D

danielabernath

Well Known Member
Arlington Washington airport is right next to that Oso landslide. There is a TFR right there. No altitude posted. I guess the helicopters need privacy.
With the weather and the temporary flight restrictions, wow!
It has rained out west in Oregon without stopping (maybe a few days) for the last 30 days! It is like living inside of a light bulb when you are in Oregon.

That's why it is nice here in Ft Myers. It rains for a bit and then it clears up.
Looking for a young buck (retired airline pilot) who will fly from AWO to FMY for all the avgas they can drink.
 
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Welcome to VAF!

Daniel, welcome to the good ship VAF.

The factory is just right down the road, maybe they can help you with this???

Good to have you aboard. :D

If it is out of restriction, I would fly it.
 
I would think if you covered all the costs you could find someone that would do it for the experience!

I'm not current, otherwise I'd certainly be up for an adventure like that! :D
 
RV12 to Florida

Hi Daniel,

I flew a new SLSA RV12 3400 miles in October for a friend. I'm interested and would do it for expenses.

Mitch Garner
 
I've done as much as 8.5 hobbs hours in a day, and there are others who report longer days than that. How long depends on a lot of things, personal ability, weather, etc. Stay at a local hotel (lots of airports have courtesy cars) or look on here for the RV hotel, which is generally free and interesting to meet folks. I wouldn't hesitate to fly the airplane - certainly would be cheaper and more fun than paying $4500 to have it hauled, even if you stay at the best hotels.
 
danielabernath said:
It is at Arlington Washington airport and has to go to Ft Myers Florida airport.
Should I pay the $4500 and have it hauled by a pro?
Hire a ferry? (unknown price)
Fly it myself from Washington State to Gulf Coast Florida?:eek:
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FLY IT, FLY IT, FLY IT! Take your time and when you arrive you will have completed a trip worth bragging about.

:cool:
 
My .02 (though probably worth much less) would be to absolutely fly it. Admittedly, I have little experience with this matter but aircraft aren't built to handle the beating that comes from bouncing down a road. Will they tolerate it? Probably. People do it all the time. However, you would be hard pressed to convince me there is not a significant toll on the frame and delicate avionics. Plus think of all the great things you could see. You would literally see almost every ecozone this country has to offer from snow capped mountains to the gulf coast. Pretty amazing if you ask me. If you figure an average 100mph cruise, you could complete the trip in 5 easy days or less including some sightseeing and tourist activities. On top of all that, you will be a better pilot for it. Go for it!
 
Fly it of course. If that doesn't work then get someone else to fly it. Too many opportunities for hangar (truck, trailer, road) rash otherwise. By the time you managed to get it packed to safely transport you'd have paid a big chunk of the gas required. And nobody will want to read about the road trip on here but the flight writeup would likely make the front page. You'd be famous. So there's that?.

If you don't want to fly it I volunteer (if you give me as credit card first). :)
 
danielabernath said:
For those who have flown long distance;
1. how many hours can you stand it per day?
2. where do you sleep at night?
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I can take about 8 hour days of which maybe 6.5 are actually in the air. My butt takes about 4 before complaining but I tell it to suck it up and press on.

I sleep in a bed usually - where is depending on who's offering one.
 
I say fly it. My longest flying day is about 9 hours. I'll say that a long day with odd winds on the end can lead to a very interesting landing. I certainly won't put in a day like that in my tail dragger. Simple things like leaving the crosswind correction in after the touchdown mysteriously don't automatically happen like they do after your average pancake hop. There is much to be said about the airline guys ability to keep the skillset sharp after long boring days of driving the bus. I learned that I have to force that focus, it doesn't happen automatically like on short flights. Had a 182rg heading for the weeds before I realized I had relaxed after touchdown and removed the crosswind correction. Fatigue sneaks up on ya.

With that said, keep the days short...don't pull the type of day you can on a long car trip...and enjoy the country as you go. Stop at Cedar Key for lunch!
 
I took two long trips in a 75 horse plane. Left Phoenix, Deer Valley and finished in Nome, Alaska. In the spring, I took the plane from Nome to Boston.
The most fun I have had in my flying career. Later, I took a C210 from Sun N Fun to Prescott in one day.... but that was a spam can. Doesn't count.
Try to plan to fly it. It is why you became an aviator... not a freight forwarder.
And have fun !!!!!!!
 
I'd plan on flying it - I think you're looking at around $850 (for AvGas) versus the $4500 for shipping.

Probably about 20-22 hours in the air (depending on choice of route) and so I'd plan on 3-4 days. For me, I never get great weather in a string like that, so I'd leave a couple more days in the plan for contingency.

Dan
 
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danielabernath said:
For those who have flown long distance;
1. how many hours can you stand it per day?
2. where do you sleep at night?
Click to expand...

