Flight Across America

New Adventure!

2010-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

Check out our next upcoming adventure at http://depthandaltitude.blogspot.com/ !!

Wrap up

2008-05-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-04-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

HOME! Landed RHV

2008-04-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Lake Anderson, on approach for KRHV

2008-04-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hollister Airport; almost home

2008-04-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

California Trivia :

2008-04-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Point Mugu Naval Airstation

2008-04-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Malibu homes in the hills on the coast

2008-04-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Santa Monica Beach and Pier on departure

2008-04-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Ready for takeoff R21 Santa Monica!

2008-04-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-26T12:34:00.001-07:00

Landed Santa Monica

2008-04-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Left Base 21 Santa Monica

2008-04-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Downwind traffic pattern Santa Monica

2008-04-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Approach to Santa Monica

2008-04-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

* Hollywood! *

2008-04-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Denseley packed and SMOG'd LA

2008-04-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

On approach to Santa Monica Airport!

Palm Springs

2008-04-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Thermal Airport and Salt Sea behind it!

2008-04-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Thermal airport is 110 feet below sea level.

Desert, Colorado River, Farm land...

2008-04-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

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

Copper mines from Tucson departure view to the West

2008-04-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Departing Tucson ...

2008-04-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

Time to leave Tucson, headed for Santa Monica

2008-04-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Titan II command center !

2008-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Titan II silo doors

2008-04-25T11:56:00.001-07:00

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

Titan II stage one rocket!

2008-04-25T11:52:00.001-07:00

Large antenna at museum entrance

2008-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Titan Missle Museum

2008-04-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Long day!

2008-04-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

Executive terminal.

Landed Tucson!

2008-04-24T15:58:00.001-07:00

Tucson 29R while on approach for 29L

2008-04-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

High Terrain surrounding Tucson

2008-04-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Makes for a bumpy descet

Crossed back into Arizona

2008-04-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

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

Goodbye Pecos...

2008-04-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

A very memorable and unique stop!

Quaint

2008-04-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

Very gracious service even in the middle of nowhere.

Landed Pecos County

2008-04-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

31 deg C on the ground

On top a field of clouds

2008-04-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

T74 to PEQ

Leaving Austin ...

2008-04-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

Weather Flying

2008-04-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

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!

Back at Taylor Muni airport

2008-04-23T15:30:00.001-07:00

Outside of Austin. Very strong winds on landing!

Welcome back...

2008-04-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Back at Austin, Texas. Over flying the field.

Welcome to Texas,

2008-04-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

where we have severe thunderstorm warnings today!

Diverting south around this line of T-Storms

2008-04-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Big boy cumulus clouds today

2008-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Lakefront airport departure view

2008-04-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

Departing Lakefront airport

2008-04-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Runway goes right out onto the water, neat perspective!

Goodbye New Orleans!

2008-04-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

On to Texas!

... This has been, by far, the best stop we've made.

US Coast Guard helicopter

2008-04-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

made an emergency landing with a one of two jet engine failure!

Almost ready to leave New Orleans!

2008-04-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

Its super hot and humid here!

Slight Change of Plans

2008-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

We have decided to make a return visit to Austin, since we enjoyed it so much last time. Today's flight will be IFR, and we're filed for NEW-CLL-T74. There are a few cells along our route of flight so far, and I'm sure more will appear as the afternoon goes on, but the ceilings are plenty high at our destination.

New Orleans was a lot of fun, and surprisingly busy on a Tuesday night. However, it was quite haunting to see huge stretches of abandoned neighborhoods between the airport and the city center and many houses still had the paint marks left by the search-and-rescue personnel during the Katrina aftermath.

Celebrating back in US at ...

2008-04-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

Pat O'Briens with Hurricanes, New Orleans French Quarter

What?!

2008-04-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

A fountian... That's on fire?! That's .... INSANE!

Hurricanes!

2008-04-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Round two! *ding*

Three Amigos

2008-04-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

In front of flightlinefirst.

New Orleans Lakefront airport

2008-04-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Landed New Orleans !

2008-04-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hurricane time soon!

Approach to Lakefront Airport New Orleans

2008-04-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Over Gulf of Mexico, almost to New Orleans

2008-04-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

Racing to get to Lakefront Airport before some thunderstorm cells do!

Leaving Palatka, next stop ...New Orleans 3.5 hrs

2008-04-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Runway needs a serious mowing!

Palatika, FL

2008-04-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

Local flight school practicing viffer (VFR) approaches and take-offs.

Landed Palatka airport

2008-04-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

Fuel stop, only $3.99 a gallon here, what a bargain!

Cape Canaveral from 6500'

2008-04-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Departing PBI!

2008-04-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

Cleared US customs at PBI...

2008-04-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Great Cuban lunch. On our way to New Orleans!

Back in US, crossing Palm Beach

2008-04-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Good bye to the Bahamas!

2008-04-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Just starting the 35 min crossing over water to Palm Beach
International airport for US Customs!

Bye bye Bahamas

2008-04-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

Preparing to leave Bahamas.

Roll on in...

2008-04-22T01:19:00.000-07:00

No "I'm sorry" or even "gee, I'm late!". Bahamian Government: A
century of timely service.

