KY to CA in an Archer II... how insane am I?

Sounds like you had an awesome trip! Thank you for the pictures.

So - how insane are you in your opinion? :D;)
 
Skywalker said:
Sounds like you had an awesome trip! Thank you for the pictures.

So - how insane are you in your opinion? :D;)
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IDK, a 4?

Safety wise I think we were totally sane. We were clearing all the terrain by more than 3,000'... really closer to 4-5000 at all times. Plane was well under it's max gross weight so the one takeoff I did with a density altitude in excess of 7,000' was no big deal, just an anemic climb. Had a pulse-oximeter to check myself at the higher altitudes, no issues. I delayed several flights due to high winds, another that I could have made IFR due to potential icing over the OK area. We had built in several days of extra time and left part of the trip sort of open ended so that delays and diversions were just part of the plan.

Comfort was another issue. When we left Roswell and started out over the actual mountain crossings which was 2 3-hour flights back to back. We had light and occasional moderate turbulence the whole way which was hard on my non-pilot wife passenger. It also left me on edge the whole time because I was always bracing myself for "the big one" having heard many stories about mountain turbulence. Really it was never that bad but it was never smooth either. I've certainly experienced plenty of turbulence at least as bad as anything encountered on this trip but operating over mountains in air I'm just not familiar with lead to a lot of uneasy crossings. Breaking it up was definitely the way to go. After adding up the logbook and doing a double-take I apparently added 36.7 hours to my logbook on this trip. 8.7 of those hours were put in yesterday in a mad dash to get home in one go... probably the most hours I ever want to do in a day. Punching all of this really quick into foreflight I get 3,874nm traveled and that doesn't count all the diverting around MOAs and such. That.... was a lot of flying in 2 weeks.

In the end, I'm glad I did it. We saw a lot of stuff, ate a lot of really good food, had a lot of experiences. That said, I think next year we'll just go to FL or somewhere along the gulf coast again :p
 
This was the actual route, best as I can recall with the various navaids to avoid things added in. Disregard altitude and today’s winds obviously.
 

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cowman said:
This was the actual route, best as I can recall with the various navaids to avoid things added in. Disregard altitude and today’s winds obviously.
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How much time did you add to the logbook?
 
Congratulations...:cheers: Looks like you had great trip... Something we all should do... After all that's why we fly...:goofy:
 
Do it! I've had the great fortune of being born, growing up and living most of my life in the various areas between San Diego and Santa Barbara. The flying here is unparalleled, and the ATC services are nothing short of spectacular too. The best airport restaurant on earth is at KCMA in Camarillo, but be careful about how busy it gets on the weekends. Definitely recommend you make a stop though. Consider visiting San Diego and seeing the scene here as well. If you like wine, find some 8 hour bottle to throttle time to fly into IZA and visit Santa Barbara wine country.

BillW said:
Non-aviation advice: check closely on conditions in Santa Barbara. They've just had fires and mudslides and floods in the last few months and may not be fully back up to tourist-level operation.
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They are doing fine. The good hotels are all open and the wine country was pretty unaffected. Your tourist dollars will be appreciated, and gas at KSBA is cheap these days.
 
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