699 mile X-Country today

[hubcap]

It’s that time of year for me to go to Casper, Wyoming on our annual business trip. According to ForeFlight it is 699 miles from KLXT to KCPR. 
 

Myrtle was at the top of her game today. I filed for 150 kts and 10,000’ because the winds were not favorable at our normal 15,000 - 17,000’ From engine start to shutdown was 4.2 hrs. That’s is an average ground speed of 175mph or 152kts. Did all that and only used 42.1 gallons of fuel. That is ~16.7MPG. 

Myrtle does a great job.

[Ragsf15e]

5 hours ago, hubcap said:

It’s that time of year for me to go to Casper, Wyoming on our annual business trip. According to ForeFlight it is 699 miles from KLXT to KCPR. 
 

Myrtle was at the top of her game today. I filed for 150 kts and 10,000’ because the winds were not favorable at our normal 15,000 - 17,000’ From engine start to shutdown was 4.2 hrs. That’s is an average ground speed of 175mph or 152kts. Did all that and only used 42.1 gallons of fuel. That is ~16.7MPG. 

Myrtle does a great job.

I’m new to my K, but I’ve been wondering about what altitudes to use with bad winds.  I flew Spokane to Portland on Friday to drop off at Troutdale for a fuel leak (with a sick/hacking 9 year old co pilot).  Had ~12kts on the nose at 12,500.  I like 14-1600, like you, and ~9000 is the minimum to cross the Cascades near Portland unless you want to go down into the gorge.  I guess I sort of look at my TAS increasing 2kts/1000’ at a constant % power and see if the wind increases more than that?  Even with the 12kts, I was making ~160kts ground.  I also want to stay above and thermals causing turbulence, and obviously all the mountains, so by the time I think about all that, I’m almost back to the 14-16000’?!

To make matters worse, @PeteMc had graciously agreed to pick me up and fly me home, but there was no way I could bring myself to subject him to the sick kid, so I had a very slow 70mph ground speed all the way home in a rental car…

[Fly Boomer]

23 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

I’m new to my K, but I’ve been wondering about what altitudes to use with bad winds.  I flew Spokane to Portland on Friday to drop off at Troutdale for a fuel leak.  Had ~12kts on the nose at 12,500.  I like 14-1600, like you, and ~9000 is the minimum to cross the Cascades near Portland unless you want to go down into the gorge.  I guess I sort of look at my TAS increasing 2kts/1000’ at a constant % power and see if the wind increases more than that?  Even with the 12kts, I was making ~160kts ground.  I also want to stay above and thermals causing turbulence, and obviously all the mountains, so by the time I think about all that, I’m almost back to the 14-16000’?!

Foreflight takes a guess at the altitude where I would find the best speed, but I would rather have a few extra thousand feet between me and the rocks and lose 5 knots.

[hubcap]

4 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

I’m new to my K, but I’ve been wondering about what altitudes to use with bad winds.  I flew Spokane to Portland on Friday to drop off at Troutdale for a fuel leak (with a sick/hacking 9 year old co pilot).  Had ~12kts on the nose at 12,500.  I like 14-1600, like you, and ~9000 is the minimum to cross the Cascades near Portland unless you want to go down into the gorge.  I guess I sort of look at my TAS increasing 2kts/1000’ at a constant % power and see if the wind increases more than that?  Even with the 12kts, I was making ~160kts ground.  I also want to stay above and thermals causing turbulence, and obviously all the mountains, so by the time I think about all that, I’m almost back to the 14-16000’?!

To make matters worse, @PeteMc had graciously agreed to pick me up and fly me home, but there was no way I could bring myself to subject him to the sick kid, so I had a very slow 70mph ground speed all the way home in a rental car…

I tend to be pretty conservative in the way I manage the engine. I run LOP 95% of the time in cruise. I can easily get 150 KTAS at 10,000’ on 10 gph. Most of my flying is in the Midwest where don’t have mountains to worry about. 

[kortopates]

Flight planning with winds can be finicky since a small change in direction can make a large change in ground speed. Add in that although forecast winds can be fairly accurate they are far from perfect in magnitude and direction. So often even if my EFB suggest a lower altitude, on longer flights most often i’ll check out higher altitudes before i give up on them. If the airspace and freq are not busy i’ll ask to level off every 2K for 3 minutes to check winds and ground speed. Or if i perceive it’s too busy for that i’ll just ask to climb another 2K at a time repeatedly. I am also judging when to give up on higher by comparing my XM forecast winds to actual as i sample.
What i’ve learned is that I’ll actually do better at a higher altitude than what my earlier flight planning suggested.
But i’ll often go higher just for a smoother ride and happily accept a few more minutes for a smooth flight. One of the big benefits of our Turbo that our NA brethren won’t understand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[N201MKTurbo]

The route you chose to Casper doesn’t have any mountains. You will have a mountain on your left when you land, but you don’t have to fly over it. Even when the wind is howling, it usually goes west to east, so not over the mountain. It usually doesn’t get that bumpy there. 
 

BTW, I have probably landed there 50 times, but the last time was 1988.

[hubcap]

1 hour ago, N201MKTurbo said:

The route you chose to Casper doesn’t have any mountains. You will have a mountain on your left when you land, but you don’t have to fly over it. Even when the wind is howling, it usually goes west to east, so not over the mountain. It usually doesn’t get that bumpy there. 
 

BTW, I have probably landed there 50 times, but the last time was 1988.

Approach vectored me for a right base to Rwy 3, which meant keeping me at 10,000’ until he called my base which put me about 4,700’ AGL on right base. A bit higher than I am accustomed to, and I couldn’t have done it a couple of years ago, but I threw out the speed brakes dropped the gear and some flaps and intercepted the glide path on a 2 mile final on speed. Those MAPA classes have really paid off.

BTW - I highly recommend Aero Center Casper. Rock star line crews and service. 

[PeteMc]

9 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

To make matters worse, @PeteMc had graciously agreed to pick me up and fly me home, but there was no way I could bring myself to subject him to the sick kid, so I had a very slow 70mph ground speed all the way home in a rental car…

You should have let me know!  I kept looking at the CAVU Wx and the blue skies and was thinking of making the trip anyway.   

How many weeks did they estimate?  (Hope they're not quoting months.)

 

[Pinecone]

I have the Mil version of FF (freebie for CAP pilots, similar to Performance Plus) and it gives me a chart of altitude, time, fuel for every 2,000 feet of altitude.

It makes it VERY easy to make the trade off of speed and fuel for a trip.

[Ragsf15e]

9 hours ago, PeteMc said:

You should have let me know!  I kept looking at the CAVU Wx and the blue skies and was thinking of making the trip anyway.   

How many weeks did they estimate?  (Hope they're not quoting months.)

 

Trust me, you didn’t want my snotty/coughing 9 yo in your beautiful airplane!

They said 3 days, so I expect next week.

[amillet]

On 5/4/2025 at 7:54 PM, hubcap said:

Approach vectored me for a right base to Rwy 3, which meant keeping me at 10,000’ until he called my base which put me about 4,700’ AGL on right base. A bit higher than I am accustomed to, and I couldn’t have done it a couple of years ago, but I threw out the speed brakes dropped the gear and some flaps and intercepted the glide path on a 2 mile final on speed. Those MAPA classes have really paid off.

BTW - I highly recommend Aero Center Casper. Rock star line crews and service. 

What was your descent rate?