cliff wrote:Denny, I completely agree with you about not setting a schedule. My Wife and I traveled to Australia a few years ago. We stayed for a month with no plans, reservations, or agenda except to see OZ. It was the best trip of our life.

Cliff, I know what you mean. We retired to Oz in 2003 from a working life spent overseas. After the first year we packed our belongings into a container. It was over 10 years before we saw any of that stuff again. We split our time between Oz and flying the Maule around the USA. We loved them both. At various times we lived in our car, slept in shipping containers and worried about salt water crocodiles.
We had no plans and lived in several places in Oz and New Zealand. It was great!

Now, shite, I see Patrol Guy’s tape measure. I just laid it out and by next Friday I see that I have one bloody inch left!! Not to worry though. The first 71 inches have been filled with some good stuff.

So, my advice to anyone harboring this dream of … whatever… is DO IT DO it do it.
Flying to the West is great, but living in the West, I decided to do it backwards and was not disappointed. Do not overlook the beauty in your backyard. One year I left the West in late August, flew east and put the plane back in the hangar in January. I had no agenda other than to land on grass at least once each leg. I saw the fall colors in New England, flew the Hudson VFR corridor, flew up the Saint Lawrence River… If you do this, you may be lucky enough to find a small grass strip on the banks of the Ohio River where you are the only airplane. You can heat up some chili on the camp stove and then listen to the throb of a tugboat pushing a barge full of coal upriver to the power plant. If you are really lucky, Ace, the airport dog will drop by to see if everything’s OK before he goes on to finish his deer patrol. There is plenty to savor out there, everywhere

YB

One of my bucket list items is to fly around the country for six-seven months. When the Cessna is done, I might make it happen. This time of year I'll start south and as spring and summer roll around, head for the northern states. Soon...

Jim

Jim:

Here are a few suggestions to consider:

First, I really like your idea of taking several months to make, and savor the trip. The US of A is a huge piece of real estate. Zipping across the country in a couple of days, a week, or even a month doesn't seem likely to satisfy a good itch to travel. I hope to make a similar tour of our native land in the relatively near future.

IMHO, western flying in the lower 48 is a bit different from AK, and certainly different from flying east of the Mississippi. Density Altitude is a bitch that WILL bite the unlucky and unwary. I hope you will find a way to get some mountain flying training. Several outfits do a really good job of it. Most of the places that do mountain flying instruction I know of want pilots to fly behind at least 180 HP. Lori McNichols at McCall, ID has good credentials. I've heard her speak at the Northwest Aviation Conference held each year in Puyallup, WA and have heard good reviews from some of her former students. The Colorado Pilots Association also has a well regarded mountain flying course. I think you can find them (and others) with any internet search engine. A little time and a little treasure invested in visiting the mountainous western states, spending time with a knowledgeable CFI, and renting a plane to learn new skills would be money very well spent. How are your spot landing skills? How well do you do crosswind takeoffs and landings? How about your emergency skills? How are your flight planning skills? Can you read mountain weather?


Airplanes are machines. Sometimes it's necessary to make field repairs sufficient to get (safely) to an airport with an A&P. When we fly around the country we'll likely be away from easy access to a mechanic anyplace we land in the back country, and even at lotsa smaller municipal airports. For that reason I don't like to skimp on maintenance. if we can start out with everything in A-1 shape we're more likely to make the trip without a hitch than if we depart with any known discrepancies. IMHO, a good rule of thumb is never fly with a known deficiency!

IMHO, a Champ is a bit underpowered for flying in the mountains. Fun to fly, but not well suited for high DA or below gross takeoff weight ops. It's amazing how much junk we carry (emergency tool box, sleeping bag, survival supplies, water, change of clothing, etc.) and how the weight adds up!

Also, while it's legal to fly without a radio or with a 121.5 ELT doing either may not be the best decision. IMHO, a 406 ELT plus some kind of handheld Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) are essential equipment for flying in the west. So is a good panel mount radio. And of course, I carry a cell phone. There be vast distances out west, some with life threatening challenges for those unlucky enough to experience even a survivable/no injury off airport landing. Water, shelter, signaling equipment are a must. The rule of 3's applies: 3 minutes of bleeding, 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 30 days without food. I fly prepared to meet all of these essential needs. I also dress for the crash (which I hope will not happen!) rather than the airport I intend for my destination.

I file a flight plan. Our odds of surviving an off airport emergency landing (aka "crash") go up dramatically if someone comes looking. I plan my flight, file my plan, then FLY my plan. If I don't file, if I depend on a 121.5 ELT or my cell or whatever I could easily spend my short remaining time on earth hoping someone will find and rescue me (and my passenger).

Flying low and slow is great fun. I love the rush, but don't do it anymore. Unfortunately, it just ain't what it used to be. Today we have lotsa wires across rivers, towers on hills, etc. etc. etc. If I don't know the area (intimately!) I avoid flying below 500' AGL. Several pilots get tangled in wires every year. I carry current charts (paper and digital). What if my iPad croaks, overheats & checks out, etc? I suggest if you use digital charts think hard about your backup! Charging the iPad requires power. Lotsa ways exist to meet our need to charge our electronics. Some involve backup batteries, some connect to the aircraft electrical system via a USB port or ??? WIFI isn't always available, sometimes neither is cell service. As you prep for the trip ask yourself whether your ded reckoning and pilotage skills are up to it if you lose your electronic/digital nav tools. Can you read your sectional, then recognize (from above) land forms and terrain so you know where you are at all times?

