Saturday
Storms crossed through the area all day, so we were unable to begin the journey. Checked all over the helicopter, set up GPS and prepared it for the trip starting Sunday morning.
Sunday Hour Meter 308.7
Depart F70 08:40 Land UDD 09:51
Depart UDD 10:15 Land BLH 11:19
Depart BLH 11:45 Land BXK 12:57
Depart BXK 13:17 Land E60 14:23
Depart E60 14:58 Land E95 16:15
After departing the first airport, hoped to fly west to ocean. A mountain range with the tops covered in clouds was in the way. Flew north to try to get around the range but after a half hour was getting too far north so we decided to just start heading east through Banning Pass, Palm Springs, etc. Talked to So Cal approach for clearance through Palm Springs. They reported that our Mode C was reporting 1,000’ low. Landed just south of Palm Springs for fuel. $6.85 a gallon for fuel!! Then farther south we lost route 10 where it had turned east so we ended up weaving our way through the mountains until we got back to route 10 and the next fuel stop. Made frequent fuel stops as we were getting used to the helicopter, fuel consumption and fuel leaning.
Before Tucson we saw a huge mining hole, several hundred feet deep. Copper turns the water a turquoise blue color. It was amazing to see. As we got closer to Tucson we caught up with the storm that had passed through San Diego the day before. We were pretty low over the city so we had to keep a very close watch for antennas and towers. Asked approach control for permission to overfly the air force base bone yard, where retired aircraft are stored. After receiving their permission, we headed east towards the air field, and into heavier rain. When we got there we were both trying to take pictures, fly, talk to traffic control, watch for antennas, watch the two huey’s flying formation to our left, all with adding moderate rain into the mix. Everything was happening so fast that we couldn’t really take it all in. After the next fuel stop we had had enough of flying in the rain and decided to stop there for the night to give the storm a chance to blow past us. It did and we had clear weather the rest of the trip.
Monday Hour Meter 314.0
Depart E95 09:31 Land LSB 10:43
Depart LSB 11:15 Land LRU 12:23
Depart LRU 13:01 Land E35 13:51
Depart E35 14:24 Land VHN 15:26
Depart VHN 15:51 Land ‘Super 8’ 16:25 (17:25 local)
The storm had continued moving off to the east and left us with a beautiful morning. As we were getting the preflight done on the helicopter, a Border Patrol A-Star landed next to us for fuel. The pilot came over and talked to us for about a half hour. He gave us some tips of possible things to see in the area as we were flying. He also told us that if we saw any groups of people hiding in the desert to call them with our GPS position and they’d come get them. We did look for people as we were flying along the border southeast of El Paso, but didn’t see anyone. Flying through the mountain passes was incredible. High mountains all around, then 40 +/- miles of flat nothing, then another mountain range.
As we were coming up on El Paso we received permission to transition the area following route 10. At one point the Mexico border was barely off our right side. We could see the fence and border patrol police. After we were through El Paso we continued to following route 10 southeast for another half an hour or so, right along the border. It was comical to fly over many miles of nothing then see some cows, with nothing else around. We also found it amusing to see campers every now and then in the desert.
We stopped for fuel at Van Horn, TX. There was nobody there and it was not self serve. We thought we might have enough fuel to make it to Pecos, TX so off we went. After 10 minutes or so of watching the air and ground speeds and continuing to do fuel reserve calculations, I decided that due to the headwind we now had, we would not have enough reserve once making it to Pecos, so we returned to Van Horn. There we practiced some patterns then flew over to the town to see what hotels were there. I spotted a Super 8 motel with a large open area behind it, so we just landed there for the night.
Tuesday Hour Meter 318.8
Depart ‘Super 8’ 09:17 Land VHN 09:20
Depart VHN 09:38 Land E01 11:02 Mtn Top ~ 10:00
Depart E01 11:30 Land SJT 12:55
Depart SJT 13:29 Land LZZ 14:54
Depart LZZ 15:39 Land CRS 17:07
Depart CRS 17:29 Land F44 18:05
Frost on the helicopter caused a delay in getting started. Waiting for it to thaw on the blades and bubble. The entire day was spent going across Texas. There were some rolling mountains with pretty flat tops that we were flying over and we decided that was a good photo op location. After landing for some pictures we took off east again and as we crossed over the last edge of the mountain (just beside us), the east side dropped off almost straight down for what seemed like a couple thousand feet, giving quite a sensation, since we were only 50’ or so above it (we had just taken off). Shortly after that I spotted several mule deer so we had some fun with them. The west and central part was very flat and not much to see. Flew over many oil and gas wells. When landing for the night we were coming in on final and there was a fairly large group of wild hogs/boars at the southeast corner of the airport, digging and running around. I’ve seen specials about them on either Discovery or Animal Planet.
Wednesday Hour Meter 325.2
Depart F44 09:25 Land 3F3 10:53
Depart 3F3 11:23 Land 87I 13:36
Depart 87I 14:00 Land JFX 16:04
Depart JFX 16:30 Land GAD
Finally made it out of Texas, then also made it across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Didn’t quite make it to Georgia. East TX was more populated so there were houses and other things to see. LA, MS and AL were all about the same. Lots of trees, rivers, lakes and a few houses here and there. There was a mountain range to cross on the east side of Alabama. There was still some snow on it from the storm that had passed through the day before.
Thursday Hour Meter 331.2
Depart GAD 08:52 Land 19A 11:27 (time change at Georgia line 09:19-10:19)
Depart 19A 12:04 Land MNI 14:00
Depart MNI 14:30 Land 60J 15:45
Depart 60J 16:19 Land Holden Beach 16:30
Shortly after getting started we crossed into Georgia so there was a time change. We then crossed north of Atlanta then across South Carolina to the coast. Just passed North Myrtle Beach we cut over to the beach and followed it up to 60J. After fueling up we followed the beach farther up to Holden Beach, where we landed for the night. We finally made it, coast to coast in 5 days.
Friday Hour Meter 336.7
Depart Holden Beach 09:51 Land LHZ 11:40
Depart LHZ 12:07 Land FVX 13:23
Depart FVX 14:00 Land W99 15:34
Depart W99 16:08 Land BVI 17:54
End Hour Meter 343.0
Today was a very rough, hard day of flying. We had a direct headwind with fairly strong gusts, so we were getting bounced around the entire day. Crossing the mountains in VA, WV, MD and into PA were pretty but still having to work pretty hard at maintaining somewhat steady flight. We added 1 and almost 2 extra fuel stops due to the strong headwinds. That caused us to lose about 30-40 knots ground speed that we had benefited from on the rest of the trip. Our ground speed was roughly 75-85 most of the day.
Here is the link to the online photo album of the pictures I took on the trip. There are nearly 300 photos in this album.
http://www.datacustoms.com/rspiker/Coas ... /index.htm
