Help! Need a couple of Suggestions for massive 1700 nm XCtry in a Twin

MaRiO FDZ

MaRiO FDZ

JJ Abrams you Insensitive Bastard.
Hi People.

One of my employers acquired a 421 that's in the Philly Area (Allentown) and things seem to be pointing towards me flying it to my part of the woods - Texas. I have never flown anything over 1000 NM, piston or turbine. This one's a whopping 1700 miler. I obviously need to make fuel stops in between. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to execute such long flights?

Another reason for me asking is that, outside of Texas, I have never been north of I-20 except for Wichita. Columbia, SC is the furthest "north"-east I've ever been or flown. I'm thinking doing legs of no more than 4 hours and one overnight - I'm leaning something in the area of either Lexington, KY or Huntington, WV - but again, I know absolutely nothing north I-20. Any suggestions on the area? Should I just drop at KLEX or KHTS or are there other airfields in the area I should consider?

Thank y'all very much in advance
 
bimmerphile said:
Have you flown a 421 before?
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Yes I have. 1200 hours in 414A/421C. I'was thinking of doing it in a day but 8+ hours flight time goes against my personal limits.
bimmerphile said:
You could probably do it in a day if the wx works out.
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That's a BIG IF. Specially, like I said, I know NOTHING of the east coast north of I-20. I'm actually trying to get my head to somehow assimilate how cold it can be after seeing the 32°F on the forecast for Philly - and I'm complaining with 55° down here.

Plus, the drive from Philly to Allentown is a couple of hours, and after I deliver the Airplane I still have to catch another 2 hr drive home, so...

Thanks man
 
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well if you can get it to warmer climates for your overnight you would avoid having to hangar or deice in the morning.
what part of texas will you end up so I can figure out which airports along the way may be favorable?
 
bimmerphile said:
well if you can get it to warmer climates for your overnight you would avoid having to hangar or deice in the morning.
what part of texas will you end up so I can figure out which airports along the way may be favorable?
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I hadn't thought of that - hangar it for overnight. Again, not used to THOSE temperatures. The plan is to drop the plane off at HRL, TX. I The hop from SHV to HRL I've pretty much got it nailed, I've landed in just about every airport on or east of I-35 in TX. I'm more concerned about the ABE - SHV jump.
m77y said:
You’d be much better off stopping in LEX over HTS. Quite a bit of terrain around HTS and not much near the airport as far as hotels.
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That's pearls right there. Thanks for that one.

Thanks again
 
What range does 4hr get you in a 421? including ifr reserves/alternates?
Most of this stuff you can plan but you'll end up calling an audible the day of depending on the weather. May be easier to go around an area of low icing conditions in VFR than stay on your planned route and have to worry about deicing on the ground during fuel stops too.

This is the fun part of GA! I really miss it from flying survey.
 
bimmerphile said:
What range does 4hr get you in a 421? including ifr reserves/alternates?
Most of this stuff you can plan but you'll end up calling an audible the day of depending on the weather. May be easier to go around an area of low icing conditions in VFR than stay on your planned route and have to worry about deicing on the ground during fuel stops too.

This is the fun part of GA! I really miss it from flying survey.
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Hahahah first time for me doing one of these. Looking forward to it. Though I DO feel much more comfortable flying IFR, but if I must, I must. The 421 gives you around 800 NM for 4 hours. If I pull it KABE - KLEX - KSHV - KHRL it would be around 2.6, 3.5 and 2.5. and have an hour and a half reserve on each leg. I thinkg that's reasonable. Plus, bladder, butt and hunger have a saying in that also hahah
 
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That sounds good. I'd just open foreflight or whatever app you have and take a look at other airports that fall north or south of those, so you at least have some familiarity if the plan needs to change the day of. See what hangar fees and fuel costs etc, may be cheaper to go somewhere off your planned route when the weather happens the day of, if your company cares about that stuff.

Good luck and enjoy it!
 
MaRiO FDZ said:
Yes I have. 1200 hours in 414A/421C. I'was thinking of doing it in a day but 8+ hours flight time goes against my personal limits.

That's a BIG IF. Specially, like I said, I know NOTHING of the east coast north of I-20. I'm actually trying to get my head to somehow assimilate how cold it can be after seeing the 32°F on the forecast for Philly - and I'm complaining with 55° down here.

Plus, the drive from Philly to Allentown is a couple of hours, and after I deliver the Airplane I still have to catch another 2 hr drive home, so...

Thanks man
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The route from PHL to ABE is subsidized and it might actually be cheaper for you to fly commercially to ABE over renting a car and driving from PHL so check that out. It's icing season up here, I know nothing of flying a big twin cessna, but I suggest getting west of the Allegheny Plateau/ Blue Ridge Mountains ASAP when planning your route. WV is very mountainous. We have cheap low lead at AGC :D
 
I recently stayed at Knoxville downtown (DKX). The Holiday Inn has a shuttle and the downtown has a pretty cool market square, which is a few blocks from the hotel. Beautiful area on the edge of the Great Smoky mountains.

LEX also seems like a nice place but I don’t remember if I’ve been there.
 
Have you dealt with much icing before? I'm not sure your comfort level or how well the 421 does in icing, but it might be wise to aim for VFR weather and let the weather dictate your route as you have lots of options and if you were to fly down to Georgia/South Carolina and then continue to Texas it wouldn't slow you down that much and I see zero reason to push yourself hard this time of year, especially seeing as how you won't be carrying passengers.

If you do go IFR and plan on landing anywhere near the Appalachians I'd make sure to check your ODPs as it's easy to forget they exist when your flying in the midwest.

With Foreflight it's pretty easy to get an idea of what the FBOs offer and what hotels are nearby so you don't have to worry too much about where you're headed as hotels this time of year are in abundance and if you're tempted to divert or stretch a leg you can always contact the FBO over unicom and see if they have uber or lyft and they could check hotel availability as well.
 
Staying east of the mountains and flying south is also a good option. That being said, this time of year the cloud deck tops out usually around 10-12k so you can probably go out on top.
 
With the way the winds have been here the last week or so you can expect either a 100+kt headwind or tailwind depending on the day. But I haven’t seen less than 90kt winds aloft for the past 2 weeks starting at 3000’. I don’t know how far south/west it stays like that but I know ABE is affected by it.
 
NovemberEcho said:
With the way the winds have been here the last week or so you can expect either a 100+kt headwind or tailwind depending on the day. But I haven’t seen less than 90kt winds aloft for the past 2 weeks starting at 3000’. I don’t know how far south/west it stays like that but I know ABE is affected by it.
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It’s. Been. Terrible.
 
Mountain Man said:
It’s. Been. Terrible.
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Yesterday the choice was to go over the layer and drive into a 80 knot headwind or stay under the layer and drive through moderate turbulence for 45 minutes. I was by myself so chose the latter and spent 20 more minutes cleaning up all the crap that got thrown around the cabin after landing. I hate this time of year, though I did find the sunglasses I lost last summer.
 
milleR said:
Yesterday the choice was to go over the layer and drive into a 80 knot headwind or stay under the layer and drive through moderate turbulence for 45 minutes. I was by myself so chose the latter and spent 20 more minutes cleaning up all the crap that got thrown around the cabin after landing. I hate this time of year, though I did find the sunglasses I lost last summer.
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We had moderate rime from 4800 through at least 8000’. And I don’t care what @SlumTodd_Millionaire claims, lots of airline crews were asking for lower cause of icing.
 
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