Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 29,920
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
There are cross-countries and then there are cross-countries. These days when I start an engine, it rarely gets shut off before going at least a couple hundred miles (other than taxiing to the gas pumps). However the furthest west I'd gone yet was Oklahoma, which was last summer.
Last month I was approached by a shelter in North Carolina about performing a transport to Best Friends out in Utah. For those not familiar, Best Friends is the largest animal sanctuary in the country, with something on the order of 3,800 acres of land they own, and then another surrounding 33,000 acres or so of government land. They have on the order of 500 dogs, another 500 cats (although I think right now they have 800), plus horses (around 40), birds, and all sorts of other animals. The conditions the animals live in are great, many of our personal pets would be so lucky. I agreed to do the transport, so I was already going to be making it to Utah. I figured that coming home we'd take it a bit more leisurely.
Well, leisure isn't in my vocabulary, and as luck would have it ANOTHER group approached me about transporting small dogs from southern California to New York City. Well gee, I'm going to be in Utah that weekend anyway, why fly home empty? So I agreed to do that.
The general route was to fly from Edenton, NC (KEDE) to Kanab, UT (KKNB) and then over to San Bernadino, CA (KSBD) and then to Farmingdale, NY on Long Island (KFRG).
Friday we flew west, getting to the airport around 5 AM. Unfortunately, a direct route was going to go straight through a line of very heavy snow, which did not seem like a smart idea. Northern and southern routes were both options. I opted for the southern route because the northern route looked like it had just been hit with some snow itself, and was pretty well certain to have icing conditions for most of the route. I also just didn't like how the forecasts were looking there, which made me think I'd likely run into more snow that might not get plowed fast enough. Meanwhile, the southern route looked like it would have thunderstorms over Mississippi and Louisiana, but probably nothing that couldn't be dealt with, and then potential for some light ice in Texas. The worst of the weather looked like it was going to start pounding North Carolina by the next day, which would have made departure difficult at best.
After my first stop in Rock Hill, SC (KUZA) to pick up one of my volunteers and an 8th dog (these were all large - the plane was packed with just them!), it was off to our first fuel stop in Louisiana.
Sure enough, there were thunderstorms in Mississippi and Louisiana, but nothing too bad to get around. Except for the last 15 minutes of flight, it was actually very smooth as well. I ended up diverting to a further away airport because the originally planned stop we could have gotten into, but would have then gotten hit with a major storm that would have delayed us for quite a while had we needed to wait for the storm to pass. It made more sense to go another 50 miles where there was just rain. That paid off - we had a relatively quick turnaround and were then back in the air. So we ended up stopping at KMLU.
Next was heading to Plainview, TX (KPVW). Texas looked like it might have some icing conditions, but also didn't look like it would necessarily be bad at the low altitude I wanted to fly at. Sure enough, we picked up some, but the accumulation was exceedingly slow and the boots kept up with it without issue. I kept an eye on the closest airport I could get into at all times and was ready to go straight for it if things got bad, but they didn't. A few diversions around some cells that looked like they would be worse and we were in the clear on top of the clouds by about half way. Plainview itself had an iced over runway, but didn't prove an issue. A King Air landed not long after us. We fueled up and then headed off to Kanab, UT.
The weather west of Plainview looked like it should be perfect VMC and clear for the remainder of the flight. We were in the clear the entire time, but there were some low clouds in a few areas. Fortunately, Kanab wasn't one of them. The moon came out in full force (the brightest moon of the year, literally) and it was like daylight flying in. We unloaded the dogs after a long day and then went to get a good night's sleep and toured the facility the next morning.
Then it was off to California for the short hop. Sunday morning we got the airport and were met by all the small dogs that were going to be put in the plane heading to New York. The first time we do transports like these people always think it's going to be impossible and just can't be done. Each time we prove them wrong. We ended up with 47 small dogs in the plane, and actually could have fit a few more. It was then off to New York.
Sunday couldn't have been better weather. We were in VMC for literally the entire trip from southern California to New York. First stop in Tucumcari, NM (KTCC). Over a few mid-western states there were some low clouds, but the tops were lower than us. We watched the moon rise in the east after the sun set as kept on flying along, for more fuel at Spirit of St. Louis (KSUS). St. Louis approach treated us great. On departure, they virtually gave us direct on takeoff, and moved a few planes out of our way so we could get a quick climb up to 11,000. I was impressed with the service. New York approach gave us direct to Farmingdale, but as far as I could tell we were one of only three planes in their airspace at that hour.
We unloaded all the dogs (who behaved very well for the flight). The receivers couldn't believe that we fit 47 in there. One commented that it was like a clown car - each time they didn't expect more to come and they kept on getting unloaded. There really wasn't a single square inch left.
Yesterday I finally flew home, another beautiful day and this time just went VFR and had a good time of it. It was a beautiful day to fly, and NY approach gave me bravo clearance at 6500 on climbout. Takeoff and climb with about half fuel and just me in the plane on a cold day was fun.
So in a long weekend (very long...) I crossed the country in my Aztec twice, including going from southern Califoria to New York City in one day, all single pilot. It was also my first time landing (and taking off) from airports of significant elevation (4800 in KNB and 4000 in TCC). Both had long runways so it wasn't an issue, but it was interesting to see the differences for myself. Anyone who hasn't flown out west should, it is absolutely gorgeous and a lot of fun.
One thing I learned is that above 12,000 ft the Aztec really drops off in airspeed, so much that it's probably not worth it to fly up there in most conditions. The engines just don't make enough power, and so your indicated airspeed is down close to the white arc (where the plane starts to get sloppy) and TAS is dropped off a lot as well. It would probably do better if it was just me in the plane, but with a load? Nah.
