For many pilots, behind the allure of learning to fly is the pull of the freedom to go places, a privilege having a pilot certificate allows us. Whether it is to visit in-laws, children, or friends—or to use an airplane to commute to and from work or business appointments—there is joy in being able to fly yourself to that destination. It means taking a vacation or a weekend getaway that would not be possible or practical with a car or the airlines.
Before you fly off into cross-country bliss, take time to learn what goes in to planning such a trip. To illustrate the thought process that goes in to planning a long cross-country, here's a plan for a trip from Ohio State University Airport (OSU) in Columbus to Ocean City Airport (OXB) in Maryland.
If all goes well, you could—theoretically—fly a Cessna 172 from Columbus to Ocean City nonstop on one tank of fuel. But doing so would leave very little extra fuel—which might be needed to circumnavigate weather or complex airspace. This trip also would be too fatiguing to fly round-trip in a single day. One of the appeals of flying yourself is being able to do an overnight trip you might otherwise not get to do.
With sectionals in hand, spread the charts out on a table or the floor and start looking at the big picture: terrain, airspace, and available VORs. For this trip, consider the special flight rules area that encompasses the Baltimore/Washington Class B airspace—there are specific operational requirements, as well as an online course the FAA requires pilots to take before operating in the vicinity. For any long trip, look at the airports that might be used for diversions in the event the weather begins to sour, or even an unexpected need to go to the bathroom. Later, you can try to narrow down a few that would be ideal based on proximity to a hotel or airline service if you get stuck and need to take a commercial flight home.
Now it’s time to start actually plotting the trip on the sectional and terminal area charts, and digging into the Airport/Facility Directory and pilot’s operating handbook for more detailed planning.
You can obviously go direct, but plan to follow Victor airways to the greatest extent possible for a couple of reasons. First, flight following and using Victor airways makes it easier to relay to air traffic control where you are—as well as your intentions. By flying established airways, you know that you are in a position to have guaranteed navigation and communications coverage. Finally, in the event of either an off-airport landing or an accident, you have given search-and-rescue personnel more to work with. For this trip, the plan is to depart OSU, which is just northwest of the busy Port Columbus (CMH) Class C airspace, and use Columbus Approach to circumnavigate CMH, then join V214 eastbound toward Zanesville (ZZV). There, pick up V44 to Morgantown, West Virginia (MGW), and then to Martinsburg (MRB) for fuel and lunch.
From Martinsburg, rejoin V44 and follow it to Baltimore (BAL), and then turn southeast until the GRACO intersection just south of Grasonville, Maryland. From there you have two options: Either track toward the Salisbury VOR (SBY) before turning toward Ocean City, or if the visibility is good enough, point directly to Ocean City and the beach.
When drawing your course line on the charts, make it visible for both day and night conditions. I use a dark blue Sharpie to make it stand out. I’ll then use a black Sharpie to denote cross radials from VORs along my route of flight that I plan to use to verify my position. You can use a combination of known intersections along V44, as well as other airways that happened to cross paths with it.
Visual checkpoints are the key to making a VFR cross-country as easy as possible. While there are no hard rules for selecting VFR checkpoints, there are some good rules of thumb to follow. The checkpoints should be easy to find, they should be distinctive, and, whenever possible, they should be no more than five to 10 miles apart. At a high enough altitude, you just might be able to see the next checkpoint as you pass over the previous one.
What makes a fix a good checkpoint, or a bad one? Good checkpoints are can’t-miss features. On the first leg of the trip, you'd be able to follow Interstate 70 to ZZV. Passing ZZV, you'll see Seneca-ville Lake to the left (north). Victor 44 also passes almost directly over Monroe County Airport (4G5). While airports are deliberately portrayed on sectional charts in a distinctive fashion, those depictions can be misleading. Often they are not as easy to see as you would like, especially if they have only one runway. Beyond 4G5 is the Ohio River, which on this leg is a can’t-miss fix—but you still want to look for distinctive features such as bridges, towns, or industrial facilities; from aloft, one bend in a river can look like another. Beyond the river, however, lies a lengthy stretch of wooded, mountainous terrain that can be fairly challenging. There is little development between the river and our next major fix of Morgantown. Use the intersections of BURGS and TEDDS, both of which can be determined using the Clarksburg VOR (CKB).
After Morgantown and a brief bit of civilization, the terrain is again wooded and desolate. Deep Creek Lake is a huge body of water with an odd shape that fits the can’t-miss category, and keeps you oriented on course. Beyond that you have to fly about 25 miles to KEYER intersection. However, with good visibility, you should be able to see Cumberland, Maryland, prior to confirming passage of KEYER. Beyond KEYER, the Cacapon River follows a very noticeable snake-like path across the airway.
After laying the course on the chart, it’s time to select altitudes. Because of the mountainous terrain and the desire to use flight following and Victor airways, consult the appropriate instrument charts to determine the IFR minimum en-route altitudes (MEA). The MEA is designed to guarantee ground-based navaid reception and terrain clearance along the airway. Using the MEA will offer good communication with ATC. The highest MEA for your airway is 5,000 feet; plan to fly VFR going east, and fly at 5,500 starting at Morgantown. Visibility is better higher (which makes navigation easier) and fuel flow is lower (which decreases costs while increasing both safety and range).
Using a combination of the A/FDs, the taxiway diagrams that can be found online or in the approach chart books, and other information found online, you can get a wealth of information about your route. For instance, Ocean City’s traffic pattern altitude is 800 feet. That isn’t listed in the A/FD, but it is noted on AOPA Airports (www.aopa.org/airports). On Maryland’s Eastern Shore the Nottingham VOR has a lot of radials that don’t work at certain altitudes. The A/FD lists them specifically.
The next major concern about a trip like this is weather. Unlike your typical training flight or shorter cross-country flights, the weather watch in this case becomes—literally—a continental concern. You are obviously concerned about the forecast along your route, but you also need to be concerned about the weather to the west, which would be coming your way. Weather to the south also is a concern, because it isn’t unusual for the jet stream to dip south and pull moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico or along the eastern seaboard that could generate storms. Your route becomes a corridor that is about 200 miles wide on each side of the actual course.
As the day of departure nears, the easy part of the weather picture is that area along the actual course, especially with so many online weather vendors to choose from. Most of them will be pretty consistent within a 24- to 36-hour window. However, once you go beyond that, especially if any precipitation factors in, it becomes a bit of a guessing game.
Trips outside your normal operating area always require a closer attention to notams, especially TFRs. Getting to your destination airport and finding the runway closed can be embarrassing, especially when the information was available well in advance. TFRs are more serious, and require constant vigilance. In other words, getting some sort of briefing prior to each leg is a must-do item.
With some planning and thinking about contingencies ahead of time, a long cross-country trip can be as easy as flying to an airport 10 miles away. The key is to take it in small chunks and always keep an open game plan in case the weather changes or other issues develop.
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