California to Oshkosh by Avid

About six months ago, I decided to make the trip from the Bay Area to Oshkosh – this would probably be the only opportunity I would have to fly my own plane into Aviation Mecca.  My wife (who is cautiously supportive of my aviation habit) was not terribly happy about the planned flight with all the perceived risks involved.  However, I am a very conservative pilot and try to avoid potential risks at any cost.  I have about 300 hours total flying time so this trip would be a great test of my ability and that of the plane.  In preparation for the trip I bought a small bottle of Oxygen (Aerox) just to make sure that the high mountain crossings wouldn’t present a physiological obstacle. I bought the smallest bottle possible, since I didn’t think I’d fit a large one in the plane (in hindsight I would buy the next size up and squeeze it in behind the seat).  I bought a wad of sectionals and wac’s and spent several hours planning the legs of the flight.

Early in the planning, my Brother-in-Law, Haim, thought it would be nice visit us in the USA.  So we started planning the logistics for a trip that would involve me, the Avid, my wife Shereen, my 16-year-old son, Joel, my 11-year-old daughter Melanie, and my Brother-in-law Haim.  Since the avid only seats 2 we decided that a good plan would be for us to alternate passengers in the Avid while the rest of the crew would drive the minivan broadly along the planned route. To minimize driving we decided that they would only drive to the eastern side of the Rockies, park the car in Albuquerque and take a commercial flight from Albuquerque to Chicago (and return) pick up a rental car in Chicago and drive that leg to Oshkosh. We also decided that they would tow the trailer behind them in case we couldn’t fly one of the planned legs. I’d fly with Shereen or Haim over to eastern Wyoming and with Joel from there to Oshkosh.  Then I’d fly back with Melanie to Albuquerque and then with Haim from Albuquerque back home.

Concerned about high-density altitude performance, we’d only fly early in the mornings and, in keeping with my low risk approach, we’d follow highway 80 eastbound as much as practical and then link up with highway 40 westbound over the ranges.

This was proving to be a logistics exercise to rival Tommy Franks Iraq war!  I looked on the web for any other people’s experiences in flying cross-country along my planned route and any tips about mountain flying.  Some of this was a little helpful but there was not a lot of detail.

We planned on about 5 days in transit each way and 3 days in Oshkosh.  I created a mount for my video camera just behind the passenger seat – looking out to the right side of the plane.  I took a bunch of great video along the trip – I hope to download and edit it sometime soon.

All in all the Avid flew 3100 nautical miles over about 35 hours.  The windstar drove 3200 statute miles with the trailer used to tow the avid for about 600 of those miles.

Friday 25^th July

Departed Palo Alto at about 9.30am

Palo Alto – Reno          1hr 55min

Fuelled up with Exxon at Palo Alto at $2.93 per gallon (13.3 Gallons).

Flew this leg with Haim – it was his first flight in the Avid and the air was smooth and the flight very pleasant.  Got a clearance through Livermore Class Delta then called Norcal Center for flight following to Reno. Generally cruised at about 7,500’ but started the climb to 11,500’ to clear the highest planned terrain over Donner Pass.  As we climbed, flight following advised us to look for an airbus at 2o’closk and about 500’ above us.  Yep … couldn’t miss that one.    We used the O2 on that leg and while a little uncomfortable it seemed to make the flight more pleasant. Approaching Reno, I called approach a little too early and briefly mistook Truckee Airport  for Reno.  Dumb – no problems though - the approach controller was very patient with meJ It rained just a little as we approached Reno airport but pretty soon we were cleared for a right base entry and a smooth (though seemingly fast) landing ensued. 

We taxied to Mercury Air Center who were very friendly and provided good service with a great café and pool table where Haim and I spent an hour or so waiting for Shereen and the kids to arrive. Eventually they did and we locked up the trailer at the airport and headed over to the Eldorado Casio/Hotel.  Reno looks decidedly tacky these days but we did have fun shopping at the street mall where Melanie scored a little crystal ornament courtesy of her uncle.

Saturday 26^th July

Reno – Battle Mountain            1hr 50 mins

Got up early and to the airport at about 7.00am.  Mercury Air Center topped off the tank at  $3.37 per gallon  (9.9 Gallons). Shereen would fly with me from Reno to Battle Mtn (NV) a leg that would take 1hr 50min.  This was Shereen’s first flight in the Avid and we finally got away at about 8.30am with a very smooth take-off.  I asked ground for taxi instructions and got into a conversation with him about our flight to Oshkosh – he wished me good luck and a pleasant flight and sounded very genuine.  The Reno controllers were definitely the friendliest of our trip

Climb was not great – maybe 500 fpm but there was plenty of clear space all around and we gained altitude and climbed to about 9,500’.  Fortunately, it was a very smooth flight and it gave her a lot more confidence and comfort about flying in general.  

