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Coast to Coast XCountry


Trenta

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Howdy!

It hasn’t been a week since taking delivery of my M20B and I have logged 18 hours already but I have already started getting the itch to fly across these United States. I will be flying from Portland to Tampa and then spending some time in Central and South Florida before heading back west. 

I am not IFR and no auto pilot so I am giving myself about 4-5 days to do it. I am planning for the first week of November. The longest distance I have flown in one direction up and until now is SoCal to Phoenix. So I figured I would poll the experience of the Mooney community for this endeavor because after all that’s why we bought Mooneys; to go fast and far. 

Some of the questions I have:

What would you have liked to know before doing your first coast to coast in your Mooney? 

What route would you suggest?

Tips on portable O2? I have purchased a 2 place O2 tank to benefit from those great tail winds up high and to lessen altitude fatigue.

What other tips do you have for this adventure?

Also if any of you are interested in traveling on this trip with me in your plane, live along the route and/or would like to fly a leg in your Mooney with me I would love the company. 

-Trent

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Picking a route...

There are quite a few MSers that have done this...

Like you, Trent, they started a thread... and started building their route...
 

Avoiding big mountains is a great idea...

Carrying a big stack of AMUs can be helpful... and a couple of credit cards too...

Read about emergency gear people keep in the back of their planes... Including food, water, tools and safety equipment... tents and blankets may make sense...

Plan to get stuck, really far from cell service... the more planned you are, the less likely it will happen...

Dress warmly, you can always take a coat off at 10k’ agl...

Do you have a CO monitor? Have you tried the heater yet? If you haven’t tried the heater with your CO detector... find DanM20C for some advice... Dan is our most experienced Mooney CFII with first hand CO experience...

Expect to leave bread crumbs everywhere... make sure your ADSB out is showing up on flight aware...

Tell people where you are every day... Use MS as an obvious place to look for your last known coordinates...

Read up on some examples...

@Rmagleft us a memorable trip video...see if you can find it...  Rmag is in the business of turning ordinary planes into extraordinary planes... he took this trip with his father... the video is like watching a movie... bring popcorn... they took their M20J and hit major cities along the way...

@Bob_Belville took an epic journey with his grandnephew and detailed the trip...  Bob flew a beautiful M20E that earned the name Gypsy Rose... a memorable bird, and a memorable pilot...

Some of my favorite pictures from the air were by an MSer @Danb on a long cross country while he flew over Vegas... Dan has been flying for decades... and has a great Bravo...

I feared the most when a new MSer @pjsny78 Patrick went from NJ to CA and back... it was a great story about going to the pacific coast to get his plane painted at ArtCraft....  The pictures of the plane are fantastic...  Patrick was new to flying and was about to graduate from an aviation college in NY...

For cool pics... look up an the national parks people have flown over... Brice is really cool, as is the big canyon...

it is a long flight, it will have all kinds of weather...and other hazards...  Mountain flying requires good knowledge, additional training, and the ability to survive some really crappy oddities...

You have the skills, but don’t be bold...  :)

You might run into some hot weather, while you are packed to the limit...

Do you have your WnB all worked out?
are you familiar with DA?  A lesson we learned from Patrick, after he got back... from getting his plane painted...

Do you have on board weather, ADSB in?

Do your parents ask this many questions? :)

Let us know where you are at... we can keep an eye out for you...

There are Many MSers along the way...
 

Find these threads for great ideas...

PP thoughts only...not a CFI or worried parent...

Best regards,

-a-

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Plan multiple routes across the mountains, usually the weather will dictate which one you can use that day...if any.

Be sure that your GPS has full USA on it.  

Have the mindset to accept that you may be sitting on the ground waiting for weather to pass.  My record waiting in one spot for a break is 1 week (Hurricane Sandy in October 2012) and my record for leaving my plane behind and coming back for it later (by commercial) is 30 days.  You will transit through many climates in a volatile time of year.  Give yourself this out.  And like @carusoam says, bring stacks of AMU's.  

