Hello all,
So as some may know, I will be shipping my Cessna 140 from Hawaii to California in the next coming weeks. The current plan of action is to assemble the 140 at Castle Airport (KMER). Once assembled, I will be visiting some Navy friends in San Diego, then all the way up the coast to Seattle to visit more Navy friends. Eventually, I will make my way back down to the Reno area for HSF18. Following HSF, the current plan was to follow Interstate 80 through the Rockies and the Midwest, then picking up Interstate 90 near Chicago the rest of the way back to Massachusetts. This will be (by far) the most extensive and challenging flight I have ever pursued. There is some incredible talent and experience on this page, and I was hoping to get any and all advice possible on whatever you all see fit for a newbie (routes, places to visit, things to do, things NOT to do, etc.) Looking forward to the journey!


Map of the proposed route

I’ll be in Torrance KTOA, October for Robinson Helicopter Maintenance Course at the factory. I have an empty hangar at KTOA and a car. It’s on your route kinda of..

You're not looking at one big cross country flight, You're looking at a long series of short X/C flights. Plan accordingly and stay flexible. My last flight from the west coast to the east coast wound up following a route that was far different than my original plan. Give yourself the time to deviate significantly as required by weather and have fun. Being IFR current and having a plane with good equipment helps somewhat, but my deviations were driven by a long line of imbedded thunderstorms and no rating or avionics were going to get me through them. A planned leg from Santa Fe to Norman, Oklahoma wound up with a night in North Platte, Nebraska. It was a good night and a pleasant place to visit. I learned that the North Platte airport was the first in the nation to install lighting for night operations. Who knew? So have a general plan and places you'd like to see, but don't lock in to that plan as inviolate. The unexpected destinations may wind up being the best part of your trip.

Flyhound wrote:You're not looking at one big cross country flight, You're looking at a long series of short X/C flights. Plan accordingly and stay flexible. My last flight from the west coast to the east coast wound up following a route that was far different than my original plan. Give yourself the time to deviate significantly as required by weather and have fun. Being IFR current and having a plane with good equipment helps somewhat, but my deviations were driven by a long line of imbedded thunderstorms and no rating or avionics were going to get me through them. A planned leg from Santa Fe to Norman, Oklahoma wound up with a night in North Platte, Nebraska. It was a good night and a pleasant place to visit. I learned that the North Platte airport was the first in the nation to install lighting for night operations. Who knew? So have a general plan and places you'd like to see, but don't lock in to that plan as inviolate. The unexpected destinations may wind up being the best part of your trip.

If you’re not in a time crunch, do what he ^^ said. If you’re needing to be somewhere....call the airlines.

But with a little flexibility, this could be a dynamite trip!

MTV

Come say hi at Twin Oaks (7S3). You can camp there, or enjoy Portland. We can find some stuff for you to do in your 140.

I have found it much easier to just set my big destinations, forget about time schedules and the intermediate destinations will make themselves known enroute. My last trip I ended up in Boise for two nights and had a blast, Boise wasn't even on our list of possibles but the weather dictated.

Sounds like a really fun trip.

Agree with others; don't over-plan route or time; you'll want a lot more time. Bought Champ in North Hampton (N of Boston) and flew to S TX and later to CO. Never enough time. DO consider you're timing; sounds like Oct over the Rockies. Serious potential for early snow/cold/wind in MT/WY. You may want to seriously consider a southern route if you don't have any time constraints.

Jack

I did almost that exact trip but in reverse (Vermont to Southern Oregon) in 2005 in a Citabria. Lots of fun!

The main thing, like others have said, is to give yourself lots of time. Pick out the smaller fields/towns to land at -- there are so many little fields across the country, many of them grass. Lots of places to camp under the wing and live the vagabond barnstormer lifestyle. Often, folks would lend us their truck to go into town to get food or give us a ride. You'll have some great stories to tell. Have fun!

2H0 Shelbyville Illinois is a great place to stop. Grass runway. Real nice airport car and Shelbyville Inn is a nice place top spent the night or camp on the field. Airport manager could not be any nicer.

One of the beauties of ForeFlight, and most other flight planning software is the “rubber band” feature, where you put in a route direct A to B (like you’ve done) then you “rubber band” the route to suit weather, gas prices, or places you’d like to see.

Fantastic feature, enjoy it to its fullest.

MTV

I flew my old 170 from the Bay Area to Maine in 2 days with its new owner. Your I-80 route is the most logical and what I was planning. I’ve done that route before coming the other way from Cheyenne. Wx was no good that way so I dipped south to Santa Fe to get around the Rocky’s then we were back on course. We really just planned as we went, the next stop was dependent on weather, fuel prices, and courtesy car availability to get food. Often times our plan changed in flight, like having great tailwinds that allowed us to push on further than we expected to go. Having a Stratus and Foreflight was an awesome tool to help us along. Stop by Rio Vista (O88) and I can give you some more advice. There’s lots of good flying not far from here too.

