Good fuel stop between KY and TX... and passing through Houston

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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Cowman
Gonna be making my big VFR trip of the year after family thanksgiving.

Course will be 2I0 -> KRAS.... anyone know a good place for fuel about halfway? If nobody has a good suggestion I'll just pick the closest midway airport with cheap fuel.

Other issue I see is it looks like I'm passing right through the Houston Bravo.... never been there. Am I likely to be able to pass through basically direct or should I expect to get vectored a significant distance. If weather allows that day I might try to go above...
 
Go over it or go south of the Bravo. They will vector the crap out of you around Hobby and Bush.

I do not fly to that area often enough to give great advice. No idea on fuel other than Foreflight and bladder effect (if wife and kids are going).
 
Expect vectors around Houston Bravo.
For fuel stop we need to know how long a legs you want to fly.
 
I usually try to keep legs to about 3hrs which in my plane is going to be ~350-370nm typically.
 
Forgot to ask where you are starting from.
 
2I0 > KRAS

it looks like krsn would be the closest to a midpoint but not the best fuel price.
 
There is a low level corridor straight through the Bravo between Bush and Hobby that you can use if you want. I've always found the controllers pretty helpful. Gas prices at KTME and KHPY are usually good.
 
Katamarino said:
There is a low level corridor straight through the Bravo between Bush and Hobby that you can use if you want. I've always found the controllers pretty helpful.
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This.
Houston Approach is very friendly to general aviation, even on busy IMC days. Sometimes they have to send you the long way around but if they can make it work the shorter route gets offered. If thunderstorms are popping up sometimes you don't want the short cut because the "outs" can be iffy. In other words I've declined the short cut because I didn't want to be between 2 bravo surface areas with a thunderstorm in front of me. I'd been watching the storms pop up on the way in so knew things were unstable...
 
cowman said:
2I0 > KRAS

it looks like krsn would be the closest to a midpoint but not the best fuel price.
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Yep KRSN looks like half way. Sorry I have never been there. Have a fun and safe trip.
 
Jay Honeck said:
When you coming to see us, Cowman?
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If the weather does what we want, probably the evening of the 24th.


I'm looking at an alternate route in case the winds don't do what I want... gets me some cheaper gas. Guess I'll make the call when I know what sort of winds aloft we'll have.
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Katamarino said:
There is a low level corridor straight through the Bravo between Bush and Hobby that you can use if you want. I've always found the controllers pretty helpful. Gas prices at KTME and KHPY are usually good.
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If you plot his course, the east-west Bravo corridor won't help him much.

It would only add about 10 nm to just use the Navasota VOR (TNV) as an en-route waypoint to stay clear. Otherwise, go over the top.
 
cowman said:
If the weather does what we want, probably the evening of the 24th.


I'm looking at an alternate route in case the winds don't do what I want... gets me some cheaper gas. Guess I'll make the call when I know what sort of winds aloft we'll have.
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Did you reserve something yet?
 
cowman said:
Gonna be making my big VFR trip of the year after family thanksgiving.

Course will be 2I0 -> KRAS.... anyone know a good place for fuel about halfway? If nobody has a good suggestion I'll just pick the closest midway airport with cheap fuel.

Other issue I see is it looks like I'm passing right through the Houston Bravo.... never been there. Am I likely to be able to pass through basically direct or should I expect to get vectored a significant distance. If weather allows that day I might try to go above...
Click to expand...

I can pretty much guarantee unless you come through at 2 am you will not be flying THROUGH the Houston Terminal Airspace and will be vectored around.. Over or around...

For where you are coming from there is no benefit or gain to descending to 1500-1800 feet and passing through the East-West VFR corridor along I-10.

Have a safe flight...
 
You may already be familiar with this Cowman but if not, a good way to pick out a fuel stop is with skyvector. You can input your route then turn on the fuel price overlay. With prices beside each airport you can fairly quickly locate the cheapest fuel around your route. also, if winds are strong you can pick out cheap fuel with a favorable runway orientation by simply looking at the map.
 
Liberty or Winnie both compete on lower prices in the state, 3,40 today, Winnie is easier to spot right on side of I10 corridor, if you cross Houston you probably be at 2500ft over I10.
 
FORANE said:
You may already be familiar with this Cowman but if not, a good way to pick out a fuel stop is with skyvector. You can input your route then turn on the fuel price overlay. With prices beside each airport you can fairly quickly locate the cheapest fuel around your route. also, if winds are strong you can pick out cheap fuel with a favorable runway orientation by simply looking at the map.
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WOW thanks for this tip. Never saw that option before. GREAT!!!!
 