Again, I used flight following on this leg.  In general, I didn’t file flight plans since the ground crew knew my route and eta. I did use flight following wherever possible and also used flightwatch for en-route weather.  Oh, I always phoned the briefing office before the first flight of the day (and sometimes between legs) to confirm weather conditions.

On approach to Battle Mountain we hears a couple of familiar accents calling inbound in a Cessna.  I asked if they were Aussies but, in fact, they were English.  When we met up with them on the ground, it turned out they were a couple of Brits doing a trip around the USA and a couple of days away from the end of the trip in San Francisco (I think).  The local FBO was good and topped the tanks quickly (Harless Aircraft Services $2.47795 per gallon – 10.6 Gallons) and pretty soon we were off – headed for Elko.

Battle Mtn – Elko (NV)            - 37 mins

The short flight to Elko started getting a little bumpy.  The time was now about 11am and the convection was becoming obvious. A call to flightwatch to check on conditions to Salt Lake City indicated that thunderstorms could be expected at around the time of our arrival. I decided that we would stop at Elko and trailer the plane the rest of the way (173 miles) to Salt Lake City since we had hotel reservations there already and I was keen for Haim to see the city (which is very pretty and unique).  We made the approach and landing into Elko which was a surprisingly large regional airport.  When the ground controller asked where I wanted to go I told him I’d like to find a place I could fold the wings and put the plane on a trailer – I thought it would raise a chuckle but he was a kind of serious guy and pointed me in the direction of the hangars.  Pretty soon the ground crew turned up and we started loading the plane on the trailer.   It took a while to drain the fuel out of the tank.  It generally takes me about 45 minutes to load up the plane properly.

We drove from Elko – Salt Lake City (UT) in about 3.5 hours.  Not at all pleasant and the forecast storms were no-where to be seen.  Oh well, discretion is the better part of valor, right.  I did see a lot of cumulus clouds as we drove, however and was pretty sure it would have been a bumpy ride had we flown it.

I dropped everyone off in town and drive the plane down to #2 airport in Salt Lake City – a few miles south of the city and below the class bravo airspace of SLC. The FBO - Air Center of Salt Lake charged $2.97 per gallon for 10.1 Gallons and the line guys were quite interested in the avid and my trip.  Got back to the hotel in time to drive over the Red Lobster for their “all you can ear Crab Dinner”.  Really pigged out this time.

Sunday 27^th July

Salt Lake City – Fort Bridger (WY)      - 1hr 10min

I was keen to get to the airport really early to ensure I didn’t have any performance problems due to altitude and temperature.  I packed the O2 again and decided to make the short hop to Fort Bridger solo just to make sure I could clear the mountains.  After getting a weather briefing and a briefing from a local pilot, I departed at about  8am … about an hour later than I had wished.  This would prove later to be a big mistake and from then on I make it a rule to get to the airport no later than 6 am and shoot for a 7am departure. Departed the uncontrolled airport with much improved performance (none of that dead weight in the passenger seat) and got SLC approach on downwind.  I asked for a clearance vie highway 80 to the east and the controller provided very clear instructions on how to navigate through his class Bravo airspace. It proved to be a great flight - beautiful and still – and a much easier climb over the highway 80 pass with the mountain peaks either side of me.  Following the highway was straightforward and I soon landed at FBR – easy to find with my GPS but a little more difficult to find by road as Shereen and the crew found out – finally arriving about 45 minutes after I had landed and refueled.  There was not much at all to see at FBR and it may have made more sense to land at Evanston.  Also, the runway was very rough – weeds growing in the cracks, etc. I took on just a little fuel (Self Service  $2.349 per gallon  - 3.0 Gallons) since I was concerned about our weight at the altitude and temperature that we were operating at.

Fort Bridger – RWL (WY)       -  1hr 55 mins

I flew the next leg with Haim.  By the time se set off the temp was in the low 30’s (centigrade) and we had a density altitude of about 9,000’.  Climb was very weak – 300 fpm so I just kept on runway heading and gradually gained enough altitude to make a comfortable turn to the east. About halfway into the flight it started to become very turbulent.  There was a lot of convection but also quite a bit of wind shear.  This made flying the little avid quite tiring.  Again, I employed the services of flight following for this leg.

Haim, who had a student pilots license several years ago, flew for a little while but the turbulence made this difficult. We eventually found Rawlins airport and made an approach to the south.  The AWOS suggested there was a 15kts wind blowing (gusting to 22kts).  Frankly I was a little (more than a little) nervous since I had never landed the avid in taildragger mode in these conditions. To make it worse, the wind was a quartering crosswind from the right.  So Haim had a pretty good view of the runway as I slipped in with the right wing way low to correct for drift. All things considered the landing wasn’t too bad (under the circumstances) thought I am sure that Haim didn’t feel too good about it.

