This Blog keeps a record of our flight across America in January 2009. We left Lantana Airport in West Palm Beach Florida on the 12th and flew across to San Diego and back returning to Lantana on the 31st.

From the archive on the right you can access each post which contains reports of our experiences and plenty of photos from the journey too.

Daily Summary
Day 1 – Lantana to Winters Haven
Day 2 – Winters Haven – Bad Weather
Day 3 – Winters Haven to Tallahasee to New Orleans
Day 4 – New Orleans to Galveston to San Antonio
Day 5 – San Antonio – Bad Weather
Day 6 – San Antonio – Bad Weather
Day 7 – San Antonio to Odessa to El Paso
Day 8 – El Paso to Tucson
Day 9 – Tucson to San Diego
Day 10 – Day off in San Diego
Day 11 – San Diego to Boulder City (Las Vegas) to Pheonix
Day 12 – Pheonix to San Manuel
Day 13 – San Manuel to Las Cruces to Roswell
Day 14 – Roswell to Amarillo to Oklahoma to Fort Smith
Day 15 – Fort Smith – Bad Weather
Day 16 – Fort Smith – Bad Weather
Day 17 – Fort Smith – Bad Weather
Day 18 – Fort Smith – Bad Weather
Day 19 – Fort Smith to Tupello to Columbus
Day 20 – Columbus to Kissimmee (Orlando) to Lantana

Our final Approach into Palm Beach County Park Airport!

I left Columbus early on saturday morning after ensuring all the icy frost was off the top of the wing. Out from the airport and straigth up to 5500ft it was pretty calm up there with the ocassional bounce from a few small termals. I had a great big high pressure over me that meant while the skies were perfectly blue - the horizontial viz wasnt perfect. Looked terrible when you compared it to what we have had, but when checked against a distance on the GPS - still looking at least 20 - 25 miles. Easy, if not slightly boring trip being in the plane for so long on my own, but it still wasnt long before i dropped height down to 3500ft to get under the orlando international airspace, and get a better view flying past disney!!!

Into Kissimmee and into the FBO where i met up with Marc and Meave again, here we moved the bags into the car and moved the Meave into the back of the plane for the quick ride back down to Lantana. Marc flying the final leg we decided to head out to the coast and follow it all the way down to West Palm Beach. Lots of very nice houses on the beach along the way and a nice crosswind landing to finish it all off

So we did it - Coast to Coast VFR - and Back

We've been stuck in Fort Smith for the past 4 days, low cloud ceilings and Ice Storms left us well and truely grounded. In fairness seeing all the ice was impressive, i've never seen such big icicles hanging from sign posts and car bumpers. We had hoped to hide MikeCharlie in a hanger to keep nice and warm, but unfortunatly it didnt happen and we found her on thursday morning well and truely covered in ice. But leaving her in the hanger for thurday nite sorted it all out and she started no bother this morning and completely clear of ice.

This leg I ended up doing on my own. When we started our planning we thought the latest we'd be back in Florida was last Monday, and so Meave (Marc's Girlfriend) was flying into Orlando to meet us on the Thursday (29th). As we were still stuck a good 1000nm away, marc had to find an alternative way there which was faster and less bothered by silly cloud. American Airlines helped out and he headed off to Orlando via Dallas on thursday morning, leaving me to look at the cloud all day.

This morning was different tho and the low cloud and fog quickly burnt off enough to get up above it. The route was down past Little Rock, across below Memphis for a fuel stop / convience break in a small place called Tupello and then on down past Talladega to Columbus in Georgia, south of Atlanta. 

First Half of the route was perfect although i did get thrown about by a huge piece of turbulence crossing a small mountain range. Tupello itself had two options for me with regards to fuel, full service or self service. For novelty purposes, over here at least, i decided i could do it myself and so was directed down to the far end of the airfield. Tho down there i found the nicest little wooden hut which i guess all the private flyers who keep there A/C here must use.

