Choosing the aircraft: Cessna 172 is perhaps the most common light aircraft ever built and the most flown aircraft ever; it is rugged, reliable and forgiving; a modern Cessna 172 is IFR rated and with glass cockpit has state of the art equipment rivaling a Boeing 737. It is possible to service a C172 almost anywhere on the planet. One little problem - although it has improved performance it is still quite slow and one has to be prepared to stay awake for longer legs than in any other aircraft. In more than 40,000 aircrafts sold structural failure is almost unheard of and it has the best G.A. fatal accident record at 0.56 per 100,000 flight hours. Finally it is the plane I did most of my training and I am most familiar with.
After flight test and inspection report I purchased the plane from Ned Greenop. The next day I was equiped for over water flight and ready to start the long haul performance testing during a 16hour flight on the way to California.
Facts: Cessna 172SP performance and specifications - maximum cruise speed 126kt, maximum range 610nm, maximum operating altitude 14,000ft, maximum payload 833lb of which 318lb is fuel, leaving only 517lb for cabin loading; maximum takeoff weight 2550lb Objectives: cruise speed 100kt, range 2300nm, endurance 26hours+, operating altitude 6,000-12,000ft. This means that I need four times the amount of fuel the plane normally carries and I will be more than 800lb overweight.
The adventure starts at Grand Haven Memorial Airpark, on the East side of Lake Michigan on the 23 September 2011. Minutes after the take off I turned West to overfly Lake Michigan, North of Chicago and on climb to 10,500ft. The Lake is so vast that for the moment it gave me goose bumps at the thought of flying long distance over water.
On the West shore of Lake Michigan a compact layer of clouds covers the ground and from 10,500ft the skyscrapers of Chigao are barely visible. An intense air trafic is present however everywhere. I feel a bit more relaxed to know that the water is now behind.
The layer of clouds ahead will cover the entire ground for many hours to come leaving the mind to imagine what happens underneath. One by one the states of Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Wichita will pass below on my way to Hutchinson, the final destination for the day.
The instruments show that I am now NorthWest of Chicago at 10,500ft. The ground speed is 90kt at 2290rpm, I have a head wind of 12kt; I am running the engine reach of peak and burning 6.7gallon/hour of fuel.This will give me an endurance of almost 7.5hours and 750nm range if there was no wind. The screen on the right is displaying beatifully the terrain underneath, airspace and traffic. Another screen will show the weather with an incredible accuracy. At this altitude it is legal in the US to fly without oxygen and on this leg I am not using oxygen supplement. The pulse oxymeter shows oxygen sats around 92% - good enough for now but not satisfactory if it was night time.
Three hours later although there is no water below I choose to continue wearing all the safety gear to get used to the equipment. The thick flight suit is quite comfortable and it is breathable. At 12,500 and temperature under zero Celsius I feel warm and I don't need to switch the cabin heater on. My hands are warm without wearing gloves. The oxygen My pulse oxymeter tells me that the oxygen sats are a bit low without supplemental oxygen at this altitude but I feel ok and I am still legal to fly this high brething normal air.
Just passed Iowa. At 12,500ft I am doing 96kts, head wind 11kts and still burning only 6.7gallon/hour. I am tracking 235 bearing almost my future heading towards Hawaii and I have a crosswind of 29kts from the West. The outside temperature is minus 5deg Celsius. The iPad is showing its amasing properties in flight planning, flight records, moving map, inflight internet and name it. WingX was the software that I used at this stage.
The clouds are starting to dissapear and in the afternoon sun the flat tarrain below is making its appearance. Due to the thick cloud below I missed seeing the Mississippi River before overflying Iowa. I would have liked to stop and fly along the river. The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin are still vivid in my memory and I recolect memories when, as a child I was impersonating the character and imagining myself venturing on the Mississippi river in the chase of Indian Joe.
With the sun getting low and shining through the front shield the cabin temperature starts raising and the flight suite becomes too hot. Happy with my observations so far I unstrapped the emergency schute, removed the life jacket and unzipped the top. The autopilot is taking care of maintaining the course and altitude while I am enjoying the view and having an afternoon tea.
A great view of the Missouri River revealed itself at St Joseph. Although at this altitude the relief appears small it was an enjoyable sceneray breaking the monotony of the flat terrain in this part of the country.
Time flies, the day is almost over and is now time to prepare for landing at Hutchinson, Wichita. Today I was to cover approximately 618nm and with a constant headwind my average speed was only 92kts; that means 6hours and 40min in the air. The iPad provides all the necessary information for obtaining the weather, airport diagram, arrival procedures as well as available accomodation, things to do, FOBs, fuel, oxygen supplies, etc. Wichita is just to my left - another landmark in my trip - here is the Cessna factory - the place where my little aircraft was born. I am sure there will be future opportunities to come back to visit. For now there is a precise trip plan and no distractions are allowed to interfere.
