Does anyone on this forum have previous experience with a week-long roundtrip covering as much of the US as possible, in a single engine (cessna/piper/diamond/cirrus)?
We're looking at an average of 6 to 8 flying hours a day, seven days in a row.
Starting point doesn't really matter.
We just want to hear from pilot's who have flown such "missions" in the past
Paging Ed Frederick...
Paging Kent Shook...
These two have each done a "follow the spinner" tour of remarkable scope; Ed, in his prior-plane, a Cherokee 180, Kent in a 182.
Sorry it's taken me a few days to reply, I wanted to have some time to get this right.
First of all, you've heard several people say the following:
I agree with Harry, flying everyday would require amazing luck with the weather and 7hrs a day every day is too much to sit in an easy chair with a fridge full of beer and a good HDTV let alone a cockpit.
All of it in a week? Good luck.
I was tired at the end of most days. By the end of the week your ADM is going to be AWFUL. Anytime I've done 8 hours in a day, I have been destroyed mentally and physically. No way would I try to do 48 states in 7 days unless I'm making 250-300kts on average.
Having flown coast-to-coast in light planes a couple of times, a week would barely do it other than doing nothing but flying with no weather problems. If that's all you want to do, it's possible, although it's likely to be exhausting unless you have a good autopilot.
All in all, if you want to do more than see America as it goes past the wing, a month would be a better starting point.
I would agree - I'm guessing you don't want to do this simply to turn money into noise via airplane. I'm guessing you want to see some things, and there is a LOT to see.
My original trip plan was to go KMSN-S21 and back for a family reunion - 1,389nm each way, direct. This ended up morphing into a 5,800nm adventure by the time all was said and done, and it took me 10 pure flying days and 63.9 hours. That also did not include any of the eastern US at all - The only airports I touched east of the Mississippi were KMSN (my home base) and C29 (when I was so damn tired on the final leg that I didn't want to fly the last 10 miles - C29 was closer to my house).
What makes a trip like this fun is to not be too constrained by a plan. Sure, there'll be some high points you'll want to hit, but the in-between stuff will get changed a LOT based on weather and the whim of the day.
Since my trip was for sightseeing purposes, I did very little night flying - Basically, when the sun set I looked for the nearest friendly-looking little town with a rotating beacon nearby and pointed my plane toward it and landed. Aside from Sunriver, a visit with Will in Watsonville, and the mountain flying course in McCall, my overnights ended up in Aberdeen, SD; Powell, WY; Boulder City, NV; Bryce Canyon, UT; and Denver, CO; exactly ZERO of which were places I had planned to stop for the night.
Given only a week, I'm not sure what I'd elect to see. You'll see more amazing sights from the air in the western US than elsewhere, so I guess I'd maybe start in Wyoming somewhere, fly over Yellowstone and see the Grand Prismatic Spring, head to Idaho and get some mountain instruction and backcountry landings in with
Mountain Canyon Flying in McCall, fly up towards Washington to get a view of Mount Rainier, then head south past Mount Adams, check out Mount St. Helens and the aftermath that's still visible, overfly Crater Lake, continue past Mount Shasta, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas (the only thing worth flying past at night - Watch out for the big rocks though), Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Leadville, and hop over into the front range back to the beginning. For an example route: KCYS DNW 44.525N/110.838W(Grand Prismatic Spring) KWYS KMYL 55S HELNS 42.939N/122.109W(Crater Lake) KTRK KVGT 1G4 KGCN KBCE KRIF KCNY KLXV KCYS. Direct point to point it's a bit over 2,300nm but you'll need to add more for fuel/food stops, etc. and sightseeing of the "Hey, look at that!" variety. Plan on it being at least 3,200nm in reality, don't plan on good groundspeeds (your TAS is going to be impacted flying up that high in a normally aspirated bird), and do plan on it being 7 days of at least 5 flight hours per day.
But, you're getting the "western mountains, lakes, and other natural features tour" there. If this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event, do it right - Get both the time and money budgeted so that you can make it count. You'll probably want to add in some cities, some sightseeing on the ground, etc...