The second leg was a little more work. First off it was quite turbulent and i was getting thrown about quite a bit, then i met a band of cloud, just above me and at -4 degrees C any of the moisture inside them would cling straight to my wings as ice. Most of the cloud was above me causing no problems, but i could see very faint streaks of white here and there and it was very difficult to decide if it was cloud or smoke. With mountains in the area i didnt really want to descend very much, but when i suddenly started seeing little white dashes coming towards me, i was outta there very quickly descending and turning away from them. I altered the route slightly and gave the whiffy clouds a wide berth, before getting back on course with clear skies as i got closer to a windy Columbus, for a fun landing.

We got outta San Manuel, about 10 on saturday morning - after having breakie at the field- bestest way to cook an omlete i've ever seen!! twas about a 2 hr flight down to Las Cruces interntional airport - calling it international is a little polite given it has no scheduled flights to anywhere. The flight was quite nice because we were playing with the clouds most of the way. Marc was either swinging around them or dropping below em and we then spent a while flying above a big blanket of fluffy white cloud which was only at about 500 ft above the ground. Stopped for lunch in Las Cruces and were hoping on to Amarillo before sun down, but Mike Charlie took a slight Hissy fit, and wasnt too keen to start, only slightly completely down to me offering too much fuel to start on - all we could do was let her sit and get over it.

The delay left us short of time to get to Amarillo, and so we stopped in Roswell instead. The airport has a proper bone yard with a ton of old UPS jumbos, and various American airlines and Air Canada jets all in various states - Once again we tried to get a look around - but it sounds like that isnt allowed anywhere......doh... The closest thing we saw to aliens were the street lights which have all been painted to look like aliens heads - way to cash in on the tourists.

Next morning i took us off towards Amarillo for a 10min pit stop to say we'd been there - and then on to Oklahoma. There was no great sign in Amarillo for a piture to show we knew the way, but we got badge to prove we got there. On to Oklahoma and we picked up a sweet tailwind - so while reading an indicated speed of about 110 - we were actually traveling across the ground at about 140 kts - temptation was too much and I decided to....ehrm.... play- power on nose down we were easilly passing 150 kts, a slight dive and we were passing 160kts - mu haha... This was only made better by the fact that we've figured out we can listen to marcs ipod over the headsets while flying. Its very cool to listen to guns n roses while flying along in the sunshine at 7500 ft....

Finished playing and we saw some low clouds on the horizon - to get into oklahoma we'd have to get in beneath them. Dropping down and beneath them - we lost our tailwind and started getting beaten around by turbulence - but the 20odd miles into oklahoma passed quick enough and we landed and then taxi-ed the other 2miles down the runway to the FBO - Not the most friendly we've ever met - but they filled the plane and we checked the weather before getting back on the way again.

We were hoping the cloud would only extend another 20 miles the far side of oklahoma - but no such luck. We had hoped to reach Memphis but again sunset would beat us there and so had decided little rock was a better choice. but after an hour of straining against low cloud and poor viz we decided to stop in Fort Smith, which is where we are now.

Problem is the weather man is predicting ICE STORMs and if theres one thing our little planes dont like its ice, so we reckon we're stuck here till 2moro or even wednesday when it passes by. Then its a 2 day trip back to Lantana. Tho we may well be stopping at orlando to drop or collect a person - will have to see how it all works out......

Pics San Manuel to Roswell



Pics to Fort Smith

Hey Everyone! Well its time for another update!! I’m writing this to you from a motel in the armpit of nowhere! A town called San Miguel with a population of about 4000 people, with no Internet access (I’m writing this on word and you’ll get it a day late!!), no hot water and very few channels on the TV!!! But that’s a story for later on!

San Diego itself is a really impressive city! It’s somewhere both of us would like to come back to and spend some time! While we were here we went to visit the USS Midway. It’s a US Navy aircraft carrier that was the flagship of the fleet for operation Desert Storm in the first Gulf War. Its docked permanently now in San Diego bay and is home to a very impressive array of old Naval fighter planes… and the two of us finally got to see the F-14 tomcat! :-)

So we woke up in San Diego on Thursday morning with the intention of flying to Boulder city in Nevada and then flying from there to over fly the Hoover dam a few times and the on down the Colorado river and into Phoenix for the night!! And for once I’m happy to report that it worked exactly as planned!!

