60 Hours in a 152 Starting in Oregon--Where to??

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rt4388

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rt4388
A friend and I are renting a 152 and plan on flying about 60 hours over the course of 10 days (sounds miserable, I know). Any recommendations on airports/FBOs/sights/landmarks to go to? Planning on trying to go towards the midwest, then south towards Texas, then west towards Vegas, then back north towards Oregon.

Thanks!
 
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kgruber said:
Up the slot to Anchorage!!
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Not a bad idea! Know how the weather is up there this time of year? We both have pretty firm dates we need to be back by so we are trying not to get stuck somewhere due to weather.
 
rt4388 said:
A friend and I are renting a 152 and plan on flying about 60 hours over the course of 10 days (sounds miserable, I know). Any recommendations on airports/FBOs/sights/landmarks to go to? Planning on trying to go towards the midwest, then south towards Texas, then east towards Vegas, then back north towards Redmond.

Thanks!
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When? Maybe we can fly formation from Oregon to Texas...
 
This time of year you can get socked in anywhere.
 
What version of Vegas is East of Texas? I hope you plan on following a magenta line, because you’re lost before you even rented the airplane. ;)
 
Lachlan said:
What version of Vegas is East of Texas? I hope you plan on following a magenta line, because you’re lost before you even rented the airplane. ;)
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He did say one of them was a CFI-I.
 
Tom-D said:
load a couple sleeping bags, a back pack camp stove, light weight tent. and head for the Idaho back country.
fish poles would be nice.
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They better be lightweights, because with too much gear they’ll be overweight. And in the mountains at higher altitudes that would not be good.


Tom
 
Lachlan said:
What version of Vegas is East of Texas? I hope you plan on following a magenta line, because you’re lost before you even rented the airplane. ;)
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Of course. Magenta lines are the only way to navigate, right?
 
Tom-D said:
load a couple sleeping bags, a back pack camp stove, light weight tent. and head for the Idaho back country.
fish poles would be nice.
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Would be nice! I'm just a bit worried about getting good rest since we will be flying quite a bit in such a short period of time. And yea, weight is definitely an issue. Right now, we'll only be able to fly for about 2 hours considering our weight and bags.
 
What is the ceiling of the plane?
 
Is the purpose of your flight time building for a job? If so, do yourselves a favor. Fly at night. Fly under the hood or better yet, fly real IFR. Every stop fly 3 approaches (1 radar vector to a miss, and 1 or 2 full procedure with one to a miss and hold). Land, gas up and go to the next spot. The biggest thing you need is IFR experience.
 
Tom-D said:
load a couple sleeping bags, a back pack camp stove, light weight tent. and head for the Idaho back country.
fish poles would be nice.
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He said 152, and not solo. Two 190 pound guys will allow about 14-15 gallons of fuel or just over 2 hour flight at 90 knots without baggage. That’s if fuel burn is 6 to 6.5, the one I trained in was a Sparrowhawk conversion and burned 7.5 eve though it was supposed to be less, and that was with AGGRESSIVE leaning.
 
Head East and don’t stop until you hit the Atlantic, then reverse course. That should be 20-30 hours, use the remainder to wander, maybe to the southwest...
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
He said 60 hours, not 160. I’ve flew a 152 and would watch cars on the interstate pass me.


Tom
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I was looking into a flying club in metro Atlanta. The club president mentioned that 2 guys recently took the club’s 152 from GA to AZ and back. Took 48 hours on the Hobbs.
 
Go south towards New Mexico, then head east , head towards Florida,then turn around and go back west.
 
RyanShort1 said:
It's a 150, not a Cub. And I know from experience that Florida to Texas in a Cub can be done in just about 13 hours...
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Sure it can: KPNS->KBPT is only 356nm. That’s 30 knots!
:)
150 cruise speed is roughly 100kn, the southern route is +2700nm, that’s 54 hours assuming no wind...a realistic number is 60 hours.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
Sure it can: KPNS->KBPT is only 356nm. That’s 30 knots!
:)
150 cruise speed is roughly 100kn, the southern route is +2700nm, that’s 54 hours assuming no wind...a realistic number is 60 hours.


Tom
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It was the east coast of FL to Brenham, but yeah, it was slow and included some extra distance for stops I thought were better.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
He said 60 hours, not 160. I’ve flew a 152 and would watch cars on the interstate pass me.