Again, we decided that if we were to keep to our schedule, we would have to trailer the plan to Laramie Wyoming so once again, we loaded it up and set off for a 3 hour casual drive through windy Wyoming.  This time, I was sure I had made the right decision not to press on, since the wind at ground level was howling over the windbreaks placed strategically alongside the highway.  I figured it was gusting up to 30 knots in places.  I wondered what it would have been at altitude and how the little avid would have behaved. 

We got to Laramie Regional Airport relatively early in the afternoon and filled the tank with 11.7 Gallons at  $2.65 per gallon. Tied the plane down and covered it in anticipation of an early departure the next day.

Drive into our hotel in Laramie, complete with cowboy silhouettes, etc and had a nice meal at the Overlander café.

Monday 28^th July

Laramie – Newcastle 2hrs 20 mins

Monday morning we got up at 5am.  I checked the weather on my anywhere map flight planner with nexrad almost real time weather depiction.  I called the met office for a briefing and they confirmed that there was a line of storms just east of us in southeast SD and Nebraska and that our best plan would be to fly north then east. Seemed like a good plan, even if it would add a couple of hundred miles to our trip.

Out at the airport early this time (about 5.45am) and Joel and I said bye to the ground crew who were now headed to Albuquerque while we flew to Oshkosh. Quick call on the Unicom frequency and we were off behind a Cessna and a Piper.  After we lifted off I tried to get hold of flight watch then FSS.  No luck – seemed strange. As I checked the radio, I realized that we had forgotten to plug the antenna back in when we re-assembled it. It worked at very limited range on the ground in Laramie but was useless in the air – duh! Easy to connect while airborne, I called flightwatch and got an update. About 2 miles north of the airport the fog was pretty intense.  I didn’t relish flying over the hilly terrain without ground reference so I was pleased to hear that actual weather along our route was favorable. We pressed on and after about 10 minutes we could seek the ground again. Again, I used flight following on this leg as we set course for Gillette or Mondel (depending on weather). The conditions looked pretty good to the east so we decided to save some time and revised our destination to Mondel/Newcastle.  Approaching the airport I called Mondel traffic and advised my intentions.  Seems I should have called Newcastle traffic as the Cessna flying the opposite pattern may have been expecting – I didn’t hear any of his calls but fortunately spotted his shadow and then the plane several hundred feed away as we flew a left 45 approach. Pretty good landing despite the confusion and we quickly refueled with Newcastle Tuff Air at  $2.75 per gallon  (12.2 Gallons). I called the weather briefer again and it seemed we were now north of threatening weather

Newcastle -  Rapid city (SD)    1hr 15mins

A pretty quick turnaround at Newcastle and we set the plan for Pierre passing to the north of the Black Hills of South Dakota. As we rounded the hills to the west and north, it started to become familiarly turbulent again.  I was pleased we didn’t just fly over the mountains but had followed the highways again.  I think the turbulence would have been even more unpleasant over the mountainous terrain and I always felt comfortable we had a place too put down in an emergency.

Unfortunately, Joel started becoming a little motion  sick so we decided to let down in Rapid City South Dakota.  About 10 mins out of Rapid City I noticed that my oil pressure was fluctuating from its normal rock steady 58 psi to about 48psi. So I was pleased to land and check it out.

The approach into Rapid City was straightforward and it was a pretty daunting sight to see the huge Air force base just north of the airport. Called Approach who quickly handed me over to the Tower for a right base into Rapid City.

The lovely lady ad the  FBO (WestJet Air Center) was just marvelous and organized a car rental, hotel room and dining and sightseeing advice in the blink of an eye.  Not sure what I’d need to do about the oil pressure, I decided to put the plane in the hangar  ($25 Fee) that night and troubleshoot in the morning.

We went to the local “Pub and Grub” restaurant and ate huge helpings of burgers after which Joel felt just fine. We then did the tourist thing and visiting the very impressive Mount Rushmore and a local Reptile park.  Great fun. I also checked the oil pressure specs and was reassured that the minimum pressure permitted was 32 psi.  So I figured we had either blown some oil out of the breather or consumed some.

Funny thing about stopping at Rapid City is that Shereen was really keen to see Mount Rushmore but we couldn’t figure out how to get there during our time in the USA.  Also, Haim is a mad keen Harley fan (he owned one till some bastard stole it) and Rapid City is only a few miles south of Sturgis where the annual Harley rally takes place just a few days after we were there. So both of them were a little peeved that Joel and I ended up here. The next morning, we refueled at $2.63 per gallon for 6.3 gallons.