We left San Diego fairly early on Thursday morning and flew out back over the mountains towards the east for the first time on our trip! On departure it was fairly busy due to the controlled airspace around San Diego but I still got the chance to admire Miramar from above one last time!! Miramar (also known as Fightertown USA) is the main Naval air base of the US Navy and also home to the real Top Gun pilots! Anyway, it was a relatively straightforward flight into boulder city in Nevada. There was very little to the airport and town but we did get to see Las Vegas off into the distance!

From Boulder City Pete was at the helm and I was chief cameraman for the Hoover Dam! We climbed out of the airport to the east straight out over Lake Meade which is really impressive and turned down south to see the dam appear from around the corner! The Dam itself has to be one of the most impressive sights of the trip for me! To think that it was built by people with little or no experience, mostly hanging from dodgy ropes and balancing on dodgy gantries, with the Colorado river diverted through tunnels blasted into the mountains either side of the valley! And all of this without any cities or towns around to support the workers! The Dam is the main reason that Las Vegas even exists today! I’ve watched so many documentaries on the building of the dam and have flown around it repetitively on flight sim, but nothing compared me for the sight itself! They’re currently building a new bridge in front of the dam for the Interstate so I’m delighted to have seen it from the air before the view was ruined!

Anyway, I’m waffling! From here we flew down the valley where the Colorado acts as the border between 3 states, California, Nevada and Arizona! It was pretty plain sailing all the way into Phoenix Goodyear airport. We stopped here for the night and went on a mission to find a car licence plate that said phoenix on it! Unfortunately we picked the wrong university and rather than heading for the University of Phoenix, we headed direct to the State university! Everything I wanted was there, but instead of Phoenix, it all said Arizona!!!

So after our night in phoenix we woke up to an overcast Phoenix! It all looked good since the cloud was at about 12,000 ft so we headed out to the airport planning to depart for El Paso! Once we got there we found out that the only place where the cloud was that high was where we were! Anyway, after many different routes planned out and lots of head scratching we decided to make a dash for it through a gap in the cloud with the nice clear weather following along behind us and we’d planned a way out to Tucson if we needed it!

As it turned out the cloud got a lot lower than we both expected and the ground around here isn’t all that low!! The cloud at the end was at 5000 broken, with few at about 4200, ground level had come right up to meet us at 3250! Thankfully the waypoint we were aiming at was an airport, and with one look at each other we were on the ground in no time! So we were down, but had no idea what to expect, or if there’d even be anyone at the airfield! As it turned out we landed in this little community filled with pilots, and quite possibly the nicest people we’ve met over here! Also on the ground we met 2 American pilots both called Ryan, about our age, both building hours toward their commercial licences also out of Phoenix for El Paso! So once the rain stopped we all got a quick guided tour of their hangers and saw all the planes! Some really impressive machines! After the tour I headed off into town with one of the pilots and one of the Ryan’s and Pete went up with Ryan eile into Marv’s mobile home on the airfield to get some coffee!

Ryan and I went into town to get the keys to the motel before the office closed at 4! Once we were done we got a guided tour of the town by Vern! It took about 5 minutes!! After our tour we went back to join the others at Marv’s place for a coffee! By this stage the cloud had cleared into two beautiful rainbows and some lovely blue skies! With this we all decided to do a bit of local flying! We had no time to get anywhere and all the nasty clouds were still off on the distance! One of the Ryans went flying with a local in a lovely 1940’s luscome tail dragger! Pete did some circuits in our chariot as I had flown the leg that morning and I flew with Ryan eile in their plane! The Americans were flying a newer version of our plane with a full digital cockpit! It was really impressive to see it in action and to top it all off we were listening to Guns‘n Roses on Ryans Ipod as we flew! It’s played into the headset and turns off automatically when anyone talks in the plane or on the radio! So Sweet!! Got to get me one of them!! So after an hour of jollying around the Arizona skies, we all headed back to Marv’s place! Marv is a retired businessman who lives about a 2-hour drive from San Manuel and is currently training there. Rather than driving the few hours he lives on the field in a mobile home and his wife comes up and down to visit him! He took us in to his mobile home, fed & watered us and then brought us all out to dinner and back to the motel for the evening!

