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

(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