The O2D2 from Mountain High is a great way to conserve your O2.  It is not cheap.  Less times to fill the bottle is a handy thing. 

I did coast to coast in 2012.  It was memorable and  I am glad I did it.  It did not go to plan every day and I skipped some destinations and found new ones.  

-dan

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2 hours ago, carusoam said:

Picking a route...

There are quite a few MSers that have done this...

Like you, Trent, they started a thread... and started building their route...
 

Avoiding big mountains is a great idea...

Carrying a big stack of AMUs can be helpful... and a couple of credit cards too...

Read about emergency gear people keep in the back of their planes... Including food, water, tools and safety equipment... tents and blankets may make sense...

Plan to get stuck, really far from cell service... the more planned you are, the less likely it will happen...

Dress warmly, you can always take a coat off at 10k’ agl...

Do you have a CO monitor? Have you tried the heater yet? If you haven’t tried the heater with your CO detector... find DanM20C for some advice... Dan is our most experienced Mooney CFII with first hand CO experience...

Expect to leave bread crumbs everywhere... make sure your ADSB out is showing up on flight aware...

Tell people where you are every day... Use MS as an obvious place to look for your last known coordinates...

Read up on some examples...

@Rmagleft us a memorable trip video...see if you can find it...  Rmag is in the business of turning ordinary planes into extraordinary planes... he took this trip with his father... the video is like watching a movie... bring popcorn... they took their M20J and hit major cities along the way...

@Bob_Belville took an epic journey with his grandnephew and detailed the trip...  Bob flew a beautiful M20E that earned the name Gypsy Rose... a memorable bird, and a memorable pilot...

Some of my favorite pictures from the air were by an MSer @Danb on a long cross country while he flew over Vegas... Dan has been flying for decades... and has a great Bravo...

I feared the most when a new MSer @pjsny78 Patrick went from NJ to CA and back... it was a great story about going to the pacific coast to get his plane painted at ArtCraft....  The pictures of the plane are fantastic...  Patrick was new to flying and was about to graduate from an aviation college in NY...

For cool pics... look up an the national parks people have flown over... Brice is really cool, as is the big canyon...

it is a long flight, it will have all kinds of weather...and other hazards...  Mountain flying requires good knowledge, additional training, and the ability to survive some really crappy oddities...

You have the skills, but don’t be bold...  :)

You might run into some hot weather, while you are packed to the limit...

Do you have your WnB all worked out?
are you familiar with DA?  A lesson we learned from Patrick, after he got back... from getting his plane painted...

Do you have on board weather, ADSB in?

Do your parents ask this many questions? :)

Let us know where you are at... we can keep an eye out for you...

There are Many MSers along the way...
 

Find these threads for great ideas...

PP thoughts only...not a CFI or worried parent...

Best regards,

-a-

Thanks for all of this. I’ll look at the threads and trips you referenced.

AMUs? American Monetary Units? 

I do need to try the heater. good point!

I have the sentry ADSB for weather and a built in CO2 monitor. I am also getting the Garmin In-Reach that I have heard the backcountry guys use.

Just installed a new tail beacon.

I do have the WnB data and a good luggage scale. I have done some flying at big bear (L35) here in the summer as well as some north Idaho mountain flying so I feel Appraised of the take off and landing affects of high DAs.
 

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AMU = Aviation Monetary Unit, or ten (10) Ben Franklins. On a trip like this, they will help.

My longest trip has been WV to WY, 1320 nm each way. I had a general plan, but only made two reservations in advance:  a car at KRAP (FBO got me a great hotel room & discount), and a car / hotel in Cody, WY. Everything else was planned in the hotel for the next day.

Expect.some diversions. As a VFR pilot (I hit 200 hours in my logbook on the trip), we left late, had a 3-4 hour lunch stop westbound in lower IL,  and stopped short of Springfield on the way home because the sky was black all the way to the ground.

But those stops are some of the most memorable highlights of the trip!