I have never flown right across, but on all the longer trips that I have made I only leave with a general plan of a destination or two. The feeling of total freedom to go wherever the wind, interest or next grass strip is is one of the best things about owning an airplane. I wish that I was free to go for longer periods of time. Whenever I have planned more thoroughly something has always come up that made me change my route.

Thanks for all the input everyone! Time shouldnt be too much of a constraint. I have 23 days available to get the wings on and fly. The trip will be altered "on the fly" (pun very much so intended) as weather, comfort, fun, and other shenanigans dictate.

Zzz wrote:Come say hi at Twin Oaks (7S3). You can camp there, or enjoy Portland. We can find some stuff for you to do in your 140.

I appreciate the invite Zane, I was actually planning a stop in the Portland area to visit a friend as well as visit the WAAAM. I could definitely stay out a little longer to play since ive worked quite a few buffer days into the trip.

From what ive gathered so far, flexibility is key. Im going to be on terminal leave for 2 months during this time, so i fortunately have all the time in the world and plan on taking full advantage of it since I never know when ill get this kind of opportunity again!

I recently bought a Husky and made my first flight across most of the country (FL to ID and back). Once you're in the air actually doing it, you realize there's nothing to it. Just don't get hung up with making your next destination at a specific time, or at all. With a long flight plan like that, keep in mind that that it is nothing more than plan "A". In all likelihood, you'll end up on plan C or D. Just carry enough fuel and don't push your reserves, and you'll be good. As long as you don't get in a hurry, and you accept the things you can't change with open arms, you'll have an awesome time.

One you get past the rockies it is pretty easy from there. If you travel on a Sunday you will find that airports will not have fuel available, so keep that in mind.

I'm around Cleveland area, if you end up with maintenance problems around here, drop me a line.

Tim

Not to sure when you will start your North bound part of your trip, but it looks as if you have plotted a fire,tfr, and smoke slalom.

The NorCal fires and the others in Oregon and Washington (and BC) make flight planning a bit of a challenge. Add local webcams to your planning tools as metar's and TAF's don't tell the whole story. Also the areas outside the TFR's can be IFR due to smoke or clear depending on wind direction.

The current wisdom is these fires will be with us until the late Fall rains.

Welcome to the new "normal".

Thanks for the intel on the smoke. Shouldn't be heading north till mid October. If it's still a concern at that time, I may either take the long way around or cancel the northerly but all together..... fingers crossed!

TomD wrote:Not to sure when you will start your North bound part of your trip, but it looks as if you have plotted a fire,tfr, and smoke slalom.

The NorCal fires and the others in Oregon and Washington (and BC) make flight planning a bit of a challenge. Add local webcams to your planning tools as metar's and TAF's don't tell the whole story. Also the areas outside the TFR's can be IFR due to smoke or clear depending on wind direction.

The current wisdom is these fires will be with us until the late Fall rains.

Welcome to the new "normal".

In a 140, I don't think I'd try to follow I-80 out of the Salt Lake area. Pick a lower route, because I-80 climbs pretty steeply through Parley's Canyon. Farther north, there are some lower ridges that would be easier. But in any event, get your altitude before you get there, because you'll find that your climb rate in your airplane will be pretty anemic at best. If you're not accustomed to high altitude operations, make sure that you lean on the ground for best power before taking off, and then lean in the air several times as you climb.

Once over the Wasatch's, then the I-80 route across southern Wyoming isn't all that bad--it's still high country, but easily doable in your airplane. Expect a pretty fair tail wind in October--if you're lucky, it won't be all that turbulent, but just a 30 knot push. Try to plan to bypass Rawlins and stop in Laramie or Cheyenne--more runways, and Rawlins is almost always really windy with a sizable gusty crosswind on its only runway.

I agree with what others have said, though. Don't weld yourself to a specific route or stopping places, because in any poky airplane, you can't--you must be flexible.

I envy you. One of my bucket list items has been to mosey across the country, with no particular route or stopping places in mind, no schedule to keep, just my ultimate destination. So far, the most I've done in 4 1/2 decades is about 1100 miles in one leap, tacking on some additional 135 miles another day, but all of my longer flights have been scheduled, with some diversions and layovers at times for weather.

Lots of country out there to see! Have fun!

Cary

Lots of great advice and couldn't agree more that time and flexibility are all it takes to make the trip fun. I've done Chicago -> Key West, FL (southeasternmost airport in the USA) and back, as well as Chicago->Los Angeles, and the most enjoyable trip was the LA one (even though much longer), because we gave ourselves more time to do it.

We got lucky, and weather hardly ever slowed us down because we flew late june/early july, and other than waiting for a few cells to pass, or a wildfire to stop blowing smoke our way, weather was rarely an issue.

We just planned two or three cities we hoped to go to, for anything involving the mountains we chose a city north or south route that would be fun so there was no disappointment making a safe choice, and we found that calling 24 hours ahead to make sure the crew car was around secured us a great ride in many small towns, as well as a spot to sleep and other local recs, which was fantastic. The smaller the airport, the more fun/better.

I'll be at HSF as well if you're looking to chat about details!

When and if you come to the Seattle area, make sure to fly up to the San Juan Islands. Great flight and super scenery.