Cross-country flight home

The purchase of N283RV, a one-year old 3B, has been completed and I am preparing to fly it home from West Virginia to central California, as soon as the rain stops. If anyone has any words of wisdom or route suggestions, they will be appreciated.
My first take-off was a near-death experience. I have recently been flying behind a geared Rotax which requires considerable LEFT rudder. I was surprised at how much right rudder the R-3 required. Luckily the runway was 150 feet wide because I needed ALL of it.

Bill Newkirk
Temporary citizen of Martinsburg, W.Va.

XC-single seat

A few tips come to mind.

>Hopefully you have a GPS. Use it, but follow along on maps. They will let you down at the worst possibly time and place.

>Do your flight planning on the ground. The crowded single-seat environment is too tight to be folding/unfolding maps and charts. Layout your courses on them and accordion fold them. Stash them in order of use. Small clips can help keep them orderly. Get the cockpit organized before engine start.

>When you get out west over the rugged areas, stay near interstates or major highways. There are many places where you would possibly never be found out west if you are very far from a highway or town.

>You may not have a ELT, but if you do,fresh batteries.

> If you are not filing flight plans, at least tell someone your proposed route and schedule. Keep them updated.

>Carry some bottled water and snacks. Perhaps a piddle-pack if needed on a long leg. (Be ready for contortions!)

>Wear a hat! The canopy environment can cook you!

>Suggest a southwesterly route from W VA and basically follow I-20 or I-10, depending on destination and wx.

>Stop when you get tired.

>Enjoy the journey! This will be a fun memory in your logbook of life!

My -4 takes considerable rudder under 100mph indicated, cruise climb around 130 becomes quite tolerable until almost no rudder above 140i.

Don't rush, enjoy it, and don't push the weather to hard.

Beg barrow or steal a GPS, my 30 hour xc in a 150 was only possible because of a generous loan of a gps as I was frequently unable to receive VOR having ignored above weather advice (great vis but low ceilings much of the flight). It was fun down low and relatively safe as the 150 requires so little of an emergency landing site. Work load with a gps is likely 1/10th that of VOR's.

I hear ElPaso and the south route is easiest from a mountain crossing aspect.

edit: I type slow, Vern beat me to it.

A Personal Locator Beacon would be a good investment.

Vern said:

A few tips come to mind.

>Do your flight planning on the ground. The crowded single-seat environment is too tight to be folding/unfolding maps and charts. Layout your courses on them and accordion fold them. Stash them in order of use. Small clips can help keep them orderly. Get the cockpit organized before engine start.

Click to expand...

Excellent advice. Heed last line.

Vern said:

>When you get out west over the rugged areas, stay near interstates or major highways. There are many places where you would possibly never be found out west if you are very far from a highway or town.

>You may not have a ELT, but if you do,fresh batteries.

> If you are not filing flight plans, at least tell someone your proposed route and schedule. Keep them updated.

>Carry some bottled water and snacks. Perhaps a piddle-pack if needed on a long leg. (Be ready for contortions!)

Click to expand...

Cell phone, portable radio, PLB, spare batteries.

Vern said:

>Stop when you get tired.

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Stop before you get tired!!!

Vern said:

>Enjoy the journey! This will be a fun memory in your logbook of life!

Click to expand...

Amen to that

Get familiar with www.100ll.com for picking fuel stops.

Recent example, Addison in dallas was 6.45, Brookport was around 3.50 and only ~40 miles difference. Pays to plan and many airports have internet so you can pick your next stop.

Routing

Bill,

I did the reverse of your trip about a month ago bringing a friend's RV-4 home from San Diego (Ramona) to Warrenton, VA (KHWY) just down the road from where you are right now. Good that you will be flying the easiest part of the trip first as you get to know the airplane and its fuel burn, etc. As you know options out west in the desert are much more limited as fewer airports have fuel.

Here was my routing - just reverse this:

Ramona (KRMN)
Imperial VOR (IPL)
Gila Bend Airport (E63) waypoint
Casa Grande, AZ (KCGZ) fuel stop

Casa Grande, AZ (KCGZ)
Cochise County (P33) waypoint only
Las Cruces, NM (KLRU) fuel stop and food on field

Las Cruces, NM (KLRU)
MOLLY Intersection
Salt Flat VOR (SFL) - this is Guadelupe Pass east of El Paso
Odessa Schlemeyer Airport, TX (KODO) fuel stop

Odessa Schlemeyer Airport, TX (KODO)
Mesquite, TX (KHQZ) - fuel stop

Mesquite, TX (KHQZ)
Clarksdale, MS Fletcher Field (KCKM) fuel stop and home of the blues!

Clarksdale, MS (KCKM)
Knoxville - Rockwood, TN (KRKW) fuel stop

Knoxville - Rockwood, TN (KRKW)
Martinsville, VA Blue Ridge Airport (KMTV) - fuel stop and food on field
Warrenton - Fauquier (KHWY)

A few notes:

Watch out for those restricted areas in CA/AZ/NM. This routing gets you through nearly all of that and away from the big tall mountains. Fuel options in eastern CA or western AZ are very limited... Like everyone said, try to plan out everything in advance and use a GPS. Big expanses of nothing-ness to go thru out there. Stay high as the desert winds can be quite extreme near those peaks.

