Maintaining VFR altitudes when following N/S roads/rivers

In rec.aviation.student Mxsmanic wrote:
Anyway, back to the topic ... it's true that I can fly in the general
direction of a road instead of following it precisely, but I find that it's
easy to get so far away that it's hard to see the road any more. Some
Interstates will turn west for miles, and then turn east again, and so on.
They stay in one direction long enough to get away from you if you are trying
to keep an "average" heading, but if you turn you have to change altitude.
Climbing and descending 2000 feet every few minutes seems like a lot for a
small aircraft.

Visibility must be really poor if you're doing this. I doubt an interstate
is making regular course changes of more than 90 degrees, so you should be
cutting the corners and seeing a maximum angle of 45 degrees to it. A few
minutes really shouldn't be taking you so far away from it that you can't
see it anymore. Even if you do get to where you can't see it, you're
presumably flying a course that will intersect it again soon, so you can
keep your position based on other landmarks until it heaves into view once
again.

I haven't seen anything in the FARs that provides a way around this for cruise
flight, except, as Bob has pointed out, flying below 3000 AGL. That would
work well enough in Iowa, and then the problem is solved. But over hilly
terrain it gets more difficult, and also other rules come into play for
low-altitude flight, such as the need to respect limitations over congested
areas, wildlife preserves, etc.

You could always try flying a glider instead. Nobody expects you to hold
any particular cruise altitudes there.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
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