Tuesday 29^th July

Rapid City – Madison (SD)      2 hrs 20 mins

This time Joel and I got up even earlier at  4.45am (at this rate, we’d soon be getting up before we went to bed!).  Out at the airport by 5.30am.  Checked the oil which was fortunately a little low as I had guessed) and we were flying by 6.30am.  The scenery over the so-called “Badlands” of Wyoming was austere.  It struck me throughout the trip that the early pioneers must have been pretty real adventurers to traverse the diverse landscape contained within the continent.

We arrived with a very smooth crosswind landing at Madison with the wind blowing at about 10kt.  Soon after we landed we met a few guys from SLC bound for  OSH in a 28-year-old twin Beech or something.  A very slick plane, it looked like it was only a couple of years old.  Talk about traveling in style (cruise 190kt / 8 pax). I impolitely asked the owner what the plane was worth – figuring about ¾ million or something.  Turns out it was appraised recently at $360k … hmmm if I save those pennies… Good FBO at Madison (Dakota Wings) refueled us 2.20 per Gallon  (12.3 Gallons)

Madison – Rochester (MIN)  2hrs 10 mins

After refueling and chatting to the twin for a while we set of for Rochester (MIN).   Take off wasn’t anywhere near as elegant as the landing.  I generally take off in a 3pt attitude.  I find it difficult to maintain control when I raise the tail in the avid – I think it’s the combination of too small a fin area and some blanketing behind the fuselage.  Anyway, that technique works for me. But this time we skidded across the runway a little before I could get into ground effect.  My crosswind leg was more a diagonal trajectory but since it was in the general direction we were heading in I elected to climb out in that direction – as I said , not very elegant.

As usual, after about one hour of flying (about 11.30 with time change) it started getting bumpy and Joel again started feeling a little unwell.

Before long we were at Rochester and the FBO (Hiawatha Aviation) refueled us at 2.95 per gallon for 10.2 gallons.  They wanted $45 to hangar the plane .. nearly as much as our room cost …. needless to say we tied it down outside.  We stayed at the Comfort Inn just around the corner from the airport. They organized a nice rental car for us and we headed to Red Lobster again for the “all you can eat crab” then went to see a movie “2 Fast 2 Furious” about street racers and their souped up rice rockets. 

Wednesday 30^th July

Rochester – Oshkosh 1hr 50 min

This was the big day - up bright and early (5.50am) but when we got out of the front door of the hotel we found it was raining.  Oh well, maybe it will clear.  Sure enough, by the time we had removed the covers, etc it was pretty clear.  So I checked weather (along with a lanciar driver also going to Oshkosh)  The forecast was ok … some precipitation but nothing to concern us. In the air by 6.30am we set course for Oshkosh, passing just south of Volk.  Headed east – called in south of La Crosse (but outside of their airspace) just in case the hoards of airplanes headed for Oshkosh needed to know I was around. Passed through the non-active airspace adjacent to Volk.  This was really exciting for me and I had mentioned to Joel the need to keep an eye out for traffic into Oshkosh … but there he was, asleep next to me.  He woke up as we approached Ripon and reminded me to turn the video camera on for our arrival to Oshkosh.

As we flew over the railway line to Fisk the controller told the “High wing” approaching Fisk to rock its wings,  I did and he acknowledged and told me to go to tower – but as I reflected on it, it seemed that I was to far from Fisk to e the guy he was talking to so I switched back to approach and confirmed that it was obviously not me he was talking to!! This time, as I approached FISK (strobe clearly in sight) he told the Cessna to rock its wings.  Asked a second time.  I rocked my wings and he said ok  - go to tower. Oh, the indignation of being called a Cessna!

Tower asked us to maintain 1800 ft  and 90kts till past the intersecting runway. Runway 18 R was mine – turn right base over the gravel pits. Nice approach into OSH and a greaser past the blue dot.  That wasn’t so hard after all and where were all those planes I was concerned about – heck, I only saw one the whole time and that was the guy ahead of me as I landed?  Quickly take the grass off the runway behind a Stinson or something and I’m here.  I made it. Yippeee!

Wednesday 30^th  – Friday 1^st August

Oshkosh was great as usual.  Very hard to cover it in just 3 days (I normally spend 5 days drooling). I only saw one other avid at the show (plus the avid floatplane). Disappointing.  There were about 30 Kitfoxes (and I was parked among them).  I did meet a few avid builders/fliers (some of whom I’d spoken to over the internet) but both meeting times (wed and thur) that had been set up over the net were washed out (at least for me). Wednesday found me sheltering from a thunderstorm under a food vendors tent at the seaplane base (thought I learned later that about 15 builders managed to meet there) and, likewise, Thursday saw me in the international tent with 500 other people sheltering from the storm. It would be great to organize a get-together a little more formally next time. Perhaps Steve Wynder should do a forum next year?  I do fear that without factory representation or any way to get builders and flyers of these great little planes together, the breed will just die out.

