Long cross country advice

smalone

I am planning a cross country in my 235 from my home airport in Salisbury, NC (KRUQ) to San Diego next month for a conference. I have planned the route (about 2000nm, 15 hours flight time) to go basically due west until Texas and then a more southerly route to avoid the higher elevations. My concern is a narrow track near Phoenix where I will be a bit blocked in between the Mexican border and restricted airspace. Being a VFR flight my concern is weather and the fact I will have little or no room to go around weather and would be forced to just turn around. Anyone ever made the trip through that southern route to CA have any advice?

jasper7821

It's a pretty easy flight, I've done it several times.
you can go to El Paso, straight to Tucson, then straight to Gila Bend VOR or airport. That puts you south of Phoenix and away from the MOA's and restricted airspace on your left. Then you go to Yuma VOR, then straight to San Diego with your highest elevation being about 5,500 on the last part and from El Paso to Tucson just 2 spots where elevation is almost 8,000

78TARROW

That's quite a trip. I've made a number of long VFR flights from MD to TX, as far as Corpus Christi, and always use flight following. Weather did force some adjustments from time to time but I was usually able to coordinate with ATC to verify that MOA's were cold and even arranged clearances through restricted areas. Using XM weather and giving ATC some advanced notice that I was considering some rerouting was pretty effective. They'd get on the phone to see if transit through the SUA's would work.

While VFR flight through active MOA's is permitted, I do not fly through them without coordination. As a former Navy flyer, I'm happy to steer clear of the area if it's hot. In general, if the weather is skosh, the MOA's are often cold since a lot of the activity they typically support requires pretty good weather over the area.

I have made four round trips to TX and only had one leg where weather forced me to stop short of my destination. A solid line of convection stopped me cold in Smyrna, TN. Great FBO, by the way. Spent the night watching NCAA semi-finals and got home the next day.

Good luck with the trip - I'd like to hear how it went.

BillCampbell

smalone wrote:

I am planning a cross country in my 235 from my home airport in Salisbury, NC (KRUQ) to San Diego next month for a conference. I have planned the route (about 2000nm, 15 hours flight time) to go basically due west until Texas and then a more southerly route to avoid the higher elevations. My concern is a narrow track near Phoenix where I will be a bit blocked in between the Mexican border and restricted airspace. Being a VFR flight my concern is weather and the fact I will have little or no room to go around weather and would be forced to just turn around. Anyone ever made the trip through that southern route to CA have any advice?

Depends on your definition of "more southerly" from Texas. I have flown a northerly and a southerly route across this terrain. I define northerly as Amarillo, Albuquerque, St. Johns, Show Low to Phoenix. My southerly is Carlsbad, NM, El Paso, Deming, Tucson, Gila Bend etc. My decision on which route is more weather dependent than terrain. Each are easily flown in my Archer.
I am not certain of your intended routing, but if you go the El Paso route, I would suggest that you include Newman on your flight planning it is an intersection and will keep you out of the MOA just to the North. ABQ Center will want that. Ryan Field at Tucson is a good stop for fuel and food. When you go NW from there you can avoid PHX completely. Find Vicko intersection West of Buckley, turn West toward BLH and then to PSP. By this time you will be talking to Los Angeles Center. I have flown through the pass at Banning at 8500 at night and it is quite pretty (and over the mountains at 11000 in the soup). Beaware that there is a tendency for low clouds to form in the Morongo Valley West of PSP and then again when you get to the Inland Empire (approaching Riverside/March ARB) but you can generally get below with plenty of altitude and stay VFR. You will be talking to SoCal by this time and then go to your intended landing.
If you go through PHX then you have the Class B and numerous airports plus Luke AFB to negotiate.
The southerly route puts you parallel to the Mexican border but that is not a particular problem. I have flown this both IFR and flight following with ease. There is a tethered surveillance balloon near Deming, its charted, but I have yet to see it (it's listed at 15000 feet and avoid that airspace.
It can be a challenging flight especially when the winds pick up in the mtns, but it is fun and worth doing, good luck and have a safe wonderful flight.

smalone

Wow, this is all some fantastic advice. It will take me a bit to pull out the sectionals and looks at all of the details in each reply and see what may work. I definitely plan to use ATC and Flight Following. I routinely fly from here to south FL (KSUA) and ATC always makes me feel welcome despite being a VFR pilot.

BillCampbell

I ran your route on a flt planner. You pass over OKC. Depending on circumstances, fuel prices right now are most expensive at PWA. Cheapest in the area is HSD (Sundance Airpark)just NW of PWA. Will Rogers right now is cheaper on 100LL than PWA. On southside is OUN not as cheap as HSD but better than PWA, it is my home FBO also (full disclosure). OUN also has considerable training from the University flight program based there, but transient entry exit is, in my opinion, easy. Looking at the planner route, I see your concern about PHX. Weather permitting the N route I mentioned seems best. I would suggest OKC, AMA, ABQ, SJN, DVT sort of routing. DVT is Deer Valley and on N side of PHX Class B. I have been told by a PHX controller that staying over or N of DVT will get direct routing on the Westside to GEU or GYR. This will squeeze you bewtween PHX and LUF but should be do-able. On departure you can go S then W toward BXK you will then cross Vicko which I mentioned earlier. I planned the fight into KSEE but do not know if that is your intended. However, I would modify my earlier recommendation and go S at TRM crossing the mountains at JLI with a short approach to Gillespie or Montgomery or whereever you desire, I would avoid Coronado, Pendleton unless you are ready to start bootcamp. =D

smalone

Well, made it half way to San Diego. Got as far as Waco, TX and the weather fouled up. Flew up to Love Field in Dallas and left it therer and flew comercial the rest of the way. Picked it back up on the way back after the conference. I appreciate all of the advice given. I look forward to trying again sometime. Maybe when I don't have a time and place I need to be somewhere.

larenshaw

Hey smalone, were you in KSAN for the NBAA MMC? I considered doing the same from VA but with the need to be there and spring time wx decided to take the cattle car.
Larry