Re: Longest Cross Country
Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 22:39
I haven't done much long distance flying in my Chief but a friend and I did a cross continent trip in an L16 one time.
My friend had bought the plane on the phone from a guy in British Columbia and the seller agreed to deliver it to Toronto when it was ready. However, nothing much was happening so I suggested we fly out on the airlines and bring it back ourselves.
It was an adventure I would have been real sorry to miss. When got there, we spent a few days in the local Legion in BC where all the local pilots hung out, listening and learning about mountain flying and hearing how the Rockies were littered with the crashed remains of Easteners who thought they knew better.
Anyway, we got through the passes ok, following the VFR routes, flew down over the badlands into Montana and right across the Northern US, all at low level, VFR and with only a map, compass and hand-held radio. This was before GPS.
It took three and a half days once we started, with no weather problems except the last morning in Michigan where we came out from breakfast to find heavy rain had come in from the west. So we figured we'd leave anyway, and we got ahead of it within a half hour and arrived home at Guelph Airpark that afternoon in great weather.
My friend had bought the plane on the phone from a guy in British Columbia and the seller agreed to deliver it to Toronto when it was ready. However, nothing much was happening so I suggested we fly out on the airlines and bring it back ourselves.
It was an adventure I would have been real sorry to miss. When got there, we spent a few days in the local Legion in BC where all the local pilots hung out, listening and learning about mountain flying and hearing how the Rockies were littered with the crashed remains of Easteners who thought they knew better.
Anyway, we got through the passes ok, following the VFR routes, flew down over the badlands into Montana and right across the Northern US, all at low level, VFR and with only a map, compass and hand-held radio. This was before GPS.
It took three and a half days once we started, with no weather problems except the last morning in Michigan where we came out from breakfast to find heavy rain had come in from the west. So we figured we'd leave anyway, and we got ahead of it within a half hour and arrived home at Guelph Airpark that afternoon in great weather.