Our flying mission this week was to get ourselves (Louise and I ) from Houston to Southern California to be with family for Christmas. This sounds simple enough, especially given the fact that we both had several days of work flexibility with which to maneuver, and of course we had an amazing array of weather tools at our disposal – not to mention a couple of capable RV’s from which to choose. Our goal was to be in the Carlsbad/San Diego area by Thursday afternoon, Friday at the latest. Of course, not getting there at all was always an option – an important point to make to yourself when planning such an expedition by light aircraft – of any type!
Unfortunately, the weather in Southern California saw us coming – or trying to, at least. Flooding rains, snow, mudslides…we figured we’d start hearing about RV builders using the fuselages as REAL canoes before the week was out (I know, bad joke for those in Corona). For us, it meant delaying a day or two, then figuring out a way to slide across the country with that same weather system moving towards us. If we left too early, we’d meet it in the mountains. If we left to late, we’d be trapped in Houston when it got to Texas. While watching the weather consumed our time for about a day the bottom line is that we were safely at home, and could afford to wait. Our strategy was to leave Houston before the weather turned sour in our area, fly out as far as we could until we reached the winter weather, then wait it out before pressing on west.
Tactically, we had to decide on an airplane. The RV-6 was slated for the trip, because the side by side has better heating for the passenger in the winter. But the RV-8 has a far more capable avionics suite for IFR flying, including an IFR GPS and an approach coupled autopilot. In the end, we made the decision to take the -8 because it gave us more flexibility when it came to filing IFR – more approaches, and a bit more redundancy. Once that decision was made, we filed for Carlsbad NM, loaded, and called for a clearance., getting off of a private strip under the busy Houston Class B is a story in itself (it took about 20 minutes and launching into VFR to circle the airport when we couldn’t make contact to get a release), but we’ll leave it for another time and pick up cruising on top for a 3 hour cruise to Cavern City. Nothing special, just lots and lot of whit far below, a little headwind, and a visual approach at the far end, the clouds ending just about the time we left Texas.
We decided to spend the night and visit with our RV friends Larry, Georg, and Linda, then press on in the morning. We could have pushed on to Demning, but it looked like e could get there in the morning as well, and that turned out to be the case, although we had to file IFR to get out of Carlsbad for an on-top cruise at 8,000. Since Carlsbad is below radar coverage for Albuquerque Center, it is a “one in, one out” IFR field. Louise learned that it makes sense to call for your clearance as soon as you get the engine started to get in line – we beat a Lear and a Cargo hauler that way. The tops were 6,000, which produced a spectacular picture of El Capitan and the Guadalupes:
Sure enough, the weather-guessers were right, and the storms cleared out of the SoCal region just as they predicted. Unfortunately, the same system spawned some mountain obscuration and showers in the mountains across southern Arizona as it moved east. When I heard a Barron call Center for lower because he was picking up some ice at 9,000, I decided it was time to stop short in Demning and reconnoiter. I-10 looked like a good VFR router to follow, with easy retreats if we ran into something ugly. XM was showing the showers rapidly diminishing, and by the time we had a little snack and a visit, the way was clear with broken to scattered skies. We launched for Casa Grande and enjoyed some time picking our way across the desert and mountains, finishing up on top for the last 100 miles.
With our final destination being one of the busiest single-runway airports in the world (Carlsbad, CA), I decided that the best way to get in was to be on an IFR flight plan. Airports in the San Diego area were reporting broken to overcast skies at 4500, so it was cheap insurance to make sure we didn’t get stuck over in the desert anyway. I was surprised that Casa Grande wasn’t under the Phoenix Approach airspace, but was happy to work with Albuquerque again as we slid along just north of the border. Speaking of the border, I think we saw the new fence…makes us wonder who is going to keep it from disappearing under those sand dunes!
As we approached the Coastal Range to the east of San Diego, it was clear and a million – on the east side! But the westerly winds had piled clouds up from the coast to the Julian VOR, and it looked like we were going to get to shoot the ILS 24 approach. No problem – it was fun to use all the avionics “for real” for a change. SoCal approach got us on radar just south of JLI and cleared us to cut the corner for the final approach fix, stepping us down in altitude as the mountains dropped away below us. Knowing that I was going to break out well before the runway always makes things more relaxing, but nevertheless, it was an ILS until the visual was assured – although I was willing to fly it at a much higher speed with the understanding that I’d have a mile or two to slow down.
The Synthetic Vision is a really nice addition to the arsenal on the approach down the mountainside, as it took away any residual element of doubt about where we were in relation to the ground. Even ILS signals have been known to be bounced or degraded, so it is nice to have yet another confirmation that everything is going your way. With the HiTS display showing the GPS derived approach, the ILS needles showing me the official glide slope, and the Synthetic Vision telling me that yup, the ground is still down “that – away”, it was very comfortable to fly downhill at 150 knots (or so). Hey, I’d hate to be slowing anyone else down! Louise grabbed the camera as we got in close to the glide slope, and shot it all the way in. Pay no attention to the tall, skinny aspect ratio – that’s what happens when you are in a long, skinny tandem….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2MvGSgu_mw
The strategy of breaking the trip into two days made it much more relaxing, considering that we needed to absorb the weather and work the tactics to get around it. As it turned out, we could have flown the IFR legs with the VOR/ILS only RV-6, but it was nice having all the bells and whistles at the end. Filing when it helps, and going VFR at other times is a great way to move across the country.