Despite the brief periods of rain, the show was very enjoyable.  I picked up a second set of lightspeed ANR headsets and asked the aerox people if I could exchange my puny little O2 bottle for the next size up since it ran out of O2 much quicker than advertised.  They initially said yes but then when I brought the bottle to them the guy changed his mind since mine had been sitting on the shelf at the San Jose Pilot Shoppe for several months (which was obviously my fault, right?).  I plan to take it back to the pilot Shoppe, hopefully they will replace it.

In the evenings, we went to the local haunts with our Oshkosh friends/hosts that we’ve known for the last 12 years or so.  My friend Tom flew in with his Long-Eze on wed afternoon  after leaving San Francisco on Tuesday at 5pm and making one stop in Montana en-route to Oshkosh.

Saturday 2^nd August

Osh – Dubuque  1hr 30 mins

After an all too brief stay in Oshkosh we planned to depart early Saturday morning. The outlook forecast on Friday night was IFR till 9am, then gradually clearing.  Just in case they were wrong, I woke up at 6am to check out the window – it was VFR as far as my eyes could see.  We got to the airport in time to hear the 7am “Good Morning Vietnam” type PA announcement. Fortunately, I had arranged fuel just after we landed and had paid Orion Flight Services  $2.19 per Gallon for  6 Gallons  (Bassler was less than $2 per gallon) the day before so was ready to go after a quick dash to the briefing office for a departure briefing.

Rwy 18L in use .  Taxi up behind a yellow Cub. Cleared for take-off as soon as he starts rolling.  I hold back a little since  know I’ll be faster than him. Start rolling as he lifts off. Right turn at the blue dot and maintain 500’ to the lake. Pretty soon we have the cub on our right and blow right past him.  Climb to 4500 for the trip down.  Our planned destination was Manchester Iowa but our first break was Dubuque.  I got flight following on the way down again.

The Dubuque FBO was very friendly – Mel bought some pop tarts and some milk for breakfast and the Jet Center fuelled us up at $2.166 per gallon for 13.3 Gallons

Dubuque – Pella Io  1hr 15 mins

We soon departed Dubuque en-route to Manchester.  It was a pretty smooth and easy flight but Mel began felling a little ill towards the end (I think because she was looking down to write a “magic puzzle” for me to do. Flight following cleared me thru cedar rapids airspace and we soon had Pella in sight. We landed at Pella into a right crosswind. Pella was great – the FBO, Classic Aviation, was the most friendly of our trip.

There was a young guy named Keith who was really helpful.  They loaned me the courtesy car so we went into town to see the biggest windmill in the USA – the tour was interesting and the power of the wind on the huge blades was amazing.  We tried to eat at a local restaurant “der schnoopwinkle” (what the heck does that mean?) but they’d closed for lunch so we had burgers at the corner restaurant. Later went to Wal-Mart and picked up a new Fram oil filter. Pella is knows for the largest windmill and smallest Wal-Mart in the USA..

We checked into the comfort inn just at the end of the airport and I left Mel chatting with her friends on Instant Messenger  while I took advantage of the earlier than planned stop to do some maintenance. I drained the tank to tighten the mechanical fuel gage that I had installed a few weeks ago and which was showing some signs of a very small fuel leak. I also fitted the new oil filter and topped the oil off (the oil pressure had again started fluctuating a little during our flight and appeared a little low when we landed).  I also fitted a small baffle to the inlet since my CHT’s  seemed to be too cool. 

Just as I was finishing off, one of the student pilots was let go for his first solo. A few threatening clouds approached – but nothing came of them and the young guy did a couple of very smooth circuits and landings.

Keith fueled me up at $2.40 per Gallon  (6.9 Gallons) and I put the plane to bed for the night.  Pella was a highlight of our trip.

Sunday 3^rd August

Pella to Fall City (2hrs 20 mins)

Sunday morning we woke early (5.30 am) for breakfast and I checked weather.  A line of thunderstorms moving southeast at about 20kts would interrupt our planned route.  On that basis if we left Pella at 6.30am as planned, we’d probably have to cool our heels north of the line of storms anyway.  So, we took the courageous decision to jump back into bed for another hour or two. 

