Flying from South Carolina to Washington State in a Week

25 knots at mountain peak fall through spring is a pretty calm day in the western mountains. So if you only fly on days with lower winds, not going to fly much in the winter. But you do want to learn about mountain flying, mountain wave, mountain turbulence, rotors etc. my rule of thumb if I am crossing a ridge perpendicular to the winds is to cross them at 1000 feet per 10 knots wind. So if the ridge is 14,000 feet and the winds 30 knots at 14K then cross at 17,000 feet. 50 knots 19,000 feet etc.

winds at 12,000 feet in NV and UT today are 40-70 knots. Flew into SLC area yesterday, was bumpy below 15,000 feet;-) Hard to hold a converstion with ATC when the bumps cause you to exhale....
 

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I would worry far more about weather than mountain peaks unless you have reason to be you are VERY altitude sensitive. You only need to be high for a short time to avoid mountain peaks even crossing through Colorado. Watch WX forecasts as winter WX is here now and ice is very deadly.

As to oxy I made my own using a medical regulator and mask on bottle which shouldoxy top.JPG be available at a local gas supplier.
 
Bring “Flight of Passage” to read in the hotel when you’re waiting for weather to clear. I assume everyone on POA has read, but if not, it’s about 15 and 17 yr old brothers flying across the country in a piper cub without oxygen, iPads, or FIS-B weather.
 
We are hoping you are here already. How was the trip?
 
Cogito said:
Bring “Flight of Passage” to read
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Great book, but those boys took the southern route (crossing the Rockies were they are the most benign, in El Paso Texas) and the OP wanted to take a northern route.
 
Cogito said:
Bring “Flight of Passage” to read in the hotel when you’re waiting for weather to clear. I assume everyone on POA has read, but if not, it’s about 15 and 17 yr old brothers flying across the country in a piper cub without oxygen, iPads, or FIS-B weather.
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They didn’t even have a water bag. :)

Great book. And retracing their southern route with modern equipment would be a legitimate adventure for most of us, and really put what those boys did into perspective. Now I want to read it again and go flying.
 
Cogito said:
Bring “Flight of Passage” to read in the hotel when you’re waiting for weather to clear. I assume everyone on POA has read, but if not, it’s about 15 and 17 yr old brothers flying across the country in a piper cub without oxygen, iPads, or FIS-B weather.
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And if you can read the section where they started eastbound again with the box of fruit and keep a straight face reading it, you need a new way to spend your money. Great book.
 
Daven last logged in Friday. Maybe he’s putting miles behind him, or holed up in some hotel.
 
10 Nov: 15:30 Z: Currently in the air over south central Oklahoma heading west. Looks like an overnight at Pauls Valley Muni (PVJ). If you view his history, he started in Pageland, SC and yesterday was a 7+ hour flight.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a77244

Go Daven!
 
Enroute, for sure. Looks like flightaware missed a stop yesterday, maybe at Haleyville, AL, 1M4. Makes more sense than 7 hours aloft.
 
Thanks for the FlightAware link. I think I would if deviated South & flew Monument Valley, not far out of the way. Yeah, maybe there was weather issues to deal with.

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Cogito said:
The most important thing is determining the food stops along the way, I recommend Stephenville Clark Regional (KSEP,) in Texas. Hard Eight BBQ will pick you up at the airport, at least they did in the before-times.
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Yes! You don't even really need a ride, you can grab a golf cart from the airport, or just walk, it's only a few blocks away.

KSEZ is another must-go place along the southern route with a great restaurant, and there's a Thai place at KBIH that I'm going to try next time I swing through there.
 
I was following on the links I posted above and N5790V landed at Bellingham, WA (BLI) at 1930 PST.
Welcome home Daven. Congrats on a successful trip. You slipped into the PNW during a nice little weather window. Where is your home drome?
 
Yep as noted by some from the flight aware all home now. First day was marginal vfr a good portion but just flew low and the weather stayed good otherwise. With the cfi along always had the option to do a pop-up ifr if needed. Still mildly uncomfortable going over so much endless forrest there so low on the first day.:) Didn't realize how much of that there was over that side of the country. Eventually turned to farm fields though and all good. :)

Second day was a bit better but slow going from then on from headwinds. Had to go up to 12.5 ft for a half hour there to cross the mountains near the border of idaho on the third day due to low clouds and what not but otherwise smooth flying. The last leg from kelso to Bellingham got to see what the plane could do with more or less neutral / calm winds. Cruised along at about 3k ft and 145+ knots groundspeed at about 12 gallons per hour. Not too bad. :) Couldn't go higher for that leg as the clouds were pretty low. But otherwise nice and smooth air and a pretty night flight.

Plane is a really easy flyer. Only issue at first was I'm not used to how slippery it is compared to the Archer. :) Getting the speed right on the downwind wasn't ideal the first couple times until i just switched to dropping the gear early on the 45 to enter. :) Then problem solved. :) It just didn't want to slow down otherwise. :) Or more aptly not slowing down as fast as I'm used to.

Did discover the battery needs replaced in Spanish Fork. :) Ultra cold night it didn't want to crank much in the morning but a quick jump solved it and was otherwise fine everywhere else.

Pretty easy trip actually in the end though needed to monitor the weather pretty well constantly. Cell signal for internet and adsb-in were super handy there and made it easy to safely do. Can't imagine in the old days how much harder that would have been. :)

Nicest FBO we stopped at along the way was in wieser. Super cheap gas as well and nice guy there and free drinks and snacks with purchase of gas. ;-)

Paul's valley was also very good and super friendly people. Got a ride to the hotel from one of the hotel workers husband who just had him come get us. Then one of the fbo people in the middle of the night had someone drop a car off at the hotel for us waiting in the morning.

As for the guy wanting the inogen review, couldn't go higher through the whole trip as the inogen oxygen concentrator didn't arrive in time due to two days of ups delays. The inogen aviator dealer was on top of it without me even saying anything from the first delay and tried to make it happen throughout but didn't work out. First day delay was a ups trailer issue. Second later while en route a ups mechanical failure. :)

I have the unit now and will test it out soon. :) It seems pretty nice and comes with a lot of handy accessories. And the dealer was a pleasure to work with.

Anyway, I'll post some pics of the trip shortly. :) Plane is now at it's permanent home in Skaget. :) Trying to get some hangar space but so far no luck. But apparently about 20 units about to be finished though presently probably all filled. But we'll see. :)
 
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