- Joined
- Oct 29, 2019
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- 166
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Dear Piper fans,
With nearly 1,000 hours in my logbook (in type), I'm planning my first fairly long cross-country trip from Albany NY to Freeport, IL (with one stop...maybe two) early this coming summer. With one stop, each leg would be about 350 nm and go along the southern edge of Lake Erie, stop around Cleveland and then go slightly south of O'Hare airspace past Rockford to Freeport. My usual trips are 175-250 nm trips to the Cape, Islands, Philadelphia area and mid-Atlantic regional destinations. This will definitely be an adventure. I have no intention of trying to fight through Chicago-area summer thunderstorms, but I would like to make the trip IFR to facilitate flying in, above, or between layers of light cloud cover. Here's the rub: There seems to be a great lack of Victor airways south of Lake Erie. How will I be able to plan my flight when it's not at all known where the IFR clearance will take me? If I go on Fltplan.com, I see that pure Victor airway routes all deviate significantly south into Pennsylvania and increase the distance more than 22% (and remove my option for a two-leg flight - I would need two legs just to get to Cleveland!) I was hoping to tap into any of you with upper midwest flight experience in this area. Note: I am primarily a "steam gauge" pilot, and I'm trying to figure out whether they'll give me VOR to VOR routing in that region. Some details:
I have a 1984 Piper Dakota (N4364W) that I've owned since 1986 outfitted with a nearly original panel with a couple of upgrades (GTX-327 transponder and GDL-82 ADSB-out, plus new paint and a Scimitar 3-blade prop.) I primarily fly VFR and some light IFR (it does have a Century-21 AP with VOR/LOC coupling that works great.) No, I never did put a Garmin 430w or any other IFR-certified GPS in the plane (I guess I kind of missed that window!) but I do have Garmin Pilot and a GDL-50 for great situational awareness. I have tentative plans to install a GPS-175 plus an appropriate round-format indicator (perhaps GSI-275) to finally transition to "Next Gen" navigation, but I'm not there yet. I would like to be able to plan for (and execute) this trip even if I can't get the new avionics installed before this June. Your thoughts?
With nearly 1,000 hours in my logbook (in type), I'm planning my first fairly long cross-country trip from Albany NY to Freeport, IL (with one stop...maybe two) early this coming summer. With one stop, each leg would be about 350 nm and go along the southern edge of Lake Erie, stop around Cleveland and then go slightly south of O'Hare airspace past Rockford to Freeport. My usual trips are 175-250 nm trips to the Cape, Islands, Philadelphia area and mid-Atlantic regional destinations. This will definitely be an adventure. I have no intention of trying to fight through Chicago-area summer thunderstorms, but I would like to make the trip IFR to facilitate flying in, above, or between layers of light cloud cover. Here's the rub: There seems to be a great lack of Victor airways south of Lake Erie. How will I be able to plan my flight when it's not at all known where the IFR clearance will take me? If I go on Fltplan.com, I see that pure Victor airway routes all deviate significantly south into Pennsylvania and increase the distance more than 22% (and remove my option for a two-leg flight - I would need two legs just to get to Cleveland!) I was hoping to tap into any of you with upper midwest flight experience in this area. Note: I am primarily a "steam gauge" pilot, and I'm trying to figure out whether they'll give me VOR to VOR routing in that region. Some details:
I have a 1984 Piper Dakota (N4364W) that I've owned since 1986 outfitted with a nearly original panel with a couple of upgrades (GTX-327 transponder and GDL-82 ADSB-out, plus new paint and a Scimitar 3-blade prop.) I primarily fly VFR and some light IFR (it does have a Century-21 AP with VOR/LOC coupling that works great.) No, I never did put a Garmin 430w or any other IFR-certified GPS in the plane (I guess I kind of missed that window!) but I do have Garmin Pilot and a GDL-50 for great situational awareness. I have tentative plans to install a GPS-175 plus an appropriate round-format indicator (perhaps GSI-275) to finally transition to "Next Gen" navigation, but I'm not there yet. I would like to be able to plan for (and execute) this trip even if I can't get the new avionics installed before this June. Your thoughts?
