Coast to coast trip suggestions?

In article ,
Dan Luke wrote:
"Ben Jackson" wrote:
I'm no Texas expert,

Truly.

So are you saying that there's more in west Texas than Dairy Queens?

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

(Filip Zawadiak) wrote
I'll go together with my girlfriend, and we plan to camp near airports
- used AOPA airport directory to find out where they are. Still, I
don't know what should I expect from "camping on field". It would be
probably wise to call all of those airports just after arriving to USA
(I'm from Poland).

Camping on field is very variable. At places like T27 (great choice -
don't miss the WWII bomber converted to a museum) it's no problem.
You can forget about it at a place like NEW. Just FYI, NEW is
actually more expensive than MSY (the international).

Or general comments, after all I'm quite a "fresh" pilot - one of
outcomes of this trip should be getting enough experience and
crosscountry time to be able to start IFR training, maybye next year.

No problem - after a trip like that, you will have more than enough
experience no matter how you do it. 4 weeks is a little tight, but
you can always turn back early if you start running out of time.

Michael

"Ben Jackson" wrote:
So are you saying that there's more in west Texas than Dairy Queens?

Big Bend, the Davis Mountains.

I grant you, there are long stretches of long stretches in west Texas,
but you said "Texas," not "west Texas."
--
Dan
(Texas ex-pat.)

You'll have the best luck weatherwise flying early in the morning.
I've used PGA a few times for refuels and they've always been
cheaper than Airnav shows, especially from the Terminal, not
Classic. Although Classic has come out in the wee hours and
waived callout fees. DRO (Starbase)is also a reasonable
place to buy gas in that part of the world.

Your route skips Monument Valley, east of PGA, worth flying
through. Four Corners is just a slab with people standing on
it and lots of cars parked nearby. Mesa Verde is worth the
trip. Looks like you picked a fairly low route through the
Continental Divide, good idea, especially in a C172.
DO NOT forget to get a Grand Canyon SFAR chart.
As far as camping on field, I've been to a few airports that
claimed 'camping on field', and I'll be darned if I could
find the area they were talking about. Don't base your camping
on those airports with that description.
Personally I'd recommend Lake Powell/Monument Valley over
Bryce Canyon and even Grand Canyon, mainly because of the
restrictions. Also I hear Dauphin(e?) Island on the gulf in
Alabama is pretty cool.
Sounds like quite a trip, have a good time.
Chris

jsmith wrote in message ...
If you are going to camp, stay away from medium/bigcity airports. Call
ahead to check.
If it has airline service, you will not be allowed to camp due to
security issues.

I agree that larger airports would probably not be desirable for
camping, but I don't think there is a general ban on camping at
airports with airline service. Some smaller airports with airline
service do allow camping.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

John Galban wrote:

I agree that larger airports would probably not be desirable for
camping, but I don't think there is a general ban on camping at
airports with airline service. Some smaller airports with airline
service do allow camping.

The County dickheads at Bryce Canyon BCE used the fact that they
have one commercial flight per day to justify imposing a general
ban on camping at airport. The real reason is that Ruby's Inn
wants to rent you a motel room and is in cahoots with the County.
You cant have the County "competing" with private enterprize, thus
saith the Republicans...

MikeM

It is a pity that you will only get to see about a tenth of what the USA is all
about.

Come next year in late July early August and we'll caravan you from San
Francisco to Oshkosh and back. Now THAT will let you see a lot of the
countryside.

Jim
Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Thank you all for your suggestions :-)

It's just hard to squeeze so much things to see into four weeks ;-)
Especially in Utah part, as route there starts to look like... hmmm...
well, complicated. I'll try to post "final" route on website next
week, before leaving.

After returning, I'll prepare some maps with planned routes and actual
GPS track to compare how much went as expected. Of course, photos will
be there too.

Thanks again!
--
Filip Zawadiak
PP-ASEL 67hr, and counting
http://vyx.net/~philz

"Filip Zawadiak" wrote in message
om...
Thank you all for your suggestions :-)

It's just hard to squeeze so much things to see into four weeks ;-)
Especially in Utah part, as route there starts to look like... hmmm...
well, complicated. I'll try to post "final" route on website next
week, before leaving.

After returning, I'll prepare some maps with planned routes and actual
GPS track to compare how much went as expected. Of course, photos will
be there too.

Thanks again!
--
Filip Zawadiak
PP-ASEL 67hr, and counting
http://vyx.net/~philz

Looking forward to it Filip,

Jay

In article , Dan Luke wrote:
I grant you, there are long stretches of long stretches in west Texas,
but you said "Texas," not "west Texas."

But, you know, I enjoyed flying over those long stretches of nothing-ness.
It's amazing to see so much emptyness...

Tina Marie
--
http://www.tripacerdriver.com "...One of the main causes
of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way
to indicate successful termination of their C programs." (Robert Firth)