Good plan, left at a more civilized time (9am) and headed southwest. Got flight following again (I love it). Mel flew the plane a little – did a great job of holding track. We were shooting for Manchester, but Mel again started to become a little ill.  I advised center of  a change in final destination from Manchester to Fall City – controller wanted to know why and I told him I had a slightly sick passenger. We landed at Fall City and met a rather reserved but very accommodating FBO manager.  We decided to go into town for lunch and he offered us the airport car – but it wasn’t in the lot when we got out there so he let us have his personal car.  We went to the deli inside the supermarket and had a great pastrami sandwich. Fuelled up at $2.70 per gallon and 10.3 gallons.

Back to the airport – quick weather forecast – all clear - and off to our next planned stop, which was Liberal KS. 

Fall City – Manhattan KS (50mins)

I should have known by now that midday convection and the Avid don’t agree. It was too bumpy for comfort even at 4500’ About 45 mins into the flight Mel started feeling ill again.  We were pretty close to Manhattan so we contacted the tower and headed in.  Mel was starting to feel quite bad and had the sick bag at the ready.  She didn’t even realize we were lined up on the runway.  We taxied over to the browsers and we lay on the grass in the shade for about 10 mins looking at the clouds.  Those little things are what memories are made of.

When she started to feel ok again, we headed over the FBO – the usual friendly folks you meet there suggested a hotel in town, etc.. The hotel shuttle picked us up from the airport and we went to the creamery for an ice cream and a walk around the shopping village there.  Manhattan is home to the University of Kansas, known for agriculture, engineering and architecture. The hotel was right a cross the road from the university. Seems like a very nice town. 

Kansas Air Center fueled us up at $2.68 per Gallon for 4.6 Gallons.

Monday 4^th August

Manhattan (KS) – Dodge City  2hrs 30 mins

We booked a cab to the airport for 5.30am and made it out by 5.45 am where a very tired young lady fixed up our account. Pretty soon we were away and I was keen to make up lost time since I knew we only had a few hours of flyable conditions.  That was a key learning from our trip – as nice a plane as the Avid is, it’s not ideal for cross-country flying when the conditions get turbulent (as the do in the Midwest in the late morning).  I am building a Cozy back in Australia and don’t think I’ll have that problem with the Cozy given its higher wing loading. Airport.

Landed at Dodge City and Crotts Aircraft Service fueled us up at  $2.48 per Gallon  (10.8 Gallons).  The FBO manager at Dodge City had just returned from Oshkosh a day earlier so we chatted for a few minutes about the show.

Dodge City – Boise City (17K)   1hr

After the very quick stop in Dodge City we headed for our next stop en-route to New Mexico. After an hour or so, Mel and I both felt the need for a bio-break.  We were overhead Boise City so I decided to let down there.  BIG MISTAKE.  When we got to pattern altitude the wind was blowing at 15kt.  I lined up for what I thought was the best runway but by the time I was on short final it was apparent that there was a quartering crosswind from BEHIND me. I really struggled to put it down straight – thank goodness for the Grove gear – if I had the bungee gear, I think I would have lost it. On the ground it felt like the wind was blowing at about 25knots. Scary!

Got out to find the restroom and the airport was totally dead. It appeared to be the aviation equivalent of a ghost town – sheet metal flapping on the roofs of the hangars and a few very sorry looking planes tucked underneath them. To make matters worse, the only toilets appeared to be out of order. Without going into details, we completed our assigned tasks and headed back to the plane as soon as we could for a take-off in the opposite direction.  Suffice to say, if you have an opportunity to land at Boise City ….don’t!

Boise City – Clayton  15 mins

A very short hop to Clayton saw us back in civilization. This was a pretty basic airport but much more accommodating than the last. We checked weather for the trip to

New Mexico.  I called Shereen who was now in Albuquerque and suggested that we might not make it there today since the turbulence was building and Mel was not feeling great. We decided to make the next leg to Las Vegas (NM) and Shereen would drive there to meet us.  Looked to be about a 1-hour flight.  We refueled in Clayton at $2.40 per Gallon for 7.0 Gallons.

Clayton – Las Vegas NM 1hr 35 mins

The flight from Clatyon to Las Vegas was definitely the worst flight of the whole trip.  The convection and turbulence was very bad and the terrain un-inviting.  Melanie began feeling ill pretty soon but stayed calm and acted like a real trooper when I told her it didn’t make sense to turn around since it would not be much longer to go forward. The wind was now a pretty strong headwind and our progress over the ground was slower than planned (I also wanted to slow the plane down to avoid overstressing it in the turbulent conditions). The 1-hour flight took more than 1 ½  hours.

It was great to see Las Vegas come into view and the ground crew were waiting for us after a bumpy landing caused partly by the wind and partly by fatigue on my part.  They said they could hear us approaching a minute or two before they saw us and it turned out they were rather worried by our delay.

