Planning a true Cross Country flight

StinkBug

StinkBug

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And I could use a little help from my POA friends.

Getting ready for the longest XC of my short flying career in a little over a month. Should be close to 6000nm over roughly 2 weeks in my Mooney with one of my friends. We have a number of destinations picked out along the way, and a few things we'd like to see but still could use a little guidance or local knowledge on some of them.

Here's the basic plan.
Day1. Fly Carlsbad, CA (KCRQ) to Moab, UT (KCNY). I know the area well and have friends that live there.

Day2. Fly KCNY to Chicago/DuPage (KDPA) Again, have family in Chicago, but will need to find a lunch/refueling stop somewhere in the middle. Omahaish?

Day3. Chicago to Dayton Ohio to see the National Museum of the USAF. Since I'm assuming we cant just land at Wright-Patterson AFB I could use some intel on what the most convenient place to land would be. After the Museum we'll be flying to Pittsburgh, and could use suggestions on landing locations there as well.

Day4. Pittsburgh to 5B6 (Falmouth, MA) Will be spending a few days with my family on Cape Cod.

Day5. Cape Cod to Myrtle Beach. Will be doing some scenic flying along the way and will probably need a refuel somewhere enroute as this is right at the edge of my fuel range if we fly direct.

Day 6. Myrtle Beach to Marathon Key. Again will probably need to refuel somewhere along the way.

Day7. Marathon to New Orleans.

Day8. New Orleans to Carlsbad NM. Will definitely need to refuel enroute.

Day9. Carlsbad, NM to Carlsbad, CA. Home stretch, and I'm fairly familiar with options along the route.

I've only included the flight days here, but we will be spending some time in a few locations. Chicago we'll be spending a day in the city, we'll be on Cape Cod for several days, and we're thinking of spending an extra day in Marathon and Carlsbad NM as well. Mainly though I'm hoping to get some suggestions on places to refuel (cheap and with good food hopefully) and in some of the busier areas which airports will be more convenient for getting to hotels or attractions.

Thanks guys!
 
Since you are flying to Pittsburgh, I would suggest just flying into KPIT. The FBO there is nice and GA friendly and it is an easy Class B airport to fly into. The ATC guys up there are very helpful and easy to deal with as well.
 
Looking at Skyvector it looks like KPIT would be a LOT more expensive on fuel than some others surrounding it though. Having never been there before I'm not sure where any of these other airports are in relation to the city though. AGC appears to be about $2.50/gallon cheaper, which could pay for a night in a hotel on fuel savings alone.
 
StinkBug said:
Looking at Skyvector it looks like KPIT would be a LOT more expensive on fuel than some others surrounding it though. Having never been there before I'm not sure where any of these other airports are in relation to the city though. AGC appears to be about $2.50/gallon cheaper, which could pay for a night in a hotel on fuel savings alone.
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Well, I didn't say it would be a good fuel stop. :yikes: Definitely not cheap. KAGC is nice too. Been there many times. Just thought I would throw KPIT out there if you wanted an easy Class B to check off your list. Fuel in this area is not really cheap anywhere, but KAGC is usually pretty reasonable.
 
It's gonna be an overnight stop, and we'll be near empty every night so fuel prices are a concern anywhere we stop. I play around Bravos enough that I'm not excited enough by them to wanna spend a bunch of money just to land at one. I'll wait til someone else is footing the bill for those flights :)

I see that there are 2 FBOs at AGC. Any input on which one would be preferred?

That said I'm tempted to do a full stop taxi back at O'Hare just because.
 
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Search the forums for how to get through NYC. There has been lots written on the subject.
I like PVG just SW of Norfolk as a pit stop, they have a restaurant on the field but one of the runways is under construction so read the NOTAMS
 
That's more like a circumnavigation of the country than a cross country. I'm envious.
 
cgrab said:
Search the forums for how to get through NYC. There has been lots written on the subject.
I like PVG just SW of Norfolk as a pit stop, they have a restaurant on the field but one of the runways is under construction so read the NOTAMS
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I am probably one of a few people who prefer to fly VFR around NYC and just skirt the airspace, some of the routing they will give you IFR is all over the place
 
K88 might be a good stop between UT and IL. I stopped there and they had the cheapest SS fuel I had ever seen.

Called ahead and they told me the WX was bad so they were leaving for the day, but they'd leave the keys in the crew car. Landed, fueled, went into town for lunch, never saw anyone!

Current 100LL price is $3.80 plus tax!
 
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Foreflight has fuel prices too. You're gonna need a lot of it on that monster XC.
 
On day 2 stop at Norfolk,NE. KOFK There is an aviation themed restaurant, Barnstormers, on the field. You can park your plane in front of the restaurant and walk in. They are closed on Mondays. Fuel is available there also.
 