Heading West

2008-04-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

It is time for us to reverse directions and head west. The Bahamas has been great and it will be tough to give up "island time". We are scheduled to depart Freeport at 9:30am tomorrow IFR to Palm Beach International, clear customs there and get lunch, then up to Palatka for fuel, then on to New Orleans for an overnight stop. We're looking forward to dinner at "The Gumbo Shop" in the French Quarter - home of fine creole cuisine.

But first a parting shot: sunset and moonrise over the Atlantic as seen from the balcony.

Timelapse: 2-minute interval for 100 shots.

Diving Theo's Wreck

2008-04-20T14:51:00.001-07:00

We dove Theo's Wreck today - a 230-foot cargo ship sunk in 100' of water.

Moon over the ocean

2008-04-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

This was the view from our balcony last night. It was a 4-second time exposure.

Jim chases a shark

2008-04-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a video from this morning - subject is a Caribbean reef shark.

More dive pics

2008-04-19T13:27:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more dive pictures from yesterday and today. Today was the best day yet - warmer, light winds, and mostly calm seas.

Diving the Sea Star II

2008-04-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

Pool looking out to ocean

2008-04-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

Westin Infinity pool, swim up bar

2008-04-18T15:43:00.001-07:00

Westin resort at Lucaya in Bahamas

2008-04-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

Great day of diving

2008-04-18T14:20:00.001-07:00

Dan and I did two more dives this morning under much-improved weather: light winds and mild seas. The second dive site had 10 - 12 Caribbean reef sharks swimming around, ranging up to 8 feet long. They appeared well-fed and unaggressive though. Below are a few pics from our dive trips.

Weather / Diving great!

2008-04-18T10:26:00.001-07:00

Weather is great here today. So was the diving this morning - got a lot of good pictures which we'll upload a few of soon.

Back from diving

2008-04-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

We just arrived back at the hotel from our first dive experience. Will post more details and pictures later =)

It's sunny now! Clear skies!

In the Bahamas!

2008-04-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

The flight to the Bahamas went well. We are in our hotel on the beach about to leave for an afternoon dive trip!

The flight ended up being a bit more tedious than expected. When they cleared us "as filed" in Key West, we were pleased. That changed though when Miami Center tried to send us direct from Marathon to Freeport, which would have quadrupled our over-water time. In the interest of risk mitigation, I negotiated a routing with ATC which kept our over-water time to the minimum and resulted in going a bit out of the way.

We were in the clouds for parts of the over-water portion, but the ocean below looked beautiful.

It's partly cloudy here and a bit cool, but the forecast has it warming up for the rest of our trip.

KEY WEST from the departure view

2008-04-17T05:57:00.001-07:00

Off to the Bahamas!

2008-04-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Bye KEYW!

2008-04-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

IFR to the Bahamas

2008-04-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are curious about the aviation details, our flight tomorrow will be conducted under an international (ICAO) IFR flight plan. I chose IFR because it makes all the airspace issues around Miama and Ft. Lauderdale go away, it facilitates the border crossing, and because we will likely run into clouds for most of the route.

The Bahamas requires the General Declaration (C7A) form to be filled out in triplicate (which I have), as well as weight & balance, pilot's license & medical, aircraft registration and airworthiness certificate, and passports for all aboard.

Once we cross the US coastline, we'll be over water for about 35 minutes, and out of sight of land for about 20 minutes. I have briefed everybody on ditching procedures in case we need them, and we'll all be wearing life vests for the over-water portion of the flight.

Once we land in Grand Bahama International, we'll taxi over to Customs and complete the entry formalities, then taxi over to parking and go enjoy Freeport. "It's better in the Bahamas!"

Plan for Thursday

2008-04-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we're hoping to be in the air by 9am EDT for a ~2 hour flight up the Florida Keys, along the East Coast of Florida to Palm Beach and then a sharp right turn heading directly to Grand Bahama Island to land in Freeport around 11am EDT. We'll then have to clear customs at the airport and get a taxi to the Westin Grand Bahama Island resort. We'll be picked up by Sun Odyssey Divers at 1:30pm EDT to go out for our first boat dive of the trip!

Blog posts will probably not be as "live" as they have been thus far since cell phone data service will be prohibitively expensive. We'll be posting blog updates periodically with pictures when we're back at the hotel with internet access.

Goodnight!

90 miles to Cuba

2008-04-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

At the beach today...

2008-04-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Crystal clear skies and water!
Plan is to leave Key West one day early though since we haven't been
able to dive due to winds. We'll add one early day to the Bahamas and
get more diving in. So we're off to the Bahamas early tomorrow morning.

Slight change of plans!

2008-04-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

We're bumping up our flight to the Bahamas by one day due to poor diving conditions in Key West. This mean's we'll be making our flight to Freeport *tomorrow*, April 17th in the early morning instead of Friday 4/18. Stay tuned for updates.

No plane today folks...

2008-04-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Our scooter fleet -- best form of transportation on the island !

No diving for now :(

2008-04-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

Too windy (22kt) for boat diving this morning.

This is "Grand" !

2008-04-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Great bar on the water!

2008-04-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Dan off duty

2008-04-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Off duty

2008-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Nina about to enjoy a delicious beverage.

Nina refers to the 'Office Space' character Nina, from coprorare accounts payable, because Paul is the accountant. "Corporate Accounts Payable, Nina speaking... Just a moment!"