Advice on East Coast flying

HorizonCRJ

HorizonCRJ

New Member
My father in-law has bought his first plane and has two weeks of ground school under his belt. So I’ve been asked to fly the plane from Delaware to Portland Oregon. I’m still waiting on my charts and want some advice on flying on the East Coast. Once we depart we’ll be flying SW to Tennessee, then West through AR, OK, NM, UT, NV, and finally OR.
We are planning on leaving Delaware next Wednesday, weather permitting. If we have great weather it should take 2-3 days, but we’ve given ourselves six days for the trip.
 
Keep a good lookout for traffic. I've flown extensively in Washington/Oregon/Idaho and now I'm working in eastern Pennsylvania. Traffic on the east coast is many times more dense than on the west coast. I've had a couple "accidental formation" flights here in the east that just wouldn't happen out west.
 
They don't call them "The Great Smokey Mountains" for nothing. Visibility out here often times sucks. It's something I'm still not used to since I learned how to fly in the Midwest. Traffic is quite dense in some areas, so even if you fly IFR, be on the lookout.

Where in TN are you stopping?
 
When he told me where the plane was I was a little shocked. But after thinking about the trip and the all place I'm going to see, I'm glad he bought it in Delaware.
I'm still waiting on the Sectionals, so we don't have a finalized flight plan yet. If you know of any cool airports to refuel at please let me know.
 
If you don't mind me asking, what is the N# on it? I have been 172 shopping lately and live in Delaware. I think it would be funny if you bought one I was looking at!

Alex.
 
Van_Hoolio said:
Don't let the DC ADIZ get in your way or intimidate you. File a plan and go right through if needed.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

And if you file IFR, guess what you've done? You've got the squawk, you've got the contact with ATC, so you are fulfilling the requirements of the ADIZ.
 
Once you get out of the DC area it might be faster and more fun to go VFR if you can. You can always go direct if you're VFR, but I would definitely reccomend VFR flight following.
 
Sikeston,MO is a good place to stop and eat. They(the airport) shuttles you to a place called Lamberts which has some pretty killer country cooking. Plus, they throw rolls at you.
 
Since you're in DE, just fly up to the MXE VOR and you won't really have to worry about all the congestion around DC once you're past Fredricksburg. I'd recommend Hot Springs, AR, they've got a few nice munchy places in town and a neato arrival over all the lakes with houses on them. Sunset it pretty.

There are a number of folks here who fly out of RVS in Tulsa OK - you could always let us know your planned route to do some meet & greets. Flying near the St. Louis Arch is fun. Anyway thats my 2 cents. Good luck on the flight
 
If you are going to go the southern route just go down the beach on the east coast, cut over to the gulf coast, get across Texass as quick as possible with a stop in Stevenville for the BBQ, then over the mtns where you can and up the pacific coast.

If you go north, I would imagine it would be pretty neat flying over the Great Lakes area and then the northern Rockies. WX would probably be more of an issue along that route though.
 
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