Flying Across The US next week--"hybrid" system

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hankrausch

Pre-takeoff checklist
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I have some business next week in San Diego. Not too interested in taking a commercial flight, partly to all the rigamarole with security, but also because one just feels like a "tool" these days in the commercial flight system.

I have pretty much the (near) smallest plane one can have, a Piper Tomahawk, which I have flown VFR across the country before--took 3 days-- but this is just too dicey to plan on for a business trip where one has to be there.

So here is my "system", which has worked for me before and which I am posting as an alternative for those interested: Sat/Sun fly 1162 nm (From DC area) to Amarillo, TX, rent a car Sun afternoon and then it is 1000 miles of straight interstate driving which puts me into LA Monday afternoon--on the return, arrive at Amarillo Sat AM and back across the 1162 nm to DC by Sun evening.

Of course this is all dependent on good wx--outbound, this is easy to track and abort, inbound I admit this is a crap shoot as there is no good way to predict the wx for 8 days in advance for the return Amarillo-DC leg.

Abort option--outbound, one can pick up a $389 rail pass which gives you 8 "legs" on Amtrak--leave Friday in DC at 4 PM, arrive 8 AM Monday in LA--returning leave Friday 8 PM and arrive Monday 12 noon. For those of you who have not taken Amtrak lately--it has changed, and is a really civilized way to travel!

Abort option for the return, I will admit, is not pretty--wait til wx clears and show up at work late, or ditch the plane in Amarillo (or some point in between) and rent a car, then plan on geting back in a week to pick up the plane.

One of the things that makes this work is renting a car with the same pickup/drop-off point for a week costs the same as 5 days--and if one flies commercial to the West Coast, one almost always rents a car for 5 days anyway. Also, this puts you on the West Coast for 3-1/2 working days which is pretty much all you get if you fly commercial Mon-Fri, (unless you take a redeye, which I won't).

The cost vis-a-vis commercial is pretty much a wash--one week of rental car plus lots of fuel tickets vs the same rental car, a commercial ticket, and less fuel tickets.

Just offering this as an alternative & to show people it can be done, realize it doesn't work for everyone!

Hank Rausch
 
Just curious why you don't continue the flight from Texas all the way into Los Angeles?
 
I second that.
If it's the mountains, forget it. You're right about at the lower end of the altitude problem at Amarillo. But, if it's a concern, head SW out of Amarillo aiming at Deming and follow I-10 into LA from there -- all flatlander stuff
 
If I got to Amarillo and the wx all across the SW was clear, it would be really difficult to crawl into a car.
Can you decide how far you go, on the day you are traveling? Most places have cars at a moment's notice.
 
oldShar said:
I second that.
If it's the mountains, forget it. You're right about at the lower end of the altitude problem at Amarillo. But, if it's a concern, head SW out of Amarillo aiming at Deming and follow I-10 into LA from there -- all flatlander stuff
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I third it!

One of my techniques for staying safe in the "gotta get there" scenarios is to leave early enough that if necessary (wx, mechanical, etc.) I can land, rent a car, drive the rest of the way, and still be on time. I see no reason you can't do the same, and it's sure as heck gonna be safer to fly that third day than it is to rent a car and drive 1000 miles straight after already flying for most of the day! :hairraise:

Not sure exactly where you're departing from or going, but here's one potential route:

Day 1: KHEF - KGAS - KFWC - KAIZ
Day 2: KAIZ - KEGT - KDHT - KABQ
Day 3: KABQ - (I-40) - INW - TAWNE - KSEZ - TNP - PSP - KRIR (I arbitrarily chose Flabob 'cuz it's supposed to be a cool place!)

This should be do-able if you can get the ol' Traumahawk up to 8500 feet, and the worst weather is probably going to be in the portion of the trip that you were going to fly anyway! Total is 1974nm, three days, no leg longer than 300nm, and no more than 3 legs per day. I split the days first, making the third day a hair shorter and the other two just about even, and went for reasonable fuel on the in-between stops. I've heard glowing reports here about KDHT, too. Oh, and you can't miss having lunch at Sedona!

Sounds like a great trip to me. :yes:
 
That's my question - why drive the part that's most likely to be no factor on the weather? I've done a coast to coast lap around the country VFR before and my plan was to divert to the closest airport at which I could get a reasonable commercial flight. Otherwise, just keep on chugglin'.

Coming back from Oregon to Baltimore, I've done that trip VFR in less than 9 hours flight time. Columbia 400 at 17.5 direct and just stopped when I needed gas. It was a long day but fun enough to want to do it again.
 
PittsDriver said:
Coming back from Oregon to Baltimore, I've done that trip VFR in less than 9 hours flight time. Columbia 400 at 17.5 direct and just stopped when I needed gas. It was a long day but fun enough to want to do it again.
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Columbia 400 vs. Piper Tomahawk; my guess his flight hours on such a trip would be about twice as long as yours. But your day had 24 hours and so would his, so I guess the Tomahawk and Columbia 400 could both make it in the same number of days. :D Why pay $640,000 for a plane when a $20,000 one can do the same thing? :wink2:

(But who, other than those trying to set records, flies 18 hours in a day?)
 