This just means that I need turbos.
Last month I was approached by a shelter in North Carolina about performing a transport to Best Friends out in Utah. For those not familiar, Best Friends is the largest animal sanctuary in the country, with something on the order of 3,800 acres of land they own, and then another surrounding 33,000 acres or so of government land. They have on the order of 500 dogs, another 500 cats (although I think right now they have 800), plus horses (around 40), birds, and all sorts of other animals. The conditions the animals live in are great, many of our personal pets would be so lucky. I agreed to do the transport, so I was already going to be making it to Utah. I figured that coming home we'd take it a bit more leisurely.
Well, leisure isn't in my vocabulary, and as luck would have it ANOTHER group approached me about transporting small dogs from southern California to New York City. Well gee, I'm going to be in Utah that weekend anyway, why fly home empty? So I agreed to do that.
The general route was to fly from Edenton, NC (KEDE) to Kanab, UT (KKNB) and then over to San Bernadino, CA (KSBD) and then to Farmingdale, NY on Long Island (KFRG).
Friday we flew west, getting to the airport around 5 AM. Unfortunately, a direct route was going to go straight through a line of very heavy snow, which did not seem like a smart idea. Northern and southern routes were both options. I opted for the southern route because the northern route looked like it had just been hit with some snow itself, and was pretty well certain to have icing conditions for most of the route. I also just didn't like how the forecasts were looking there, which made me think I'd likely run into more snow that might not get plowed fast enough. Meanwhile, the southern route looked like it would have thunderstorms over Mississippi and Louisiana, but probably nothing that couldn't be dealt with, and then potential for some light ice in Texas. The worst of the weather looked like it was going to start pounding North Carolina by the next day, which would have made departure difficult at best.
After my first stop in Rock Hill, SC (KUZA) to pick up one of my volunteers and an 8th dog (these were all large - the plane was packed with just them!), it was off to our first fuel stop in Louisiana.
Sure enough, there were thunderstorms in Mississippi and Louisiana, but nothing too bad to get around. Except for the last 15 minutes of flight, it was actually very smooth as well. I ended up diverting to a further away airport because the originally planned stop we could have gotten into, but would have then gotten hit with a major storm that would have delayed us for quite a while had we needed to wait for the storm to pass. It made more sense to go another 50 miles where there was just rain. That paid off - we had a relatively quick turnaround and were then back in the air. So we ended up stopping at KMLU.
Next was heading to Plainview, TX (KPVW). Texas looked like it might have some icing conditions, but also didn't look like it would necessarily be bad at the low altitude I wanted to fly at. Sure enough, we picked up some, but the accumulation was exceedingly slow and the boots kept up with it without issue. I kept an eye on the closest airport I could get into at all times and was ready to go straight for it if things got bad, but they didn't. A few diversions around some cells that looked like they would be worse and we were in the clear on top of the clouds by about half way. Plainview itself had an iced over runway, but didn't prove an issue. A King Air landed not long after us. We fueled up and then headed off to Kanab, UT.
The weather west of Plainview looked like it should be perfect VMC and clear for the remainder of the flight. We were in the clear the entire time, but there were some low clouds in a few areas. Fortunately, Kanab wasn't one of them. The moon came out in full force (the brightest moon of the year, literally) and it was like daylight flying in. We unloaded the dogs after a long day and then went to get a good night's sleep and toured the facility the next morning.
Then it was off to California for the short hop. Sunday morning we got the airport and were met by all the small dogs that were going to be put in the plane heading to New York. The first time we do transports like these people always think it's going to be impossible and just can't be done. Each time we prove them wrong. We ended up with 47 small dogs in the plane, and actually could have fit a few more. It was then off to New York.
Sunday couldn't have been better weather. We were in VMC for literally the entire trip from southern California to New York. First stop in Tucumcari, NM (KTCC). Over a few mid-western states there were some low clouds, but the tops were lower than us. We watched the moon rise in the east after the sun set as kept on flying along, for more fuel at Spirit of St. Louis (KSUS). St. Louis approach treated us great. On departure, they virtually gave us direct on takeoff, and moved a few planes out of our way so we could get a quick climb up to 11,000. I was impressed with the service. New York approach gave us direct to Farmingdale, but as far as I could tell we were one of only three planes in their airspace at that hour.
We unloaded all the dogs (who behaved very well for the flight). The receivers couldn't believe that we fit 47 in there. One commented that it was like a clown car - each time they didn't expect more to come and they kept on getting unloaded. There really wasn't a single square inch left.
Yesterday I finally flew home, another beautiful day and this time just went VFR and had a good time of it. It was a beautiful day to fly, and NY approach gave me bravo clearance at 6500 on climbout. Takeoff and climb with about half fuel and just me in the plane on a cold day was fun.
So in a long weekend (very long...) I crossed the country in my Aztec twice, including going from southern Califoria to New York City in one day, all single pilot. It was also my first time landing (and taking off) from airports of significant elevation (4800 in KNB and 4000 in TCC). Both had long runways so it wasn't an issue, but it was interesting to see the differences for myself. Anyone who hasn't flown out west should, it is absolutely gorgeous and a lot of fun.
One thing I learned is that above 12,000 ft the Aztec really drops off in airspeed, so much that it's probably not worth it to fly up there in most conditions. The engines just don't make enough power, and so your indicated airspeed is down close to the white arc (where the plane starts to get sloppy) and TAS is dropped off a lot as well. It would probably do better if it was just me in the plane, but with a load? Nah.
This just means that I need turbos.
