Adventure Pilot Gary Welch Plans Circumference of US Flight Using iFly GPS
I've had this bucket list item since I first started flying 30 years ago. At the time I had family in all four corners of the US (ok, technically two of the corners were in Canada). That's where the idea came from. I had one sister in Texas, mom and Dad were in Florida, one sister was in Toronto and two sisters were in British Columbia
Unfortunately, Covid will not let me enter Canada so I won't get to visit my sisters who are still in Ontario and British Columbia. My sister in Texas passed a few years ago so I will be visiting her children on this trip.
The bucket list item was to fly the whole circumference of the US. Leave from California, then to Arizona and Texas. I'l fly the Gulf Coast and stop in New Orleans to see the National WW2 Museum and Bourbon Street. Then across into northern Florida, up the east coast to visit First Flight. Then up to the Buffalo area and across the southern shores of the Great Lakes. Then I will head for the Black Hills to visit Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Then up through Wyoming and into Montana to visit the LIttle Bighorn.
Since I can't go into British Columbia I will then head southward to Denver to visit my son and his girlfriend. Then I'll head west to the Bonneville Salt Flats and historic Wendover Airport to visit the place where Enola Gay was prepped for her terrible mission. Then I will follow highway 80 back through Truckee and home to E45.
So, on or about May 24 (depending on weather) I will depart Pine Mountain Lake in Central California and attempt my circumnavigation.
I will be flying my Zenith CH601 XLB that my wife and I built and finished 4 years ago. The engine is a Lycoming O-235-C1.
I have been flying with an IFly GPS for over 10 years. On this trip, the 740 will be my primary navigation source. My backup will be running the IFly software on my Samsung S10.
I will camp as much as possible. The whole trip will take about a month. There's no guarantee I'll finish. I'm still not sure how I'll manage physically. Or how much I'll miss my wife. And the plane might have other ideas.
But I'm going to try. If I don't do it now I will literally never do it.
Thanks for making such a great product that will allow me to do this trip with confidence! Ok, confidence in navigation. I'm still a little uncertain if I can really pull this off!
I will be keeping a blog of my trip as I progress. https://garyscircumnavigation.blogspot.com
Gary Welch