Day 5 - KAKQ (Wakefield, VA) is a great (cheap) fuel stop or
W75 ( Hummel Field Saluda, VA) has cheap fuel and great food

Both in the 4.10 to 4.30 range... But check the "low price of the day" tends to move around the region...:goofy:
 
Twin_Flyer said:
Both in the 4.10 to 4.30 range... But check the "low price of the day" tends to move around the region...:goofy:
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It moves to some extent, but one thing is for certain: it never comes to any of the airports in the Hampton Roads area!
 
StinkBug said:
And I could use a little help from my POA friends.

Getting ready for the longest XC of my short flying career in a little over a month. Should be close to 6000nm over roughly 2 weeks in my Mooney with one of my friends. We have a number of destinations picked out along the way, and a few things we'd like to see but still could use a little guidance or local knowledge on some of them.

Here's the basic plan.
Day1. Fly Carlsbad, CA (KCRQ) to Moab, UT (KCNY). I know the area well and have friends that live there.

Day2. Fly KCNY to Chicago/DuPage (KDPA) Again, have family in Chicago, but will need to find a lunch/refueling stop somewhere in the middle. Omahaish?

Day3. Chicago to Dayton Ohio to see the National Museum of the USAF. Since I'm assuming we cant just land at Wright-Patterson AFB I could use some intel on what the most convenient place to land would be. After the Museum we'll be flying to Pittsburgh, and could use suggestions on landing locations there as well.

Day4. Pittsburgh to 5B6 (Falmouth, MA) Will be spending a few days with my family on Cape Cod.

Day5. Cape Cod to Myrtle Beach. Will be doing some scenic flying along the way and will probably need a refuel somewhere enroute as this is right at the edge of my fuel range if we fly direct.

Day 6. Myrtle Beach to Marathon Key. Again will probably need to refuel somewhere along the way.

Day7. Marathon to New Orleans.

Day8. New Orleans to Carlsbad NM. Will definitely need to refuel enroute.

Day9. Carlsbad, NM to Carlsbad, CA. Home stretch, and I'm fairly familiar with options along the route.

I've only included the flight days here, but we will be spending some time in a few locations. Chicago we'll be spending a day in the city, we'll be on Cape Cod for several days, and we're thinking of spending an extra day in Marathon and Carlsbad NM as well. Mainly though I'm hoping to get some suggestions on places to refuel (cheap and with good food hopefully) and in some of the busier areas which airports will be more convenient for getting to hotels or attractions.

Thanks guys!
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"Short flying career" stands out. How many hours do you have flying in heavy traffic . How much total time? I'd probably take a safety pilot if I had very low hours.
 
LOL, I say short flying career, but that's because I only started flying about 14 months ago. I'm Instrument rated and by the time we leave I should have my CPL as well, with a bit over 300hrs. Nearly all of my flying is around the San Diego and LAX class Bravos so it's about as busy as one could ask for.
 
petrolero said:
That's more like a circumnavigation of the country than a cross country. I'm envious.
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My original intention was roughly straight out and back, then when I started talking it over with my passenger he started throwing out all these other places way out of the way. When I said "dude that's nowhere near our route!" he replied "well, when else are we gonna do it?"

He won.

James331 said:
I am probably one of a few people who prefer to fly VFR around NYC and just skirt the airspace, some of the routing they will give you IFR is all over the place
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Doing the VFR scenic corridor along the river there is on our list, so I'm gonna have my fingers crossed for nice clear skies that day and plan to stay VFR.

dans2992 said:
K88 might be a good stop between UT and IL. I stopped there and they had the cheapest SS fuel I had ever seen.

Called ahead and they told me the WX was bad so they were leaving for the day, but they'd leave the keys in the crew car. Landed, fueled, went into town for lunch, never saw anyone!

Current 100LL price is $3.80 plus tax!
Click to expand...

Sounds like one hell of a place! I'm paying over $2/gallon more than that at my home base, and I get a $1/gallon discount from the FBO :sad:

Geico266 said:
Use Airnav for fuel stops and you will save yourself big $$$$.


http://www.airnav.com/fuel/
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I always use airnav to get intel on the airports I'm going to but had missed that link. That's awesome!

petrolero said:
Foreflight has fuel prices too. You're gonna need a lot of it on that monster XC.
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We're budgeting for about 500 gallons.:yikes:
 
StinkBug said:
LOL, I say short flying career, but that's because I only started flying about 14 months ago. I'm Instrument rated and by the time we leave I should have my CPL as well, with a bit over 300hrs. Nearly all of my flying is around the San Diego and LAX class Bravos so it's about as busy as one could ask for.
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So....you have a very short flying career. I would take a high time IR pilot with me but I'm very conservative. Good luck.
 
