Flying Route 66

NealRomeoGolf

NealRomeoGolf

Final Approach
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My sister did a bucket list item this summer and drove route 66 from CA to IL. So I wondered what it would look like to fly route 66 and stop at the airports along the way. I did a quick flight map and it looks like this:

route 66.JPG

I added 77 airports to the route starting as KSMO (Santa Monica) and ending at KMDW (Midway). Some of the airports I would need permission to land at, but mostly I picked public airports not marked (pvt) on the sectional.

The Nav Log gives the route as 1,852.3 nm. I haven't tried to figure out how long it would take with such and such amount of flying per day and where the fuel stops would be. That is for another day.

I know I am not the first to think of such a route. I have seen online where people have flown it. Has anyone on here done a Route 66 trip?
 
Cue Manhattan Transfer and/or Bobby Troup and Nat King Cole!
 
Bobby wrote that song.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
My sister did a bucket list item this summer and drove route 66 from CA to IL. So I wondered what it would look like to fly route 66 and stop at the airports along the way. I did a quick flight map and it looks like this:

View attachment 77596

I added 77 airports to the route starting as KSMO (Santa Monica) and ending at KMDW (Midway). Some of the airports I would need permission to land at, but mostly I picked public airports not marked (pvt) on the sectional.

The Nav Log gives the route as 1,852.3 nm. I haven't tried to figure out how long it would take with such and such amount of flying per day and where the fuel stops would be. That is for another day.

I know I am not the first to think of such a route. I have seen online where people have flown it. Has anyone on here done a Route 66 trip?
Click to expand...
Be sure to stop at Santa Rosa New Mexico KSXU Runway 08 26 is on the old road
 
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Scott@KTYR said:
Be sure to stop at Santa Rosa New Mexico KSXU Runway 08 26 is on the old road
Click to expand...

I stopped there once to wait out weather. Not much there but a truck stop you can walk to for lunch, dinner or even a shower. Apparently there is fuel there, but I couldn't tell for sure. Tucumcari is a better RON stop. I've flown Rt 66 end to end several times. Driven it as well. It's a fun trip on the ground or by light aircraft.

Don't forget to stop here. https://www.uranusmissouri.com/

You can land at Cuba, KUBX, and ask for a ride to see Uranus. There's even a fudge factory.
 
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I was lucky to be able to fly along the old US 66 from Burbank, CA to the Arizona/New Mexico border and turn around at Gallup. I landed at every airport along the way and since Interstate 40 did not exist through most of Arizona, there were some cool airstrips along the highway. I think most of them were used by the traffic patrol airplanes that would follow cars along the road and time them to check their speed.

Remember the timing paint stripes along the major highways? There was also a section of road that doubled as a runway and you could taxi up to the gas station. I don't remember where that was...

There are some North-South concrete highways that run through Oklahoma and Kansas that pre-date the Interstate system and were some of the oldest paved roads in the US!
 
Now you go through Saint Looey
Joplin, Missouri
and Oklahoma City is mighty pretty
You see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino
 
Cool. One of the bucket list trips I am planing is to fly the Lewis and Clark trail.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I added 77 airports to the route starting as KSMO (Santa Monica) and ending at KMDW (Midway). Some of the airports I would need permission to land at, but mostly I picked public airports not marked (pvt) on the sectional.
Click to expand...

Can you paste the list of airports in a post?
 
Airports I mapped West to East (some are marked "pvt" so it would take some coordination). And this is really going to annoy the ranters that don't like it when you just put the airport identifier without a name. ;)

KSMO
KEMT
KCCB
KONT
KSBD
L26
KVCV
KDAG
5CA4
CA90
A09
KEED
KIGM
3AZ5
P23
KCMR
KFLG
KINW
P14
KGUP
KGNT
E98
KABQ
1N1
0E0
KSXU
KTCC
E52
KTDW
KAMA
2E7
2F1
O13
KELK
KCSM
KCLK
KOJA
2O8
KRQO
KRCE
KPWA
KOKC
KCQB
KSUD
3F7
KRVS
1H6
KTUL
O38
KGCM
H04
KMIO
KJLN
MO9
KSGF
3DW
KLBO
MO1
KTBN
K07
KUBX
KUUV
KSUS
1H0
KSTL
KCPS
3LF
KSPI
KAAA
KBMI
KPNT
KDTG
KJOT
KLOT
1C5
KMDW
 
Great information and helpful posts. Hoping to fly this route from east to west in Dusty (1973 Starduster Too) with landings at only grass strips. She’s an open cockpit biplane, so I’ll be cherry picking my weather.
 
You'd have to do Roy's in Amboy, California (as someone up-thread says): https://generalaviationnews.com/2022/03/09/get-your-kicks-on-route-66/. It's a Route 66 classic, but the strip has no identifier any more; unfortunately, I've only ever seen the place from the ground (many times over the past thirty years). The runway looked, well, okay, when I last saw walked up to it (March this year), but I wouldn't land there without phoning ahead first…
 
flyingron said:
Now you go through Saint Looey
Joplin, Missouri
and Oklahoma City is mighty pretty
You see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino
Click to expand...
Is this how you get your kicks?
 
Zeldman said:
Might try to plan a stop in Grants, New Mexico (KGNT) and visit the Heritage Museum.

http://www.cibolahistory.org/airway-heritage-museum.html
Click to expand...
We went by there last fall and it was interesting to see the outside stuff but unfortunately the inside was closed - and no clear idea when it would be open.

That said, consider a flying detour over El Malpais - a massive, young lava flow just south of there. We hiked parts of it and it’s other-worldly.
 
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