Flight across the continent! - part 1

Well, thanks to all who posted suggestions on where to fly in the
midwest.

My flying partner and I just spent five days flying from Southern
California to the East Coast and back .... in a Cherokee 140! (We really
need to get a faster plane...).

Brief story:

Day 1 - Depart Camarillo, CA. IMC due to coastal stratus, so we depart
IFR and are vectored over the Pacific before turning around to the east.
We flew to Winslow, AZ. Good tailwinds, which pretty much stayed with us
for the entire trip east. Departed Winslow, intending to go to Tucumcari,
NM. Weather was bumpy and we were tired due to little sleep the night
before. We chose to land in Santa Fe. Great FBO (Million Air) at this
airport, gave us some Santa Fe Salsa.

Spent the night in Santa Fe. Cute little town. Had great local pizza on a
rooftop overlooking the town.

Day 2 - Departed Santa Fe fairly early to avoid the temps and reduce
density altitude. We flew nonstop to Little Rock, AK. Amazing terrain and
moisture changes in this leg. Weather was good but became hazy by Little
Rock. This would stay with us the remainder of the way to the east coast.

Little Rock to Huntsville, AL. Night landing. Very calm, pretty approach
and landing. Spent the night in Huntsville.

Day 3 - Weather was looking grim in North Carolina, which is where we
wanted to go (Kitty Hawk). We decided to fly to Myrtle Beach. We
approached the coast from a bit south and flew the beach up to the
airport. Note that we had been vectored over the Pacific on our original
departure, and now we were flying over the Atlantic! Coast to Coast!

Weather was hazy. Hot. Humid. Landed in Myrtle Beach. FBO here seemed a
bit slow and clueless. Had lunch.

We intended to fly west back over the mountains, but a bit farther north.
Our intent was to go back via Illinois and Salt Lake City. But we kept
deviating farther north to avoid thunderstorms. Finally the weather
begain to close in, and it was clear that we needed to get down. So we
dropped into Greensboro, NC, shortly before the storms arrived. I managed
to see a bolt of lightening a few miles away while turning base leg (this
doesn't happen in California!). We decided to spend the night here, as it
was about 5pm. A couple of hours later the storms reached town and there
was very loud thunder and lightening; it rained in buckets for about an
hour and then started to clear.

Day 4 - By morning it was still overcast and drizzling. We waited out the
weather until about 11am, when it began to clear. We filed IFR to JVY
(Louisville, KY). Had a nice IFR flight with some light precip, some IMC,
but other times beautiful puffy clouds at 10K feet.

Louisville to Moline - We flew on to Moline and called my partner's
mother in law, spending the night at her place. We visited and had a
great time.

continued in part 2

Wings wrote:

snip

Day 2 - Departed Santa Fe fairly early to avoid the temps and reduce
density altitude. We flew nonstop to Little Rock, AK. Amazing terrain and
moisture changes in this leg. Weather was good but became hazy by Little
Rock. This would stay with us the remainder of the way to the east coast.

snip

Little Rock, Alaska???? Kind of out of your way. Now there is a Little
Rock, AR (Arkansas).

Ross
KSWI formally from AR.

Don't ya hate those One letter typos???

Ben
www.haaspowerair.com

Ross Richardson wrote:
Wings wrote:

snip

Day 2 - Departed Santa Fe fairly early to avoid the temps and reduce
density altitude. We flew nonstop to Little Rock, AK. Amazing terrain and
moisture changes in this leg. Weather was good but became hazy by Little
Rock. This would stay with us the remainder of the way to the east coast.

snip

Little Rock, Alaska???? Kind of out of your way. Now there is a Little
Rock, AR (Arkansas).

Ross
KSWI formally from AR.