Where should I go for a 3 week flying tour of the USA?

[Flying Ted]

First, apologies if this has been done before.

I'm in the early stages of planing a flying tour of the US. I plan to come from Australia to the US and rent a Cirrus or Cessna for a 3 week tour. I'd like some tips for a suggested tour. I'm looking for the best views out of the windscreen and some interesting places to visit for a day or two at a time.

Current thinking is to tour September but I welcome suggestions as to the best time for VFR flying.

Thanks, guys.

[Newforest2]

My dream was island hopping in the West Indies. I think a company used to do these tours from FL. O.K. not all America!

[340drvr]

In general, September is a good month for VFR flying, though in Florida and the Gulf states area, it can be peak hurricane time.
3 weeks would be a great tour of the mountain west, and, although you could get to the east coast and back by 172 in that time frame, it wouldn't leave that many days on the ground for touring. (I did a car trip down under years ago, 2 weeks from Adelaide to Sydney, it was obvious that getting over to Perth wasn't realistic on that trip if we ever wanted to get out of the car).
You should be more specific in your query. Coming from Oz, might we assume you'll start this trip from the US west coast (LA, San Francisco, Seattle)?
Lots of great scenery to fly over in the mountain west, from Grand Canyon to Glacier Park. But, what do you like to do? Outdoor activities with a wilderness theme? Urban sightseeing, party stuff? Are you bringing family, etc?
A few more details will help narrow down the suggestions.

[misd-agin]

The middle of the country is called 'flyover country' in the airline business. It's fairly boring from the air. Basically between the Rockies to the Mississippi river. Captain once made a PA to that effect ("we're over flyover country") while flying over one of the central states. He had the governor off the state on board. Oops.

From the air the coasts, especially the east coast north of Norfolk, VA to Maine is very nice. Niagra Falls. Great Lakes, especially the northern section. National Parks exist for a reason - Glacier NP in Montana, Great Sand Dunes NP in Colorado, Yosemite NP, Puguet Sound, to include Vancouver and Victoria, is very nice. SFO Bay is impressive. Grand Canyon. Crater Lake in Oregon. The BRASH volcanos in Washington and Oregon states (Baker, Ranier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood mountains) are also impressive from the air.

The northern section of Arizona, and southern section of Utah, has a road tour that's called 'The Grand Circle'. Very impressive. Clockwise it's - Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Monument Valley, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon.

In three weeks you can tour the entire U.S. I've seen web postings of guys who've flown around the U.S. in Piper Cubs from 500-1000'. It looks like a blast.

[Zaphod Beblebrox]

I used to work for a company that was the largest beef and pork producer in the world. When we flew customers in from either coast they would all tend to mention the same thing. "There is nothing out here"; which would prompt our management to say; "You are looking at the largest food factory on planet earth."

From that standpoint they were right.

[misd-agin]

Actual PA, by me, after F/A called the cockpit saying passengers were asking where we were - "folks, the FO and I were looking at the ground and there was nothing to look at. We decided we must be over Kansas."

[Flying Ted]

Let provide some more details.......

Thanks guys for the replies so far.

340drv made the useful observation that I should really provide some more details about what I regard as a "good" trip. It's an adult trip, probably with two couples. We like scenery and staying off the beaten track where we can meet people and experience the US outside of the big cities. Typically we like to fly about every second day for 4-5hrs allowing plenty of time on the ground. So with 3 weeks I'd be thinking of a route of no more than 3,000 miles.

From the posts so far I'm thinking I need to choose either the "mountain west tour" or "gulf and eastern states tour". Both sound appealing.

1. Mountain West Tour. Say starting in Los Angeles heading east to the Grand Canyon and then north to Seattle then south along the coast back to Los Angeles. Is this something that could done in NA aircraft or would a turbo be needed? (In which case weight will be problem). The have been a lot of suggestions already about what could included in this tour. Any views as to whether this is done clockwise or anti-clockwise?

2. Gulf and East State Tour. The other option would seem to be an "east coast tour" including Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, Maine, Norfolk. Would the Gulf States be best avoided in September or is it more a matter of watching the weather and being prepared to change our plans? So far the scenery mentioned so far doesn't seem as compelling as the mountain tour. I assume there are controls for flying over Niagara Falls, how restrictive are these?

Any comments or suggestions on these two options will be warmly received!

[zondaracer]

If you do a west coast your, don't forget to go to Catalina Island. Also, several airports inland in Southern California are below sea level. If you have time, add Santa Fe, NM.

I would do a tour like this:
Denver, Cheyenne, Yellowstone NP, Salt Lake City, Idaho, Seattle, Portland, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Santa Barbara, LA, Catalina Island, San Diego, Imperial, Grand Canyon, Tucson (fly over the Bone Yard at DMAFB, or even get a tour), Santa Fe, Alamosa (Great Sand Dunes NP), back to Denver

Not an all-inclusive list as there is tons to see.

[MarkerInbound]

Niagara Falls has it's own Special Air Traffic Rules. VFR traffic is at or above 3500 MSL/about 3000 AGL, a right hand race track pattern. State intentions in the blind on 122.05 and monitor for others doing the same.

[340drvr]

The two different regions strategy sounds like a good way to consider your trip, you'll have to decide what to see. Lots of places either way.
Maybe you've already done the research, but finding a suitable airplane to rent for that long may be difficult. I'm sure it can be done, but not every FBO or flight school can have one of their aircraft booked out for that long. You'll want to know about renter's insurance, too.
Another item, I assume you hold an Australian pilot license, you'll probably need to get a US PPL. Shouldn't be a big deal, based on FAA regs 61.75, and you used to be able to walk into a FSDO (FAA district office) with your non-US license and get the PPL issued right away, but the last time I helped someone with that was way before 9/11, so I don't know what hoops one needs to jump through these days. All do-able, but, may not happen very fast, unlike renting a car, this stuff probably won't get done within an hour of clearing customs at the big airport.
Lastly, if you opt for the mountain tour, make sure you're well versed in high density altitude operations, plan flying early in the mornings, etc.

