Cross Country out of CubCrafters/YKM - Route help/tips/advice

[Clay Hammond]

Hi Jim,

All looks good to me. That's a time tested and well worn overall route, I think it will work great for you. If Provo doesn't work out know that South Valley Regional (U42) is really excellent and just a little north of there, tucked up right under SLC. I use to prefer staying on the north side up around Logan, but will head to South Valley from now on. They were very good to me. My brother Nate always says that it is well worth it to head over to Wendover and checkout the salt flats at Bonneville low level, he's been over that way a couple times now. I haven't done it yet, but one of these days will make it a point to. Have fun and fly safe!

[Jim Harper]

Ok, safe and sound in Santa Fe. Here's how the trip went with a few comments on how I chose to equip the Cub. First of all, the experience in Yakima was first-class. Randy came in on a Sunday and set us up with hangarage and a courtesy car. He also took us out to dinner where my wife and I enjoyed his company a bunch. He and I mostly discussed airplanes (and mostly Bonanzas...but our own fair share of Cubology). The next morning I had them do the first oil change and change out the baby-bush tailwheel. It caused a fair-to middling amount of shimmy on landing, which I really didn't like. If I was ALWAYS on grass...or needed more floatation, it would probably be a good choice. However for my purposes, it didn't get it. The always gracious Cub folks changed it without demurr.

We departed around 1PM, heading for Baker City OR (KBKE). The forest fires around Idaho were generating a LOT of smoke. Whilst always VFR, the visabilities were not great at all. So, now, onto equipment. I got the executive panel. The primary reason was for the engine instrument package on the Dynon...but I also love having a fuel totalizer. I had already established that it was running very close to real...every fill-up was a couple of tenths less than it thought I would need. So accurate and pessimistic! I like it. However, I had no idea how much I would like the GDU 375. The XM weather showed me...real time...where the NUMEROUS fire TFR's were, and by putting the Terrain map on, I could plan my trips through canyons and such. The winds aloft were light (thanks, Dynon) so I pretty much just climbed until I could a yellow route to where I wanted to go next...on the 375, yellow means you are around 1000 feet above the obstacle. Just plane nice (pun intended). I also liked the fact that even with some of the peaks obscured, I could still see them on the 375. Add rocking to Classic Vinyl on XM...life was good!

Baker City to Twin Falls. Longer leg, see above. The tools worked perfectly. There were two massive fire TFR's just beyond the airport, so I knew what to deal with. We slept in Twin Falls. They put the airplane in a hangar, gave us a nice courtesy car and we found a nice place to stay...I misremember what it was. Had a great Italian dinner at Tomato's, tho!

Next day was gonna be Twin Falls to Wendover, low pass over the Bonneville flats, Huntington Muni (dirt runways, how can one avoid THAT? From there to either Cortez Colorado or Farmington/Four corners for fuel and then on to ABQ. Wendover was a trip, takes an hour to taxi in from the runway (ok slight exaggeration), took off behind a T-28...and didn't even come CLOSE to keeping up with him. We went over the flats, but there were no cars racing, unfortunately. Looked like a city on the salt too!

Huntington was cool, there were a couple of guys there building an airplane and they tossed us the keys to the ex-police car courtesy car. We had lunch. The worst ribs I EVER ate. Oh well. Then back in the air heading to Cortez. After about a half hour, the 375 told me that the winds at Cortez had gone from a nice 6KTS to 18G25 across the runway. And the winds in Farmington were worse with a Tstorm showing on the XM radar. Seemed like a bad idea to continue, so I bailed to Moab, UT. Pretty country. Once again, the 375 made me very happy I chose the option I did. We played (before finally deciding on Moab) with Page, AZ (we have friends there) but the fuel totalizer told me that I would only have around 6 gallons when I got there and the radar map showed some developing T'storms. So...nope, Moab. Enjoyed the night there, had a great steak at Burts and got up at the crack of dawn to head off to Cortez.

Landed in Cortez without eventuality...and flew on to Albuquerque. Dropped my wife off and then flew the airplane over to SAF...where it sits.

I went out yesterday (the 18th) and thought I would do some sightseeing and get some breezy condition practice. The winds were 10 Kts...so I figured it would be a gentle increase. TAF was about that. Flew around some and when I was heading back in...16G20 about 10 degrees off the runway. Interesting. First landing went well...sort of, I made sure I would be low when it paid off in a stall (I figured a full stall landing would have me moving really slow if I did go wandering off), and achieved that...my "calibrated" eye felt like we were good for speed, stall horn wailing so I let it pay off...nice bounce, followed by a nice bounce, followed by a smaller bounce and then I actually landed. Wasn't that PIO OMG deal, just classic too fast AoA change bounce. Never out of control...just kind of ugly to a bystander. Stopped, told the tower that we were gonna make it a stop and go and did it again. I think that first time I was expecting to see the runway going by at...say, 35-40...but really the right speed would have been 15-20. Thusly the bounce...I think. Second time around was very nice...even if I do say so myself. There was someone behind me and of course I got stopped about the end of the runway numbers and the first turnoff was mid field...he asked me to hurry, so I lifted the tail and fast taxied on one wheel to the turnoff. THAT was fun!

