Long flight plan

David Rind wrote in message ...
I'm planning to fly from Boston to Key West next month
with a stop near Bethesda on the way down and in Charlotte on
the way back. I'll need/want to make some additional stops along
the way, of course. This is a longer flight than I have made before
and much of it will be through states I have not flown in before.
So, I have a bunch of questions:

1) What do people like to use for flight planning for something
like this? Laying multiple sectionals on the floor next to each
other seems a bit painful. Is Aeroplanner a good choice? If so,
is the basic Aeroplanner the right level for this kind of thing?

At home, we start with Airnav actually, looking for good fuel
prices. Then I use something called a "low altitude flight planning
chart" which has the whole E coast of the US on one chart. I
also use DUATS flight planner for "VOR direct routing" (if going
via airways) or "direct routing for GPS" (if going direct). The
latter gives a nice printout to plot direct routes on VFR sectionals.

Enroute replanning, we use the "low altitude flight planning chart"
to pick reasonable destinations and the PDA progam "CoPilot" with
Paul Tomblin's database to compute distances and ETAs. We also
load the relevant sections of the AOPA Airport Directory in our
PDA.

I'm not sure how it would fit with your stops, but BWI is IOE
a very GA-friendly airport with a substantial fuel discount on
weekends, even though it is Signature. We've also stopped
at Suburban (Laurel, MD) but be careful, it's very close to the
FRZ.

I think Zephyrhills, FL (KZPH) is about the right distance
from Key West, and usually has good fuel prices. There isn't
much there if you need to spend the night or want a real meal,
though. There's a golf clubhouse w/ decent sandwiches
a short walk away IIRC and a nice area with tables to flight
plan or eat in the FBO.

Can't answer any of your other questions.

What are you flying?

HTH and have fun,
Sydney

"Snowbird" wrote in message
m...
I'm not sure how it would fit with your stops, but BWI is IOE
a very GA-friendly airport with a substantial fuel discount on
weekends, even though it is Signature. We've also stopped
at Suburban (Laurel, MD) but be careful, it's very close to the
FRZ.

It's also relatively short, narrow, and last time I landed there, the
pavement wasn't in very good shape. It may or may not be suitable for an
airplane that cruises at 155 knots (hard to know without knowing the exact
make and model).

I too have heard great things about the GA side of BWI.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message ...
(Suburban)
It's also relatively short, narrow, and last time I landed there, the
pavement wasn't in very good shape.

I guess I don't think if it as any of the three relative to some
airports we fly to or what our now-home-base used to be, but it *is*
a ~2000 ft strip surrounded by poplars which may or may not have any
relation to the FAA's "50 ft obstacle" and them's the facts.

They do periodically lop them.

However it sounds like a moot point given others comments on
the DC Metro system and dealing with ATC in the ADIZ.

Cheers,
Sydney

Thanks everyone for the many helpful answers and comments.
I'm always impressed at how easy it is to get useful information
here. I'm not sure how people survived before the Web and Usenet.

To answer the question that came up a couple of times, I'll be
flying a 1986 Socata Trinidad TB-21. Nice plane with reasonable ability
to get in and out of short fields, but can also theoretically cruise
at 187 knots at 25,000 feet. The theoretical part is that given
the O2 requirements for a mask, I won't really fly it that high.
Also it gets quite cold up there in a TB-21. For some of the
legs I'll fly with nasal oxygen at 16 or 17,000 feet and can
get better than 165 knots at that altitude (the POH says 175,
but I'm not convinced).

BWI had not occurred to me since I would not have guessed,
as several people have mentioned, that it is actually GA-friendly.
Despite that, I'm guessing it's a long haul from Bethesda, but
given Ron Natalie's comments about FME, I'm wondering whether
actual ground travel is faster there than I realized? If not,
based on the various comments, I'll probably go to GAI.

--
David Rind

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 19:39:31 -0500, David Rind
wrote:


BWI had not occurred to me since I would not have guessed,
as several people have mentioned, that it is actually GA-friendly.
Despite that, I'm guessing it's a long haul from Bethesda, but
given Ron Natalie's comments about FME, I'm wondering whether
actual ground travel is faster there than I realized? If not,
based on the various comments, I'll probably go to GAI.

FME is, like other people said, really out in the middle of nowhere as
far as public transportation goes.

For Bethesda, I'd probably stick with GAI. The problem with the DC
Metro system is that if you are currently outside of the city on one
radial (if I may mix my metaphors) and you want to go to another
radial, you pretty much have to go all the way in and all the way back
out, which makes it very inconvienent for Greenbelt/Bethesda or
Vienna/Bethesda trips.

As far as the code orange situation that the earlier poster alluded
to, I definitely agree, several months back in the summer the retry
times for Potomac Approach on the phone were extremely long. It has
definitely gotten much much better.

aw

BWI is even further from Bethesda than FME. If you arrive durng peak
commuting times, the roads will be jammed.

GAI has two disadvantages:
1 Lousy routings southbound (figure on flying about 15 minutes out of
your way)
2 High minimums on the approaches, and a greater chance of low weather
than the metro airports to the south.

Under the best of circumstances, BWI to Bethesda is an hour drive.
However, if it is not essential to visit Bethesda, BWI, with its ILS
approaches and good southbound departures, would be the better choice.

Paul

"Paul Hamilton" wrote in message m...

Under the best of circumstances, BWI to Bethesda is an hour drive.
However, if it is not essential to visit Bethesda, BWI, with its ILS
approaches and good southbound departures, would be the better choice.

Dulles is also an option. You can get a coach to the West Falls Church
Metro. It's about 30 minutes (with light traffic) to drive it. I've made NIH
from my office (we're on the north end of the field) in about 20 minutes at
the dawn of crack in the morning.