Warning on that... not all prices are accurate, and not all airports that sell fuel are listed. Its good as a planning guide, but doesn't hurt to call them, either.
 
cowman said:
Gonna be making my big VFR trip of the year after family thanksgiving.

Course will be 2I0 -> KRAS.... anyone know a good place for fuel about halfway? If nobody has a good suggestion I'll just pick the closest midway airport with cheap fuel.

Other issue I see is it looks like I'm passing right through the Houston Bravo.... never been there. Am I likely to be able to pass through basically direct or should I expect to get vectored a significant distance. If weather allows that day I might try to go above...
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Cowman, how was your flight? Did you get vectored around Houston?
 
My flight hasn't left yet, low ceilings at my departure point for the last couple days. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow.
 
I have arrived. It involved ducking under 2000' ovc ceilings, my first time reporting an altitude using the one-zero thousand convention, lots of VFR over the top but we made it.


I ended up going with my 2-stop route so we completely avoided the Houston bravo. I did go directly over Memphis though.
 

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cowman said:
I have arrived. It involved ducking under 2000' ovc ceilings, my first time reporting an altitude using the one-zero thousand convention, lots of VFR over the top but we made it.


I ended up going with my 2-stop route so we completely avoided the Houston bravo. I did go directly over Memphis though.
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It was great meeting you and your lovely wife, Cowman. I hope your flight home today was as gorgeous as ours to McAllen was! What a beautiful day to fly!

We overflew Truax Field at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station on our way home. Look at that sky! And almost zero humidity!

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Jay Honeck said:
It was great meeting you and your lovely wife, Cowman. I hope your flight home today was as gorgeous as ours to McAllen was! What a beautiful day to fly!

We overflew Truax Field at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station on our way home. Look at that sky! And almost zero humidity!

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Great meeting you too, I'm pretty sure I heard you call up for flight following right before I got handed off to Houston. We had a great time staying at your hotel, it really is the perfect setup for a pilot. The no hussies in the hot tub until 9pm rule was realling cramping my style though.

With the tailwinds aloft I got up to 156kts ground speed... I think that's the fastest I've ever been. This trip was full of firsts...

First time flying over a broken layer
First time flying over 10,000
First time flying above bravo airspace(Memphis)
First time flying through bravo airspace(return trip, Houston vectored me for all of 2 minutes and sent me through on the west side)
First time in TX and LA...
First time being overtaken by a DC-10 (I tried so hard to get a picture of it a mile or two off my wing but the pictures didn't come out :( )
First time having a traffic callout for a 747

Great trip, mostly glad to be home now... even thought it was 40F and dropping when we landed .
 
cowman said:
Great meeting you too, I'm pretty sure I heard you call up for flight following right before I got handed off to Houston. We had a great time staying at your hotel, it really is the perfect setup for a pilot. The no hussies in the hot tub until 9pm rule was realling cramping my style though.

With the tailwinds aloft I got up to 156kts ground speed... I think that's the fastest I've ever been. This trip was full of firsts...

First time flying over a broken layer
First time flying over 10,000
First time flying above bravo airspace(Memphis)
First time flying through bravo airspace(return trip, Houston vectored me for all of 2 minutes and sent me through on the west side)
First time in TX and LA...
First time being overtaken by a DC-10 (I tried so hard to get a picture of it a mile or two off my wing but the pictures didn't come out :( )
First time having a traffic callout for a 747

Great trip, mostly glad to be home now... even thought it was 40F and dropping when we landed .
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40 degrees! Brrr...

We are sitting out front tonight, watering the grass and sipping on fresh gin & tonics. I think it's about 70 degrees at 10:30 PM, with super low humidity -- perfect!

We've got a pilot from Illinois in the Flying Tigers room tonight, and a few more Snowbirds checked in today for the winter. Not bad for a Thursday in the off-season -- life is good!

I'm glad you enjoyed your stay, and hope we see you two at Oshkosh in '17! It will be our 35th consecutive year at OSH, so we will do something special... :)


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Nice trip and glad you made it back safely. Not sure what part of the state you call home, but Central IL has been awful with clouds all week. Great that you got around them. One of those weeks around here you start to wonder if you'll ever fly again. :(
 
texasag93 said:
Go over it or go south of the Bravo. They will vector the crap out of you around Hobby and Bush.

I do not fly to that area often enough to give great advice. No idea on fuel other than Foreflight and bladder effect (if wife and kids are going).
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I was cleared to pass right through it at 9500'.
 
Maybe a bit late for this but FYI anyway ...

KTME is now Class D.
 
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