Across the West: 3000nm, 37hrs, VFR in a 172

NOVA_Jim

NOVA_Jim

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NOVA_Jim
I started my Private Pilot training in the spring of 2012 in Northern Virginia. On my first dual cross-country in early 2013, my instructor had me fly from Leesburg, Virginia (KJYO) to Cumberland, Maryland (KCBE) across a small stretch of the snow-covered Appalachian Mountains. I became hooked on the beauty of flying this terrain and made learning mountain flying one of my aviation goals. In 2015, I had the opportunity to take a multi-week sabbatical from work, which I used to fly 3000nm across the western US. This is the story of how I prepared for and safely flew this trip under VFR in a Cessna 172S.

https://jimaldridge.blogspot.com/
 
Excellent write up! I would love to do something similar to this sometime. I must have missed it, but how long did this trip take you each way?
 
Ryanb said:
Excellent write up! I would love to do something similar to this sometime. I must have missed it, but how long did this trip take you each way?
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Total calendar time, including the commercial flight to UT, checking out, the flight to SFO, etc, was ~2 weeks.
 
NOVA_Jim said:
Total calendar time, including the commercial flight to UT, checking out, the flight to SFO, etc, was ~2 weeks.
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Not bad! Looked like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing!
 
That's one hell of a transcon. Great pictures. Congrats.
 
Awesome. Most of us never get to do something like that and should. It's what airplane's do best, after all.
 
NOVA_Jim said:
I surveyed the weather along my planned route west by writing a computer script to process ten years of historical METAR data to show me what percentage of the time during daylight hours the weather met my personal minimums.
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Nicely done.
 
What a great adventure. That's a very nice write up, thank you for sharing that with us!
 
Wow. What a trip. Beautiful pics and educational with the Lessons Learned. That you got the "bug" with that small stretch over the Appalachians really hit home with me. I got "rehooked" 6 years ago as a passenger in a C172 over the Cascades on beautiful clear spring day and returned to flying after 25 years away. Thanks for recording and sharing your Journey
 
What a trip! Thanks for the write up and sharing it along with your pictures!
 
Wow, doing that VFR in a 172, that's pretty amazing! Nice job on the blog!

I did east-west-east transcon in February with the Lancair with a surprising amount of it being in VMC. I also made Shelter Cove one of the stops (right after SQL, where I learned to fly) and was lucky enough to have great weather. It's such a beautiful airport.
 
Nice pictures,great trip I'm sure. Love the long cross countries.
 
Did a similar trip in a PA28 a few years back.
 
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