Need some advice - planning my longest trip to date

farmerbrake

farmerbrake

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farmerbrake
Title explains it all. Headed to KGAD (northeast Alabama regional, Gadsden, AL) to take my brother to pick up his truck that broke down. The trip one way is 520+ miles and will take just over 4 hours non-stop.
I'll stop at least once for fuel. The arrow has 50 gal and burns 10/hr. I'll probably stop at KMNV (Monroeville, TN) for fuel
Any suggestions on planning for weather for an extended trip like that? The trip down and back would be made in one day.
Also any tips for fun places to stop between KMRB and there?
Thanks in advance!
 
1k miles in a day in an Arrow is a long day. Be sure to eat and drink on a fairly normal schedule.
Weather? know where the fronts are and expected movement. Keep an eye on things in front of you and be willing to land/divert even if it's inconvenient.

Get an early start...

One other thing that helped me on some of my first long xc's was looking at temperature-dewpoint spread along the route. Not a lot of fog out here (Colorado) and maybe you're more used to it. I was very leery of fog and wanted to see where/when I needed to be worried about it.
 
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Hopefully you'll get lucky and get a good tailwind in one direction. That would make it a 3-landing trip.
 
I would think IFR would make a huge difference. Personally, as a VFR only pilot, I expect that anywhere I go, I could get grounded for weather.
 
orange said:
I would think IFR would make a huge difference. Personally, as a VFR only pilot, I expect that anywhere I go, I could get grounded for weather.
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Forgot to add I am IFR Rated and equipped.
 
Clark1961 said:
1k miles in a day in an Arrow is a long day. Be sure to eat and drink on a fairly normal schedule.
Weather? know where the fronts are and expected movement. Keep an eye on things in front of you and be willing to land/divert even if it's inconvenient.

Get an early start...

One other thing that helped me on some of my first long xc's was looking at temperature-dewpoint spread along the route. Not a lot of fog out here (Colorado) and maybe you're more used to it. I was very leery of fog and wanted to see where/when I needed to be worried about it.
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Yeah it is a pretty big day. I'd like to leave here earlier like you suggested to help limit the number of thunderstorms on the way down. Hopefully could take my time getting back then if there's any interesting stops on the way home.
Not sure if there'll be 3 of us or 4 in the plane going down. If it's just 3 I'll be heading home by myself. If it's 4 dad and I will be headed back together, which is why I'd like a cool place for us to stop.
 
I'm south of GAD and Tstms have been very active the past few days, everyday. And there have been some pretty good lines of Tstms going thru GAD and BHM areas. There's a disturbance in the Gulf and another in the Atlantic. Forecast Tstms for the next week, everyday.
 
mscard88 said:
I'm south of GAD and Tstms have been very active the past few days, everyday. And there have been some pretty good lines of Tstms going thru GAD and BHM areas. There's a disturbance in the Gulf and another in the Atlantic. Forecast Tstms for the next week, everyday.
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Thanks for the heads up. They haven't even started to tear the truck apart yet. So it won't be at least till Monday or so that it'll be done. I'm trying to do as much research as far as fuel/routing goes as I can so my biggest concern can be the weather once I get the word that they'll have it done. Plus my brother is used to me having to make those no-go calls.
 
A lot of divert airports along the way. Guess you'd be flying down the west side of the mountains?
 
mscard88 said:
A lot of divert airports along the way. Guess you'd be flying down the west side of the mountains?
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That's what I like about my options.
If I look at the "expected route" function on skyvector it takes me on the east side, but I think I'd rather take off and go straight over the mountains to fly on the west side. I feel like winds are usually out of the west too so being on the west side of the mtn would make for a smoother ride.
 
Looking real time at Skyvector there's icing, mountain obscuration and convective activity all along the route. Maybe things will be decent enough in the morning, but might not be the best trip to kick off tonight for a night long xc.

I was going to say if you filled the tanks you could pull the throttle back a bit and avoid the need for a fuel stop.. but then I saw full seats.. so... might be iffy.

Dont know enough about that area to make rec's on cool stopover points.

Have a SAFE flight.
 
Doggtyred said:
Looking real time at Skyvector there's icing, mountain obscuration and convective activity all along the route. Maybe things will be decent enough in the morning, but might not be the best trip to kick off tonight for a night long xc.

I was going to say if you filled the tanks you could pull the throttle back a bit and avoid the need for a fuel stop.. but then I saw full seats.. so... might be iffy.

Dont know enough about that area to make rec's on cool stopover points.

Have a SAFE flight.
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Thanks for the well wishes. Trip won't be happening for at least a week, so I have plenty of time to plan a SAFE flight.
Going down I wouldn't want to pull the throttle back too much, but coming back I wouldn't be opposed to that.
 
farmerbrake said:
Not sure if there'll be 3 of us or 4 in the plane going down. If it's just 3 I'll be heading home by myself. If it's 4 dad and I will be headed back together, which is why I'd like a cool place for us to stop.
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Quiet alarm going off in my head - work your weight and balance and climb performance before every take off and don't give into the pressure to go without it. Very few 4 place airplanes can actually carry 4 people and even fewer can carry 4 modern adults + stuff. Remember that performance will be lower and you might not be able to climb faster than the terrain.

Some Arrows, not a problem. Some of them...welll... You said 50 gallons of fuel so I'm guessing an Arrow II with a full fuel useful load around 1200 lbs?
 
bflynn said:
Quiet alarm going off in my head - work your weight and balance and climb performance before every take off and don't give into the pressure to go without it. Very few 4 place airplanes can actually carry 4 people and even fewer can carry 4 modern adults + stuff. Remember that performance will be lower and you might not be able to climb faster than the terrain.

