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The 48 state traveling salesman

joe_rainbolt

Well Known Member
Hi All,
I'm looking for input on a proposed 48 state "road" trip.

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I'm especially interested in finding out if I have optimized the route for length given the following conditions:
1. The route includes my home airport KGOO.
2. The route includes KOSH.

Other conditions which are not mandatory, but I thought would be nice are the Wright Bros monument at FFA, Mt Rushmore flyby,
flyby NY city and Chicago.

I would also be interested in hearing about alternate airports along my route that might be more interesting than the ones that I have
selected purely for their geographical location.

My route is currently about 6500 nm. You can visualize the route by pasting the following into skyvector dot com.

KGOO KTPH KSGU KPGA N19 KAPA KMCK SDA KBUM PTS
RKR KDEQ ATA RSN HBG 1R8 2J9 JYL KSPA 0A9
PBX BKW 0V4 KFFA KOXB GED 31E 4B8 KSFZ 6B6
LCI IZG 6B0 4B6 N38 I64 JYM 05C C81 KOSH
KLXL KBWP KCUT KSHR 32S S68 KPUW KLKV KGOO

Ideas anyone?
 
KGTR

Stop by KGTR (MS) and we can give you a tour of our Airbus helicopter manufacturing facility. We build H145's and H125's. Glad to show you some southern hospitality!
 
Love the route!

That's a nice weekend hop Joe! What are you selling? :D

If you never been to Alvord Desert alter your Moscow - Lake Co leg.
Sidestep to Hulett W43 for a Devils Tower tour. Breathtaking views of the vicinities.
Stop at KBKL and walk to downtown Cleveland for a bite to eat.
By Elmira NY drop down and trace the river toward Greene 4N7 a well manicured long grass runway with an eatery at the end of the runway (opens at 11 am).
Replace Middlebury State VT for Basin Harbor B06 where every year students from many countries are working in adjacent resort restaurant.
Circle Mount Washington in NH and if you have no time to explore Maine in great detail just divert to a solitary place Bethel 0B1 with always open brand new terminal building and cheap gas. Enjoy the beauty of surrounding mountains and nobody around. Take a nap at comfy couch and have a cup of coffee.
So many things on East Coast to see and fly over whatever your choice it enjoy it.
I see you planned 31E Eagles Nest NJ ask McGuire (or Atlantic City) approach if R5002 is cold and fly over it. All those targets in the middle of it are eye candy.
Divert to KTGI via Mid Atlantic Space Port by Wallops facility you will love the views. Don't land on my private beach there.
Good choice First Flight and all zigzags via VA, WV, TN if you need to put on record it's a good route.
Spent a hour in KSPA it's a great spot don't get lost taxiing to cheaper fuel.

I can go for hours .... enjoy your trip Joe. Whatcha selling? :D
 
It won't count unless you hit at least one airport on the west coast :)
What's another couple hundred miles out of 6500?

Erich
 
I've only had 1 RV flight out west and dropping into Monument Valley was definitely worth it, if you plan to stop at UT25 between KPGA and N19 make sure to check the Gouldings website and fax your info to them. N19 was a good fuel stop with restrooms and cheaper gas, it's a quiet stop and not sure about food or car.

Between SDA and BUM KTOP has a decent restaraunt, but most of the KC people end up at K81 for BBQ and cheap gas. We-B-Smokin is closed on Mon though.

MO9 is just southeast of PTS and home of the Hangar Kafe on a humped grass strip with pretty darn good food at an even better price.

KASG I've heard has free hot dogs and snacks and is the home of TRU TRAK.

East of KASG is 3M0 the home of Gastons with a restaurant right on the white River in a pretty Valley setting.

Instead of 2J9, my wife and I rather enjoyed KAAF. Fresh seafood and oysters abound in a very low key atmosphere. Airport people are awesome, possible courteousy car or Charlie from Whites Auto will rent you a car and leave it at the airport. The Gibson Inn is right downtown and within walking distance to the Owl Cafe and Oyster City Brewery. St George Island and State Park is 15 minutes further.

Between KFFA and KOXB I would stop at KTGI Tangier Island, keeps you closer to land and Crab Cakes. Walking distance to restaurants from the airport.

What a great looking route, Im excited for you! If you need a hand near KC or KOWI let me know.
 
Tailwinds are just more fun than bucking headwinds

The cheap weather guy in me just has to point out that usually winds aloft in North America in July/August are westerly, and stronger as you go north towards the Canadian border. If the winds are "normal" for that time of year 5 to 10% of the time and fuel could be saved by going clockwise around your planned route, rather than counter clockwise. Could add up to a tank of gas. Or two. :D

The link below should bring up a chart of mean winds for North America at 700mb (about 10,00ft) in July. (Speed's displayed in m/s, multiply by about 2 for knots.)
https://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/map...ds.html?bbox=bb:-170:15:-40:75:bb&P=700&T=Jul

Of course, there's no guarantee that July 2017 will be "normal", but the winds are still worth considering.
 
Help from the expert

On Independence Day in 2006 I flew to all 109 public use airports in North Carolina. A Virginia Tech mathematics professor who is World renown for his algorithm of the traveling salesman problem designed the route for me. I'm sure that he would be thrilled to help you out with a similar problem if you give him the coordinates of the 48 airports you intend to visit. It only took three days for him to reply with the solution to my 109 airport route.

Related story here: http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=786a1fa2-4924-400d-9278-517584677c5e

A Google search will find William's current contact info.
 
On Independence Day in 2006 I flew to all 109 public use airports in North Carolina. A Virginia Tech mathematics professor who is World renown for his algorithm of the traveling salesman problem designed the route for me. I'm sure that he would be thrilled to help you out with a similar problem if you give him the coordinates of the 48 airports you intend to visit. It only took three days for him to reply with the solution to my 109 airport route.

Related story here: http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=786a1fa2-4924-400d-9278-517584677c5e

A Google search will find William's current contact info.
Not to high jack the thread, but I worked with him and one of his associates on some software to optimize a tool path problem for my laser engravers. He was at Georgia Tech and apparently still is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Cook. Very helpful and down to earth! If you haven't played with his Concorde TSP Solver, it's very interesting to see how just adding a few extra points makes the optimum solution almost unsolvable.
 
Thanks for the info

Thank you to all that responded.

Tbone and 6 Gun --
Thank you for the offers of hospitality I may contact you as my plans develop. Keeping in mind the vagaries of weather it seems like this kind of trip is not so amenable to schedule.

Vlad and Crabandy --
I appreciate the tips and I will try to incorporate as much as I can into my trip.

Ronschreck and Mark Dickens --
Thanks for the tip on the Mathematics professor and the traveling salesman solver software. I spent a good part of today reading about his research into this interesting problem.

My specific problem is a little different than the traditional problem where a route is optimized for a set of known destinations. In my case, I am seeking to optimize from a large set of possible destinations with only a few constraints at the outset: 1. There will be 48 destinations and 2, there will be only one destination per state. This of course sets aside for the moment the requirement of starting at my home airport and including KOSH as a destination. Given that, it would seem necessary to provide the solver the locations of every public use airport in the lower 48 states, subdivided by state, as a prerequisite.

It would be very interesting indeed to see the optimal route if anyone ever computes it, and then compare that route to one that adds some additional constraints like home airport, for example.

Thanks to All.
 
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