Long Cross Country Question

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DaytonaLynn

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One who misses Daytona!
This will be my first long x country. Houston to Daytona Beach.

My first planned stop will just west of Pensacola, Ferguson. I am told fuel price is better there.

My question is: When you fly long cross country, what kind of snacks do you bring.
I am bringing a few bottles of bottled water.

My cruise altitude is 4500 right now, but may change depending on winds aloft.

Any tips, ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.
 
i always heard that Steve wittman would take a partial jar of peanut butter with him on his long (Florida to Oshkosh) cross country, the peanut butter jar made a great bottle for securing fluids after eating the peanut butter,

edit: My taylorcraft doesnt have the range where i need to worry about it, a snickers bar should be good though
 
Depends on if the fuel stops have food on or nearby the airports.

Otherwise it's usually granola bars, water, maybe a soda.

And half the time the stuff never even makes is way out of the bag. I'll forget to eat it just out enjoying flying. Might dig it out at a fuel stop.
 
yea the ms's is a little concerned about 2.75 hours wihout a potty break. lol

i like the peanut butter idea.

will the bottled water have any issue with altitude?
 
May want to consider going odd plus 500 for the eastbound trip if VFR.
 
PBristolJr said:
No.
Bring trailmix, and water. Only sip on the water until you're within 45 minutes from your next pit stop.. Pistachio's are also an awesome snack up there.
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Pistachio's? What do you do with the hulls? :confused:

No snacks for me. :no: Eat when I am on the ground. Snacks are distracting and messy.
 
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My wife packs a lunch. And like mentioned, sip water until close. Going into town can eat a lot of time. Used to be a restaurant on field at Farmington, NM that made a nice stop on the way to CA.
 
Purple, red or orange flavors only for the Gatorade. Never the lemon-lime flavor.
 
Geico266 said:
Pistachio's? What do you do with the hulls? :confused:

No snacks for me. :no: Eat when I am on the ground. Snacks are distracting and messy.
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Put all the pistachio's in a ziplock bag, throw the hulls back in the ziplock and just eat around them, then dump the scraps when you're on the ground!
 
I eat Snickers. I was taught that trick by an old hunter. Generally getting loaded on all that carbs is not good for you, but this is what you want for a flight. One bar is enough energy for 6 hours or so. You won't feel fulfilled with it, but you will stay alert. However, I generally do not eat in flight, only drink. I have a bottle that I can operate with one hand, so I can drink in light turbulence (note that "moderate" turbulence actually means that your head is hitting the stringers all over, and "severe" means that wings are going to depart the fuselage).
 
There should be no "I am told that fuel prices are better there". Go to www.airnav.com and play with the trip planning feature. It is very helpful in planning fuel stops. I use that feature, and then investigate the potential stops, primarily with reviews that are written. I give preferences to stops with free food at the FBO, for example. Also be sure and note the hours of attendance. Once you are pretty sure of your stop (and destination), call ahead to verify that fuel is available, whether it is a fuel truck (so you merely park) or a fuel pump (which you must taxi to), and other charges (tiedown fee), ensure that a courtesy car will be available if you need one. . .

As for snacks, we are sold on nuts at our house, whether at home, in the car, on the airlines, or in our plane. (We started that several years ago when heeding a low carb diet more rigorously). Like others, I restrict my liquid intake before departing (the intended flight gets me jazzed up so that I don't need coffee) and during flight. We often carry a bottle of water. There is no problem with the plastic bottles, but they do inflate a bit on the way up, and deflate a bit on the way down if they were opened at altitude. I only sip from it late in the flight.

If kids are involved, do NOT allow candy other than M&M's (if you own the plane!).

On occasion, we will eat a lunch while flying, but I don't really like to, as I try to keep the plane tidy. I only do this if lunch prior to departure will delay us unnecessarily. In that situation, I go to the airport and pre-flight and load the plane while the wife goes and buys lunch.

Going eastbound, you will almost certainly do better flying higher than 4500. Use DUATS flight planning feature and plug in several altitudes.

Have fun!

Wells

DaytonaLynn said:
This will be my first long x country. Houston to Daytona Beach.

My first planned stop will just west of Pensacola, Ferguson. I am told fuel price is better there.

My question is: When you fly long cross country, what kind of snacks do you bring.
I am bringing a few bottles of bottled water.

My cruise altitude is 4500 right now, but may change depending on winds aloft.

Any tips, ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
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I've never heard of water bottles exploding, though they might leak if not properly sealed. The empties will crush as you descend.

4500 feet isn't enough for any of this to be significant. Try it at 10500. Don't do 12500 unless you have oxygen (well, not for more than 30 minutes)

I won't fly longer than two hours with pax because of potty breaks and stretches. Telling the wife to use a bottle is a nice way to get it inserted into the orifice of choice.
 
On long trips, I typically fly three hour legs, sometimes a bit more, so no food, just water.
 
Increasing human endurance
Credit for this goes to George W. Braly

The trick on the bladder control is this:

1) Wake up - - and don't drink too much. No coffee.

2) Empty the bladder a couple of times, including the obligatory last trip
to the water closet before departure.

3) Either just before departure or just after, eat something salty.

4) Do a direct climb to some altitude above 10,000'. Higher is better.

5) Go on O2 (it is dry, by definition).

6) Within that time frame, your body will start to "think" it is
dehydrating (it is) and your kidneys will quit dumping very much fluid into
the bladder.

7) After about 90 minutes, you can start to sip the beverage of your
choice, preferably not coffee - - and you SHOULD do that in order to avoid
a dehydration headache later in the trip.

My wife has one of the all time midget bladders. Formerly, she could not do
2.5 hour legs.

Two years ago, she did 7+30 from SMX to Ada, non-stop into a head wind.