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2 hours ago, Hank said:

My longest trip has been WV to WY, 1320 nm each way. I had a general plan, but only made two reservations in advance:  a car at KRAP (FBO got me a great hotel room & discount), and a car / hotel in Cody, WY. Everything else was planned in the hotel for the next day.

 

Do the FBOs typically get better rates than you would find online or is it just more convenient to go through them? I've seen a lot of people recommend this but never tried it myself. 

My tip: Bring a Gatorade bottle.

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29 minutes ago, The Other Red Baron said:

Do the FBOs typically get better rates than you would find online or is it just more convenient to go through them? I've seen a lot of people recommend this but never tried it myself. 

I think the FBOs have deals made with local hotels. They got me almost half price at Great Wolf Lodge in Rapid City 

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11 hours ago, Bolter said:

 

The O2D2 from Mountain High is a great way to conserve your O2.  It is not cheap.  Less times to fill the bottle is a handy thing. 

 

I don't get it.  Many people recommend this unit, but I couldn't get my O2 saturation level above 92% with it.  Also, very annoying to constantly hear your breathing through the headset.  Mountain High couldn't help other than to say that with my altitude compensating regulator it wouldn't work.  Sent it back for a refund.  Totally useless for me.

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6 minutes ago, donkaye said:

I don't get it.  Many people recommend this unit, but I couldn't get my O2 saturation level above 92% with it.  Also, very annoying to constantly hear your breathing through the headset.  Mountain High couldn't help other than to say that with my altitude compensating regular it wouldn't work.  Sent it back for a refund.  Totally useless for me.

YMMV.  I am not a fan boy for MH, but the O2D2 product works for me, so I recommend it when people ask.

Since the O2D2 is altitude compensating, I could see that having the pressure upstream also be altitude compensating could be an issue.  In some cases you may not have sufficient feed pressure.  If that is the case, it would work better as you climbed and the O2 pressure increased to match coming right off the tank with a standard regulator.  Did you experience this?  How high did you cruise with it?  Is there a setting that lets you set your regulator to full open without altitude compensation?

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40 minutes ago, donkaye said:

I don't get it.  Many people recommend this unit, but I couldn't get my O2 saturation level above 92% with it.  Also, very annoying to constantly hear your breathing through the headset.  Mountain High couldn't help other than to say that with my altitude compensating regular it wouldn't work.  Sent it back for a refund.  Totally useless for me.

Don I thought it was just me, I had the same results and conclusion as you..

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We did this in June of 2019. If you want you can read about it on my blog.

https://intothesky.us/category/coasttocoast/

A few thoughts from our trip.

  • Don't get so caught up in the destination you miss the fun along the way.
  • Mooneyspacers are the best. We made a stop in Memphis where Neil picked us up and took us to Central BBQ for the best ribs I have ever had in my life. Bob Belville saw we were going to be passing right by Hickory, NC and offered to let us crash their formation clinic to have dinner with them and we got to meet Bob for the first time and some other Mooneyspacers.
  • Plan each day the night before, and be prepared for that to change in the morning.
  • Plan two destinations for each fuel stop, at least 100 or so miles apart, along the general path of flight but to the left and right of the line. This will give you options when you look at the weather briefing and pick the one that looks the best.
  • The same goes for your en-route legs, have a couple destinations planned. The final destination at the end of the trip may be set, but the couple of days getting there could land you anywhere.
  • We tried to plan for places that had either a crew car to borrow or Uber/Lyft to get from the airport to a hotel. If planning to use the crew car check ahead to make sure it is available. Things are different now with COVID. I stopped in Delta, UT earlier this year for fuel and they have a nice pilot lounge and a crew car. The lounge and crew car were locked up and unavailable because of COIVD.
  • Meridian, MS (KMEI) was by far the best FBO we stopped at. Good prices on fuel, nice crew cars available, and discounted rates at local hotels.
  • Carlsbad, NM (KCNM) was the worst stop we made. They would not let you take the crew car overnight, the rental car they had was extremely overpriced, and the motel was the worst and most expensive of the trip.
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57 minutes ago, Bolter said:

YMMV.  I am not a fan boy for MH, but the O2D2 product works for me, so I recommend it when people ask.