Jimmy cooper said:
So....you have a very short flying career. I would take a high time IR pilot with me but I'm very conservative. Good luck.
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He will be a Commercial pilot with an instrument rating. He should be competent to fly this on his own.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Best piece of advice I can give you is to watch the weather and stay northish through the plains.

SoCal weather and an IR will NOT prepare you for a severe T-storm, squall line, dry line, bow echo, or other summer "fun" in Tornado Alley.
 
Between Myrtle Beach and Marathon I would suggest a stop KFIN (Flagler County Airport) south of St Augustine. This will be a very pretty scenic flight down the east coast. KFIN is a very friendly GA airport with reasonably fuel ($4.27) excellent facilities and a great restaurant on the field (High Jackers) with good food. I stop by in my Mooney quite often. Note that the airport recently changed its identifier from KXFL to KFIN. If you have not updated the database in you GPS in a while you might need to punch in KXFL to find it. From there, if the weather is nice ask ground for flight following and fly direct to marathon. Above 7000 Orlando Approach usually has me flying directly over Orlando International and it is never a problem. It's a 180 degree heading that will take you over the Everglades for some nice scenery and then over a 25 mile stretch of water from the southern tip of Florida to Marathon. At altitude you will begin to see the Keys within 5 minutes of crossing the southern tip of Florida. I'll be headed that way myself in my M20C July 18.
 
warthog1984 said:
Best piece of advice I can give you is to watch the weather and stay northish through the plains.

SoCal weather and an IR will NOT prepare you for a severe T-storm, squall line, dry line, bow echo, or other summer "fun" in Tornado Alley.
Click to expand...

I plan on steering very clear of anything showing up either on the storm scope, the xm weather, or in the windshield. The whole point of this trip is to see the country, so I plan on staying VFR as much as possible. If the weather gets crappy we'll be staying on the ground. We have a time frame, but it's by no means strict, and nothing on the calendar is a must do. I feel much more comfortable with this flight now that I have an IR and some XC time, but flying in IMC is not what this trip is about so we'll be doing as little as possible.

Thanks for the recommendations guys! I'll be looking into all of these places.

Also I guess I should have noted, I saw the thread a while back about doing low approaches at the Space Shuttle landing strip and we really wanna do that on the way to Marathon. Will have to study the charts a little and figure out who to talk to to get that set up....I hope.
 
Wow...that's a lot of oil changes too... On the Myrtle Beach - Marathon Stretch, try Baxley Municipal in GA (quaint, small town friendly) and Ft. Lauderdale and hit the Banyan FBO and Pilot Shop.
 
Sounds like a nice trip. Regarding Dayton, not likely to let you land at air base. Greene county I19 is best. Rentals available, no tie down fee and reasonable fuel and close to everything. Done it many times.
To make it a truly epic x country why not go international? I recommend Quebec City CYQB. Probably the most historic city in North America . Beautiful place on the St Lawrence River. From there Go south via Lake Placid then NYC. Very picturesque route.
Bon voyage.
 
What are your ideas on routes to and from Marathon? Flying over the swamps in Florida is not something to be taken lightly. Research it. I flew from Florida to California a few years ago. A whole lotta folks down that way just won't do it.
 
SbestCFII said:
Wow...that's a lot of oil changes too...
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Not really, unless it is some older engine that has no oil filter and needs a change at 25hrs.

If he starts with a fresh oil change and has it changed when they get home, it will be fine.
 
KBXA Bogalusa La cheap fuel, and twin beds in a snooze room, full kitchen, TV lounge, 60nm from Orleans, courtesy car, cheap alternative for overnighter, you will have the all airport for yourself if you stay overnight.
Check MOAS in the Pensacola, Jacksonville area pretty good, Jacksonville atc and Pensacola can be real diks, try to do this part vfr they won't vector you for storms if you are ifr, KMAI cheap fuel.
 
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I'd skip Carlsbad NM. Unless you REALLY have to see the caverns, there's no reason to stop here. Also, they're in a boom right now and housing shortage, so hotels are very expensive. Better options

Santa Fe NM
Fredricksburg TX (Hangar Hotel)
 
dans2992 said:
K88 might be a good stop between UT and IL. I stopped there and they had the cheapest SS fuel I had ever seen.

Called ahead and they told me the WX was bad so they were leaving for the day, but they'd leave the keys in the crew car. Landed, fueled, went into town for lunch, never saw anyone!

Current 100LL price is $3.80 plus tax!
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I fill up in Winnie Tx at 3,6
Base fuel is 5,50 always stop and refuel before heading home :yes:
2 bucks big difference.
 
