Wanting to take a LONG Cross Country - Ft. Worth to San Diego... advice?

Received my instrument rating about a year ago, but I haven't managed
to rack up alot of flight hours since then (Im just shy of 200 hours).
I think I've just become bored with flying around the same area all
the time, and I'm really wanting to do something different and
challenging. Plus it would help me to build up the hours I need
before I start the commercial.

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I'd be flying a 1978 C-172 that cruises at about 110 KIAS. So I'm
figuring about 10-11 hours travel time each way.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

(Peter Gibbons) writes:

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I flew from Cleveland, OH to Houston, TX in my old Mooney. It was
a lot of fun.

The Mooney goes at about 140 KTAS. Flight time was about 8 hours.
I'm not sure that I'd want to spend too much more time in the airplane
in one day.

Just make reasonable plans, and go on the trip. If you follow I-10,
you probably can't lose. Dealing with changing weather will be your
biggest concern, and since you're instrument rated (I'm not), you
might have more tools at your disposal to deal with it than I do.

My biggest weather problem was scattered afternoon thunderstorms in
Arkansas and east Texas. It seems to me that it's just as well to
be VFR in order to navigate around these.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

I tried to plan legs no longer than 3 and a half hours. That left me
with an hour of fuel in the tanks when I landed. It was also about
the time to use the toilet.

My wife wanted us to have a handheld GPS for the trip, and I'd been
putting off buying one. We got a Garmin 196, and it was nice to have
it along, especially when deviating out of the way of storm clouds.

Anyway, just do it. It's fun.

--
Matt Emerson

"Peter Gibbons" wrote in message
Any recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

My father-in-law was an Air National Guard UH-1 crewman for many years and
said that the most interesting non-pucker places they flew over (besides the
Nevada Test Site) were in west Texas, where they'd fly low and see all kinds
of old adobe buildings and ruins and Alamo-like structures out in the middle
of nowhere, miles from any roads. Said sometimes even the pilots wanted to
set down and have a look, but of course they couldn't do that.

Take a GPS and mark points of interest, 'cause you might want to find them
again sometime if you're into that sort of thing.

-c

"Peter Gibbons" wrote in message
om...
I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for.

I'm sure you'll get good info from people more familiar with that particular
route. My only advice is to make sure you have plenty of buffer built into
your schedule for weather delays, regardless of the time of the year, and to
remember that a 10-hour cross country is just five 2-hour cross countries
put together.

In other words, all of the same stuff you learned during your initial
training is applicable, and sufficient for the most part. You'll just be
exercising more of it over a shorter period of time. If you haven't had any
mountain-specific training, that would be a good idea before you go too,
since there are a few hills on the way from Fort Worth to San Diego.

As for particular pitfalls, one big one is to make sure you contact your
anticipated fuel stops, as well as nearby alternates. You want to make sure
fuel is available where you expect it to be, and that if something does go
wrong, you have someplace nearby to go (at one fuel stop, I found that even
though the fuel pump worked, their credit-card approval system didn't, for
example...they didn't find out about the problem until their first credit
customer of the day -- that was me -- showed up). Check on parking
arrangements, ground transportation, and lodging, for overnight stops.

Other than that, it's just like the flying you've already done, only more
fun because you get to see a lot of new places, and meet lots of new people.


Pete

Last july 4th the wife and I took a trip from Vegas to Louisville Ky.
about 1450 miles each way, it was fun. took us about 9-10 hours of flying
time, I have a turbo arrow and flight plan at 150 KTAS, going into ABQ
for fuel I had a ground speed of around 180 kts on my decent from 12,500
ft, ATC told a 172 that there was a arrow off his left at almost twice his
speed...that felt good to hear
It was great to get out of the desert, in the midwest you can see forever
since its so flat and there are little towns and airports all over the
place. Allot different then this area.

on my planning, I planned 2 fuel stops, one at Albuquerque, Nm's double
eagle and one at Joplin, Mo, I chose airports with cross runways just
incase the winds were to become a problem so I could minimize the x-wind.

some tips on flying through this area, next month its going to get really
warm here, you may want to make sure you plan to fly over Nm, Az and Nv
early in the morning.after noon it can get pretty nasty turbulence wise.



Peter Gibbons wrote:

Received my instrument rating about a year ago, but I haven't managed
to rack up alot of flight hours since then (Im just shy of 200 hours).
I think I've just become bored with flying around the same area all
the time, and I'm really wanting to do something different and
challenging. Plus it would help me to build up the hours I need
before I start the commercial.

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I'd be flying a 1978 C-172 that cruises at about 110 KIAS. So I'm
figuring about 10-11 hours travel time each way.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

Stop in Sedona Arizona SEZ if you get a chance. Really pretty.
You can fly over meteor crater just east of Sedona as well.
MYF is very close to everything. If the marine layer rolls in and
you cant get into MYF, RNM and SEE are still pretty close.