Tom
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60 hours is way more than he would need. Last July I flew coast to coast in an S-LSA, took 21 hours. I’m a few knots faster...60 isn’t unreasonable IMHO.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
60 hours is way more than he would need. Last July I flew coast to coast in an S-LSA, took 21 hours.
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These is so many variables in that statement it’s almost meaningless.
Coast to coast from Oregon to Maine or Southern California to Georgia. Direction? Winds? I’ve traveled from SE Florida to California almost every year, I would guess my times range from 15 hours to 21. It takes me 2 hours just to get out of Florida.My ground speed has been anywhere from 110 to 200 knots. Heading west is generally means more headwinds. And then there is weather, I’ve had to either stop or make huge detour around weather systems.
You gotta have some schedule flexibility.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
These is so many variables in that statement it’s almost meaningless.
Coast to coast from Oregon to Maine or Southern California to Georgia. Direction? Winds? I’ve traveled from SE Florida to California almost every year, I would guess my times range from 15 hours to 21. It takes me 2 hours just to get out of Florida.My ground speed has been anywhere from 110 to 200 knots. Heading west is generally means more headwinds. And then there is weather, I’ve had to either stop or make huge detour around weather systems.
You gotta have some schedule flexibility.


Tom
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Tom, so very true, but I wouldn’t say meaningless.

I planned on some decent tailwinds on my flight east, based on briefings and ForeFlight. I was lucky crossing into Illinois catching and 8-11 knot tailwind. The majority of my flight east had me dealing with headwinds, go figure. I was very lucky with weather, not hitting anything significant until less than 100 miles from home base and that was easily navigable in continued VFR. Additionally, my flight wasn’t a sightseeing flight, where we stopped to take in sights. We stopped for fuel, food, personal necessity and sleep. Our sightseeing was from FL 090-1100.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
Tom, so very true, but I wouldn’t say meaningless.
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I did say “almost meaningless “.

When crossing the entire US, twice, chances are you’re going to have to deal with weather, you have 3 choices:
1.Plow right through it
2.go around it
3.stop and wait for it move

OP better think about their options.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
I did say “almost meaningless “.

When crossing the entire US, twice, chances are you’re going to have to deal with weather, you have 3 choices:
1.Plow right through it
2.go around it
3.stop and wait for it move

OP better think about their options.


Tom
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Especially if he needs to stay within the 60 hours.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
He said 60 hours, not 160. I’ve flew a 152 and would watch cars on the interstate pass me.


Tom
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flew my 150M ground speed 5 kts backwards for kicks quite often and one time from Bay City Tx., to Pontiac MI. Took 3 bumpy hot August days. Loved every second in that 150. :D:cool:
 
SToL said:
So... don't leave us hanging.

Did you go, where did you go, how did it go?

Tell us all about it.

PJ
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Thanks for all the comments, everyone! I'll give a quick update of what we did/where we went. To make a long story short, we weren't able to take the airplane for multiple days at a time like we were initially told we could. It was kind of a gray area of "yes you can take it for a week" but we were also told, "no you can't take it for a week" so we just stayed somewhat local. It actually worked out well considering we had a couple of minor maintenance issues that needed to be fixed when we returned home a few days.

We went all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Northern California. We did 60 hours in 7 days, which was quite a bit to be in a 152. I really learned how limiting a 152 is when it comes to distance, alternates, etc. After a few bags, both of us, and fuel, we didn't have many options for airports and of those, we didn't have many plan Bs if something was to go wrong at our planned airport (weather, closure, etc). For instance, we wanted to make it down to Salt Lake City area, but considering there was a small chance of thunderstorms and we really had 0 alternate options due to fuel if a storm was parked over the city, we couldn't make that trip.

Overall, it was a great week considering I got to fly with a friend, teach him instrument, and finish up my time before heading off to the airlines. Someone above asked about the service ceiling in a 152--I think the POH says 14,800. We managed to find some updrafts and rode them up to 13,800 feet at one point--had 1,000 FPM from about 7,500 up to 13,800, and even then we decided to stop climbing.

If I could do it over again I would really want to take a 172, but considering it saved us a few thousand dollars I think it was probably worth the savings. Additionally, we were limited a bit more by the high winds in the area because of the 152. The very last day (less than 5 hours from ATP mins), the winds picked up to about 35 knots. We waited it out for a bit, but that's probably the strongest external pressure I've felt when it comes to flying. The temptation to finish my time was strong. The FBO staff looked at us like we were crazy when the metar was reporting 31 and we walked out the door.

Thanks for all your thoughts! It's a bummer it didn't work out quite as planned, but it was still a blast!
 
rt4388 said:
A friend and I are renting a 152 and plan on flying about 60 hours over the course of 10 days (sounds miserable, I know). Any recommendations on airports/FBOs/sights/landmarks to go to? Planning on trying to go towards the midwest, then south towards Texas, then west towards Vegas, then back north towards Oregon.

Thanks!
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Do one lap around the Lower 48 States.
 
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