Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

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

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Rick
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Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Rick »

Tim and I just finished a cross-country trip, relocating our (well, now his) DA40 from Roanoke, Virginia to San Jose, California - a roughly 2300 nm journey. We followed a southern route to improve our chances of finding better weather in February, which worked well for us. We had planned to make the trip in 3 easy flying days, but ended up getting stuck in Midland, Texas for 36 hours, waiting for a storm to blow through from Phoenix. In the end, we completed the trip with just 2 days of flying, logging a total of 21.2 Hobbs hours.

We flew the entire trip under IFR, starting at 6000', and ending up at 14,000' on some of the western legs. We burned a total of 184.5 gallons, for an average fuel burn of 8.7 gph overall. The aircraft was flawless - not a single issue the entire trip! I can't say enough wonderful things about the DA40 - it is just a phenominal aircraft.

We ended up visiting the following airports:

KROA Roanoke, VA
KSMQ Smyrna, TN
KLIT Little Rock, AR
KDTO Denton, TX
KMAF Midland, TX
KDMN Deming, NM
KBLH Blythe, CA
KRVH San Jose, CA

The trip logs for all 7 legs are posted in the Reports section (330 - 336). Also, they are on FlightAware under N395JP in case anyone is interested: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N395JP

I plan to post lots of pictures from the trip in this thread, and I'm sure Tim will chime in with many more details. It was a wonderful experience - one I would definitely do again if I ever had the chance!
Roanoke, VA (KROA)
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Kai
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Re: Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Kai »

And here is the link to the pictures, which has been posted by Tim on the other thread. They are so beautiful:

http://gallery.me.com/tburling1958#100192&bgcolor=black&view=grid
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Robin
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Re: Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Robin »

Hi Kai

Thanks for that, some of the best pictures I have seen for a long time.

I suggest everyone has a look at them, love the dawn photos.


Regards

Robin
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Tim
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Re: Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Tim »

Thanks for the comments. Day one, we were into a 25-50 knot headwind all day, which was a bit depressing. It kept us as low as we could go IFR. Our fuel burn was quite high at our 140-145 knots TAS.

But on Day Two, from Midland to San Jose, there were light tail winds all the way to 14,000 so we stayed high, typically 12-14K. MEAs put us there anyway, at times.

The DA40 performs exceptionally well up high. We had O2 on for much of the day and saw around 130 knots TAS at 7 or so GPH. We flew 500sm on the last leg and still only used 28 gallons.

My only gripe is the seats. They are just plain uncomfortable. We have good seat cushions but they push my headset band against the roof. In the end, I kinda got used to it, sorta.

San Jose traffic was the busiest I have ever seen.
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Kai
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Re: Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Kai »

Tim wrote: My only gripe is the seats. They are just plain uncomfortable. We have good seat cushions but they push my headset band against the roof. In the end, I kinda got used to it, sorta.
Tim, I want better seats, too. Retractable, reclinable and well cushioned. Unfortunately, I am too tall for more cushion. In turbulence my head hits the canopy all the time already and I have to crouch, hehe.

I wish Diamond would add this to their list of improvements for future models.
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Gary
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Re: Flying our DA40 from Roanoke VA to San Jose, CA

Post by Gary »

Sheepskin covers help but the seats are still fairly uncomfortable for long trips.
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