2,612 NM in 8 days

[moodychief]

Last Monday my wife and I completed our longest trip to date. Our route was KSUZ KTKX KMGY KIAG NY0 KBOS KRKD NY0 KYNG KBMG KPLK KSUZ.

While at Dayton we got to see the Wright B Flyer take wing. We spent the afternoon at Niagara Falls before heading to Boston. Spent two nights at a cabin in Maine that overlooked the lobster docks (ate plenty of lobster too)

We were bucking 40 knot headwinds from Maine to Missouri last Saturday. This was all hand-flown since my plane doesn't have an autopilot or even a PC.

[MB65E]

Jealous!!

That's great.

-Matt

[Wakeup]

Strong work!! I don't have autopilot as well and I know you had your hands full. It's tough actually flying a plane vs letting someone else a little stab but I'm jealous of those that do . Troy

[moodychief]

Don't be jealous. Their hand-flying skills probably get rusty after hours of being a passenger.

[Bob_Belville]

Curious why you went into Logan? What's the tariff there these days?

 

Where'd you stay in the Rockland area? We go into KIWI to get to Damariscotta every year.  

[moodychief]

About $250. Had an airport conference there and didn't want to have to coordinate transportation to get my wife from the hotel to an outlying airport. Basically, I gave my wife the different options and she told me what she wanted...and I obeyed like a good husband!

We stayed at Sprucehead Island next to Atwoods. We ate lobster at McLoony's, Chappy's Chowder House in Camden, and Waterman's.

[Bob_Belville]

Sounds like a great time. Camden is pretty nice, so is lobster. I flew into Logan sveral times 30+ years ago, $50 landing fee then, but I never stayed overnight and haven't been in there in a long time.

 

I supposed you visited the Owl's Head Transportation Museum?

[moodychief]

Didn't have time for the museum. However, they had all the old airplanes out on the grass on Saturday morning when we were taking off.

[chrisk]

That's a lot of flying, especially with out an autopilot.  I flew 1800 miles over labor day weekend, and it felt like a lot.  Your wife is a very good sport!

[moodychief]

She passed the time with reading a lot on her Nook, taking pictures and Crushing Candy. I have XM radio on board but she has only used it once. She prefers to listen to the controller chatter. Several years ago I made the mistake of activating the isolate switch. She knew nothing about that little switch. Boy did I get "THE LOOK" and twenty questions about what I did. Every since, she wants to hear what I hear especially when ATC points out traffic (we file IFR for every flight). Going up was easy as we broke it into several legs over two days. Coming back was the true test to see if my wife could ride almost 1,200 nm in one day. When we landed she pulled up google maps and informed me that our one day travel would have been 1,540 miles in the car. After this trip I think she will consider our 400 mile jaunts as a short hop!

[Bob_Belville]

We have XM on the 696, tuned to soft jazz when Nancy is on board. The XM mutes smoothly whenever there is anything going on on the com or if I'm interfacing with the 750, etc. Nothing is missed. Nancy misses a lot of the clearance stuff but catches xponder codes and hand off freq. I too always fly IFR if I'm going somewhere. She also is very interested in traffic and keeps a close eye on the weather and traffic on the 750. I expect she will enjoy the "pinch hitter" seminar at Summit. I confess I am not the most patient teacher. As DrBill has told us, we're lucky to have spouses who are willing to fly with us. 

 

We also added O2 last year. It really helps fatigue factor on longer flights, even at 7 or 8 thousand feet. The o2 finger thingy is hanging from the compass so she and I can regularly check how we're breathing. A few deep breaths gets level back over 95.

[rob]

I couldn't imagine that much flying without an AP! Good for you!

[Seth]

Congratulations!!  That's a lot of flying and you should feel very accomplished.  My former 1967 F model did not have an auto pilot (yes wing leveler) and I hand flew that from DC to California and back in 2010.  It felt great.  In 2013 I flew my Missile across the country going from DC to San Diego, up to Seattle, Minnesota, and back - even a longer trip but faster with the Missile, Oxygen for catching tailwinds, and an autopilot - the autopilot really does reduce workload and lets you better "manage" the flight.

 

To do it without an autopilot is again, completely awesome - I'd do it both with and without - that sounds like a great trip.

 

-Seth

[urbanti]

Extremely cool.

Sorta like the iron butt awards for motorcyclists

Great work and thanks for sharing.

Tim

[slowflyin]

Congrats!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Piloto]

2,612 nm in eight days!!. I think the Titanic was faster than your Mooney by 7 knots. Try ROP next time.

 

José 

[TWinter]

Sounds like a great trip.. Second week of October I'm heading that way. Leaving Dyersburg TN (DYR) to Portsmouth, NH (PSM). Should be some pretty flying. New England is beautiful in October.

[moodychief]

2,612 nm in eight days!!. I think the Titanic was faster than your Mooney by 7 knots. Try ROP next time.

 

José

Lol Half of that was flown in one day and that was the day we fought 40 knot winds straight on the nose all day. Good thing I didn't have a C or P airplane. I can only fly ROP in my C model. It must have been my three bladed prop!! :-0

[moodychief]

Sounds like a great trip.. Second week of October I'm heading that way. Leaving Dyersburg TN (DYR) to Portsmouth, NH (PSM). Should be some pretty flying. New England is beautiful in October.

I never realized the number of ski resorts located in New Hampshire and Vermont. I'm sure the colors are magnificent in the fall with all the different types of trees.

[DrBill]

Awesome... Oh to be young again!

BILL

[moodychief]

Awesome... Oh to be young again!

BILL

I don't know what you call young but if you add my age and the age of my airplane it equals 104!! My plane is barely younger than me!

[Bob_Belville]

I don't know what you call young but if you add my age and the age of my airplane it equals 104!! My plane is barely younger than me!

120. But why would you want to do that!

[moodychief]

D

120. But why would you want to do that!

Wow!!! You're 104 with a 16 year old airplane?! Lol.

[DrBill]

Still younger than I.   My number is 114.

BILL

[DonMuncy]

I'm at 108. But only because my plane is relatively new.