Paul
Unfortunately, the weather in Southern California saw us coming – or trying to, at least. Flooding rains, snow, mudslides…we figured we’d start hearing about RV builders using the fuselages as REAL canoes before the week was out (I know, bad joke for those in Corona). For us, it meant delaying a day or two, then figuring out a way to slide across the country with that same weather system moving towards us. If we left too early, we’d meet it in the mountains. If we left to late, we’d be trapped in Houston when it got to Texas. While watching the weather consumed our time for about a day the bottom line is that we were safely at home, and could afford to wait. Our strategy was to leave Houston before the weather turned sour in our area, fly out as far as we could until we reached the winter weather, then wait it out before pressing on west.
Tactically, we had to decide on an airplane. The RV-6 was slated for the trip, because the side by side has better heating for the passenger in the winter. But the RV-8 has a far more capable avionics suite for IFR flying, including an IFR GPS and an approach coupled autopilot. In the end, we made the decision to take the -8 because it gave us more flexibility when it came to filing IFR – more approaches, and a bit more redundancy. Once that decision was made, we filed for Carlsbad NM, loaded, and called for a clearance., getting off of a private strip under the busy Houston Class B is a story in itself (it took about 20 minutes and launching into VFR to circle the airport when we couldn’t make contact to get a release), but we’ll leave it for another time and pick up cruising on top for a 3 hour cruise to Cavern City. Nothing special, just lots and lot of whit far below, a little headwind, and a visual approach at the far end, the clouds ending just about the time we left Texas.
We decided to spend the night and visit with our RV friends Larry, Georg, and Linda, then press on in the morning. We could have pushed on to Demning, but it looked like e could get there in the morning as well, and that turned out to be the case, although we had to file IFR to get out of Carlsbad for an on-top cruise at 8,000. Since Carlsbad is below radar coverage for Albuquerque Center, it is a “one in, one out” IFR field. Louise learned that it makes sense to call for your clearance as soon as you get the engine started to get in line – we beat a Lear and a Cargo hauler that way. The tops were 6,000, which produced a spectacular picture of El Capitan and the Guadalupes:
Sure enough, the weather-guessers were right, and the storms cleared out of the SoCal region just as they predicted. Unfortunately, the same system spawned some mountain obscuration and showers in the mountains across southern Arizona as it moved east. When I heard a Barron call Center for lower because he was picking up some ice at 9,000, I decided it was time to stop short in Demning and reconnoiter. I-10 looked like a good VFR router to follow, with easy retreats if we ran into something ugly. XM was showing the showers rapidly diminishing, and by the time we had a little snack and a visit, the way was clear with broken to scattered skies. We launched for Casa Grande and enjoyed some time picking our way across the desert and mountains, finishing up on top for the last 100 miles.
With our final destination being one of the busiest single-runway airports in the world (Carlsbad, CA), I decided that the best way to get in was to be on an IFR flight plan. Airports in the San Diego area were reporting broken to overcast skies at 4500, so it was cheap insurance to make sure we didn’t get stuck over in the desert anyway. I was surprised that Casa Grande wasn’t under the Phoenix Approach airspace, but was happy to work with Albuquerque again as we slid along just north of the border. Speaking of the border, I think we saw the new fence…makes us wonder who is going to keep it from disappearing under those sand dunes!
As we approached the Coastal Range to the east of San Diego, it was clear and a million – on the east side! But the westerly winds had piled clouds up from the coast to the Julian VOR, and it looked like we were going to get to shoot the ILS 24 approach. No problem – it was fun to use all the avionics “for real” for a change. SoCal approach got us on radar just south of JLI and cleared us to cut the corner for the final approach fix, stepping us down in altitude as the mountains dropped away below us. Knowing that I was going to break out well before the runway always makes things more relaxing, but nevertheless, it was an ILS until the visual was assured – although I was willing to fly it at a much higher speed with the understanding that I’d have a mile or two to slow down.
The Synthetic Vision is a really nice addition to the arsenal on the approach down the mountainside, as it took away any residual element of doubt about where we were in relation to the ground. Even ILS signals have been known to be bounced or degraded, so it is nice to have yet another confirmation that everything is going your way. With the HiTS display showing the GPS derived approach, the ILS needles showing me the official glide slope, and the Synthetic Vision telling me that yup, the ground is still down “that – away”, it was very comfortable to fly downhill at 150 knots (or so). Hey, I’d hate to be slowing anyone else down! Louise grabbed the camera as we got in close to the glide slope, and shot it all the way in. Pay no attention to the tall, skinny aspect ratio – that’s what happens when you are in a long, skinny tandem….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2MvGSgu_mw
The strategy of breaking the trip into two days made it much more relaxing, considering that we needed to absorb the weather and work the tactics to get around it. As it turned out, we could have flown the IFR legs with the VOR/ILS only RV-6, but it was nice having all the bells and whistles at the end. Filing when it helps, and going VFR at other times is a great way to move across the country.
Paul
Last edited:
