{"id":206,"date":"2019-03-18T22:59:37","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T22:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pngyoung.com\/Flying\/?page_id=206"},"modified":"2022-02-21T03:34:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T03:34:47","slug":"major-cross-country","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/major-cross-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Notable (or Memorable) Cross Country Trips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this page, I will present stories about the more notable (or memorable) cross-country flights that I&#8217;ve made.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1965 &#8211; Flying Home for Lunch<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">First &#8220;free solo&#8221; cross country, home for lunch.<\/span> &nbsp;After my supervised solo cross country as a student pilot, I proposed to fly -home- to have lunch with my parents. &nbsp;With the approval of my instructor I flew the T-34 from USAFA to Hoxie, KS early one Sunday morning.&nbsp; Departure was a bit later than planned due to fog and low clouds reported over eastern Colorado. &nbsp;By mid-morning the fog had cleared and I enjoyed a smooth flight using strictly pilotage navigation (the only kind available in those days) &#8211; that was easy since I was familiar with the route, the highways and towns along the way.&nbsp; Nonetheless, I had a complete flight card and tracked time-and-distance the whole way (checkpoints typically 15-20 miles apart) &#8211; I really enjoy that type of navigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I landed on Hoxie&#8217;s buffalo grass runway 1, a runway I had played on as a kid. &nbsp;I had never experienced such a soft touchdown (landing at USAFA&#8217;s Pine Valley strip was rough &#8211; gravel and grass clumps, etc.).&nbsp; I parked the T-34 under a tree at the south end of the runway, just two blocks from home.&nbsp; I walked to the house and waited for the parents to return from church and we enjoyed a very pleasant lunch.&nbsp; I stopped at Goodland for gas and returned to USAFA; someone else was flying the airplane by mid-afternoon.&nbsp; I was hooked on cross-country flying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1965, Isla Grande, San Juan PR to Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas VI<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Flying &#8220;International&#8221;.<\/span> In my first assignment, I joined a project exploring microwave communications between aircraft and to the ground. &nbsp;The right kind of atmospheric conditions existed only in the subtropics; testing was being conducted out of San Juan, PR. &nbsp;During my 6 weeks TDY I had time for some extracurricular activities &#8211; why not go flying? &nbsp;I rented a plane at the Isla Grande airport and invited three of my fellow crewmembers to fly over to Saint Thomas.<\/li>\n<li>This would be an easy, almost straight-line flight, due east along the northeast shoreline of Puerto Rico, past the island of Culebra (then the site of target practice for the Navy&#8217;s big guns) and to the Cyril E. King airport at Charlotte Amalie, VI. Take off, climb to a couple of thousand feet, fly a couple miles offshore of Puerto Rico; could see Culebra and in the distance St Thomas. &nbsp;Funny thing happened: as the eastern tip of Puerto Rico passed behind the starboard wing, the engine seemed to start running rough. Going through the Emergency Checklist (carburetor heat: ON; mixture: RICH; fuel selecter: BOTH; magnetos: CHECK; oil pressure: CHECK), nothing appeared to be amiss. Conclusion: psychological &#8211; we&#8217;re over -only- open water.<\/li>\n<li>The King airport is interesting: one end of the runway stops -at the shore- of the island; for the other end, the runway slopes uphill &#8211; towards a saddle between the mountain ridge of the main island on the left and a tall hill extending to the right. &nbsp;After visiting downtown Charlotte Amalie and collecting souvenirs, back at the airplane I was faced with a dilemma: take off into the wind which was uphill towards the saddle with higher terrain left and right, or down hill with a bit of tailwind but -no- elevation to climb over (only &#8216;sea level&#8217;). &nbsp;Because we were at near max weight for the C-172, I chose downwind &#8211; we got off the ground before the beach and enjoyed a nice flight back to Isla Grande.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1966, Wright Field to Flushing Meadows New York<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1964 Worlds Fair.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1966, Wright Field to Muscle Shoals, AL<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Spontaneous trip on Mother&#8217;s Day.<\/span>&nbsp; My housemate and I awoke to a nice day for flying. On a whim, we decided to fly from Wright Field to Muscle Shoals, AL to enjoy Mother&#8217;s Day lunch with his mother.&nbsp; A T-34 was available at the Wright-Patterson Aero Club, so off we went.&nbsp; The flight down was uneventful (__ miles, __ hours).&nbsp; We enjoyed a really nice lunch with her.<\/li>\n<li>Come mid-afternoon, we headed to the Flight Service Station (FSS for you younger folks) to get weather information and file a flight plan. We filed our Flight Plan for the western route of two that I had laid out.&nbsp; There was some weather reported en-route &#8211; the usual cumulus clouds with a few rain showers.&nbsp; As we were leaving the FSS, the briefer called to us to advise that thunderstorms had been observed along that route; we could avoid them by taking the other route.&nbsp; And weather at our destination was clear and forecast to stay that way.<\/li>\n<li>We changed our flight plan and headed out.&nbsp; The clouds were reported as scattered to broken, so I climbed above the clouds heading on course.&nbsp; Initially the tops were some 8,000 feet altitude, but as we proceeded north, the tops were higher; we climbed to 12,500 ft altitude to get above them.&nbsp; And enjoyed a smooth ride back to Wright Field (__ hours).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1968, Wright Field to Eglin AFB, then to Topeka, Hoxie and Denver, and return to Wright Field<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1979, Edwards AFB to Hoxie, then to Eglin AFB, and return to Edwards<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>This was a trip with the family, my wife and two kids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2004, Langley AFB to Muleshoe Tx, Albuquerque, Hoxie\/Oakley, Colorado Springs, and return to Langley<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2006, Langley AFB to Baraboo WI, and on to Oakland CA, and return to Langley<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>This trip has a page of its own, the <a href=\"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/coast-to-coast-across-the-country\/\">first simple version here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Other Trips<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Some other memorable trips that I&#8217;ve taken, in no particular order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The &#8217;90s &#8211; Visiting the McDaniels in Massachusetts.<\/span> &nbsp;I made several trips from Langley AFB to Northampton MA to visit Pat&#8217;s parents. Some favorite memories:\n<ul>\n<li>On one flight in a Piper Arrow to meet Pat who was already in Amherst, &nbsp;I flew -above- the Class B airspace around New York city (as always, with Flight Following). &nbsp;It was special to look down upon that huge city.<\/li>\n<li>On another visit &#8211; during the winter &#8211; we had to deal with very cold temperatures and frost on the airplane. &nbsp;The folks at the Northampton airport were most helpful in getting the C-172 ready to fly.<\/li>\n<li>On another visit, we took Pat&#8217;s parents for a tour of Massachusetts, flying over places that were familiar to them on the ground, including New Bedford where Pat was born. &nbsp;We stopped at an airport along the way to have breakfast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Summer 1965 &#8211; Flying an Aeronca Champ<\/span>. &nbsp;While attending Kansas State University (for a break after graduating from USAFA), I got checked out in an Aeronca Champ and received my Tailwheel Endorsement.\n<ul>\n<li>One afternoon I went joy-flying with my housemate Jerry Wilbeck. &nbsp;We flew north from the Junction City, KS airport, then headed back, flying over the middle of the large Tuttle Creek Reservoir. &nbsp;At maybe 1500 feet AGL, cruising along at the Champ&#8217;s 70 knots, what should catch our eyes but &#8212; an Army helicopter joining up with us, maybe 30 yards off our port wing. The Champ came from the Fort Riley Aero Club &#8211; we suspected they were waving to someone of their buddies. We were a bit nervous, not knowing their intentions but trusting they didn&#8217;t wish to get tangled with us any more than we with them. As they accelerated to pull ahead of us (and I&#8217;m thinking creating some bad air), Jerry sighs relief &#8211; that he won&#8217;t be experiencing a water landing.<\/li>\n<li>With the Champ at my disposal, and relishing thoughts of cross country flying, I embarked on a trip to Hoxie, KS to visit the parents. With my girlfriend in the back seat, we headed west following Interstate 70. This was summertime, the Champ is -not- overpowered-, we were close to max weight &#8211; the Champ would not climb above 4,500 ft altitude. Terrain in the western part of the state is below 3,000 ft so that wasn&#8217;t a consideration, but we could not climb above the more turbulent air as I had been accustomed to doing in the T-34. We landed at Hays to get fuel &#8211; I flew the classic pattern, landed smartly at the end of the runway into a 10-15 kn breeze &#8211; then had to taxi the better part of a mile to the FBO at the other end of the airport. In hindsight, I might have flown that distance; since landing roll was only a couple of hundred feet. The remainder of the trip was uneventful &#8211; a nice visit and greater appreciation for the T-34 and faster airplanes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">1978, TDY from Edwards AFB, CA to Hill AFB, UT.<\/span> On one of many trips to meetings at Hill AFB (Ogden, UT), I took the Aero Club&#8217;s C-152. &nbsp;The morning trip up was easy and uneventful. But the trip home wasn&#8217;t so.\n<ul>\n<li>Fuel was not available at Hill AFB, so I planned on fueling up south of Salt Lake City. &nbsp;The first airport where I landed I discovered did not have fuel service. The next airport south was Delta, UT &#8211; I had enough to get there but with little extra.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s become mid-afternoon and the winds are increasing, I know now typical for that territory. They were blowing -very- strong at Delta &#8211; in fact I chose to land on a taxiway aligned -with the wind-, the taxi -carefully- to parking. The wind was so strong that I had to shield the neck of the fuel tank to prevent the wind from sucking fuel out.<\/li>\n<li>I waited for a couple of hours, having been assured by the folks at the FBO, that the wind would subside. &nbsp;Sure enough, about 4 o&#8217;clock it had dropped enough for me to get on my way. But .. I was fighting a headwind that reduced my speed (and endurance on fuel) such that I couldn&#8217;t even make Nellis AFB at Las Vegas. So I diverted to St George, UT to spend the night. The flight approaching St George provided some of the most impressive scenery &#8211; a wide canyon with tall, colorful cliffs of the Red Mountains on the left.<\/li>\n<li>Landing at St George &#8211; the airport was in those days on the top of a mesa. &nbsp;That made for a new experience, somewhat like it must be landing on an aircraft carrier. After a night in a motel I had an uneventful flight past Nellis AFB and back to Edwards, having learned &#8211; in the Mountain West, do your flying before noon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mar 18,2019: More to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this page, I will present stories about the more notable (or memorable) cross-country flights that I&#8217;ve made. 1965 &#8211; Flying Home for Lunch First &#8220;free solo&#8221; cross country, home for lunch. &nbsp;After my supervised solo cross country as a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/major-cross-country\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-206","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PfNk8F-3k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pngyoung.com\/Flying\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}