We drove from Las Vegas – Albuquerque and frankly I was very happy to do that. We then dropped Joel off at Albuquerque airport for his commercial flight back to San Jose.  We eventually found the FBO at Albuquerque international and put the plane in their hangar.  Refueled (the refueller overfilled the tank and we had to wash down the fuel residue .. I hate it when they do that … if I was a professional line man, I would think I could figure out how to fuel a plane up without spilling a gallon of gas!).

We soon got to our hotel, grabbed dinner at a local diner and slept very soundly after a very long day.  I was a little nervous about our departure out of Albuquerque’s class Charlie the next day but that didn’t stop me from sleeping well.

Tuesday 5^th August

Albuquerque – Winslow  2hrs 35 mins

Up at 5.45 am and out to the airport.  This time Haim would fly with me and Shereen and Mel would drive to Flagstaff.  After fixing up our account for gas and hangar we got our clearance delivery heading west. The clearance delivery was simply a squawk code and approach frequency and I was expecting more detailed instructions.  Anyway, we called up ground and got approval to taxi out to the active.  There we about 6 other twins and light planes ahead of me and an MD 80 behind us.  When I got to the run-up bay I was a little worried that I hadn’t picked up the full clearance so I requested a change to clearance delivery frequency to confirm the instructions.  Yep, just a squawk and frequency so back to ground for further taxi instructions.  By now the MD80 was ahead of us and we were told to taxi out behind him.  Wow, those planes look REALLY big from down here!!!  I had visions of wake turbulence on take off and wondered if I should request more than 3 minutes separation on departure.  Fortunately, after Tower cleared the MD80 to take off, a lancair was cleared to land prior to our departure so it wake turbulence wasn’t such a big concern. Cleared for take off and a left turn, we throttled up and soon lifted off despite the 7000’ density altitude.  It was actually quite turbulent as we climbed through 8,000?? Feet.  Tower handed me over to approach and I requested flight following.  Unfortunately, the controller could only pick up my transponder intermittently so they couldn’t help out this time. We climbed to 8,500’ and tried to get to 10,500 but the little avid couldn’t muster the power to overcome the high-density altitude conditions so we descended back to 8,500’. 

About an hour into the flight we figured we would have caught up to Shereen in the min-van and started checking the highway to see if we could find her.  Low and behold – there she was overtaking a truck. We tried to get her attention and briefly caught her on video but after we landed we found out she hadn’t seen us.  It was quite a buzz to pick out the car along the route to Winslow.

Winslow – Flagstaff  45 mins

We had planned to meet in Flagstaff but I wanted to take on a little more fuel just in case we were delayed for some reason.  We bought 6 Gallons form Winslow Air  at $2.599 per Gallon.  On the ground, we chatted with another experimental builder – this one from Canada who was flying his Rotax 912 powered composite kit around the USA counter-clockwise. I wondered why he hadn’t been to Oshkosh?  I envied the space he had in his plane and his reported cruise speed of 125 knots.  From a distance, I thought the plane was a Murphy rebel, but I was wrong (can’t recall what it was though)

After a short 30-minute flight we Flagstaff came into view.  A quick call to the tower confirmed that the power output of my Icom handheld was a little marginal as they reported my transmission was a bit crackly.  This was a common problem during the trip and if I were to do a similar trip again, I would upgrade the radio.  I also now understand the benefit of two comm’s – sure would be easier to check weather and listen out for center instructions if I had two of them.

We followed the golf cart to a tie down spot and before we could hop out the line boy had literately rolled out a red carpet for us.  Nice touch.  Tied the plane down and told them we’d be staying two nights.

Shereen found the airport about 30 mins later and we drove into Flagstaff along Route 66 for a sandwich before driving up to the Grand Canyon.  Despite the head and tiredness we spent a couple of hours walking down the Bright Angel Trail.  Melanie and I had done this a couple of years ago and had a great time.  We just chatted and joked as we descended into the canyon and panted and complained as we trudged back up.  If you haven’t seen the Grand Canyon you must do it. I really would like to return one day and hike all the way to the river, camp overnight (need to book that) and then hike back up the next day.  We met a couple of young ladies during our brief hike who had done the hike down and back in a day – walking in the midday heat of 115 degrees!

Next day we slept in till 9am and then went to the IMAX and for breakfast at the café next door.  We decided to drive down to Sedona, which I had heard was very charming.  On the way down there we stopped at Slide Rocks which is kind of a natural water park with the river running over some smooth rocks and dozens of people sliding down them despite the icy water.  We were hot and Mel and I decided to join in.  It was a lot of fun and worth the $8 entry fee.

Soon we were in Sedona admiring the art shops and the scenery.  I wouldn’t mind spending a night or two in Sedona – but not this time.  Back to Flagstaff overnight.

