Seattle Flying East

Your trip reports, airport experiences, etc. are welcome here.

Moderators: Rick, Lance Murray

Post Reply
User avatar
Colin
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 2006
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:37 pm
First Name: Colin
Aircraft Type: DA42
Aircraft Registration: N972RD
Airports: KFHR
Has thanked: 319 times
Been thanked: 527 times

Seattle Flying East

Post by Colin »

Has anyone flown a DA40 from Seattle through the Cascades in the summer time? My family is doing their usual coast-to-coast flight in August and my son would like to fly "north" this time.

Our usual route from KSMO is to fly out through Sedona and Albuquerque, and then direct KLEB. Usually there are a few more stops. Last summer we made it to Chicago for the first time (tornados and severe storms all other summers).

A couple years ago we flew to KHND then up through Utah into Wyoming and stopped at Jackson Hole. That was a gorgeous flight.

Looking at the Cascades I don't see a non-oxygen route that jumps out at me, though.
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
colin@mightycheese.com * send email rather than PM
http://www.flyingsummers.com
N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
N971RD DA40 G1000 s/n 40.508 (traded)
User avatar
Charles
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 638
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:36 pm
First Name: Charles
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: C-FLEV
Airports: CYHU
Has thanked: 27 times
Been thanked: 96 times

Re: Seattle Flying East

Post by Charles »

Never been there in my plane, but looking at the charts, it seems to me that you could probably do it IFR most of the way on routes with a MOCA at 10000 or below along V2 for example, and the few segments where that's not possible in the area east of Missoula can be done VFR. I think that's less than 100 miles of VFR on that route. Now this assumes that ATC would allow you to fly at 10000 going east.
User avatar
Chris
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 935
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 3:34 am
First Name: Chris
Aircraft Type: DA42NG
Aircraft Registration: N449TS
Airports: KHIO
Has thanked: 1050 times
Been thanked: 480 times

Re: Seattle Flying East

Post by Chris »

We've flown from Portland to Illinois several times and haven't found the Cascades to be as much of a problem as the northern Rockies. V2 looks like a good option from Seattle. Once past the Cascades you can cross the Rockies via the northern route through Mullan Pass and Missoula or via the southern route through Boise and Malad City. We always carry and use oxygen, though. I much prefer to be a couple of extra thousand feet above the minimum altitude for the airways over the mountains.
Chris
N449TS / DA42-NG / 42.AC049
KHIO
Post Reply