Plan to Fly North

I was reading April edition in Kitplanes and I enjoyed Robert Barber story about him flying his homebuilt Sonex from Bryan, Texas to Fort Yukon, Alaska. Bob flew via Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Colombia, Yukon then Alaska and back. He did fly over 8,000 miles with total Hobbs time 60.8hr. His Sonex cruise at 100 to150 mph (IAS) and burns 3.5 to 6.5 gph depends on cruise speed, the Sonex range is 300 mile with 45-minute reserve and he has a custom seat tank of 6 gallons which extends his range to 450 mph.

The story was fascinating especially since he accomplished a feat with an airplane not designed for such a long adventure. As usual, I went to my ForeFlight and re-built his flying path, only in Canada because I don’t have US subscription, and my eye went wide open! If Bob is able to fly north, why can’t we? Most of our club members have been involved in multi-day, long cross-country flights over the past few years and they may support the idea if we did plan it well.

So I am calling on you folks to explore the possibility of us flying somewhere north in a group adventure. We need to properly plan the adventure, plan for the airplanes participating, their speed, are we grouping them in fast and slow? What is the flying route? Which month (I am talking about the year of 2015) and for how long Should we plan to sleep under the wings etc.

One idea that we may consider is to have two pilots flying in each plane, saving that it is not jeopardizing the safe flying and stalling characteristics, it will be more fun, less expensive, less boring and may provide an opportunity to our club members with no planes to participate in this venture.

Another idea is in utilizing the adventure in fund raising to COPA for Kids.

Personally, after flying my CH-750 from Cobden to Calgary in the Winter, I am very ready to make another venture to fly north and discover Northern Alberta, BC and Yukon, what about you?