Around the USA in 17 days
After spending 20 years building my Series 6, I have been having a blast flying her. This is the second year I have flown around the USA. This years trip was 17 days and covered 5632 miles with an average of 375 miles per flying day (I took two rest days).
I live on the west coast and my goal was to fly to the east coast, swim in the Atlantic, and come back home but other than that I decided each morning where I would go based on the weather. From my trip last year I knew that 400 miles a day was about right considering all the overhead of flight planning, finding hotels, and getting to and from airports.
In the cargo area was my folding bicycle, sleeping bag, tent, food, and my small backpack with my clothes and toiletries. Because I would be landing at a lot of unimproved strips, I brought a full set of tools and spare parts to handle any mechanical situation I could think of. I also knew I would need an oil change during the trip and possibly a 100hr service if the trip went long. In the passenger seat were four quarts of oil, the tools, filters, spark plugs, spare parts, three quarts of water, and all the supplies I would need during the flight.
I love small town America and had no interest in visiting big cities. Other than my home airport, I didnt land at one controlled airport the entire trip and always chose grass or gravel when given a preference. I would always try to choose a final destination where the hotel was within 3 miles of the airport so I could walk. None of the towns I flew into were big enough to have Lyft or Uber and although many FBOs have courtesy cars, I never relied on that luxury. After sitting in the cramped cockpit all day, I would usually choose to walk to the hotel even if a courtesy car was available. I never needed to use my tent and sleeping bag but once I did need to bike 20 miles to my hotel so I was glad to have the bike. I did need my tools and my loctite 243 to handle a coolant leak from a temperature sender so the tools were worth their weight in gold.
The Kitfox might not be fast but it more than makes up for that by allowing me to go the amazing places a Cessna 182 cant
2023 flight around America.jpggrass strip.jpgcrater lake.jpgpassenger seat.jpg
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by DesertFox4
