Flight Across America: 2008

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Wrap up

Our flight from California to Florida and the Bahamas and back went off without a hitch.

Weather was a factor, of course, but didn't cause any delays thanks in part to XM WX on the 496. We were IFR for most of the legs between Texas and Florida/Bahamas. Despite that, there was only one time we didn't get the visual approach - they cleared us for the ILS into Freeport Bahamas due to 2000' ceilings.

It cost about $3200 each for the 4 of us including everything: fuel, hotels, cars, food, drinks, diving, etc. Definitely competitive with more conventional forms of vacationing!

Total hours flown: 44.3
Total fuel burned: 635.9 gallons
Average consumption: 14.3 GPH

I had a camera on the dashboard of the Six taking a picture every minute for the entire flight, and put them together into a time-lapse movie of flying across the US and back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELZsTFHe5mw

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Plane back in hangar, trip complete, success!!!

HOME! Landed RHV

Lake Anderson, on approach for KRHV

Hollister Airport; almost home

California Trivia :

L. Ron Hubbard vault. Creston Ranch, near Paso Robles. He died here,
and this is 1 of 3 vaults built that are supposed to be visible from
space by the aliens ;)

Over Santa Barbara

Point Mugu Naval Airstation

Malibu homes in the hills on the coast

Santa Monica Beach and Pier on departure

Ready for takeoff R21 Santa Monica!

All fueled up and ready for our last leg home :)

Friday, April 25, 2008

Landed Santa Monica

Left Base 21 Santa Monica

Downwind traffic pattern Santa Monica

Approach to Santa Monica

* Hollywood! *

Denseley packed and SMOG'd LA

On approach to Santa Monica Airport!

Palm Springs

Thermal Airport and Salt Sea behind it!

Thermal airport is 110 feet below sea level.

Desert, Colorado River, Farm land...

Marks us crossing from Arizona into California! We're back in good old
California!

Copper mines from Tucson departure view to the West

Departing Tucson ...

Mixed in with the big boys, ready to take-off from Tucson

Time to leave Tucson, headed for Santa Monica

Lots of Arizona Air National Guard planes practicing downwind landings
and touch and go's! This was a C-130 landing also have F-16's fighters
practicing!

View of missle from level 3 inside silo

Titan II command center !

Titan II silo doors

~17000 lb doors could open via hydrolics in only 18 seconds even on
total facility battery power!

Titan II stage one rocket!

Large antenna at museum entrance

Titan Missle Museum

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Long day!

This morning's flight went as expected: IMC on departure, then cruising above the clouds at 8000'. The ride was smooth all the way to Pecos TX, which was severe clear but windy. After a gourmet lunch at the local Sonic, we set out for Tucson. It was a 3 1/2 hour flight through unrelenting light-to-moderate turbulence including 20-knot headwinds. Tonight we check out the Tucson dining scene and nightlife, then tomorrow visit the Titan Missile Museum, then off to LA!

Welcome to Tucson!

Executive terminal.

Landed Tucson!

Tucson 29R while on approach for 29L

High Terrain surrounding Tucson

Makes for a bumpy descet

Crossed back into Arizona

Choppy and turbulent most of the way at 10500'. 100 mi to Tucson.

Goodbye Pecos...

A very memorable and unique stop!

Quaint

Very gracious service even in the middle of nowhere.

Landed Pecos County

31 deg C on the ground

On top a field of clouds

T74 to PEQ

Leaving Austin ...

High winds already, storms coming in; next stop Pecos County for fuel
and lunch.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Weather Flying

The three-hour flight from New Orleans to Austin turned out to be quite fun. Shortly after departing New Orleans, a big line of nasty thunderstorms showed up on NEXRAD (they were only 3 scattered cells a half an hour before but had since merged and grown). I requested a new routing from ATC which would take us south of the line, and this routing worked out just right to keep us clear of the thunderstorms as well as many of the Cu buildups in the area. Flying at 8000' was almost entirely smooth and kept us above most of the clouds. The ceilings at Taylor Muni were high enough by the time we got there to make a visual approach.

Austin once again welcomed us warmly! :-)

Tomorrow looks like more of the same: lots of IMC between Austin and our fuel/lunch stop in Pecos Tx. However, it is forecast to be clear at Pecos and for the rest of the route west. Then we'll just have to deal with turbulence over the desert Southwest!