SbestCFII said:
Wow...that's a lot of oil changes too... On the Myrtle Beach - Marathon Stretch, try Baxley Municipal in GA (quaint, small town friendly) and Ft. Lauderdale and hit the Banyan FBO and Pilot Shop.
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Oil Change interval is 50hrs per Lycoming. We're figuring about 50hrs for the trip. I usually do it earlier, but I'm ok with doing it right before leaving and immediately upon returning.
 
danhagan said:
I'd skip Carlsbad NM. Unless you REALLY have to see the caverns, there's no reason to stop here. Also, they're in a boom right now and housing shortage, so hotels are very expensive. Better options

Santa Fe NM
Fredricksburg TX (Hangar Hotel)
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I've never seen the Caverns, and would like to but it's not one of my must see items and my friend has done it before. It was kinda chosen because when we looked at a line from NOLA to home neither of us could really come up with anything great that we wanted to do that landed somewhere in the middle, everything was kinda off towards one end or the other.


EDIT: Thanks for the reminder about Hangar Hotel, it's very close to our route so I'm adding it.
 
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StinkBug said:
And I could use a little help from my POA friends.
...
Here's the basic plan.

Day3. Chicago to Dayton Ohio to see the National Museum of the USAF. Since I'm assuming we cant just land at Wright-Patterson AFB I could use some intel on what the most convenient place to land would be. After the Museum we'll be flying to Pittsburgh, and could use suggestions on landing locations there as well.


Thanks guys!
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Wow.
Based on your query about landing at Wright-Pat, etc., I trust you've never been there.
Hint, hint --- at Best, you'll get a mere topical overview of the museum in a full 8 hour day. You really need close to a full week to really see all of the museum. In a single day, you won't even get through all of the museum, never mind glean information or study any exhibit.

Good luck.
 
James331 said:
I am probably one of a few people who prefer to fly VFR around NYC and just skirt the airspace, some of the routing they will give you IFR is all over the place
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If the clouds will permit just overfly the NY Bravo. The Bravo ceiling is 7000 AGL.

edit: OP, I just saw that you want to do the corridor. Don't forget to take the online course to learn the ropes there. The online training is required. For your copilot, too.
 
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StinkBug said:
I've never seen the Caverns, and would m, ike to but it's not one of my must see items and my friend has done it before. It was kinda chosen because when we looked at a line from NOLA to home neither of us could really come up with anything great that we wanted to do that landed somewhere in the middle, everything was kinda off towards one end or the other.


EDIT: Thanks for the reminder about Hangar Hotel, it's very close to our route so I'm adding it.
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A a native Texan, if the choice is Texas or NM, do NM. Land of enhancement near dusk is incredible.
 
oldShar said:
Wow.
Based on your query about landing at Wright-Pat, etc., I trust you've never been there.
Hint, hint --- at Best, you'll get a mere topical overview of the museum in a full 8 hour day. You really need close to a full week to really see all of the museum. In a single day, you won't even get through all of the museum, never mind glean information or study any exhibit.

Good luck.
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It seems people are reading that paragraph incorrectly, I wasn't asking if I could land at an AFB. I'm well aware that I cant land there, which is why I asked what the most convenient place to land would be. And no I haven't been there, but I understand a day isn't really enough, it's what we have though. It actually wasn't even on the original plan, but we added a day to the trip just to go there.:)
 
warthog1984 said:
A a native Texan, if the choice is Texas or NM, do NM. Land of enhancement near dusk is incredible.
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I added it as a fuel stop on our way to NM as it happens to be very close to the route and at a good refueling distance from New Orleans. Looks like a much more fun place to stop and refuel the plane and our bellies than a lot of rural airports.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Not really, unless it is some older engine that has no oil filter and needs a change at 25hrs.

If he starts with a fresh oil change and has it changed when they get home, it will be fine.
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Oil was the first thing I was thinking about, but I also have an O-300 continental. The limit on burn is 1 quart an hour...which is a lot. That being said I've logged 8 hours of flight and burned 2 quarts so she's running okay. It has a screen, not a filter (yet). Logged 22 hours on her in the last 2 weeks.


OP sounds like a good trip. Add 5 days onto your time line and just be concerned with the weather at your first 2 destinations or so. The rest will sort itself out with some extra time.
 
Skip Miller said:
edit: OP, I just saw that you want to do the corridor. Don't forget to take the online course to learn the ropes there. The online training is required. For your copilot, too.
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I watched the online course a few months back but honestly will need a refresher before going. Cant seem to find the link at the moment though....
 
StinkBug said:
Oil Change interval is 50hrs per Lycoming. We're figuring about 50hrs for the trip. I usually do it earlier, but I'm ok with doing it right before leaving and immediately upon returning.
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Just watch your burn/consumption. I would probably keep 4-5 quarts on hand and if you burn more, you can pick one up at an FBO most likely
 
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