FL to CO

Chris Bailes

Chris Bailes

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Sep 20, 2021
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ChrisB
Hi All, I am planning a trip from Lakeland FL to Longmont CO late March 2022 in a piston single :) 115 KTAS with 4 hrs endurance.

I am looking for suggestions on routings, airports to use and places to stop off and see along the way.

I have 2 weeks to do the trip so no hurry there! Would like to stop every 1.5 - 2 hrs for a break and stretch the legs.

All advice, info and suggestions will be most appreciated.....

Fly safe.
 
Sounds like an awesome trip. There is a GE/Baker Hughes factory in Longmont where I have spent a lot of time testing equipment that we are installing in a power plant in Ontario. Vance Brand KLMO is a neat airport that is easy in/out. The scenery around KLMO is pretty cool with the Rockies directly to the west. Just pay attention to your density altitudes out there. The KLMO airport is 5055’ and in warm weather can have a pretty high DA. If you are into cycling, Boulder County has the best bicycling infrastructure I’ve experienced anywhere. I’ve cycled around 600 miles between Longmont and Boulder and up through Boulder Canyon. Highly recommended.

I don’t know if you use Foreflight or WingX, but I would definitely recommend having one or the other for planning and making this flight. The way I plan a flight like this is to plug in my starting and destination airports so I can see the direct line of flight between KLAL and KLMO. In the case of this flight I would want to avoid flying out over the Gulf and would add KCGC and KCTY as waypoints to keep me over land and with airports in close proximity if you were to need to land for any reason. After that I look along the route for restricted airspace to avoid and I also personally like to avoid Class “B” airspace when possible. Once I have made these adjustments to the route, I turn on the 100LL Prices overlay to get a feel for which airports have gas and their prices. After that I use the ruler function to see what airports are in the areas for the leg distances I want to fly and pick airports that have good fuel prices and seem to be easy in and back out. I also look to see which ones have courtesy cars if I want to run into town for lunch. Once I have determined which airports I want to use as my stops along the way, I then save off a separate route for each leg of the trip. In your case, with the 1.5 to 2 hour limit you are going to have about 7 legs for your trip, so I would have 7 separate files saved for each specific leg instead of one big route.

I also forgot to mention, I would also consider desired sight seeing stops along the way during my flight planning to take advantage of. Sometimes it is worthwhile to deviate from the straight line path if there is something close by that you would like to see.

Sounds like an awesome flight and I hope you have a great time making it!
 
Parallel to your route (but ~100nm north of rum line) I’m a big fan of KABY KBPK KIDP - mostly for services, friendliness, and courtesy. While we’re talking N Arkansas, 3M0 is a 3k ft grass strip at a resort and a neat destination for overnight.

As a whole, stopping frequently will give you really good opportunities to monitor weather. I’ve flown Tampa to Chicago and made extra stops because the weather picture was changing rapidly. As you approach the Rockies, monitor weather ahead along the front range. If winds are out of the west and >15-20ish, it could get bumpy. Over 25-35 and plan on flying @Va and fly direct dest. DEN is good giving bravo clearance in the bottom 1000 of the airspace on the departure side of the airport. If winds are down, I’d scoot west .. say just N of KCOS, and fly up along the front range. If you’ve never flown near big rocks, it’s a brilliant experience (VMC pls).

Have fun!
 
As a practice exercise, I laid out the route I would take if making this flight with the leg distances you specified and fuel prices;

Leg 1 - KLAL -> KCGC -> KCTY -> KFPY -> 2J9 209.8 nm $4.50
Leg 2 - 2J9 -> KEDN -> KDYA 206.7 nm $4.85
Leg 3 - KDYA -> 5M1 199.7 nm $4.85
Leg 4 - 5M1 -> KTQH 207.2 nm $4.66
Leg 5 - KTQH -> KPTT 208.8 nm $5.14
Leg 6 - KPTT -> KITR 190.1 nm $4.60
Leg 7 - KITR -> KLMO 143.9 nm $5.02
 
I keep dreaming of a flight from North Carolina to Denver. It's completely planned out in my head. Stops are in part fuel cost and in part where I want to be at the end of the day.
 
Make an adventure out of it. Sounds like thats your plan anyway. I've ferried some slow planes with my sleeping bag in the back. Great times! It's really about the journey, not how fast you can get there.
 
While you are here, get a mountain check out. You won't be disappointed. Go the highest airport in North America for example.
 
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