Tomorrow morning at the airfield there’s a breakfast fly in and apparently 100 pilots from the surrounding area are coming to the field to get fed and then the FAA are putting on a seminar on mountain flying (would have been handy about a week ago J)! If the weathers good we’re going to have some breakfast and go, but if its not great we might hang around for the seminar! Either way, Marv’s getting up out of his bed to come collect the 4 of us from the motel at 7 am to go and get a free feed!!

Anyway, I’m off to bed! We’ll keep you posted on our progress! Hope you haven’t all fallen asleep reading this, but I don’t have much else to do here but write! :-)

We Got here - San Diego at last.

This morning after watching Barack doing his thing we had to go see how mike-charlie was doing. eventually the engineer found that it was a dodgy connection to the starter motor that was causing the problem and also explained how it was so intermittent. So it was about quarter to 2 when we started up to leave tucson.

There was plenty of hardware buzzing about the airport all morning and we had to hold short and let three F16s land ahead of us which was pretty impressive to watch. Other then that the flight was very straight forward. Again plenty of impressive mountains and great big sandy deserts along the way. Finally it was over the low end of the rockies and the pacific ocean and San Diego appear in front of us.

San Diego is a very impressive place with huge hills all over the shop. Were going to explore a bit 2moro and see jus how the place looks in the day time

But we did it - Coast to Coast VFR - Slightly delayed here and there with both weather and aircraft issues, but we both felt some achievement getting outta the aircraft at montgomery field. So next we jus gotta go back again

Well, in the last update we told you that we were leaving the next day for El Paso!!! We've got to stop making such statements, because it seems everytime we do the weather bites back and we get stuck!

After our lovely dinner on the riverwalk in San Antonio, we went home got some sleep and woke up to a very overcast, windy and generally bloody cold San Antonio! After much deliberation we realised we had to stay put! We asked the manager of the hotel if he could recommend some places to go visit while we were there and much to our surprise San Antonio is a very beautiful and historically rich City.

First off we went to see the Spanish missions San Jose. It was freezing cold, but it was well worth braving the cold to see the fantastic church and the associated housing for the converted Indians! From there it was in to the city to see The Alamo! The Alamo itself isn't all that impressive and you can't take pictures inside, but it was very interesting to find out that 9 Irishmen died in the battle of the Alamo, and that all are named inside! Touring the Alamo didn't take all that long and from there we were off to the Tower of the Americas!

The Tower of the Americas is basically a viewing balcony where you can get some great panoramic view of the city...... though not as impressive as the ones we got leaving on our own plane;-) After this it was time to eat and head off to bed! The next day the cold front still hadn't passed so it was another day of driving around exploring greater S A, and just generally taking in the area.

Finally day 3 we got to get out!!! I was up first for the day and we went to the airport and departed! This leg of our trip was the first leg that we started encountering the higher ground of the western USA with the first stop of the day, Odessa, at 2600 ft above sea level. From Odessa it was on to El Paso, Pete was flying and there was some really impressive mountains to fly around rather than over as they were so high, but none were quite as impressive as the mountains right beside El Paso!

El Paso itself is at 4000 above sea level which creates its own issues and things to be considered before landing! Anyway Pete handled it well and we were down for the day! The mountains tower over the city and are clearly visible from anywhere in the city! So we got to the hotel and i reached for my wallet to pay for the hotel.......
No Credit Card!!!! It turns out that I left it one the counter in Odessa when I paid for the fuel! Many different solutions were proposed with me driving back to Odessa that night to collect it being the favourite for a while, but after a call to the boss and financial advisor we figured out that there was very little money on the card and FedEx are shipping it to San Diego as we speak! During the deliberations about if I should go for eh 6-7 hour drive back for my card we went down to see the border crossing into Mexico! The Rio Grande is now a heavily fortified canal with high concrete walls and a 15ft wire fence to stop anyone trying to make a break for it! Its a very weird place which was good to see but I don't think either of us will go out of our way to visit again!

So this morning we work up to a fantastic clear blue skies! We got out to the airport and packed up the plane! We were cleared to take off on the runway pointing straight at the mountains! We were both quite apprehensive on take off but we were cleared straight over the top of them!! So off we went and good old Mike Charlie made it straight across the top (ok ok of the smallest one!!) without a bother! The next leg brought us from Texas, over New Mexico and into Tucson Arizona. We flew quiet a part of the leg along the Mexican border which funnily enough doesn't look even marked let alone guarded! Makes you wonder why bother with El Paso!! Flying over the desert of New Mexico and the arid and rocky mountains of Arizona really did make for some amazing scenery! So into Tucson we came with a 737 landing ahead of us, and one then beside us on a parallel runway was a pretty cool introduction to a busy international airport!