Some Arrows, not a problem. Some of them...welll... You said 50 gallons of fuel so I'm guessing an Arrow II with a full fuel useful load around 1200 lbs?
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Absolutely, I always do w&b before any flight with more than the usual 2 people (including myself).
And to repeat what I said a few times in this thread already, this trip isn't happening until the begging of next week probably, which gives me plenty of time to do all sorts of planning and scenarios.
And what arrow would have a full fuel useful load of 1200 lbs? I could see a total useful load of 1200, but not after putting 300 lbs in the tank.... Unless ours is just that fat.
 
Fly early. Stay overnight. Be flexible.
 
I flew in to KGAD last week. Besides the advice from others, you can pick up your IFR flight plan on the ground from Birmingham. If you call the 1-800 number they will tell you to call them on frequency when you are number 1 for takeoff.
 
I've had plenty of weather issues associated with those mountains. When it's there, the weather just seems to hang there. Quite often though you can fly out in front of the weather (east side of the mountains, then cut across in southern Georgia. If you can get on the west side early though, that would probably be your best bet. Don't be afraid to look at going north for a bit either.

Don't be afraid of setting down early for fuel/weather. Be sure to carry a wad of cash in the event you happen to land somewhere that doesn't take credit cards.
 
Anymouse said:
I've had plenty of weather issues associated with those mountains. When it's there, the weather just seems to hang there. Quite often though you can fly out in front of the weather (east side of the mountains, then cut across in southern Georgia. If you can get on the west side early though, that would probably be your best bet. Don't be afraid to look at going north for a bit either.

Don't be afraid of setting down early for fuel/weather. Be sure to carry a wad of cash in the event you happen to land somewhere that doesn't take credit cards.
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Thanks for the cash advice! I usually don't have much more than $30 or 40 on me, which wouldn't get me very far!
 
No idea where KMRB is, but going back and forth from Lower Alabama to the WV/OH/KY TriState area, the easiest was the direct route, just west of Knoxville and follow the big, wide valley passing west of Chattanooga. Stopping in Gadsden, you'll be well into descent by Chatt-town. Should be a good trip.

Watch out for afternoon T-storms, they've been bad for the last week and are forecast to continue for the next week. Typical summer weather down here. Stay high, file and remain above most of the layer so you can dodge the build ups visually.

Have a good trip, and fly safe!
 
Onboard Nav and cockpit weather? ADS-B or XM?? If so that's a big help on longer cross countries.
 
I've done 8 hour days in PA28's.

My advice: Fly one way, stay the night, fly back the next.
 
sourdough44 said:
Onboard Nav and cockpit weather? ADS-B or XM?? If so that's a big help on longer cross countries.
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We have a 430,and I have garmin pilot on my phone/tablet but no weather. I was going to ands and sound the airport to see if anyone had a garmin gdl I could borrow.
 
Onboard WX is very helpful, but not essential. The big key is flexibility, then the discipline to adjust plans as conditions warrant.

As posted I would just fly the one direction one day, come back the next. I would plan a stop in the middle somewhere for fuel, WX recheck, and at least a short rest.
 
One place where you might enjoy is the Space Center in KHSV (Huntsville AL), although it's not far from KGAD. Not sure if the FBO would loan you a car or not. They have a bunch of rockets on display and some planes on static display (SR71 etc). Just east of the city is a grass strip called Moontown. Very cool airport, a lot of home built and antique planes, interesting characters too. They (EAA) have a pancake breakfast but not sure if it's once a month or what. Very active on weekends.
 
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farmerbrake said:
And what arrow would have a full fuel useful load of 1200 lbs? I could see a total useful load of 1200, but not after putting 300 lbs in the tank.... Unless ours is just that fat.
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I thought the numbers seemed a little high, but I don't fly an Arrow, so I don't know. Numbers from pilotfriend.com for an Arrow II, 1523 useful load empty, -50*6 -> 1223 useful load full fuel. Maybe theirs was anorexic?
 
bflynn said:
I thought the numbers seemed a little high, but I don't fly an Arrow, so I don't know. Numbers from pilotfriend.com for an Arrow II, 1523 useful load empty, -50*6 -> 1223 useful load full fuel. Maybe theirs was anorexic?
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2650 Gross
-1523 Empty Aircraft Weight
-------
1127 Useful
-300 fuel weight (approx)
------
827 Full fuel payload.
 
bflynn said:
I thought the numbers seemed a little high, but I don't fly an Arrow, so I don't know. Numbers from pilotfriend.com for an Arrow II, 1523 useful load empty, -50*6 -> 1223 useful load full fuel. Maybe theirs was anorexic?
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Yeah I think ours is a little chubby to begin with (although it has the factory A/c so I'm sure that's part of it). It's like 17xx empty, with a 2650 max load weight. So it's like a 900+ useful load. Minus 300 for full fuel.
Maybe they pulled EVERYTHING put of the cabin except for a metal seat frame lol.

Edit to add we also have an old ADF (inop) and an old DME (also inop.....) that I'm sure takes up at least 5-10 lbs each.....
 
EdFred said:
2650 Gross
-1523 Empty Aircraft Weight
-------
1127 Useful
-300 fuel weight (approx)
------
827 Full fuel payload.
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Duh. I'm just stupid. Reading too fast for my own good.
 
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