Philly to San Francisco

The weather and my work schedule finally aligned for my return flight across the country. I flew the northern route from west to east so I decided to explore the southern route on the way back.
I spent my first day in PA re-familiarizing myself with the plane. It was an absolutely perfect day to fly into Van Sant airport.



With light winds in the forecast for the first 900 miles, I took my time and departed Pottstown PA (KPTW) at around 10:30am on Monday. According to this stack the forecast was right!



Next stop was Fairfield Ohio for fuel and lunch. They have a crew car available if you need to run into town for food.



A few hours later I was landing in Casey IL. I must have picked up 1/4" of bugs on the leading edge while flying over the midwest. The canopy got so dirty that the camera would lose focus.



My plan was to stop in Jefferson MO, but first I had to fly over the apartment in Edwardsville IL where I built most of the airframe. The living room was just long enough for the fuse.

Flying north around the STL class B put me right over the Mississippi river.



Next stop - Jefferson, MO. The Katy Trail runs along this river for quite a while. I rode a portion of it with my wife when I lived in Edwardsville.



The fuel in Jefferson was kind of steep, but they had a nice hangar and a free car to borrow.



I stayed a few blocks from the Capitol building.



I departed early the next morning for Bartlesville, OK. In the span of about 15 minutes no less than 7 gulf streams landed and overwhelmed the line guys. They told me that Phillips 66 was having a board meeting and it would be 30 mins for fuel. Hey I'm an engineer for Phillips 66! Maybe they will let me cut in line for fuel. :roll eyes:



The next stop was Borger, TX where they lent me a cool retired cop car to take into town.

The Borger FBO was recently renovated and is extremely nice. If you can handle landing in high winds I highly recommend refueling there.



Onwards and upwards. The ground is rising now. I flew at about 200ft agl for a hundred or so miles.



The winds were really strong in Santa Fe so I decided to stop for the day in Las Vegas, NM. A few really cool scenes in "No Country for Old Men" were filmed outside of this hotel.



I got an early start the next morning to take advantage of the absolutely beautiful flying weather.



The terrain is getting interesting now...



I flew low and slow over much of NM. Next stop - Farmington, NM.

This odd geological feature was visible immediately after departing Farmington. Its called Shiprock mountain and could easily belong on another planet.



From Shiprock it was only a few minutes to Four Corners. Driving there would be a different story.



From Four Corners it was a relatively short flight to Monument Valley. I flew less than 1000 agl for almost the entire day.





OK, getting hungry again. Its time to head over to Page, Az for lunch and fuel.





After a quick bite to eat in Page I flew as near as I legally could to the Grand Canyon.

I would hate to lose an engine here.



I was making such great time that I decided to refuel in Boulder City, Nevada and press on to SF. Soon after departing Boulder City I saw these odd structures on the horizon. Apparently they are huge 150 MW solar farms.



One more BIG mountain pass and I'm home free. I had to detour around restricted airspace and climb to 14,500ft to get over these mountains. I'm glad I have O2 onboard!



After a quick stop in Visalia, CA for fuel and water I headed for my final stop, KCCR.



WOW I made it!. 19.5 hours on the hobbs and probably $800 of fuel. Sure beats commercial though.

Man, that looks like fun!

Great write-up and photos.

Dave
RV-3B, still on the tanks....

Great trip write up

Thanks Rob for a fantastic trip report. Great photos.

Nice report!

nice pix Rob!

Thanks for write up did you try to fit between those rocks? RV9 fits there for sure

Great write up and photo tour. My son lived in SLC and loved to climb to the top of the spires in Monument Valley. Now, he hangs out (literally!) in the Northern Cascades when he is off. I look forward to this trip some day!

Thanks for the preview!!

Great story Rob! Now that you have the plane back out west, you need to come camping with us at Alpine next weekend!

Nice pics

Great photos and it was good seeing you @ KPTW.

Can't believe you stole that plane from your own flesh and blood

Rob - sorry I missed you at PTW. Great trip - hopefully i'll do the same sometime soon now that I have a kid in LA and one in Boulder!

Take care!

philly to san frisco

Thanks for a great write up....Also I really would like info on your super clean simple panel as that is the type combo I would like in my -4 I am [email protected]

Rob, great write up, was wondering why you missed the Show and Shine.

Looks like this was a good time to do that south west thing----------we were in the same area late this spring and it was cloudless and hot.

Thanks for write up did you try to fit between those rocks? RV9 fits there for sure

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Vlad, I didnt try, but I was reminded of your trip report when I saw those.

Great story Rob! Now that you have the plane back out west, you need to come camping with us at Alpine next weekend!

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I might stop by for a few hours if I have the time. Dont forget your earplugs - the silence is deafening out there!

Rob - sorry I missed you at PTW. Great trip - hopefully i'll do the same sometime soon now that I have a kid in LA and one in Boulder!

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Let me know when youre flying out. It's an awesome trip!