A real trip

A couple of weeks ago I learned that I would be going to Florida on business. The trip would be the last week of November. Naturally, as a newly minted pilot I started wondering how long it would take to make the trip in a 152 - 8 hrs. Then I wondered how long it would take to make the trip in a 172 - 6.5 hrs. Interesting. Because of the faster speed of a 172, it turns out it's actually cheaper to fly the 172 when flying the 700+ miles to Florida. Also, flying over the Gulf from Houston to Florida is something I would rather avoid if I didn't have to, especially at my experience level. So I measured the distance along the coastline. It turns out that increases the distance from 732nm to 785nm. I considered the extra 50 miles well worth the peace of mind. This worked out to a little more than a $1000 trip. Yikes!

Well I kept thinking about it. I would just be responsible for the price of the 172 rental beyond the airfare ticket. This was still going to be pretty expensive, and I thought about it for a while. The advantages of this would be a large step towards the 50 hrs of cross country time required for an instrument rating, which I have my eye on. So I could look at this as a large expense, or since I am aiming for the Instrument rating anyway, I can look at it as a savings. But even more important, the planning required, and the actual flight would be a great experience. A couple of problems though... I had to make this trip. What if there were bad weather? My solution would be plan on flying 24 hrs before I had to go to give myself flexibility. Otherwise I would feel pressured to go when conditions may or may not be safe. And also my Plan B would be to get a refundable airline ticket. That way if there was bad weather, I would just fly the ol boring way. The other problem was, even if I looked at this as a savings for an Instrument rating, it's still expensive. Then I realized with the timing of it, and when payment would actually be due, I would have 3 months to pay for it. That made it doable. As long as I had permission from my company - which I received, thank you very much :)

So I went on to the planning phase, which I really enjoy. I used www.skyvector.com to sketch out my route in the past. The problem with it was that the distances were not always accurate, and I couldn't save my route. So I wanted to see what else was out there. I found GoldenEagle at www.flightprep.com. This is a very impressive program. The more I used it, the more great features I found - up to a point. Then it turned out it did have even more great features, but only if you paid for them. The free version had plenty to keep me happy though. I did buy digital VFR sectional maps for the route to Florida. With it, I can plot routes, check for TFRs, get wind data, and connect to DUATs and download a slew of weather maps and briefings. GoldenEagle also shows a profile view which graphically shows your altitude with respect to terrain, weather, and air spaces. And then it will also print out a number of charts for you to bring along on your trip, such as maps and your flight plan. And you can file your flight plan through GoldenEagle as well. With the weather information this program displays from DUATs over my route, I felt confident I could predict if I could make the trip or not, and if necessary, fly around the weather or time my departure time to miss any bad weather. Also, if necessary I felt that I could safely divert one of the multitudes of runways along the way. How ever it turns out, I think it will be an adventure and I am looking forward to it.

As for the route, it turns out there are a bunch of MOAs and restricted areas around Mobile AL. I was starting to think that I would have to go over 100 miles even further out of my way. But after looking at the sectionals, I found that the MOAs were M-F (I'm flying saturday), and the restricted areas allow you to fly through along airways. Thank goodness. Also, if I had to spend the night somewhere, I hoped I could bring my tent, and pitch it wherever necessary. I looked up www.adventurepilot.com, which will tell you which airports have campsites, restaurants, or whatever you're looking for nearby. Unfortunately I could not find any airports with a campsite nearby. But I was wondering... if it really became a necessity, could I land at a small airport, and pitch my tent nearby? I hope I will not have to find out. Well I decided to refuel at the halfway point. This would have been at Mobile Regional, but according to airnav their fuel prices are a whopping $5.24. I saw that KPQL nearby had fuel prices of "only" $4.88, but now they are also at $5.24. That's ridiculous! I'll have to keep looking. It looks like they raise prices near the coast to get people like me who are trying to avoid the gulf, because further inland I can find prices below $4.

I pretty much have my trip plotted out. I am just waiting a couple more days so I can see the 72 hour forecast before finalizing my plan. For the last few weeks the weather has been pretty good. Sometimes even great. I have tried not to get too hopeful because of this trend because I might jinx myself. Well it seems to be happening anyway. We've had a lot of fog, rain and low ceilings the last few days. The route to Florida shows lots of rain, and there's a front going through Thursday. Hopefully it will clear out the bad weather.