As is the airplane. Love it, love CubCrafters, love life! P.S. Chip: Thanks for the book recommendation...loved it! For y'all, as you fly around the country in your Cubs, read Stephen Coonts (yep, THAT Stephen Coonts) Cannibal Queen. Great book about flying a Stearman around the country!

JimIMG_0981.jpgIMG_0991.jpgIMG_0988.jpgIMG_1154.jpg

[Charles]

Great report Jim.

Did you go back to the standard tailwheel, or to the 3200 type steerable?

See you are using an inReach Blue. I have that; seems like a real sensible device.

[Jim Harper]

Great report Jim.

Did you go back to the standard tailwheel, or to the 3200 type steerable?

See you are using an inReach Blue. I have that; seems like a real sensible device.

Went to the 3200 steerable...with a Pawnee spring. Really, really like it. Smooth as silk. Yup, I do have an InReach, and if anybody wants to follow the trip, here's the map: http://share.delorme.com/?MapId=6a29...ece230251a45c9 Just hit the plus sign on the last point. I like the idea of being able to reach out from anywhere (and my wife likes it too). She used to follow me on my IFR flights on FlightAware. Now that I am basically out of the system, the InReach lets her track my travels more-or-less real time.

Jim

[randylervold]

Jim, great to see you and Beth had a good trip home! Thanks for taking the time to write the recap, I'm sure everyone enjoys real life adventures like that and real world feedback on the product.

[Clay Hammond]

Great write up Jim!

Folks...the cold temps are upon us again. I have read reports in last week of cold overnight temps in northeastern Oregon and freezing conditions in the north Idaho elevations. For trips over and through the central and northern Rockies, my trip wire for the carrying of full winter survival gear is September 1st. We're starting a little early this year. Like a good Boy Scout, be prepared. Also Eisenhower was the one who said plans are nothing, but planning is everything.

[glickle]

For those interested here is my Route taken in January 2013 ( long Scenic route) from Yakima to West Palm Beach Florida via California Coast. Regards Gary

From	To	Course	Totals			Leg
KYKM	S40	109°M	43sm	2.8g	0h24m	43sm
S40	S21	192°M	224sm	14.3g	2h03m	180sm
S21	2O3	173°M	593sm	38.0g	5h25m	369sm
2O3	0Q3	168°M	618sm	39.5g	5h39m	25sm
0Q3	KHAF	169°M	667sm	42.7g	6h06m	49sm
KHAF	KPRB	126°M	831sm	53.2g	7h36m	164sm
KPRB	KBUR	115°M	995sm	63.7g	9h06m	164sm
KBUR	KSNA	130°M	1,040sm	66.6g	9h31m	46sm
KSNA	KBLH	78°M	1,222sm	78.2g	11h10m	181sm
KBLH	KFFZ	82°M	1,394sm	89.3g	12h45m	172sm
KFFZ	KLRU	95°M	1,684sm	108g	15h24m	290sm
KLRU	KMRF	119°M	1,901sm	122g	17h23m	217sm
KMRF	T82	83°M	2,205sm	141g	20h10m	305sm
T82	KUXL	85°M	2,535sm	162g	23h12m	330sm
KUXL	KMJD	82°M	2,759sm	177g	25h14m	223sm
KMJD	KDTS	91°M	2,948sm	189g	26h58m	189sm
KDTS	KCGC	115°M	3,205sm	205g	29h19m	257sm
KCGC	F45	139°M	3,405sm	218g	31h09m	200sm

[Clay Hammond]

Here's the revised list of tower closings as a result of sequestration:

http://www.avweb.com/pdf/closedtowerslist.pdf

Nice part about having towered fields along your route of flight is that the FBO's generally stay open as late as the tower does, meaning you can land after dark and still expect to get a hangar and maybe borrow a crew car overnight. With these tower closings we can expect that availability to go down slightly as FBO's I'm sure will trim their hours to cut back on cost. The closure includes the Yakima tower at CC homebase.

Just a thought for those planning cross countries.

One benefit? No more fussing with the YKM tower trying to get them to bend the rules and let you go out when its below 1000ft ceiling. Can't tell how many times I would get frustrated at being able to see Union Gap, knowing I could run down the river to better weather , but no joy due to IFR mins.

[Pete D]

I have mixed feelings about the YKM tower possibly closing. It is nice to have those guys welcoming you home sometimes. They have been able to arrange help on the ground in securing an aircraft in gusty winds for me before as well as helpful in spotting traffic not on frequency in the area.

Not having the tower has its benefits as well. Sounds like we may get to find out exactly how much we would miss them if they are not there.

[Calvin]

As far as I am concerned I try to avoid feilds with towers and find ones without. Maybe I am just shy to talk or don't want any trouble or both.
Cal