On 22 Apr 2004 10:23:41 -0700, (Peter
Gibbons) wrote:

Received my instrument rating about a year ago, but I haven't managed
to rack up alot of flight hours since then (Im just shy of 200 hours).
I think I've just become bored with flying around the same area all
the time, and I'm really wanting to do something different and
challenging. Plus it would help me to build up the hours I need
before I start the commercial.

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I'd be flying a 1978 C-172 that cruises at about 110 KIAS. So I'm
figuring about 10-11 hours travel time each way.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

In article ,
(Peter Gibbons) wrote:

Received my instrument rating about a year ago, but I haven't managed
to rack up alot of flight hours since then (Im just shy of 200 hours).
I think I've just become bored with flying around the same area all
the time, and I'm really wanting to do something different and
challenging. Plus it would help me to build up the hours I need
before I start the commercial.

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I'd be flying a 1978 C-172 that cruises at about 110 KIAS. So I'm
figuring about 10-11 hours travel time each way.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?

You won't want to push the altitude capability of the 172, so I'd
suggest following the old AAL DC-3 sleeper route from Ft. Worth, to
Midland, El Paso, Douglas, Tucson and into San Diego.

--
Ron

Get a copy of Rinker Buck's, FLIGHT OF PASSAGE.

In article ,
Peter Gibbons wrote:
So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego.

First bit of advice:

DO IT!

Sure it'll cost you money. Sure, it'll take time. But it's one hell of a
fun trip.

I flew my 1946 Cessna 140, complete with 85hp engine and cruise prop
from coast to coast, Houston to California, back across via Utah, then
back to Houston to do my 50 hr maintenance, then out east all the way to
Kill Devil Hills, and back up through Ohio. I logged 100 hours or so on
the trip, and spent two months crossing the US.

On a trip this long, flexibility is the key. I often didn't plan my next
leg until right before the flight - I looked to see where the weather
was good, and flew there. I had no particular schedule except cover the
US in two months.

It was friggin' cool, and you can read part of my writeup on my website
(I *still* haven't finished the writeup :/). I must have taken dozens of
rolls of film, and I shot several hours of video (I hooked the camera up
to the intercom, and made a glareshield camera stand by sculpting some
polystyrene to fit the curve of the instrument panel, and Velcroing it
and the camera down).

You don't need to be a high-time pilot to do this kind of trip. Just be
flexible, and thoughtful and you'll have a trip of a lifetime.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Last October I flew a friends Cirrus SR-20 (he was moving to San Diego) from
Charlotte NC (UZA) to San Diego
Started early Saturday morning (5:30am) and landed in San Diego at about
8:30pm (11:30 Charlotte time) same day!
Of course there were a few stops along the way for fuel. First was
Greenville Mississippi, then Hobbs New Mexico, Tucson Arizona and then on to
San Diego. Fortunately I had a pilot friend along (RJ First Officer)!

Things I learned or would have done differently.....in no particular
order...

1. The Moving map GPS and Auto-pilot sure helped
2. Wish I had brought more to eat and drink
3. Should have taken 3 days instead of 1 and enjoyed the scenery or detours
4. Winds aloft are not always what they are reported..especially over long
distances...
5. Even a Cirrus SR-20 takes some time getting to 12,000 ft and you can
tell your there by how the plane feels and acts
6. Being at 12,000 ft and being only 3,000 above the ground is weird!
7. Land at airports to refuel that have something close by. Although the
aiports we landed at had low fuel prices and all....there was nothing around
for miles....
8. Having someone along, even if they are not a pilot, is a big help and
makes the trip more enjoyable.
9. When your in the middle of nowhere...expect the radios to be very
quiet...lol
10. Finally, we averaged 14 miles to the gallon....impressive for an
airplane!

Bob
Charlotte NC
ASEL AMEL Inst. Airplane
CFI CFII MEI AGI IGI

"Peter Gibbons" wrote in message
om...
Received my instrument rating about a year ago, but I haven't managed
to rack up alot of flight hours since then (Im just shy of 200 hours).
I think I've just become bored with flying around the same area all
the time, and I'm really wanting to do something different and
challenging. Plus it would help me to build up the hours I need
before I start the commercial.

So I'm considering making a flight from my home base in Ft. Worth
(KFTW) out to San Diego. I've got a friend that lives out there so it
would be a good excuse to go - plus the fact I think the change of
scenery and the experience itself would definitely be worth it.

I'd be flying a 1978 C-172 that cruises at about 110 KIAS. So I'm
figuring about 10-11 hours travel time each way.

I'm looking to hear from others who have made trips like this and what
advice you might have and/or pitfalls to watch for. Any
recommendations on some cool places to stop or ideas on the best way
to break up the flight segments?