Today, 24 September 2011 I had an early start in an attempt to complete a 12hour flight to San Francisco before the sunset. Not a cloud in the sky; usually the morning flights are in clear skies without much turbulence. Due to jetlag last night I fell asleep in the pilot's lounge while I was working on my flightplan. The receptionist woke me up late in the evening and warn me that she will lock me in the terminal. I finally woke up in the early hours of the morning, completed my planning had coffe and something to eat, inspected the aircraft and was ready to go before dawn.
Today I am crossing the Rocky mountains. My instructor in Los Angeles advised me to fly VFR as most of the IFR routes had a minimum safe altitude of 17,000ft well beyond my aircraft performance. Flying VFR you can maintain separation from the peaks and actually you may fly below the height of the mountain peaks. There are deangers associated with mountain flying such as mountan waves or turbulence and poor altitude performance of non-turbo charged aircrafat which you need to take in consideration and play by the rules. The 172 climbed with myself, some luggage and full tanks to 16,700ft pretty easily. At 16,000ft I was still able to climb100-200ft/min while maintaining 105kts air speed My heading changed a little more to the West and that caused an increase in the headwind to 16 - 30kts. At 2340rpm I was only doing 85kts ground speed (105kts airspeed), burining 6.6gallon/hour with the engine leaned rich of peak (ROP). At this altitude the oxygen becomes mandatory and I was ready to test my new Mountain High pulse oxygen system. It was interesting to see that the pulse oxygen system was insuficient to maintain adequate oxygen saturation (which dropped rapidly to 82%) unless hyperventilating. The manual settings which required adopting a faster respiratory rate to synchronise with the oxygen release brought the oxygen sats quickly above 96%. For altitudes above 14,000ft I decided to continously monitor my oxygenation and adopt the most appropriate settings.
Rio Grande National Forrest - Colorado
On the ground, Gunnison - Utah
Appraching California, the weather deterioaretd rapidly. I was low on fuel, the night was coming and the valleys were getting dark quickly and after a strong weather front I decided not to attack the second one. I made a precautionarry landing and spent the night at a 7000ft height remote airstrrip in the Yosemite National Park - Lee Vining Airport. Although the small township wasn't far and I got a good dinner, I couldn't get accomodation and spent the night in the plane. This allowed me to test my hypothermia flight suit that got me a comfortable night sleep in spite of the subzero temperature outside.
Lee Vining Airport - a very small and narrow runway where I had to performed a precautionary landing at dusk in very strong crosswind. Also the place at almost 7000ft where I slep in the plane overnight.
Next morning - Mammoth Yosemite Airport
Yosemite National Park
Modesto - California
Monterey Bay - South San Francisco.
Keep checking - pictures and videos will be added together with the story
Choosing the aircraft: Cessna 172 is perhaps the most common light aircraft ever built and the most flown aircraft ever; it is rugged, reliable and forgiving; a modern Cessna 172 is IFR rated and with glass cockpit has state of the art equipment rivaling a Boeing 737. It is possible to service a C172 almost anywhere on the planet. One little problem - although it has improved performance it is still quite slow and one has to be prepared to stay awake for longer legs than in any other aircraft. In more than 40,000 aircrafts sold structural failure is almost unheard of and it has the best G.A. fatal accident record at 0.56 per 100,000 flight hours. Finally it is the plane I did most of my training and I am most familiar with. 
Facts: Cessna 172SP performance and specifications - maximum cruise speed 126kt, maximum range 610nm, maximum operating altitude 14,000ft, maximum payload 833lb of which 318lb is fuel, leaving only 517lb for cabin loading; maximum takeoff weight 2550lb Objectives: cruise speed 100kt, range 2300nm, endurance 26hours+, operating altitude 6,000-12,000ft. This means that I need four times the amount of fuel the plane normally carries and I will be more than 800lb overweight. 
On the West shore of Lake Michigan a compact layer of clouds covers the ground and from 10,500ft the skyscrapers of Chigao are barely visible. An intense air trafic is present however everywhere. I feel a bit more relaxed to know that the water is now behind. 
The layer of clouds ahead will cover the entire ground for many hours to come leaving the mind to imagine what happens underneath. One by one the states of Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Wichita will pass below on my way to Hutchinson, the final destination for the day. 
The instruments show that I am now NorthWest of Chicago at 10,500ft. The ground speed is 90kt at 2290rpm, I have a head wind of 12kt; I am running the engine reach of peak and burning 6.7gallon/hour of fuel.This will give me an endurance of almost 7.5hours and 750nm range if there was no wind. The screen on the right is displaying beatifully the terrain underneath, airspace and traffic. Another screen will show the weather with an incredible accuracy. At this altitude it is legal in the US to fly without oxygen and on this leg I am not using oxygen supplement. The pulse oxymeter shows oxygen sats around 92% - good enough for now but not satisfactory if it was night time.