I used to do 14 hour flights a couple of times a year in an AA5A from Cincy or Atlanta to the Bahamas or back. 5-6 hour legs.

Pack water bottles, granola bars, etc.

I wear an external catheter and a short piece of hose to make peeing in the bottle easy and comfortable, esp in turbulence. The Rochester wideband are the best.

If you are going to stop and sleep, and there isn't an excellent pilot lounge with sleep quarters, pay the $40 and stay in a motel with a real bed.
 
I am still a student pilot, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

If I had a few hundred hours of experience under my belt, I would definately fly the route. It would be fun to plan that long of a trip out, and you'd get to see a huge swath of this beautiful country of ours.

I would make a vacation out of it, and plan the trip for 6 or 7 days length to give plenty of room for weather and winds, and bio-breaks. It would be a great experience. If you are lucky, find another pilot that's willing to do the trip with you and take turns flying while the other naps.

Either way you go, I wish you safe journeys!
 
danielabernath said:
For those who have flown long distance;
1. how many hours can you stand it per day?
2. where do you sleep at night?
Click to expand...

My personal "limits" are:

1 - No more than 12hrs/day total flight related activities.
2 - No more than 8hrs/day of actual flying.
3 - Sleep in inexpensive, but decent, hotels. Makes the next days flying activities easier to deal with.

I have done several 3,000+ NM trips in my airplane

CubedRoot said:
I would make a vacation out of it, and plan the trip for 6 or 7 days length to give plenty of room for weather and winds, and bio-breaks. It would be a great experience. If you are lucky, find another pilot that's willing to do the trip with you and take turns flying while the other naps.
Click to expand...

Yup, make a vacation out of it.

My 2 cents.

:cool:
 
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Fly it. Instead of thinking about it as a 2400 mile cross country, think about it as two 300 mile cross countries per day for four days. Allow a week to avoid "get-there-itis" if the weather goes down.
 
longranger said:
Allow a week to avoid "get-there-itis" if the weather goes down.
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This is the best advice so far!

Not trying to meet a deadline. I always take my laptop knowing I can work from anywhere if I need to take an extra day or three.

Pilots that die in bad weather are invariably buried in the sunshine.
 
There seems to be a consensus building here - fly the plane! That's what it was meant to do.

I'll just add one more comment I haven't seen (though I may have missed it), if you're not comfortable with doing the flight alone, take along another pilot - a safety pilot that you trust. You might get some longer days with 2 flying and if you pick your company carefully, you should have some flying wisdom in the right seat, should you need it.

I think there's a lot to be said for flying with another pilot - provided you pick a good one.
 
Best bet is to hire one of the retired airline pilots to ferry it.
I am now troubled that fellow Van-ers have pointed out that a journey by a truck would subject the RV 12 to many bumps and stresses for which the RV 12 was not designed.
 
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Sonex to Alaska

The new Kitplanes magazine features a guy flying a Sonex 8000 miles from Kansas to Alaska and back, taking 61 hours. He did 3-400 miles a day.

You can do 3,000 miles:)

Best,
 
danielabernath said:
It is at Arlington Washington airport and has to go to Ft Myers Florida airport.
Should I pay the $4500 and have it hauled by a pro?
Hire a ferry? (unknown price)
Fly it myself from Washington State to Gulf Coast Florida?:eek:
Click to expand...

Looks like my schedule is opening up after March 21st. I'll fly it for ya. If not all the way, we could meet in Oklahoma, and you could go from there...
I would plan for 8 hrs flight time per day, anticipating 12 duty hours, and that would put me three days to OKC, going the south route (my preference for this time of year)
 
CFI to fly it

Seems like a great course. One of you young bucks just retired from the airline (age 60) instead of me, turning 65 soon.
 
Update on Daniel's RV-12 Move

This was a popular thread so I am sure many would like to know what has transpired. Well, Karen and I flew my 12 up to Jefferson County airport for lunch today and met up with our friend Bob Bogash who hangars his 12 on the field. This was our lunch spot, the Spruce Goose:
i-b552NmW-M.jpg


Anyway, while we are having our chow I notice another 12 touch down and taxi up. I recognized it immediately as Wes Schierman's airplane. Wes had flown it into our RV-12 Bullsession at KPWT last summer and I had the privilege of meeting him and shaking his hand. If you don't know about Wes, grab a copy of the April edition of Sport Aviation.
The two guys aboard came in for lunch and naturally we introduced ourselves and found out the the new owner of Wes's 12 was Daniel Abernath and that he has decided to fly it to Florida himself. He was in the process of getting some training with his flight instructor.
Here's a shot of Daniel and the airplane on the run-up pad at Jefco:
i-6KrDhm6-M.jpg


As pal Bogey said, "Bittersweet".
 
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