Watch out for the ADIZ near DC and expanding P-40 restricted area right near Martinsburg. P-40 is Camp David, MD.

Also, sometimes the Piedmont area can be clear and the mountains obscured, which means that the Piedmont route can be safter. Other times it is reversed and you may want to fly down the Shenandoah Valley along I-81 as this is often a clear route with a number of airport alternates along that route.

Fly safe,

Rob

I'll add another plug

For the PLB...keep it where you can activate it as item #2 on your mental emergency checklist...Set it off before you hit the ground.

remember Steve Fossett.

Frank

Make sure you are familiar with the fuel system. Some builders will mount the fuel selector lever opposite to what you think it should be. Also make sure you can reach the fuel valve with seat belts on and tight. Remember John Denver? If you get into a little precip consider that most RV3s leak a little around the front canopy seal and gravity might pull those little rain drops down to your radio stack.
Bring a NEW CO2 detector.
Good luck and have fun with your New RV3
Tom
RV3 2000+ hours

Gross wt rising!

We've now got poor Bill shoehorned into a tiny cockpit and a ton over gross wt!

Thank you all for your hints and suggestions. It is interesting that Rob has recently made almost the same trip but in reverse.
Rob, you said you went via El Paso. My plan is to follow I-40. Do you see this as a problem? My cell phone # 559-430-7220.
Alex, if I make it that far, I'm sure I will be so anxious to get to Madera that I probably won't stop. But I plan on visiting you later.
Right now I'm sitting here waiting for the weather to clear.

Bill Newkirk
N283RV

Bill,

I think that is a solid route and probably makes sense for you as you are headed to central CA whereas I was coming from San Diego.

Nothing wrong with IFR (i follow roads...). The route is great all the way until you hit Albuquerque then you are going to have to gain some real altitude. Doubt you have 02 in the RV-3, so that will be a limiting factor. You are probably going to have to get to 12,500 quite a bit to keep clear of some of the big stuff. Early AM and late in the evening in the deserts and mountains is best. Mid day can be tough on turbulence.

The part of your route that will be tough is between Gallup, NM and Winslow, AZ as that is some inhospitable terrain, but I see there are a number of good airports out there that have fuel and they are all along 40.

Stay high over those ridges! Cross at an angle whereever you can to so that you have less than a 180 to turn out of an unrecoverable downdraft. The roads are almost always the low points anyway, so sticking with 40 should work out for you fine.

I'll give you a call on your cell and check in.

Safe travels,

Rob

Crossing ABQ not too bad

Bill,

I-40 is a grat route. I have crossed ABQ a few times in a 172/182 and your RV3 will have no problem. You'll see the break in the sangre de cristo mountains where I-40 runs and it will be evident as to the location to cross. Alternatively, you could fly a little further south where the elevation is lower and tapers off. Either way you'll be fine. I usually cross right over 40 and go above the class charlie space.

Rob is correct, there's a lot of jackrabbits (we call em jackelopes) out there and the place is somewhat desolate with beautiful country to be had. Take your safety equipment just in case.

As you come into AZ, the cheapest fuuel hands down is in St. Johns, SJN.
Great service too. As you continue, you might as well land in Sedona, at the USS AZ Red Rock Aircraft Carrier. A little out of the way, but not too bad by RV.

Have fun,

Ed
RV9a N542A Reserved
Still poundin

Cross-Country

Just a quick update on my progress, or lack thereof.
Was able to depart Martinsburg WV tues. afternoon. Arrived in Montecello, KY 3 bumpy hours later and made a crooked 3-bump landing. Stayed with friends and left Wed AM foe Malden, MO (what a great little facility with $4.10 fuel). I'm still there...... Pissy weather. Should be able to leave tomorrow morning.
The RV-3 is great. It commands my healthy respect, but I really like it. So far, it goes about 170 mph at 2300 rpm and burns a little under 6 gal/hr.
I looked up SJN and will put it on my list. Thanks.

Bill newkirk

Finally home

Sunday at noon I finally landed in Fresno. The Hobbs meter showed exactly 18 hours. This should amount to about 16 flight hours. There were absolutely no mechanical issues. Paul Clohan built a very good plane.

Bill Newkirk

grantcarruthers said:

Get familiar with www.100ll.com for picking fuel stops.

Recent example, Addison in dallas was 6.45, Brookport was around 3.50 and only ~40 miles difference. Pays to plan and many airports have internet so you can pick your next stop.

Click to expand...

If you take the southern route, the cheapest fuel around the DFW area is Bridgeport (KXBP) not Brookport, close but no cigar. However, it just recently jumped from 3.50 to 4.05.

Good luck, have fun, but most importantly, fly safe!

Hey!! I was awefully close for quoting fuel prices 600 miles from my home (and if he used www.100ll.com he would'a found it!!)

Besides, doubt he wants to backtrack from CA at this point!

N13BN: Congrats on the big X-C and the homecoming with your -3.