First "Half way across the country" !!

[corn_flake]

After owning my Mooney for about five years, my flights have more or less limited to California.  This is the first time I took my Mooney across the country, or at least half way.  1100 nautical miles from California Central Valley to Oklahoma City with only one stops.  65.5 gallon total.  Converted to statute miles, that's 19.3 mpg.  Incredible flying machine.  Of course 20+ tail wind helped a lot.     At times, I was cruising at 180+ knots ground speed!!

 

[Bolter]

Enjoy the adventure.  I have great memories of planning (and often modifying) and completing long cross country trips to new places.   Like so many things, others will have done more, and some others done less, so just value what it meant for you.  

[OneSaltyItalian]

Nice!  We had a kicking tailwind the other day as well.  Made it from Kansas to south Florida in 6.7.  Coming home was an 8.1... But that's another story, lol.

[N201MKTurbo]

Don’t get too excited about the tailwinds. You have to come home sometime.

 

[Hank]

13 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Don’t get too excited about the tailwinds. You have to come home sometime.

 

Yep. Took 4.3 hours to reach Houston last fall, into the wind--groundspeeds 115-125 knots most of the 505 nm. Kicking tailwinds coming home, climbed through 6000 msl at 700 fpm and 125 knots groundspeed, leveled off initially at 170 knots, and all it did was go up from there. Exactly 3.0 hours coming home.

But three roundtrips averaged close to 4 hours each way . . . .

[N201MKTurbo]

8 minutes ago, Hank said:

Yep. Took 4.3 hours to reach Houston last fall, into the wind--groundspeeds 115-125 knots most of the 505 nm. Kicking tailwinds coming home, climbed through 6000 msl at 700 fpm and 125 knots groundspeed, leveled off initially at 170 knots, and all it did was go up from there. Exactly 3.0 hours coming home.

But three roundtrips averaged close to 4 hours each way . . . .

My most extreme flight was a flight from Phoenix to Oakland CA 4.5 there 1.75 home.

[PeteMc]

Enjoy the travels!  We often look at places to stop for at least a day or two along the way.  You'll have the opportunity to start visiting places that you normally would never go. 

Also start to keep track of Airports you want to land at, what states you've landed in, etc. to not only get the "Tourist" spots checked off but also the Aviation spots checked off.  My list is slowly getting down there.  I still need Leadville, Furnace Creek (Death Valley) and the most SW US airport.   

[Hank]

That's right, @PeteMc. Gotta fill in the map! I've only flown to a third of the states I've been to, now at 19 of 47.

[AJ88V]

I have loved my real long cross country flights.  Something very cool about getting up to altitude and trimming the airplane up just so.