Flying again!
Well Known Member
Decided to stretch the legs a bit and take a trip to Yellowstone and the Black Hills of SD last week. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their 2 teenagers from England planned a big RV trip (the 4+ wheel kind!). Their plan was to fly to Denver after staying a couple of days with us to pick up the RV and drive to Yellowstone, Winnemucca NV, San Francisco, LA, and finally Vegas. We decided that since we had never seen Yellowstone we would join them in West Yellowstone.
11 July: The English part of the family left at 0510 to go to the airport to fly to Denver. My wife, Daughter and her boyfriend left the house at 0630 and took off from 52F at 0711 heading for KFTG. The weather was great and soon we were cruising at 10,500, 171KTAS at 11.5gph (not bad for an O-540). Unfortunately we had a headwind (a recurring theme during the entire trip!) but still covered the 535nm in 3:27 (161kts avg). The FBO was great and loaned us a nice airport car for the night since we were leaving early the next morning. We drove to the RV pickup place and arrived just after our relatives arrived; proving again that on trip of less that 600nm the RV is faster point to point than commercial.
Guys up front for CG and ladies in back sleeping.
Lots of flat land in the Texas Panhandle with huge cattle yards and lots of lots oil well pads.
Running 175KTAS at 11.5gph ? but 16kts headwind!
There is Pikes Peak and my old Alma Mater (USAFA) off in the distance. I was amazed how green it was this time of year.
Here is my brother-in-law picking up the ?other? RV. He was surprised they did not take him out for a driving lesson! They left to drive to Rawlings WY to get to Yellowstone by 4pm the next day. We decided to explore Denver and have dinner with some friends.
It was a beautiful day and the Capitol building was very impressive.
At the Art Museum they had cars with a white wrap that were being used as canvas for Artist to decorate. The sky started to look threatening so we decided to go and meet friends for dinner.
11 July: The English part of the family left at 0510 to go to the airport to fly to Denver. My wife, Daughter and her boyfriend left the house at 0630 and took off from 52F at 0711 heading for KFTG. The weather was great and soon we were cruising at 10,500, 171KTAS at 11.5gph (not bad for an O-540). Unfortunately we had a headwind (a recurring theme during the entire trip!) but still covered the 535nm in 3:27 (161kts avg). The FBO was great and loaned us a nice airport car for the night since we were leaving early the next morning. We drove to the RV pickup place and arrived just after our relatives arrived; proving again that on trip of less that 600nm the RV is faster point to point than commercial.
Guys up front for CG and ladies in back sleeping.
Lots of flat land in the Texas Panhandle with huge cattle yards and lots of lots oil well pads.
Running 175KTAS at 11.5gph ? but 16kts headwind!
There is Pikes Peak and my old Alma Mater (USAFA) off in the distance. I was amazed how green it was this time of year.
Here is my brother-in-law picking up the ?other? RV. He was surprised they did not take him out for a driving lesson! They left to drive to Rawlings WY to get to Yellowstone by 4pm the next day. We decided to explore Denver and have dinner with some friends.
It was a beautiful day and the Capitol building was very impressive.
At the Art Museum they had cars with a white wrap that were being used as canvas for Artist to decorate. The sky started to look threatening so we decided to go and meet friends for dinner.