Three hours later although there is no water below I choose to continue wearing all the safety gear to get used to the equipment. The thick flight suit is quite comfortable and it is breathable. At 12,500 and temperature under zero Celsius I feel warm and I don't need to switch the cabin heater on. My hands are warm without wearing gloves. The oxygen My pulse oxymeter tells me that the oxygen sats are a bit low without supplemental oxygen at this altitude but I feel ok and I am still legal to fly this high brething normal air. 
Just passed Iowa. At 12,500ft I am doing 96kts, head wind 11kts and still burning only 6.7gallon/hour. I am tracking 235 bearing almost my future heading towards Hawaii and I have a crosswind of 29kts from the West. The outside temperature is minus 5deg Celsius. The iPad is showing its amasing properties in flight planning, flight records, moving map, inflight internet and name it. WingX was the software that I used at this stage.
The clouds are starting to dissapear and in the afternoon sun the flat tarrain below is making its appearance. Due to the thick cloud below I missed seeing the Mississippi River before overflying Iowa. I would have liked to stop and fly along the river. The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin are still vivid in my memory and I recolect memories when, as a child I was impersonating the character and imagining myself venturing on the Mississippi river in the chase of Indian Joe. 
With the sun getting low and shining through the front shield the cabin temperature starts raising and the flight suite becomes too hot. Happy with my observations so far I unstrapped the emergency schute, removed the life jacket and unzipped the top. The autopilot is taking care of maintaining the course and altitude while I am enjoying the view and having an afternoon tea. 
A great view of the Missouri River revealed itself at St Joseph. Although at this altitude the relief appears small it was an enjoyable sceneray breaking the monotony of the flat terrain in this part of the country. 
Time flies, the day is almost over and is now time to prepare for landing at Hutchinson, Wichita. Today I was to cover approximately 618nm and with a constant headwind my average speed was only 92kts; that means 6hours and 40min in the air. The iPad provides all the necessary information for obtaining the weather, airport diagram, arrival procedures as well as available accomodation, things to do, FOBs, fuel, oxygen supplies, etc. Wichita is just to my left - another landmark in my trip - here is the Cessna factory - the place where my little aircraft was born. I am sure there will be future opportunities to come back to visit. For now there is a precise trip plan and no distractions are allowed to interfere. 
Today, 24 September 2011 I had an early start in an attempt to complete a 12hour flight to San Francisco before the sunset. Not a cloud in the sky; usually the morning flights are in clear skies without much turbulence. Due to jetlag last night I fell asleep in the pilot's lounge while I was working on my flightplan. The receptionist woke me up late in the evening and warn me that she will lock me in the terminal. I finally woke up in the early hours of the morning, completed my planning had coffe and something to eat, inspected the aircraft and was ready to go before dawn. 
Today I am crossing the Rocky mountains. My instructor in Los Angeles advised me to fly VFR as most of the IFR routes had a minimum safe altitude of 17,000ft well beyond my aircraft performance. Flying VFR you can maintain separation from the peaks and actually you may fly below the height of the mountain peaks. There are deangers associated with mountain flying such as mountan waves or turbulence and poor altitude performance of non-turbo charged aircrafat which you need to take in consideration and play by the rules. The 172 climbed with myself, some luggage and full tanks to 16,700ft pretty easily. At 16,000ft I was still able to climb100-200ft/min while maintaining 105kts air speed My heading changed a little more to the West and that caused an increase in the headwind to 16 - 30kts. At 2340rpm I was only doing 85kts ground speed (105kts airspeed), burining 6.6gallon/hour with the engine leaned rich of peak (ROP). At this altitude the oxygen becomes mandatory and I was ready to test my new Mountain High pulse oxygen system. It was interesting to see that the pulse oxygen system was insuficient to maintain adequate oxygen saturation (which dropped rapidly to 82%) unless hyperventilating. The manual settings which required adopting a faster respiratory rate to synchronise with the oxygen release brought the oxygen sats quickly above 96%. For altitudes above 14,000ft I decided to continously monitor my oxygenation and adopt the most appropriate settings.
Rio Grande National Forrest - Colorado
On the ground, Gunnison - Utah
Appraching California, the weather deterioaretd rapidly. I was low on fuel, the night was coming and the valleys were getting dark quickly and after a strong weather front I decided not to attack the second one. I made a precautionarry landing and spent the night at a 7000ft height remote airstrrip in the Yosemite National Park - Lee Vining Airport. Although the small township wasn't far and I got a good dinner, I couldn't get accomodation and spent the night in the plane. This allowed me to test my hypothermia flight suit that got me a comfortable night sleep in spite of the subzero temperature outside.
Lee Vining Airport - a very small and narrow runway where I had to performed a precautionary landing at dusk in very strong crosswind. Also the place at almost 7000ft where I slep in the plane overnight. 
Next morning - Mammoth Yosemite Airport 
Yosemite National Park
Modesto - California
Monterey Bay - South San Francisco.