So here comes the next twist! We had a lovely lunch in Tucson and made our way back and settled our bills. Pete was handling this leg so we went out, climbed aboard and went through our checks. Time came to start the engine and .....nothing! Not a sausage!! Both of our initial thoughts were the battery was dead. It turns out that best case scenario is that a relay in the starter motor system has burnt out! We should be back up and running tomorrow, but hey I'll believe it when I see it!!!

So for now we're in a hotel in Tucson enjoying the warm weather and the HD TV in our hotel room! We'll update you all further when we reach the Pacific!!

San Antonio Pics


San Antonio to El Paso Pics


El Paso to Tucson Pics

Time for an update!

Well we ended up spending an extra day in Winters Haven on Tuesday due to of all things bad weather - It was just like home clouds and actual rain. It meant we had an exciting day sitting around the airport, just wishing the Cold Front would pass us by. No such luck - but still cant speak highly enough of the guys in the school there (www.tailwheelsetc.com) because they were so kind and friendly to these two goons who had got themselves stuck there. The owner and his son even took us out with them for lunch. Not much flying done by anyone that day tho - but Marc did get into the circuit for an hour or so.

Wednesday and the weather was far better - we were out at the airport at 8 and off the ground close to 9 heading up to tallahasee - Quite a straight forward flight really with nothing too exciting - but Tallahasee itself was something different. As we landed and taxied to the ramp not only were there a load of GA aircraft, private jets but also some military hardware with 2 blackhawks (i think) and a couple of fixed wing prop trainers. Also this was our first proper experience of an FBO (Fixed Based Operator apparently) Basically these guys look after you - Fuel, oil, tie downs, cars, hotels - they'll organise the lot. Flightline in Tallahasee was well posh - first class all the way - how much fuel can we give you - here borrow our car to go get some lunch and the poshest "restrooms" ever complete with tv's above the urinalls and mouthwash. So we took their car - found a starbucks and planned the next leg to New Orleans.

The trip to New Orleans was a long one at 3hrs or more. Also because of a load of military bases and operating areas, quite busy on the radios. We've decided at this stage to work multi-crew Style - as in one flys and the other handles the radios and stuff. Keeps us both busy and we'll have to do it eventually - good practise - I was flying and generally tracking VORS - which to be honest i thought i did quite well at, leaving marc to do the radios - he was kept busy switching from controller to controller - but we got through it all and landed with a great sense of accomplishment in a sunny New Orleans. The FBO organised a hotel for us in the French Quarter, along with a taxi to get there - so we went to explore the Temple Bar of New Orleans.

Today was another long day of flying - New Orleans to Galveston was a 2.5 to 3 hr flight with marc flying and me on radios - we took a route along the coast all the way and spotted a load of Oil Rigs in he Gulf of Mexico which kinda just appeared out of the haze every now and again. Landing in Galveston, we had been told that it too had been hit by a hurricaine this yr (i think) but it was weird to see so many houses with blue roofs where they had lost tiles and covered it with tarps or something to keep it all dry. There was a mad hotel at the end of the runway which we literally flew past before marc put 'maik-charlie' down with a stinker of a crosswind. 

This was a quick fuel stop - to get back on the road to San Antonio, making sure we'd get there before sundown, but we did manage to find out about the US Airways 320 ditching in the Hudson (big birds!!!). The trip on to San Antonio wasnt the nicest of flights - the viz was pretty poor, so really we didnt see a lot. But we did begin to get a feeling for the vastness and emptiness of Texas. Also there were periods when the radio got very quiet and began to make you wonder if we could still reach anyone. But reached San Antonio in good time, and landed again with a cross wind on a runway that was slightly higher then we were expecting (500-600 ft above sea level)

Went into  San Antonio for dinner tonite and its a very nice city - you can see the Mexican influences - i'd say it'd be nice to stay for an extra day to sightsee - but that would probs be it really.