Regards, George
 
About the soda...I once leveled at 9500 on a long cross-country, settled back, opened a nice diet Mountain Dew...and next thing I knew, me, the seat and my right-seat passenger are covered in soda. At least the can wasn't pointed at the panel. :hairraise:

Maybe it was just a fluke -- aren't airliners pressurized to 6-8k, and it's never an issue there -- but after that, I just take water and leave the soda for on the ground.
 
I regularly do flights of 8-10 hours, with flights up to 14 not too uncommon. Hydrate the night before, if you can. Then, as was mentioned, do your best to empty your tanks as best you can before you leave.

Bring food that you want to eat, but make sure its something that is easy to eat. Sandwiches are good. Snack food is good, pretzels, chips, candy, etc... Bring something to use for a ballast dump, ie. Gatorade bottles. Always have one empty one, but beyond that, you can reuse the ones you drank out of earlier.
 
Large ziplock bags. There are many uses for them.
 
Bottled water and some type of snack/granola bars, I don't usually eat much while flying, but a snack that is easy to eat is fine. A buddy of mine takes a full meal on every flight over 1 1/2 hours, subs, chips, dessert diet cokes and water! :hairraise: keep it simple, I've got a tiny bladder and anything over 2-2 1/2 hours is pushing it for me. I avoid my usual diet coke in the morning and limit water consumption before the flight, for some reason room temperature water doesn't seem to make me have to go as quickly. ;)
 
I would recommend KJKA over Ferguson. The Ferguson family move there a couple of years ago. Lot better approaches; lot better runways. Free pilot food/drinks in Jack's Aces at Gulf Air Center (FBO).
 
We carry a Littlejohn (w/adapter).
 
Have a great trip. I like to stop about every 2.5 hours just to get out and stretch. I also think your passengers appreciate it. I usually only carry bottled water and peanut butter crackers or similar.

Lots of MOA's around Pensacola. Good to file or use FF.
 
I may be paranoid, but I don't really eat when flying anymore. I am always afraid that I will choke on something and there will be nothing to do about it. I know that I probably have a better chance of a heart attack but just don't need to add to my risk level.

Cheers
 
flyingmoose said:
I may be paranoid, but I don't really eat when flying anymore. I am always afraid that I will choke on something and there will be nothing to do about it. I know that I probably have a better chance of a heart attack but just don't need to add to my risk level.

Cheers
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Some people would find it amuzing that you are flying along thousands of feet above the ground, at 100kts, and you are concerned about the dangers associated with eating.. :)
 
ja_user said:
Some people would find it amuzing that you are flying along thousands of feet above the ground, at 100kts, and you are concerned about the dangers associated with eating.. :)
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I know I know. Its just something I thought about one night flying around and now I cant get it out of my head.
Now when I was at the airlines and the flight attendants had extra food, you better believe I was eating. But there was others around.
 
flyingmoose said:
I know I know. Its just something I thought about one night flying around and now I cant get it out of my head.
Now when I was at the airlines and the flight attendants had extra food, you better believe I was eating. But there was others around.
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I got a chuckle out of it, but I have my own weird things as well.
 
flyingmoose said:
I may be paranoid, but I don't really eat when flying anymore. I am always afraid that I will choke on something and there will be nothing to do about it. I know that I probably have a better chance of a heart attack but just don't need to add to my risk level.

Cheers
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I was thinking the same thing when the peanut butter was mentioned. This has happened to me home alone once time. But, much easier to try and remedy on the ground.
 
I don't really eat in flight for this same reason. Not a good place for something to go down the wrong pipe. I do break this rule from time to time with snacks. But I would never bring a sandwich to eat.
 
yachtjim said:
I don't really eat in flight for this same reason. Not a good place for something to go down the wrong pipe. I do break this rule from time to time with snacks. But I would never bring a sandwich to eat.
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I suppose it makes sense, if you have the ability to land every couple hours to get food. I don't have that luxury, and often I'm up for 8-12 hours. I have to have real food to eat, otherwise flying gets very difficult.
 
MDeitch1976 said:
I was thinking the same thing when the peanut butter was mentioned. This has happened to me home alone once time. But, much easier to try and remedy on the ground.
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Well, one time, flying back from "the U.P."** with my brother some number of years ago...

Mom had packed us some stuff to eat along the way - I get hungry, reach back behind the seat in the Cessna 120 come up with the first thing I touch - a PBJ sandwich. I start eating, but the bread was kind of stale - but it's what I had so...

My brother, being smarter than I am, undoes the seat belt, turns around, and starts a more thorough search. After a moment I hear "Hey! There are donuts back here!". In an instant - the door was open and the sandwich was gone.

Afterwords, I thought to look out and see if we were over a populated area.

** Michigan's upper peninsula.
 
Bringing cups of coffee with me on the plane often ends up with me buying a shirt at my destination /grumble
 
Cold Apples - settle the stomach. One bottle of water is sufficient; never a good idea to dehydrate, gives you a headache and you'll feel crappy at the end of the trip when you need to be the most alert. A 2.5 hour cross country isn't really that long. However, to be a REAL pilot you must be proficient at hand-flying in IMC, hold +/- 100' and less then 1 dot of course, while peeing in a gatoraide bottle!
 
Baron2PG said:
Cold Apples - settle the stomach. One bottle of water is sufficient; never a good idea to dehydrate, gives you a headache and you'll feel crappy at the end of the trip when you need to be the most alert. A 2.5 hour cross country isn't really that long. However, to be a REAL pilot you must be proficient at hand-flying in IMC, hold +/- 100' and less then 1 dot of course, while peeing in a gatoraide bottle!
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Have you ever missed or dropped the gatorade bottle?
 
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