Thursday 6^th August

Flagstaff – Las Vegas Nevada  2 hr 20 minutes

Next morning we woke at about 7am for the short planned flight from Flagstaff to Las Vegas Nevada.  I slept a little fitfully – I was a little concerned about the density altitude, runway length and the stands of tall pine trees one both approaches to the runway at Flagstaff.  We filled up with 9.7 Gallons at a cost of $34.80. I also bought a Las Vegas Terminal chart determined to avoid the Class Bravo Airspace around Macaroon as we planned out flight into Henderson Executive just south of Las Vegas.  The black airport cat (I’d heard of airport dogs but not cats) pawed over the map as I was checking out where I could and could not fly.  Only later did Haim tell me he felt uneasy about seeing a black cat prior to our departure.  The superstition didn’t even occur to me. We set off for what would be the most scenic flight of the trip. My concerns about the density altitude performance were only partly warranted – we did have a pretty limp 300 fpm climb rate – about the most marginal I would like to see.  Thank goodness the Jabiru just kept on purring away.  About an hour after we had left the highway behind us we could see the spectacular ridges of the canyon and the mighty river below it.  Unfortunately, we also saw some threatening clouds in the distance with what appeared to be rain below them.  There was no lightening associated with them as we had just passed a long runway (must have been for one of the Indian reservations) so we pressed on.  As we approached the rain front, we got a little turbulence so I slowed down and tried to avoid the worst of the rain.  After about 10 minutes we’d past the worst and started to relax.  We agreed that that was the most concerning spell of the 35 plus hours of flying we had done.  A second later, we dropped like a stone with the VSI showing –1000 fpm descent.  We had lots of ground clearance at 8.500’ but lost about 200’ in that downdraft.  I called flightwatch and filed a pirep. The flight over Boulder City and into Henderson was smooth from there.  We shot some great video too.

Approaching Henderson I advised the tower that we were “unfamiliar” and he cautioned me to stay clear of the Class Bravo.  I was below 4500’ so was well clear of the airspace.  He told me to make right traffic for runway left.  Seemed odd as we were approaching from the left side so I called him back to clarify.  This time it was left traffic as I was expecting.  We made a slow approach and a squeaky smooth landing at Henderson.  Henderson is a great airport if you are flying into Las Vegas.

Haim decided he would spend a couple of extra nights in Las Vegas and then drive to LA for his flight back to Sydney.  I didn’t want Shereen to drive back to Palo Alto on her own so decided to put the plane on the trailer for the 10 hour drive back home.  Although it would mean we wouldn’t arrive back in PAO in triumph after our 2-week journey it was the right thing to do since Shereen had been so supportive of my indulgence.

Thursday night we changed $60 for chips at the roulette table and on our last fling we hit the right number and subsequently picked up $200 for a profit of $140 for the evening.

Next morning we set off for home and after an overnight stop in Bakersfield, arrived back home at about 3pm on Saturday – just over 2 weeks after leaving.

Key learning’s from the trip are –

-         you can fly an Avid or similar low powered plane across the continent given time and planning

-         you don’t want to fly for more than 4-5 hours a day, and that after leaving really early in the morning.  Flying after 11am is no fun and flying after noon is really hard.

-         Make sure you have a reliable engine and plane. I had no problems with the Jabiru engine (other than oil consumption that was a little higher than I had expected).  My handheld radio was marginal for this sort of trip.  My transponder was intermittent at times … need to get that checked.

-         I followed highways as much as possible so I always left myself a way out in case I had a problem.  This added a few miles to the trip but I always felt safe.

-         Don’t be concerned about using flight services or flying into class Charlie or through class Bravo airspace. The controllers are very professional and were always helpful.

-         Get en-route weather whenever possible and always get a weather briefing before flight

-         Fly with a good GPS systems – anywheremap did a great job for me and the anywhere planner software (while a little quirky) was a useful planning tool (especially when combined with the NEXRAD weather feature).

-         Give yourself plenty of time for the journey.  If we hadn’t taken the trailer, we would have arrived into Oshkosh at least a day later than planned and returned a further day later than planned.  The weather is unpredictable (we were lucky) so don’t push yourself beyond your plane and your own limits.

-         Don’t worry about buying oxygen – didn’t really need it.

-         Be very aware of aircraft performance and density altitude/weight compromises.  If I were flying this trip solo, I wouldn’t have had a care in the world – the short wing Avid generally gets over 1000 fpm climb at sea level and I saw over 700 fpm at 7,000’ DA.  But with two people and full fuel, it really tests your ability to extract every foot per minute of climb rate.

We had a great time.  I recommend it!!!