Jim Logajan said:
Why pay $640,000 for a plane when a $20,000 one can do the same thing? :wink2:

(But who, other than those trying to set records, flies 18 hours in a day?)
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Hey, I got to do it for free - brought it home back to Baltimore for the dealer here at the time.

I met the guy at an aerobatic contest in NC that flew to every airport in that state in a 24 hour period. He got it done but that's definitely my definition of a long day.
 
I appreciate all the response and of course everyone has their limits on when/where to stop. I recall while making that trip a while ago that Amarillo seemed like a logical place to shoot for--in general I am just good for two long hops (4 hrs) or 3 short hops (3 hrs) a day and then want to call it quits--but everyone has different limits. The main point of the post is that a fly/rental car hybrid does let you get to a business meeting rather than just "recreational transportation". At the end of the trip I'll post the results.

Hank Rausch
 
hankrausch said:
in general I am just good for two long hops (4 hrs) or 3 short hops (3 hrs) a day and then want to call it quits--but everyone has different limits.
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Yup - That's why that route I planned works that way. ;) 2 days of 3 short hops, and a third day of 2 short hops.

The main point of the post is that a fly/rental car hybrid does let you get to a business meeting rather than just "recreational transportation". At the end of the trip I'll post the results.
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Great point! I think a lot of people could get more use out of their airplanes if they used them in such a manner as to allow for alternatives in case of weather or mechanical issues rather than saying "Well, I might have weather or a mechanical and I have to be there, so I can't use the airplane at all."

Have fun, can't wait to hear about it! :yes:
 
It better be one heckuva rental car to make it worthwhile driving from ABQ. It would be like the trivecta of idiot drivers: NM, AZ, SoCal. You would arrive to SD enraged and lathered.
 
I'd love to use my aircraft for business travel. It's expressly forbidden in our corporate travel policy to fly oneself. No matter how small a peon or replaceable you are! ;)
 
I took Amtrak DEN-CHI-BUF a couple years ago and other than the 3yr old screaming in my ear at 2 am (mom was in the club car with friends and the 8 yr old was in charge) it really great. Seats are large & comfy, you can bring your own food (and many people do) From a cost POV, it was the same price as commercial airline (no one willingly goes to Buffalo, NY). Time? 2.5 days. If/When I do it again, I'll go for one of the small compartments, which substantially increases the price.

The other downside is that freight trains have priority over pax trains.
 
In similar situations, I just make sure I maintain a sufficient time buffer to get there via alternate means. I don't make any assumptions about my ability to reach any particular point by little plane, I accept the possibility that I might get grounded 10 minutes into the flight or I might make it all the way. But as long as I always have enough remaining time to get there via my backup means (planes, trains, automobiles, etc), then I'll go as far as I can via little plane without feeling like I'm under pressure. There's never anything I _have_ to do via little plane (except get back on the ground again in one piece).

I also typically approach it as an improvisational exercise, because fairly large diversions might be called for to avoid weather. When crossing very large distances, you can make large diversions to avoid areas of bad weather before the extra distance becomes impractical.

I'm seldom good for more than 10 hrs of driving or flying in a day.
-harry
 
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mantakos said:
I'm seldom good for more than 10 hrs of driving or flying in a day.
-harry
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I'm good for 8 hours of driving because I know I'll be stopping every 2-3 hours for gas. Flying? I've learned that 6 hours solo is my limit. Any more and I don't remember the next day, I'm so spaced out. If there's another pilot with me, 9-10 is no problem because we trade off.
 
denverpilot said:
I'd love to use my aircraft for business travel. It's expressly forbidden in our corporate travel policy to fly oneself. No matter how small a peon or replaceable you are! ;)
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Tell me about it! My last few business trips were just right for GA, but nope. Can't even charter a flight- gotta go airlines.

In hindsight, I should have seen the sale of Continental motors to the Chinese (or someone else) when they sent that memo around last November. I remember thinking TCM would have a hard time testing engines with a ban on flying part 91 for company business.
 
hankrausch said:
I appreciate all the response and ... Amarillo seemed like a logical place to shoot for...

Hank Rausch
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Just remember, Amarillo has it's own "Boneyard."
So, if you change modes enroute, don't forget to pick up the plane on the way back or it might get "minced."
:wink2:
 
murphey said:
I'm good for 8 hours of driving because I know I'll be stopping every 2-3 hours for gas. Flying? I've learned that 6 hours solo is my limit. Any more and I don't remember the next day, I'm so spaced out. If there's another pilot with me, 9-10 is no problem because we trade off.
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My three longest have been 8.8, 8.2, and 7.2 - Houston -> Madison, Houston -> Madison with a stiff tailwind, and Denver -> Madison.

The 8.8 I did with only one stop (I did land at 2 airports, but the 2nd was a stop and go to make it count for my commercial cross country). That was a killer - I was definitely ready to be done with flying at the end of that day!

The other two had multiple stops - KFTG-KFMZ-KLNK-KRDK-C29 and KEFD-KHPY-KSEP-KFTW-1K4-KAWG-KMSN. That helped immensely.

The other thing that was a HUGE help on all of these was a good 2-axis autopilot. When you don't have to be constantly concentrating on holding altitude, you can be much more relaxed and the fatigue doesn't build up as quickly. I think without the autopilot, these long days would have been a bad idea.
 
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