First looooooong Cross Country

After having the RV7a airworthy for over 4 yrs, me and the mrs finally had our schedules and vacations lined up for a long cross country. We took 2 weeks at the beginning of August and put over 4000nm and 36 hrs on the hobbs. We took well over 1,500 photos this time out and posted the top 100 or so that represent a good cross section of what we did and saw. Picasa is an excellent tool for hosting and organizing them - I really like the feature of being able to pinpoint a photo geographically, that way you can match up a satellite image to what we took a picture of.

The route took us around TX, MO, OH, IL, NB, WY, NV, CA, AZ and NM. Included therein are the central prairies, continental divide, sierra nevada mtns, southern deserts, grand canyon and meteor crater. A good hint is if you are flying this in the summer months, do most of your air time in the morning before it gets hot!

The photos contain more content and location detail - hopefully some of you will find it useful and/or interesting!

Here goes -> http://picasaweb.google.com/n520tx/TourOfTheUS

OUTSTANDING, Ron!!!!!

If this doesn't motivate folks I don't know what will ! (it did me)

b,
d

RE:Fantastic

Ron

MOTIVATING FOR SURE>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Great Pix, great write up, that whats it's all about.

Thanks

Frank @ 1L8 ...RV7A... paint and stuff..................

Giddy up!

That is awesome!

yippee

You just lived out one of my dreams Ron
Thanks so much for the shot in the arm.
Darn these RV's can be fun.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

It really was enjoyable - and an experience. About half way in, we realized that we were planning a LOT with too little time. When we do it again, we're going to plan it so that we have a day or two at each of our stops, and choose the airports for what they have locally to that goal. This time out, we really didn't have an agenda - just made it up as we went along where the weather allowed !

It certainly was more work than I had thought about - most evenings were spent flight planning with navmonster and airnav. Then in the morning, I'd reconfirm that flight plan all over again with the most current weather. Density altitude at most all airports west of Cheyenne was an issue as well - some airports were close to or over 10,000 MSL DA given the temps. Fortunately, all these places had *really* long runways. The RV even at/close to gross on takeoff used maybe 2,500 feet.

There were quite a few firsts for us on this trip which made us conservative in our routes and flying choices. On more than one occasion, we were at an airport where it seemed no one was for miles. The thought of "what happens if we get a flat tire at this airport?" popped in our minds. We answered that question by saying that we'll just get one fed-ex'd to us next day - or even better, just post to VAF and surely someone(s) will be on their way to help !

Blue skies to all!

Nice trip! I like the picture of Nebraska where you say it is "desolate". I like to tell pilots the whole state is a runway with just a few fences and center pivates to look out for.

Congrats on your accomplishment. Nice plane!

Awesome

Ron,
Absolutely awesome!! My wife and I have a Min. Schznaurer too. I know I did not spell it right but we have been thinking about taking him places in our RV8. I thought about getting him some MuttMuffs. Carter is like a kid to my wife and I since we do not have any children. We take him everywhere and we have been tossing the idea around about taking him with us. I had him in the cockpit the other day with me and he acted fine. When I start the engine, he just looks at me and wonders what is going on. I appreciate any information you could provide. Again, awesome pictures.

Darren Kerns
RV8 N214TK

Nice trip!

Very nice trip. Thank you for posting the pictures.

Your trip takes me back to my younger years when my Dad and I drove and camped in 49 states. It was fun, but it sure would have been alot more fun (and faster) in an airplane!

Did you stay at motels or camp or both?

Did you rent cars very much...courtesy cars?

Cleco, cute name...where did you get the name from

Muttmuffs

Kelly was on the lookout for muttmuffs at every stop we made, but alas, no one had them - and only a few had even heard of them. Cleco was a great traveller tho even without them - we had enough baggage so that the top was level with the seat backs. We placed her carrier on the top there so when she was inside, she could see out. During taxi, she was happy to be on Kelly's lap, once I started the runup, she jumped into her carry bag and laid down. Even with the door open, she didn't come out once during flight. Then like clockwork, on final approach, she'd start stretching and make her way back up front in to Kelly's lap.

We're still going to order some tho and hope that she wears them - I think it was the noise not necessarily hurting her ears, but something about it she didn't like. It's surprisingly quiet in the cabin actually since I had the prop/engine dynamically balanced and installed weather stripping on the canopy rollbar.

Alan: We were thinking about the camping angle, but that just added a lot more baggage for just a few nights. We both have one of those "bison" flight bags which made excellent use of space behind the seats - and boy do i have a suggestion for some matching companion bags to make the most use of the baggage area too! We hotel'd it most of the way, stayed with friends a few nights. We borrowed courtesy cars when we could - 2 locations even let us keep them overnight without charge. Rentals for the rest.

Inspiring...thanks!

Great Trip

Wow, what a great trip. Thanks for sharing -- enjoyed the captions as well as the pics.

N520TX said:

over 4000nm and 36 hrs on the hobbs.

Click to expand...

Ron, first off ----- GREAT trip report.

Dittos on all the prior atta boys.

Now, just an example of my particular warped mind.

Has anybody really thought of what a 40 hour flyoff period could do if you were not limited to a test area radius of 25 or so miles????

Nice..I especially liked seeing my home airport..cheyenne wy.

Great trip ...

Wow ... I feel like I took the trip with you. Especially enjoyed the flight over the Grand Canyon. Since the sport pilot rule is 10,000 msl, I guess if I stay under 4000 agl I'll be legal flying over the Canyon someday. By the time I finish my RV-12, the sport pilot rules will probably be changed anyway.

Those small towns looked like they were a lot of fun to visit.

At first I thought your wife's name was Cleco. Cute and appropriate name for your dog.

Thanks for all the pictures.