Were it me, I would plan on doing the following:
Start somewhere in Texas. Dallas/Fort Worth probably has the most international flights - I'm assuming you're coming from Europe, your name sounds Dutch (cool - I lived in Wageningen for a year) - and there are plenty of places to rent airplanes in that area, generally for reasonable rates.
Then, I'd want to see the following:
1) New Orleans. Get some truly excellent Cajun food, see some live music, drink a Hurricane. Beware that the last thing may cause you to have to cancel the next day's worth of plans.
2) Florida - Lots to do here, depending on what you're interested in. Disney World if you've got kids or you still are one, the Everglades if you want to see some cool wildlife, Key West "just because" (furthest south airport in the continental US), and I'm sure there's more.
3) Heading up the East coast, Savannah, GA is an interesting spot - Check out Fort Pulaski, a Civil War (1860's) era fort that still has cannon rounds embedded in the walls from that era. And eat at the Tuscon Grill - Best steak I've ever had, anywhere.
4) Don't forget to stop at First Flight Airport in Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills, NC where it all began.
5) Stop in the Washington, DC area to check out the various buildings, monuments, and the National Air and Space Museum (as well as the annex). Easily 4 days worth of ground stuff to do here just to cover the big things.
6) New York City - See Times Square, maybe go to a taping of Letterman or something like that, see a Yankees game, lots to do here.
7) Cape Cod, Nantucket, and/or Martha's Vineyard.
8) Boston area. Lots of history and other neat things here. The Freedom Trail is a must-do if you're interested in American history at all. Tour MIT, eat at the Bull and Finch Pub (the original "Cheers" if you've ever seen that show), again lots to do depending on where your interests lie.
9) Maine - Just because it's pretty up there. Harley can point you in the right direction for your sightseeing.
10) Go west, young man! Through ME-NH-VT and western New York - Head to the Buffalo area and check out Niagara Falls. This one's worth doing both in the air and on the ground. (Note that there are special procedures for doing the overflight as there can be a lot of traffic.)
11) Head to Michigan, via Cleveland (land at Burke Lakefront Airport, just because you can). Tour a big car plant, head north and go to Mackinac Island or head south and go to Chicago. (I'd head north.)
12) Keep going west. Mount Rushmore should be done both in the air and on the ground. Devil's Tower is pretty cool from both air and ground as well.
13) Do the Grand Prismatic Spring, maybe spend a day on the ground in Yellowstone as well, do the mountain flying as described above, and when you go by Mount Rainier, keep on going and stop in the Seattle area. Visit the Space Needle, or any other local attractions that you like.
14) Continue the tour as described above, check out the mountains, but after Crater Lake continue south to the Bay area - San Francisco is well worth a stop. Tour Alcatraz, see the Golden Gate Bridge, go to Fisherman's Wharf and get some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, ride the cable cars.
15) Next, head to the Los Angeles area - Go to Hollywood and take some tours there, if you're interested in movies.
16) Head to Vegas and do the rest of the "week" trip as described above, only rather than heading back up to Wyoming, head back south into Texas.
This version of the trip would best be done with 6-8 weeks of time available and would likely cost in the neighborhood of $20,000-$25,000, not including airfare to and from DFW. You wouldn't see everything the US has to offer, but you'd be hitting the high points both in the air and on the ground and see coast to coast, and it really would be the trip of a lifetime.
Or, you could do it in smaller one-week segments over the course of several years if that'd work better... But don't think you can see the whole country in a week by air - You'd be lucky to just hightail it from New York to California and back in a week without stopping to see anything or changing course along the way. Bo-ring! (Well, at least in the eastern half of the country where it's mostly flat.
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Another thing to keep in mind is that you'll probably want a 182 at a minimum unless you're doing the trip solo. Density altitudes out west can be staggeringly high - The DA was 12,200 feet when I landed at Leadville - so you'll need to have a bird with lots of extra horsepower, and not load it to maximum gross weight. The eastern half of the country could be done in just about any airplane you choose, but the terrain in the west is formidable.
That's enough random musings from me for one night - I hope this helps, and I hope you can give us more information as to what your financial and time constraints are and what you want to see most so you can get some more focused suggestions. Whatever you do, enjoy the journey!
