Flying the Caribbean (Part 3) - Eastbound USA -- How do you divvy up multi-day trips?

[waynemcc999]

We're departing California for the Caribbean! Despite timing our departure to travel between weather fronts, challenges nevertheless await...

How do you divvy up multi-day trips? Have you crossed the USA coast to coast? How many days did you plan? Flying hours per day? What worked for you and what didn't?

A weather system strengthened over central Texas... what tools do you use for go/no-go decisions? What options do you prepare as possible bail outs?

Thoughts, questions, and suggestions? I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for your insight and enjoy the video!
Wayne, the GeezerGeek Pilot

[Colin]

I've crossed thirty-four times. I love it. I fly about eight hours a day, have a rule that I have to spend 45 minutes on the ground at a stop and have to take a 17 minute nap as part of the stop. I am on O2 the whole time I am above 5,000 feet which cut *way* back on my fatigue after a day of flying.

I use ForeFlight and AirNav.com for everything. I would love to study weather more so that I could understand some of the new weather products like the SKEW-T charts (I guess those aren't that new anymore). I went to a WINGS seminar on those, still don't get it.

I have never had a problem bailing out for weather or needing any options prepared. I have a credit card and since the plane can fly 6.5hrs and I do 3.5hr legs most of the time I can get to a comfortable airport pretty easily. In the single I did wind up landing at a TINY crop duster airport (Pontiac, IL) when a Cat5 storm engulfed Chicago (the evacuated the tower at my destination, Midway airport) and then quickly took my alternate (Gary, Indiana). So I just pressed "Nearest" and landed there.

[Colin]

Great flying and an excellent video.

[waynemcc999]

Great flying and an excellent video.

Thanks, Colin! Just returned from the successful adventure. Upcoming episodes cover our stops in the Turks & Caicos, BVI, Dominica, Nevis, Dominican Republic, and the Exumas/Bahamas.

Wayne

[Steve]

Great video. I wish I had that talent. You visited many of my waypoints (Sedona, Midland, New Orleans, Tallahassee). I've never ventured to the Caribbean, though. I look forward to your upcoming travelogs.

Steve

[waynemcc999]

Great video. I wish I had that talent. You visited many of my waypoints (Sedona, Midland, New Orleans, Tallahassee). I've never ventured to the Caribbean, though. I look forward to your upcoming travelogs.

Steve

Thanks, Steve, for watching. The Bahamas are super easy (pretty much always in glide range to land) and customs/immigration is a snap. I strongly recommend a foray to the Exumas (MYEF; Peace and Plenty Hotel)... more info in upcoming episodes ).
Wayne

[Tim H]

Wayne - really enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting.

Tim

[Boatguy]

I crossed twice last year, east to west. Four days each time, but the first time we started late and the second time we stopped to visit friends.

We monitored wx with ADSB and used Foreflight to browse for our diversions. We never landed where we planned to land until we got past the Rockies. We actually called Flight Services for a wx briefing once. Surprisingly, they convinced us to go when we were thinking we'd stay on the ground in Louisiana. It was the right call. We flew between cloud layers, got vectored around convective activity in Dallas, diverted for a fuel / bio stop from our planned stop in west Texas and made it to Albuquerque that day without any problems.

What did you use to capture the iPad video?

It looks like you always land with just TO flaps?

Great entertainment this morning with a fine soundtrack. Looking forward to the next episode!

[waynemcc999]

Russ,
We have pretty similar techniques on weather assessment. Of the 13 flying days... we had weather challenges on only 2 days, eastbound in central Texas... and you guessed it, westbound in central Texas!

Captured the iPad video using the iOS standard Screen Recording... Settings, Control Center, Customize Controls, include Screen Recording.

I prefer to land with TO flaps on all instrument approaches and most long runways. I use full flaps mostly for short field landings.

Thanks for watching... and again, thanks for all the Caribbean tips!
Wayne

[Boatguy]

Captured the iPad video using the iOS standard Screen Recording... Settings, Control Center, Customize Controls, include Screen Recording.

I prefer to land with TO flaps on all instrument approaches and most long runways. I use full flaps mostly for short field landings.

I've been an Apple guy since 1988 and didn't know that technique. Thanks!