisco with no trouble. I went on an hourly reporting schedule. The plane performed flawless. There were still a couple of hours to dark and I was happy to see the rear tank getting a bit empty before the sunset. I levelled at 6000ft. The white clouds lying in a compact layer below almost touching my wheels covered completely the water underneath. The air was still. The 5kts headwind was slowing me a bit and I was seeing between 88-93 ground speeds - not entirely satisfied with this. At such speed I was going to be in the air much longer than expected and I was still not seeing the planned fuel consumption. I was planning to fly at 55% power and 50degree reach of peak keeping the CHT in the low 300. However after a couple of hours the head wind vanished and a tail wind was picking up seeing a much better ground speed. The sun got closer to the clouds and a spectacular sunset was now revealing to my eyes. So many times in such moments I tough how lucky I was. How many mortals get to be here and forgetting the gravity of the moment can relax enjoying the nature in such unbelievable circumstances. Once again I felt privileged in many aspects. I was totally taken and life was beautiful. Nothing could go wrong. Once the sun went under the clouds it became dark very quickly. I put my oxygen on and set the cabin and navigation lights. Made my position reports and went through my regular checks. I was recording my checks in a specially designed excel file every fifteen minutes. When you keep yourself busy time flies. After I set for the night I picked a sandwich and a coffee and I started to lean forward and gaze at the stars. I could have stayed there all night just watching the sky. I tried to figure out stars and constellations and recollected many moments in my life when I watched the sky at night. There was no moon. It was pitch black underneath and there was no light reflection in the water as the clouds below were covering it in totality. The plane was perfectly still. Not a vibration, no turbulence. The engine was now at 2250rpm, with the fuel flow ROP just below 7gallons/hour and a ground speed of nearly 100kts. My coffee cup was sitting on the instrument panel without any danger of spill. The sandwich was tasty and the cabin was warm and comfy in spite of the low temperature outside. I was right awake and confident in my actions. I checked my oxygen with the pulse oximeter and everything was going as planned. I looked again outside and wandered how long it will take to fly 13 hours in the dark!?.

Santa Maria - West Coast, California

Less than two hours into the flight to hilo. Hawaii

The first sunset over the Pacific Ocean

Hilo, Hawaii - the two vulcanos are visible from over 100nm; still more hours to get there.