Recommendation for Coast to Coast Flight

[M20F-1968]

I took two weeks off in July and August to do some flying.  This will be my first coast to coast flight.  I have flown the east cost and the northern half of the west cost but not much in between.  I am really taking the trip to do some flying and spend some consistent time getting better familiar with the airplane.  I wanted to get the groups suggestions about highlights of past trips and places known to be great stopping/visiting places.  Also, would like recommendations for best routes crossing the mountains or going around the mountains in summer.  I have an F model/turbonormalized with oxygen.  Once on the west coat I want to spend some time in northern California and perhaps Oregon.  Perhaps go northern route one way and southern the next.  Im open minded as to plans.

John Breda

[ArtVandelay]

The southwest has the best weather and the lowest routes across the mountains. At least until the monsoon season. Either way I would plan on flying in the early morning and try to be on the ground by noon for multitude of reasons.

[amillet]

I've flown from western Washington to Oshkosh twice and to S. Dakota & Denver crossing the Rockies on V120.  13000 is the highest MEA 

[carusoam]

John, your timeframe coincides with Oshkosh...

Could make an interesting stop?

Cleveland and Chicago for some city culture on the way out.  Cleveland (Burke Lakefront) airport has my favorite Rock and Roll Hall of fame...

Thanks for sharing your dream trip,  I just appended mine to yours...

Best regards,

-a-

[Deb]

Phil Corman had a nice write-up of 4 different routes to cross the mountains; it was in the November, 2013 issue of The Mooney Flyer: http://www.themooneyflyer.com/issues/MooneyFlyerNovember-2013.pdf.

[M20F-1968]

I was planning on stopping at Oshkosh on the way out for a couple of days.  Probably not landing at Oshkosh per se given the air traffic.  I want to be able to get in and out easily. 

Looking for memorable places people have stopped that are off the usual beaten paths that I probably do not know about, state parks, etc...

John Breda

[Hank]

I've heard good things about Custer State Park in SD, but didn't stop as we had overnighted at KRAP, another interesting place. The renamed-after-the-Indians Custer Memorial Battlefield out from Billings, MT, is an interesting stop, and fairly close to Yellowstone (which is not a 1 or 2 day stop itself!). Hit St. Louis and ride the washing machine to the top of the Arch, great views and quite a story, and have good barbecue for lunch. New Orleans is fun, but in July may be a little warm and muggy; same for Savannah and Charleston, but all three have great historical districts that are very walkable. Savannah only has the one airport, though, and fuel prices reflect the lack of options and the jet orientation of the field.

Whichever way you go, fly safe, have fun and take some pictures. 

[bonal]

If you take the southern route you might stop in Boulder city, it's about a 30 min drive to Vegas but the 10 min drive to the Hoover dam is well worth the stop. Gets you south of the sierras and an easy transition vie Palmdale into the San Joaquin valley.

[carusoam]

Two Mooney factories... One in California and one in Texas?

Lunch at the Cowboy Steakhouse near the plant in TX.  David's (long time MSer) family place.

Best regards,

-a-

 

[firefly201]

If you don't want the Oshkosh hassle contact the folks at KPCZ. 29NM West of KOSH and see if the will have rentals. It is an easy 45 min. drive to KOSH, all freeway

[Samurai Husky]

I grew up in Chicago, The best part of it is flying over the city... and the pizza.I wouldnt spend much time there unless you like to go to bars or watch baseball games. It does have legit museums, but that more of a winter thing. Each one would take you about a full day to get through, except maybe the aquarium, thats more of a 3 hour thing.

What were your're goals on what you wanted to see? Personally now that i have been on the west coast for the last 10 yrs, i would totally skip LA unless you want to go to lego land or Disney. San Diego is really cool because of the navy harbor, the last time i was there, we saw at least 4 Aircraft carriers that just came in from their pacific duties; You can get a doughnut the size of your dead and just sit and watch the ships come in. Or the occasional jet fly over. 

