For those who’d like an example of the traveling capability of the RV, take a look at our return trip from Southern California to Houston (TX) yesterday. The lousy weather across Texas on Saturday was replaced with clear and a million for the entire route on Sunday. Winds aloft forecasts were optimistic (overly optimistic as it turned out) for tail (or neutral) winds across the route. Weathermeister called for a 6:30 trip without stops, but we’d be losing 2 hours on the clock due to time zone changes, and at least 30 minutes per fuel stop, so we got up early for a sunrise departure to make it home for dinner. We’d be crossing great gobs of the United States – the great southwest desert and all of West Texas – miles and miles of, well…miles and miles…..
We lifted off just as the sun peeked above the mountains to the east – the early morning haze in the desert creating a surrealistic landscape of shadows and ridges disappearing into the low ball of the solar orb. Louise was flying the first leg – I had flown the last leg in to Big Bear a week ago, so it was her turn. (I also didn’t mind catching a little more sleep while it was smooth and cool, and the back seat was an easy place to snooze….)
Lift-off and Sunrise!
Our plan was to go as far as reasonable on the first leg, flying high to catch the minimal tailwinds. A good line to Houston that avoids the Restricted Areas of New Mexico crosses Casa Grande (south of Phoenix), Deming, El Paso, Pecos, and some good airports in the Hill Country. We set up the route in the Garmin to cover these points, and watched the fuel predictions for each checkpoint on the EFIS as the flight developed. Deming was an easy reach, and the default first stop. Just short of El Paso, the nominal halfway point, it is easy to get in and out of, and the fuel is usually reasonable. This day, however, it looked like we’d only be just a little below half tanks when we got there, so we played on to Pecos, a little more than an additional hour away. That put us well over halfway on the first leg, and we pumped in 31 gallons of 100LL when we got there. With our fuel burn at 13.5K of about 6.8, we had plenty of gas and reserves – and with VFR weather in all directions, it was nice to have most of the trip behind us at the break.
Pecos is always a great fuel stop, not only because their fuel price is competitive (not always the lowest, yet in the ballpark), but they give a discount for cash and they have free sodas, water, and burritos (Not frozen, “heat-em-up” burritos, but hand-made, barbecue rolled up in a soft tortilla burritos! Try the “Hot” sauce if you dare….)! Louise had stretched her leg to 4:30 to make Pecos, so we took a little extra time to unwind, enjoy lunch, and catch our breath before the “short” leg home. “Short” in this case is 447 miles with predicted tailwinds. See how your perspective changes with an RV?
Fueled and filled, we launched into the gusty surface wind and pointed the nose towards home, climbing for the smooth air. The bumps continued up through 9,000’, so I made 11.5K our final and watched the tailwinds grow as predicted. The visibility was a good hundred miles – superb for Texas, but lousy compared to what we’d had in SOCAL the past week (It’s amazing how quickly you can get used to an unusual condition). I looked ahead to Austin while we were still west of Fredericksburg, and as soon as we passed over the capitol city, I had the power plant at Industry on the nose and the Katy freeway on the west side of Houston in clear view. Coming in to Houston VFR from the west, I usually aim for 3,000’ at BEZLE intersection, which keeps us clear of Sugarland’s tower-controlled airspace and sets us up to duck under the Class B for the last few minutes to home. With the vertical capability of the Tru Trak and the GRT, I can dial in a target altitude and descent rate until the little green “altitude arc” is right where I want to be (geographically) when I hit the altitude, and then just control the throttle to keep the power under 75%. Of course, I still back that up with mental math, but it’s fun to watch it fly!
The previous day’s storm had just barely cleared the area, and the surface winds were howling – 290 @ 21G34 at the AWOS about 3 miles from our home field. Fortunately, our runway is oriented 29-11, so I hovered to a stop with the wind in my face, and the trip was over at 1630 local time with an additional 7 hours on the Valkyrie’s engine and airframe. This time, Louise got more hours than I did, but I had the tailwinds (240 knots ground speed on descent!) to make up for it.
Wonderful traveling machines, these RV’s. We did a little mental math and figured that if we’d had to drive down out of big Bear to Ontario to catch a Southwest flight, add in the inevitable transfer, and consider check time plus the drive home, we wouldn’t have gotten in much (if any) sooner. And, of course, the East Coast is much closer to Houston than the West (although I can’t figure out why I’d want to go that direction, except for business…). The RV gives a whole new meaning to the word “Cross-Country”, doesn’t it?
Paul
Great Gobs of USA?..
Cross Country
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