Since the O2D2 is altitude compensating, I could see that having the pressure upstream also be altitude compensating could be an issue.  In some cases you may not have sufficient feed pressure.  If that is the case, it would work better as you climbed and the O2 pressure increased to match coming right off the tank with a standard regulator.  Did you experience this?  How high did you cruise with it?  Is there a setting that lets you set your regulator to full open without altitude compensation?

Not that know of.  Flew 15-17K and it didn't work.

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3 hours ago, donkaye said:

I don't get it.  Many people recommend this unit, but I couldn't get my O2 saturation level above 92% with it.  Also, very annoying to constantly hear your breathing through the headset.  Mountain High couldn't help other than to say that with my altitude compensating regulator it wouldn't work.  Sent it back for a refund.  Totally useless for me.

Yep, I'm on the other side. I won't fly without my O2D2. I'm able to keep my O2 sat levels up around 96% even up to FL260 or 270 where we like to fly. I also like the sound. It's not constant in/out breathing, but rather the sound of a quick shot of air as you inhale. It lets me know that I'm still getting the O2 I need. If I take a breath and don't hear the sound, I'm immediately looking at the gauge, the unit, and taking another breath. It's reassuring to hear it with each breath. You don't want to be sucking on an empty bottle.

I also like the alarm it sounds if O2's not flowing through it. I once connected my mask to the O2D2 but got distracted and didn't connect the ships O2 to the unit. As soon as I turned the unit on, it starts beeping and flashing a red light. I quickly checked everything and realized my mistake. 

And of course, my O2 bottle last 4x as long as it did without the O2D2.

So it works for me :D

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5 hours ago, Skates97 said:

 

  • ...We made a stop in Memphis where Neil picked us up and took us to Central BBQ for the best ribs I have ever had in my life.

We need to get you out more! :) 

For a North Carolinian, BBQ is religion, so if you want to talk ribs...I can give you some recommendations - and many are within shouting distance of runway.

Written while smiling - Bob

P.S.> I have been to Center in Memphis, and they are good, but you want ribs that are a religious experience with no sauce needed try Gary's Lee's Meat Market in Brunswick, GA.  13 miles from KBQK. KSSI also nearby has Southern Soul BBQ (OK) and Beachcombers (Better) so you can make it a trifecta.  

Maybe we should start a topic on great places to eat near airports. I know there are sites for this, but most seem to have lots of words, but not much really useful information.

 

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1 hour ago, carusoam said:

I’m sure the restaurant thread comes up about every year...

Search the words throwed rolls... I’m sure this place shows up a few times over the decade

Throwed rolls... that is a new one...must check it out!

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5 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Yep, I'm on the other side. I won't fly without my O2D2. I'm able to keep my O2 sat levels up around 96% even up to FL260 or 270 where we like to fly. I also like the sound. It's not constant in/out breathing, but rather the sound of a quick shot of air as you inhale. It lets me know that I'm still getting the O2 I need. If I take a breath and don't hear the sound, I'm immediately looking at the gauge, the unit, and taking another breath. It's reassuring to hear it with each breath. You don't want to be sucking on an empty bottle.

I also like the alarm it sounds if O2's not flowing through it. I once connected my mask to the O2D2 but got distracted and didn't connect the ships O2 to the unit. As soon as I turned the unit on, it starts beeping and flashing a red light. I quickly checked everything and realized my mistake. 

And of course, my O2 bottle last 4x as long as it did without the O2D2.

So it works for me :D

+1.  Everything Paul said.
 I’ve had excellent results.  I paired it with the inline regulator they recommended.  No more dry nose and sinuses.  Oxygen last forever.  Without the mask, If I get lazy with my breathing and get in shallow breathing mode my stats  will drop to the low 90s.   Same as without the unit.  With it I just switch it to “mask” mode and levels rise rapidly.  Even in mask mode without a mask the utilization is fantastic!  

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