Moving plane from Northern CA to Fairview TX

Rykymus

Rykymus

Line Up and Wait
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Rykymus
So, we're gearing up for our move to Fairview the end of October. Four days after spending our first night in the new home, I'm flying back to CA to bring the plane over. (It's a 98 Archer III, and I'm PPL/IR with about 600 hrs PIC and maybe 10 hrs IMC and IR current.) Longest flight for me was KSCK to KSAN and back, non-stop each way, all in the same day. (About 3.5 hrs each way.) That one was pretty easy. (I'm sure the nose-hose on the way back helped keep me fresh.)

My original plan was to fly commercial from Dallas to Sacramento, where my daughter would pick me up and drive me to my plane in Stockton. (An hour south of Sac.) I would then depart Stockton (around 1300, and fly to Vegas, spending the night at the Motel 6 across the street from Atlantic at KLAS. The next morning, I would depart at sunrise, and fly 3 hops to Gallup, Lubbock, and finally McKinney. (Where the plane will reside for now.) However, I have heard that flights to Vegas should be done in the morning, rather than the afternoon. I'm flown plenty of bumpy afternoon flights, and am comfortable in moderate turbulence. Not that I like it much, but the landings don't bother me. I have also considered just waiting and launching the next morning just before sunrise. and splitting the trip evenly in half. (I only chose the Vegas routing because landing at KLAS and then flying over the Grand Canyon are two of my bucket list items, and it seemed a perfect opportunity.

Just looking for advice from those who have flown these areas/routes before.

Thanks
 
If you're doing this two weekends from now, you might wanna detour over to 3M0 where a certain pilot gathering will be going on...
 
November 4th and 5th.

BTW: I don't have anytime restrictions. I can take all the time I need. Although I would prefer to get back as soon as possible, so my wife isn't staying in the new place by herself for too long. (Get's spooked easily.)
 
Early morning flights are for the miserably hot summers. Now you need to watch out for fog and snow. Colorado is in the midst of snow, rain, tstorms but will clear out by Friday night.

Weather channel, AWOS, ADDS, winds aloft, all the normal places, and everything you can find. For example, as of this timestamp, NE AZ and NE NM have a high wind warning. I really like this website for an overall picture:

https://www.wunderground.com/severe.asp
 
I've done it a couple times. My route was always southern stopping for cheap fuel. Detoured to buy an alien hat in Roswell. Weird airport, cool tower guys. Also strange flying at 11,500' over the high plain and only being 3 to 4 thousand AGL! O2 is your friend...
Fly by the crater, see the border, not much else.
 
Having done something similar in the spring going the other way. Oxygen. Although I'm not sure it would help too much in the Archer... I spent 3 hours over NM/AZ picking my way under and around rain shafts getting bounced around since I didn't have Oxygen to top the buildups at 13,000 or so where they reports said the tops were. Even if it doesn't look like that's what the weather is going to be, having the option to go higher is always better in that neck of the woods.

Have backups and don't stick to the plan because it's the plan. One of my flight instructors was fond of saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy. My first planned fuel stop was Dona Ana County NM for cheap fuel and so I had a New Mexico landing in my logbook. As I approached El Paso I found the winds would have given me a gusty crosswind at Dona Ana. KELP on the other hand had a wind aligned runway. So I sucked it up and got my $100 Atlantic Aviation cookie/fuel, used their WiFi and facilities and was on my way.

Edit: read your post more carefully... I'd do the split in half and try and get plan to go farther than half-way the first day. I don't know what your speed or time in the air is going to be but my day from New Braunfels Texas to Southern California in one day in a reasonably quick Mooney was too long in hindsight.
 
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+1 on the half split. Otherwise, plan to arrive near Vegas around dusk and land around sunset, preferably a little after and under a full moon with clear skies.
 
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