[Flying Ted]

Thanks 340drv for the advice. I'm at a very early stage of planning so any tips are welcome.

I have read other posts here that indicate obtaining US PPL is fairly start forward provided you do the necessary paperwork well in advance. However, I will need to confirm this. I'd plan to arrive a couple days before starting any trip to finalise both the license requirements and any check flights etc.

My focus at moment is working out where to tour. You will appreciate that living here in Australia means I have no experience of high altitude operations. So this is something that I will need to think carefully in planning a route.

Once I have a preferred route I'd then start the search for a suitable plane. My experience here is that as long as you are clocking up at least 2hrs flights schools are happy to let you take a plane away (subject to availability). I had thought plane hire would be easier in the US (i.e. better choice) than here. (If anyone reading this post knows of a C182 or SR22 available for touring perhaps you could PM me?)

[evansb]

Not to be missed on a West Coast tour of the grand and glorious U.S.A. is the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. A world-class aviation museum which displays a number of military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft, most notably, the Hughes H-4 Hercules. The museum is located in McMinnville, Oregon, across the street from the headquarters of Evergreen International Aviation.

http://evergreenmuseum.org/

[MarkerInbound]

While the museum is still there, EIA is gone.

[misd-agin]

Other nice aviation museums -

Smithsonian at KIAD and downtown Washington, D.C.
USS Intrepid on the Hudson in N.Y.
Navy museum at Pensecola NAS, Pensecola, FL.

[17thhour]

www.cessnausa.wordpress.com

That's my blog of doing the exact same thing.

I went to plus one flyers in san diego and they gave me free rein of a 180hp C172 for a full month with the only requirement that I fly on average an hour a day!

Full route etc is in the blog!

[skycrab]

I've done cross to cross tours in a Piper Cherokee. 4 people in a Cessna 172 is going to knock out a lot of mountain flying in the summer. That said, it might get tricky to get 4-5 hours of flying in a day because most mountain pilots have a saying " in and tied down before 10." this avoids most of the mountain turbulence in the summertime. The Bible on mountain flying is written by a guy named Sparky Imelson ?and it should be an easy find on Amazon. while you're at it, you might also buy a book called Zero 3 Bravo, a book written by a woman who did exactly what you are talking about, though she took the whole summer to do it.


Anyway here's my $0.02 having run across the country to both coasts in a PA180

Gaston's White Water Resort in northern Arkansas- a trout fishing resort with a runway that is a great place to kill a couple days even if you aren't a fisherman

Port Aransas Texas - land and walk to a good beach, or rent a boat and run the intracoastal waterway

Indian Creek Idaho - a runway in the middle of a National Forest next to a wild river where you can primitive camp.

Lake Tahoe - the cleanest, clearest, bluest water I've ever seen.

New Orleans Louisiana - a mesh of cultures that gives usome of the best food in the country

Any trip out west should consider a visit to Yellowstone National Park as mandatory

Great American general aviation sightseeing - the VFR fly away along the Hudson River in New York City, Kansas City downtown airport, Charleston West Virginia Airport, Sedona Airport, Catalina Island Airport,Telluride and/or Aspen Colorado.

September may be the best month to sightsee the northern states, but here in the South October is the best flying month of the year.

I have to agree with the previous poster that your number one concern should really be locking down an airplane for the time frame you're looking at. An FBO might have to plan it's 100 Hr inspection around you being gone for almost a month. you probably need to be contacting those businesses right now.

There are many foreign students training in the North Texas / Oklahoma area. When I've talked to them they said they came here because flight training was the cheapest in the country. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, but you might check around and see what airplane rental prices are going in different parts of the country.

if you make it to Texas -

Fredericksburg, a German enclave in the Texas Hill Country known across Texas for its unique character and bed and breakfasts.
Austin - proud to be the weirdest large city in the United States, also the Live Music Capital of the hemisphere
Dallas- eat a 60 day dry aged steak at Pappas brothers steakhouse

[Mr. Maximus]

The US has wonderful scenery and the airspace system is wonderful to fly in. The Midwest is extremely boring though, so I'd choose an area outside of that. During September, the NE, Great Lakes, Rockies, PNW are all beautiful.


One thing I'd like to emphasize though as a Colorado resident - if you chose to fly in the interior of the Rockies - make sure you have both pilot and plane wired tight. Four adults plus gear in most Cessna's isn't going to get it done for a lot of our mountain airports and their surrounding terrain. There's a lot of 14,000' chunks of cumulous granite, and if you're a flatlander - performance degradation from a book perspective to the real-world perspective will be an eye opener. Make sure you leave yourself a LOT of safety margin. That being said, on a nice day - there's not much finer scenery to enjoy out the windows.


Where ever you end up flying, fly safe and enjoy.....

[300 by Salco]

If you end up in Seattle PM me and I'll give you a contact to set you right. You probably want the 182 in the mountains though, just more weight and ponies under the cowling. As others have said, high terrain means flying early or late.

[67cooper]

Reno

If you're touring the southwest in September you could attend the Reno National Championship Air Races. Never no how many more years they have left.

[multycpl]

You don't say your flying experience but l believe you may have to budget for 10 Hrs training on the SR22 before they will let you loose in it. Cessna's seem to have lower mins.