Here in the bay area you cant go wrong with napa/sonoma/Russian River, but do your research. There are so many wineries right now that are posers. For example, it takes 10yrs to get wine from a grape vine. If you drive up to a winery and you see a bunch of twigs know that the wine they make is actually from the central valley. The key words are 'reserve' or 'estate' wines. If they do not have those titles, the grapes were grown out in the central valley and you might as well got the grocery store and buy their wine. By law the reserve wine is defined as a wine that had its grapes gown on the property but might have been processed and bottle offsite. Estate wines are wines where the whole process is done onsite. And yes, you can taste the difference.. at least i can. Since you have a plane, you might be better served going up to Russian River and driving down from St. Helena. Highway 29 is a small 1 lane highway with no exit ramps, so its essentially a road with no stop lights less than a highway. On the weekends it can get jammed packed and if you are staying in SF it will take about a hour or more to get over there. Again, Plan ahead...

Expect no more than doing 3 or 4 wineries; They are pretty spread out and they all close at around 5PM and normally do not serve until 11am. So you are limited on your exposure.

I would get up to Eurika and drive down to 'drive through tree lane' where you can see some really really really big trees. Its also a nice little sea side village. Depending on how late you go, you might hit crab season, in which case pack larger pants. 

Yosemite will be nice, but wont be 'fantastic' in August because by then all the waterfalls will almost be dry and the mountains snow free, same with Tahoe. Both of those you really want to do now. The waterfalls at Yosemite are gushing and there is still a bunch of snow up at Tahoe (actually they were skiing up there until this weekend); Depending on the weather, you may be better served going to Yellowstone then Yosemite that time of year. 

Overall, expect California to look very 'brown' from San Diego all the way up to SF. Once you get passed SF thing start to green up.

Depending on the marine layer, I would fly from San Diego up to the Bay area. Then up to Eurika before heading back down to Yellowstone and Tahoe before you exit out taking the northern route through Salt Lake City. Basically follow Hwy 80. *i have never flow these route, but I have been asking A LOT of people for my own purposes. 

Oregon is really nice if you like to fish. Or if you want to get some expensive avionics because they have no sales tax. In Washington you can fly over Mt. St. Helens; not much to see on the ground though. Seattle is a nice city, really good seafood. But to me it was just a small city on the coast. I think the coolest part is the Seattle underground tour and if you like shopping, the market on the bay. 

So while I cant give any feed back on how to fly; I can give some good pointers on what to see

 

[N201MKTurbo]

Everybody keeps talking about the big cities. I have the best stops in small towns. Let Airnav plan your stops for cheap fuel. You will visit interesting places that you would never see otherwise. 

With your schedule you won't have the time to fully explore a big city and see the country too.

[dlthig]

As a child of the South, I'll echo Hank's comments about St. Augustine, Savannah and Charleston. I don't know much about flying to St. Augustine, but it's the oldest city in the US. Savannah does only have one main airport, but there are some that are not too far. Look at KLHW, it's about 30-45 minute drive from what I recall and the gas is cheap enough to pay for the rental if you are there for a day or two. I'd use KLRO for Charleston. Again, much cheaper gas and not much difference for the drive downtown. Good luck with the trip.

[StinkBug]

I did a coast to coast flight last summer in my C, and posted along the way. Search my username for the thread, we had a ton of fun along the way. New Orleans ended up being one of my favorite stops, not for bourbon street or any of that crap, but for the awesome airboat ride we went on complete with gators and an awesome cajun guide. Dayton Ohio for the Air Force museum was also a highlight.

[gsengle]

I second NOLA, nice lakefront airport, and the museum of the airforce is great...

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[N9453V]

I ferried a P28R-201T from Grass Valley, CA (GOO) to White Plains, NY (HPN) about a week ago. I used my usual route of heading further south to avoid the highest terrain and possible icing. The stops I did were Lake Havasu City, AZ (HII), Albuquerque, NM (AEG), Wichita, KS (ICT), Champaign, IL (CMI), Cleveland, OH (BKL). It was a 2 day trip with 18.7 hours of flight time.

-Andrew