Flying from Chicago to Houghton in da UP on Friday

[ApacheBob]

We are planning a long cross country for Friday. Gas is $7 in Houghton, so we are considering a stop at Burlington, WI, for a fill up ($5 per gallon). Gas is $6.50 at KARR. However, it might make more sense to fill up at KARR before departure instead of taking the extra time for a gas stop.
KCMX requires advanced notice to use Runway 7/25 and Runway 13/31 is closed. I hope the wind is cooperative on Friday morning.
Another consideration is that we plan to fly back at 2 pm on Friday afternoon. Long day.

 

[mandm]

What route are you going?

KBUU self service fuel is simple and the field is non-towered so easy in and out. Try to start and stop the fuel flow a couple times, the fuel pump handle has been known to me to stick, and a couple extra gallons poured out the top all over the wing. So any savings would be lost if you copied my mistake.

KMGC (Michigan City) is showing $5.26/$5.36 per gallon 100LL. If you are not flying over the Lake, that could be a good option.

 

[sourdough44]

View attachment 117638 Almost two of my favorite airports. I’m base at BUU, I like OGM better than CMX, but more out of the way though. The reason, one can let their hair down at a non-TSA field.

A few other good stops are Monroe, WI, slightly cheaper than BUU. Further North Clintonville, WI(nw of GRB) is a nice stop if you want to break it up. They used to be closer to BUU prices, inched up in recent years.

I like Oconto, WI too. One can do some figuring what makes sense for adjust a fuel stop. 35 gallons at a $1.50 difference can start to get your attention.

I plan to go up myself, Thursday though. This trip I plan KSAW, Mayo trip Friday.
Yeah, I’d want to land at CMX with pretty full tanks.

Oconto is listed at $5:19, Cintonville not to much higher.

 

[Zeldman]

KCMX requires advanced notice to use Runway 7/25

Just curious, why is advanced notice required to use 7/25.??

 

[Racerx]

What route are you going?

KBUU self service fuel is simple and the field is non-towered so easy in and out. Try to start and stop the fuel flow a couple times, the fuel pump handle has been known to me to stick, and a couple extra gallons poured out the top all over the wing. So any savings would be lost if you copied my mistake.

KMGC (Michigan City) is showing $5.26/$5.36 per gallon 100LL. If you are not flying over the Lake, that could be a good option.

Glad it's not just me with that pump. It also comes out like a fire hose compared to other pumps I've used.

 

[kaiser]

View attachment 117639 View attachment 117638 Almost two of my favorite airports. I’m base at BUU, I like OGM better than CMX, but more out of the way though. The reason, one can let their hair down at a non-TSA field.

A few other good stops are Monroe, WI, slightly cheaper than BUU. Further North Clintonville, WI(nw of GRB) is a nice stop if you want to break it up. They used to be closer to BUU prices, inched up in recent years.

I like Oconto, WI too. One can do some figuring what makes sense for adjust a fuel stop. 35 gallons at a $1.50 difference can start to get your attention.

I plan to go up myself, Thursday though. This trip I plan KSAW, Mayo trip Friday.
Yeah, I’d want to land at CMX with pretty full tanks.

Oconto is listed at $5:19, Cintonville not to much higher.

KMNM is a decent option too. I don't recall if it was cheaper or not than Oconto - but the FBO building is decent.

 

[EdFred]

$5.05 at Wisconsin Rapids. But when I go to 6Y9 (you gotta fly over it to go to CMX from Chicago) I stop at Oconto or Clintonville for fuel.

 

[ApacheBob]

There was a 30 nm wide area of weather about 40 nm southwest of Houghton. Minneapolis Center suggested that we land at Iron Mountain and wait it out when we were about 200 nm south of Houghton. We kept on trucking. When we were about 100 nm south of Houghton, a new Minneapolis Center controller commented that the area of weather had stopped drifting south and was now stationary. I am not sure that I have ever seen a larger area of weather jost stop like this, but that is exactly what happened. We continued inbound to Houghton, watching the area of weather on foreflight. But it just hovered there and we landed without any issues.
After being on the ground for about five hours, we headed back south and the area of weather had moved slightly to the south. I considered us lucky.
As we headed south, we stopped in Appleton for gas. I was looking for good restaurants, but should have paid better attention to the high fuel cost. We did appreciate the crew car. Lunch was good, but we had been spoiled by paying $4.99 per gallon at BUU. I kinda wished I had found a better food/cheap fuel combination on our route.
It was still an awesome flight. Southbound, we climbed above the cumulus deck. We weaved between the towering build-ups. It is Jody's plane and he had never had it up to 9,000 feet before. Good times!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

As we headed south, we stopped in Appleton for gas. I was looking for good restaurants, but should have paid better attention to the high fuel cost. We did appreciate the crew car. Lunch was good, but we had been spoiled by paying $4.99 per gallon at BUU. I kinda wished I had found a better food/cheap fuel combination on our route.

Yeah, the places with the cheapest fuel on that route don't really have accessible food or courtesy cars.

But, for next time, Capitol (02C) northwest of Milwaukee has a Culver's and Jake's Restaurant an easy walk from the ramp, and KEZS Shawano has a decent restaurant across the street. Both are showing $5.49/gal. Otherwise, you're probably stuck making separate stops for food and fuel.

 

[Sinistar]

@ApacheBob - sounds like you had a great flight! When I last flew to Houghton (started west MSP) it was during summer. We were weaving through the late morning start of build ups and between the clouds, the crazy big forest and the lake it was a very enjoyable treat after endless flatland and fields. On the way back right after lunch the clouds have built so much we couldn't go around so we flow about 4000agl. What was beautiful blue open water on the way in hand turned to IFR directly over the lake as far as we could see. We we not flying over it of course. What was crazy was how discrete and confined it was to the shore line. Looked like something out a movie. My wife's only engine out in the SAAB was there (years ago) but I guess it was on a nice summer day, well after climbing out and was a textbook single engine return to land on one of those huge runways. Flying over all that uninhabited forest really makes you wonder where to go if the fan stops!!!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

On the way back right after lunch the clouds have built so much we couldn't go around so we flow about 4000agl. What was beautiful blue open water on the way in hand turned to IFR directly over the lake as far as we could see.

The Great Lakes have a massive effect on the weather, both long range as well as those hyper-local shoreline changes. There's often turbulence right near the shoreline (like, within 1/2 mile) just because of how different the air masses can be over the lake(s) and the land.

Flying over all that uninhabited forest really makes you wonder where to go if the fan stops!!!

Flying down to Key West there's a fair bit of time where you sit there looking left and right and thinking... "Would I rather go with alligators, or sharks?"