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Ari
I planned this flight at least 2 years ago, maybe 3. My home state, North Dakota, is one of those that has a "fly into all our airports and we'll give you a prize" states. There are 89 public airports in the passport book. Of those 89, 17 lack hard-surface runways. Of those 17, 13 of them are distant. I long ago decided to use the J-3 Cub to visit those 13 airports in one long trip. When this weekend came along and I had some free time, good weather statewide, and a dogsitter, I decided to jump in the plane and get it done.
My self-imposed rule was not to use anything for navigation that was not available when the plane was built in 1941. I planned it on sectionals and A/FDs using a plotter and an E-6B. I flew it using the sectionals and a mechanical watch. The compass in the Cub is pretty bad--the correction card is basically written as an apology to the pilot--but I did an informal compass swing a while back and noted down where it was pointing on various known headings to use along the way. Mostly, I relied on section lines (which are public easements under North Dakota law, so most of them in the flat country have gravel roads; the rest often have cattle fences or a change in farming practices between their owners) to orient myself to true headings.
In order to make sure nobody mistakenly thinks I'm actually a good pilot, I used a magenta highlighter on the sectional to give myself a comforting magenta line to follow all the way.
I left Saturday morning, wheels up at 9:30 a.m. by the time I baked some pita bread, stopped to buy some other provisions, loaded up the plane, and got fuel. I got home at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. I logged 11.2 hours, used 60.9 gallons of avgas, flew 750 nm, and landed at 17 different airports (including my home airport and three fuel stops at airports with paved runways). I camped on an airport couch in a very nice building at one of the unpaved airports, rather than sleeping in a tent listening to mosquitoes all night. Southeastern North Dakota is a very damp place, great for mosquitoes.
The first day took me farther than halfway, easily enough to qualify for the commercial solo cross-country, had I not already accidentally done a few other flights that meet those requirements: at least 300 nm total distance (I did 478), landings at 3 points (I did 11), and one point of landing at least 250 nm from departure point (my farthest point from home was 270 nm away). I feel like this trip also met the spirit of the solo cross-country requirement, being done truly VFR.
No flight plan was filed. And I did not use flight following, because I don't have a transponder and my handheld radio mostly picks up the magneto noise anyhow.
Here are a few pictures I took along the way, in part to have documented proof that I actually landed at some of the sketchier airfields that I have heard of people driving to for the stamp rather than actually flying in.
Loaded and ready to taxi to the fuel pumps
Leaving my home town behind me
First landing: D49 Columbus, about 25 nm from the Canadian border
Second landing: 5B4 Bowbells
That's KMIB Minot Air Force Base in the background. I got to land there last summer. The site wouldn't let me upload the full-quality original of this picture, where you can just about make out the runway numbers. Due to lack of identifiable features on the ground for much of my trip, I had to invent VFR checkpoints like "line the right wing up with the air base and the only town northeast of it."
Third landing: D61 Towner, at 78 nm, the longest leg other than the final one over familiar territory coming home
An interesting farming practice southeast of Towner
I stopped at 5H4 Harvey for fuel, but didn't take any pictures. The next passport stamp landing was D24 Fessenden
I wasn't the only one enjoying the perfect weather, with a high in the 70s and almost no wind
The next stop was 8M6 McVille. I made it around the R-5402 airspace without being intercepted. I didn't even check if it was active, because doing so would have violated my navigational technology rule. Navigating around it without a GPS was more sporting.
My self-imposed rule was not to use anything for navigation that was not available when the plane was built in 1941. I planned it on sectionals and A/FDs using a plotter and an E-6B. I flew it using the sectionals and a mechanical watch. The compass in the Cub is pretty bad--the correction card is basically written as an apology to the pilot--but I did an informal compass swing a while back and noted down where it was pointing on various known headings to use along the way. Mostly, I relied on section lines (which are public easements under North Dakota law, so most of them in the flat country have gravel roads; the rest often have cattle fences or a change in farming practices between their owners) to orient myself to true headings.
In order to make sure nobody mistakenly thinks I'm actually a good pilot, I used a magenta highlighter on the sectional to give myself a comforting magenta line to follow all the way.
I left Saturday morning, wheels up at 9:30 a.m. by the time I baked some pita bread, stopped to buy some other provisions, loaded up the plane, and got fuel. I got home at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. I logged 11.2 hours, used 60.9 gallons of avgas, flew 750 nm, and landed at 17 different airports (including my home airport and three fuel stops at airports with paved runways). I camped on an airport couch in a very nice building at one of the unpaved airports, rather than sleeping in a tent listening to mosquitoes all night. Southeastern North Dakota is a very damp place, great for mosquitoes.
The first day took me farther than halfway, easily enough to qualify for the commercial solo cross-country, had I not already accidentally done a few other flights that meet those requirements: at least 300 nm total distance (I did 478), landings at 3 points (I did 11), and one point of landing at least 250 nm from departure point (my farthest point from home was 270 nm away). I feel like this trip also met the spirit of the solo cross-country requirement, being done truly VFR.
No flight plan was filed. And I did not use flight following, because I don't have a transponder and my handheld radio mostly picks up the magneto noise anyhow.
Here are a few pictures I took along the way, in part to have documented proof that I actually landed at some of the sketchier airfields that I have heard of people driving to for the stamp rather than actually flying in.
Loaded and ready to taxi to the fuel pumps
Leaving my home town behind me
First landing: D49 Columbus, about 25 nm from the Canadian border
Second landing: 5B4 Bowbells
That's KMIB Minot Air Force Base in the background. I got to land there last summer. The site wouldn't let me upload the full-quality original of this picture, where you can just about make out the runway numbers. Due to lack of identifiable features on the ground for much of my trip, I had to invent VFR checkpoints like "line the right wing up with the air base and the only town northeast of it."
Third landing: D61 Towner, at 78 nm, the longest leg other than the final one over familiar territory coming home
An interesting farming practice southeast of Towner
I stopped at 5H4 Harvey for fuel, but didn't take any pictures. The next passport stamp landing was D24 Fessenden
I wasn't the only one enjoying the perfect weather, with a high in the 70s and almost no wind
The next stop was 8M6 McVille. I made it around the R-5402 airspace without being intercepted. I didn't even check if it was active, because doing so would have violated my navigational technology rule. Navigating around it without a GPS was more sporting.