GPS works great, except when it doesn't. Periodically throughout the year GPS outages occur for various reasons.. I don't plan on landing an any national forests, national parks, public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, wildlife refuges, or Tribal lands unless it's at an airport listed in the VFR Chart Supplement (formerly the AF/D). The tickets can be expensive. Notice the little note on the paper chart legend... something about landings on National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, etc. "prohibited". ditto for some DOD and Department of Energy lands. Off airport landings are also prohibited on most Indian Reservations. Some Tribal police forces have been known to damage aircraft they seize for illegally landing on Tribal Lands.

If you are well prepared you'll have a great time. If not, well you may still have a great time, but then again, "stuff happens". I hope preparing for your adventure will be as fun as actually flying it.

Best to you,

John

I really love this thread. It heads right where I am going. I will be 61 in early December. My father died at 68. My wife's father died at 68. It seems like every week I hear of someone in my time range passing away. Maybe I will last until 95. But from what I have seen with relatives that does not seem like a prize. I have a strong drive to chuck everything and get busy exploring. I have been around the world for work, but really look forward to exploring N America at a slow pace.

So our focus (my patient wife of 36 years is on board) is to sell it all, buy an RV, pack a Kitfox S7 and a Jeep Grand Cherokee (with the power to tow the trailer if needed) in a trailer and head out. To verify I am serious, I have the Kitfox and the Jeep now. We also bought an inflatable boat and engine. I have been working through the trailer and will likely have one built fairly soon. We are constantly looking and reading about RV's.

I got my license in 79 and flew off and on since then (the usual, no money or no time). I had a Cirrus SR22 for the last 6 years. We had a great time with it and flew it all over the east, but it turned in to work keeping everything flying and my IFR rating current. I realized I really just wanted to get in the air and see the world. A great day for me now is flying the Kitfox low over the Texas Hill Country. My local airport has a grass strip and my goal is to land the Kitfox in less than 300' on the spot I target. I can do that about 60% of the time. Working on 100. I long for the day to head out to back country strips.

The company I work for has an unofficial annual purge every year around this time. It looks like I made it through this year. So my goal is to set the plan in motion late next year. With any luck they will let me go with a package. Perfect! Some good friends of ours started an RV adventure a couple of years ago. Within a year they had sold their house and are full time. They have no regrets.

Official retirement for me won't come until 68 or 70. Maybe we will get off the road. Maybe not. Depends on how we feel. The plan is to cut way back on expenses and try to live as much as possible on SS until then. We will likely have to work some to make it ends meet, but considering everything, that is fine. I will definitely be taking photos and videos and keeping friends, family or anyone who is interested.

Thanks again to everyone on this thread for confirming I am not crazy. At least not much....

Jaguar you are not crazy... you are thinking right. I have been watching a YouTube channel for a while (SV Delos) about two brothers who quit the normal life, bought a 53' sailboat, and have been sailing around the world for the past seven years. At first they sailed till they ran out of money, worked for a while, and got back at it. Now I think they sustain themselves through their YouTube presence. I look at those guys and think man, they are living.

Me, I am about to retire from the military and have one of those unique opportunities in life to reset myself. 20 years in the military and 23 years as an aviator has reinforced to me the fragility of life. I sometime half-joke with people that I gotta get out there myself because I am somewhere between 50% and 99.9% of the way through life. I have a young son and a wife and a mortgage so there will be another career after the military. I can't just sail way like SV Delos but I gotta get out there and (continue to) do some living. We are planning a month-long trip to Alaska next spring in the 180 and I hope that is just one of many great adventures in my future.

That's what I like about sites like this. Yes it is a technical resource, but more than that is an outlet for like-minded adventurers who are trying to squeeze the most of the short time we have here on the 3rd rock from the Sun. I think that's what I love most about aviation!

slowmover wrote:Jaguar you are not crazy... you are thinking right. I have been watching a YouTube channel for a while (SV Delos) about two brothers who quit the normal life, bought a 53' sailboat, and have been sailing around the world for the past seven years. At first they sailed till they ran out of money, worked for a while, and got back at it. Now I think they sustain themselves through their YouTube presence. I look at those guys and think man, they are living.

Me, I am about to retire from the military and have one of those unique opportunities in life to reset myself. 20 years in the military and 23 years as an aviator has reinforced to me the fragility of life. I sometime half-joke with people that I gotta get out there myself because I am somewhere between 50% and 99.9% of the way through life. I have a young son and a wife and a mortgage so there will be another career after the military. I can't just sail way like SV Delos but I gotta get out there and (continue to) do some living. We are planning a month-long trip to Alaska next spring in the 180 and I hope that is just one of many great adventures in my future.

That's what I like about sites like this. Yes it is a technical resource, but more than that is an outlet for like-minded adventurers who are trying to squeeze the most of the short time we have here on the 3rd rock from the Sun. I think that's what I love most about aviation!

Congrats, by the way. ~7 more years and I'll be in your situation, almost exactly!

VFR wrote:Thanks Tim!

Tim is a good guy!! He stayed at my house many times and I never knew he was there.

Also VFR, I'll be back on the road next year so maybe we'll cross paths somewhere. I'd like to get back current and rent a plane here and there when time allows.

Glad to see there are other CDL drivers on here!