8 Lessons Learned on a Cross-Country Adventure

Sure, flying cross-countries from your home airport to one 50 miles away is fun. But what about flying to an airport 1,500 miles away? That's what one of my students proposed we do during his training, both for fun and real-world experience. Every summer the world's biggest fly-in and airshow takes place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and my student wanted to experience it first-hand. So, we set off from Long Beach International Airport in Southern California to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh. Here's what he learned along the way.

Lesson 1: To plan the flight, one of my student's friends was going to let him use a electronic flight-planning software, designed to speed up the planning process. He showed me the route that the software suggested, and we drew it out on our charts. On the first segment of the trip, rather than using the Class B transition routes described on the terminal area chart, the software routed us through Class B airspace on a route that ATC would not approve. Later on, it had us fly 100 miles over mountainous terrain at more than 11,000 feet. Later, the plan had us flying directly over an airport at which skydiving activities take place. Finally, we discovered that on the last leg the VFR arrival point for the event's special procedures was not in the software's database. If we had relied solely on the flight-planning program, we would have run the risk of flying into mountains below us, skydivers above us, or other aircraft to the side of us.

Once a route and waypoints have been identified, the electronic software can do a great job of predicting times en route and fuel consumption based on aircraft performance and forecast winds aloft. But electronic flight-planning software requires that a pilot still do much of the work on a paper chart.

Lesson 2: Then we began the adventure. Can you find your checkpoints? Those mountain peaks, or lakes, all start looking alike. Although the interstate numbers are shown on the charts, if you're flying a fixed-wing aircraft you're probably too high to read the signs to be sure you're following the correct road as you leave a metropolitan area.

Keep a flight log. If your timing to each of your checkpoints has been predictable for your flight, and you see what you think is your checkpoint but the timing doesn't jive, maybe it's not your checkpoint you're seeing, but something that looks similar. If the road you're following doesn't go in the direction your flight log says you should be going, maybe it's not the right road.

Lesson 3: When we refueled at our first stop, we took on more fuel than the performance figures in the pilot's operating handbook (POH) said we should. What happened? Keeping the speed up and performance figures in step with the log meant burning more fuel than the POH said we would. At a fuel burn of 15 gallons per hour, rather than the 13 predicted in the POH, our endurance was reduced to only about five hours rather than the predicted six hours. If we had planned a trip with the legally required 30 minutes reserve, we would have run out of fuel about 18 minutes before we got to our destination. Even if we had planned an hour reserve, any headwind in excess of what was predicted would have ruined our day.

Before planning a trip that requires more than 50 percent of the fuel in your airplane, you have to be sure of the actual fuel consumption using the same procedures you will use on the trip.

Lesson 4: Since you're going to need the Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD) for your checkride, why buy anything else? Food is one reason. Fixed base operators (FBOs) and restaurants are not listed in the government publications. AOPA's Airport Directory and other commercial publications had the phone numbers we needed to verify there was a restaurant open for breakfast in the same building as one of the FBOs at Reno, Nevada. It saved us a lot of time and discomfort.You need more than the minimum information to have a comfortable flight.

Lesson 5: Having flown mainly in the Los Angeles area, radar flight following had always been available from SoCal Approach. Maybe we'd have to wait five minutes because of frequency congestion or traffic saturation, but radar coverage pretty much goes down to the ground in the whole area. As we flew over western Montana at 9,500 feet, it surprised my student to hear Salt Lake Center advise, "At that altitude in your location, radar and radio coverage are pretty spotty. Give us a call back in about 25 miles." We had filed and opened a VFR flight plan,
so if we were overdue at our destination, flight service would have initiated search and rescue. But no one would have known where along the route we had a problem. As explained by Aeronautical Information Manual 5-1-4(g), to decrease the area that would have to be searched if we were overdue, we gave periodic position reports to flight service stations over VORs and other remote communications outlets as we passed over our checkpoints.

Flight following is not a substitute for a VFR flight plan. If you have a problem while in contact with ATC, you'll get help quickly. But if you're not in contact with ATC, and you haven't filed and activated a VFR flight plan, who's going to know you're overdue-or where to start looking for you?

Lesson 6: Scattered thunderstorms had been forecast along our route. During the summer over the Great Plains, if you don't want to fly with that forecast, you're never going to remove your tiedown chains. As we approached Bismarck, North Dakota, the towering clouds ahead showed the forecast to be correct. A decision had to be made. Do we turn around, land at the airport below us, or try to go around the storms? How would we know the extent of the storms and the current forecast, which might have changed since we took off more than two hours ago? By calling Flight Watch on 122.0 MHz we were given the word that the storms were to the south of our route, and moving farther south. If we diverted 20 miles north, we would remain well clear.

You don't have to remain on the ground if scattered storms are forecast, but you do have to plan your outs, and have some way to get current information. Weather radar and datalink weather are great, but the specialists at flight service still can do a good job.

Lesson 7: When we landed at Amory, Wisconsin, our last planned stop before Oshkosh, we taxied up to the self-serve fuel pumps. The instructions read, "Enter your code." The code was nowhere to be found, but luckily a local pilot helped us, and we were able to top off. Just because the A/FD says there is fuel available, it's still a good idea to call ahead and verify the particulars, especially at small, rural airports.

Lesson 8: Arriving at Oshkosh during EAA AirVenture is not like arriving at any other airport. You can't simply call in 10 miles out for a landing clearance when about four airplanes are landing every minute. A lengthy notice to airmen (notam) is published, listing the arrival procedures that start sequencing aircraft 20 miles out. With a copy of that notam open, we got in line behind a tailwheel airplane flying at the specified 1,800 feet, at 90 knots. Fisk Approach called, "White Skylane over Fisk, rock your wings." We did so, and heard, "Follow the railroad tracks and fly a close-in right downwind for Runway 27. Monitor Oshkosh Tower 118.5. Enjoy the show." Downwind for 27 we heard, "White Skylane on downwind, rock your wings." We followed the instructions again and were told, "Land on the green dot," one of three painted on the runway so it could accommodate more than one landing at a time. The wheels touched down within a half-hour of the total flying time we had predicted before we left Long Beach.

Author Harry Leicher, a flight instructor and enthusiastic skydiver of Long Beach, California, died after this article was written.