2moro (or today depending what timezone your in) were off to Odessa and El Paso - this is where it starts to get high and interesting. My Phone battery for GPS didnt last the trip to tallahasee so i dont think thats gonna work but if you go to www.flightaware.com and type N961MC into the tailnumber part you should get a rough idea of where we are.

Today was the first day of the big trip and the plan was to make it as far as Tallahesse. For various reasons we wernt sposed to get that far and we didnt.

We got away from Lantana a lot later then we had planned - due to a change of Aircraft. We were sposed to take N117PR hence the address of the blog but due to a weak vacumn pump the school didnt want to send us off to the far side of the country in it. So instead we are flying N961MC same airplane different name.... Only hassle was it was also booked to do a flight test in this morning. So in the end we got going about hlf one - local time. The route would take us out over Lake okeechobe and then up towards Winter Haven. At Winters haven the idea was to change over pilots and then head on up to tallahassee. 

When we landed in Winter Haven, we ended up spending longer there then planned. We had difficulties getting the aircraft to start again, which resulted in a flat battery. The school on the field were happy to help us out and charge the battery, but while waiting for that we decided that it would be getting close to sunset before getting to tallahesse. Also reports had suggested that he weather enroute was pretty poor and not good enough to stay VFR. In the end we decided to park up and stay the night. 

To be honest we were so impressed with the guys in the school, they were so nice and helpful, when we decided we needed to get in to the hotel the owner or close enough of the thing offered to take us in, and has also said he'll come back to bring us back to the airport in the morning - Dont think we'd get that in dublin.

Forgot to start the GPS tracker so all you get is this

We arrived in orlando on thurs night, pretty much on time. Then eventually got thru all the q's, picked up a car and went to find hotel. Some food a quick scope out of the area to find the FAA office we had to go to on friday morning and sleep happened.....

Friday Morning we were due in the FAA office at 9 o'clock. Fill in a questionaire, prove we were who we say we were and away we went allowed to fly in the states. From here we went to a pilot store to find a few supplies, namely charts of america before starting our 3 hour drive down to palm beach. One other stop along the way was to go talk to a different school where we wanted to talk about a night rating. But while we were there we found a company called warbird adventures. They had 2 old navy trainiers - t6 texans - sitting outside which were available for hire. It didnt take too much arm twisting before we were both in each aircraft with big rotary engines coughing into life.

In a 30 min flight, we would be taken up in old warbirds doing acrobatics, formation flying, along with some tail dragger experience which we could log. It ticked a load of boxes of things we wanted to do if possible while here all in one flight so i promise it was worth it. As we strapped our parachutes on and they explained how to bail out if needed some nerves began to set in, but once the engines started and taxing began the quickly dissapeared. Loops, barrel rolls, wing overs and more............soooooo much fun

Eventually made it down to Lantana - just south of West Palm Beach where we're renting the plane at about 8. At this stage we found hotels and food before going to scope out the airfield.

Lantana Park airfield is amazing!! - for such a small airport by standards over here - its far bigger then anything in ireland and maybe england - with soooo many aircraft jus sitting there. Also everything is so relaxed here too. The terminal building is something outta the forties with a big veranda wrapped around it, seats all there for relaxing on and old school music being played out. I think the two of us have fallen in love with it - and if it would fit in the suitcases - it would be on the plane back with us.

Check rides went fine on Saturday - Filled in a load of paperwork before Bryon, our instructor took us out to the local training area for an hour or so and back to the airport for a few circuits. He was very happy with both of us, told us we were well trained and commented on how we both seemed to have slight difficulties with the same things - guess the NFC havent done so badly with us :)

Today was a rest day - beach for a while and a general cruise round the area seeing the different sides of American life. Also been playing for Day one of the trip which starts 2moro. We reckon were heading for Tallahasee by 2moro nite

This blog is to keep every one in touch with how were getting on trying to fly across ameica in a loverly little Cessna 172. Were gonna try update it with our progress every night, with a report of the day and some important photos to makes yas all jealous. It all starts 2moro the 8th and we leave Dublin Airport at 11.50 on board Aer Lingus flight EI 121 to Orlando (MCO).


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