Jim, can you give me more details on this route? I need to make relatively frequent stops and wonder if it will be possible. Early in the morning is not a problem but that also means that I have from maybe 5:00am until 11:00am. With stops that may be limiting me to no more than 4.5 hours of flying per day.
Well, not quite. It will probably be a full day between Chicago and Scottsbluff. THat is all flyover territory, flat as a pancake, and plain old midwestern light turbulence.
Actually, if you want to press your luck on the first day, aim for Cheyenne.
Follow along with me on Skyvector's charts.
I'm going to presume you are coming out of Palwaukee. Just move the dot if that's not right. I'm also going to flight plan you at 120 knots. Change that if it's not right. KPWK-KDSM (Des Moines) is a little over two hours and there are airports every ten minutes along the route.
KDSM to KONL (O'Neill) is a little UNDER two hours. KONL to KBFF (Scottsbluff) is a little UNDER two hours. KBFF to KCYS (Cheyenne) is a little over half an hour. So far you've got one full day flying with about 6.5 hours in the air. That is ENOUGH for one day, trust me, especially the first day. WARNING...if you KNOW you are going to make Cheyenne, get your reservations for a motel room in early. For whatever reason, Cheyenne seems to be the stopping point for everybody going to and from east to west.
EARLY EARLY. I'm going to put you over I-80 most of the rest of the way. Trust me, over the rocks you want long concrete stretches below you all the way. KCYS via CKW and OCS to KEVW (Evanston) is about 2.5 if you stay reasonably close to I-80, 2.1 if you go semi-direct. I don't recommend semi-direct. Pick up I-80 out of KEVW and follow it through Parley's Canyon (the mountain pass I was telling you about that is 20 miles wide) and stay SOUTH of Salt Lake International along the SOUTH shore of the lake. thence via BVL to KEKO (ELko) nearly 2 hours on the nose. There is a slight dogleg about 30 miles east of KEKO that you want to take to keep from going over the crest of the Ruby Mountains.
If that first 2.5 hour leg is too long, then make a stop at KRKS (Rock Springs), another at KENV (Wendover), and then into KEKO, all following the same route as in the previous paragraph.
From KEKO across BAM via V32 (NOT V6) across LOL and now you've got some choices to make.
You are across 95% of the snotty stuff. Another half hour and you are in KRNO (Reno) and the land of inexpensive hotels and lots of night life. You can press on for another half hour and make Sacramento or any of the foothill towns on the west slope of the Sierra. Make it KGOO and I'll let you borrow the car overnight AND get you a good hotel for not many $$.
Let me just postulate KGOO for your second overnight and get you to San Diego in about five hours of the third day. I'll give you two routes. One takes you inland and out of the Los Angeles basin heavy traffic. One takes you along the shoreline by LAX.
KGOO via KFAT (keeps you along the very edge of the SIerra foothills but a great view of Yosemite on a clear day) via KBFL to KTSP (Tehachapi) is a nice leisurely 2 hour armchair flight. You can press on for another 15 minutes to KMHV (Mojave) and nose around the Rutan Skunk Works if you like.
KTSP via PMD and take aim for L26 (Hesperia). Five miles before you get to L26 hang a 45 to the right and follow the HUGE freeway through Tejon Pass. When through the pass, dial in HDF (Homeland VOR) and now you've got some more choices. I really like Ramona airport but it is a good 45 minute drive from downtown San Diego. Gillespie is good also and the fog breaks up there a good two hours before Montgomery, which is right in the middle of town. Brown is OK but is right on the Mexican border and a fair drive from town. It all depends on where you are going.
Down the shoreline? OK, then tank up at KBFL (Bakersfield) and get yourself up to altitude to go across the Grapevine at GMN, then take a straight shot for KVNY (Van Nuys). Once you get to KVNY you've got your choice of three VFR flyways across KLAX. I prefer the shoreline route, but you pick your poison. A couple of notes. If the Dodgers are in town, there will be a TFR over Chavez Ravine Dodger Stadium. Same for the Angels over Angels Stadium in Santa Ana. Just south of San Juan Capistrano is MC Camp Pendleton where they are training rookies how to fire big guns. You may have to fly a quarter mile offshore to get around it. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING THROUGH IT IF IT IS HOT. Bad juju. At OCN VOR you start thinking about where in San Diego you want to go.
How's that?
Jim