CT_MATT Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Howdy folks! I am a new forum member but, I have been following for the past few years and recently purchased a used 2008 CTLS. Roger Lee was a huge help here and was great about taking the time to chat with me about CT’s in general. The difficult part was rushing to coordinate transition training (I am a private pilot) and figure out a plan to ferry it back to my home field which, includes crossing the Rockies. A fellow semi-local CT owner agreed to help me make the long trip back (Thanks again Tip!). This speaks volumes for the CT community in that someone was kind (or crazy) enough to agree to fly with a stranger (we had only talked on the phone and email) across the US. So starts our long journey to bring the plane home… Our commercial flight to Grand Junction is at 7AM Friday the 14th so we are up early because Tip has to drive over an hour to meet up with me at the airport. We arrive in Delta (after 2 long flights and a short drive) and have some tweaks to do on the plane before we leave. After the tweaks and a short test flight, we are off to eat and get some sleep (at least attempt to). Saturday morning we are off at first light and make our way down past Montrose, and Gunnison to cross Marshall pass (10, 842ft) with Mt. Ouray (13,961ft) on our left (I will try to post pictures). We had a gorgeous morning of clear skies and light winds at altitude. Then we headed down to Pueblo and on up to our first fuel stop at Goodland, Kansas (GLD) (3.3 hours). Although expensive, the folks here were great at getting us gassed up and on our way quickly. From there we were able to make it to Centerville Iowa (TVK) (4.0 hours). This place was deserted but, the clubhouse was open and wifi helped us coordinate our lodging for the night. Our last stop of the day before dark set in was in Plymouth, Indiana (C65) (3.0 hours). After an interesting landing (pay attention to the zoom on the GPS), we have an easy walk across the road to our hotel and a short walk to eat. In the morning as we were cleaning the ¼” of dew off the plane to depart, we had a pair of turbine powered Thrush crop dusters with a full support crew arrive. We quickly warmed up and got out of their way. Once we were off, to avoid the constant headwinds we faced almost the entire way, we stayed down at 3000 and were on our way to Tip’s home airport in Indiana, PA (KIDI) (3.2 hours). After fueling up, I was off to Herron (7G1), my home airport just west of Pittsburgh. The total flight time was 14.4 hours where most of it was done at 7500. Unfortunately we had a 10-20kt headwind pretty much the whole way but, the weather was great and cause no delays or diversions. We utilized 2 iPads (one mounted to the seat rail), a bad elf GPS, and a Stratus (seldom used due to lack of coverage) for the entire trip. The iPad with Foreflight proved to be invaluable in planning and I highly recommend this combination. We then programmed the 496 in order to use the autopilot which also made the long trip much easier. The plane has a Monroy ATD-200 which seems to work OK but, we saw very few aircraft until we were closer to home. I would love to hear if others have any experience with this ATD model and what they think. Overall, this ended up being a great experience especially crossing the Rockies. We could not have asked for a better weather window and I could not have asked for a better copilot. I owe much of the success of this trip to Tip, thanks again! I look forward to many more excursions and hope to meet some other CT owners out there. If you are ever near Pittsburgh, let me know and I can help you get Mogas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Meade Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Good for you. Great story and very interesting. Keep us posted on your adventures with the LS, and if you get to Iowa, there are a couple of us who'd be happy to host you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coppercity Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Welcome aboard, and to the CT family! Sounds like you are well on your way to more exciting trips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT4ME Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 What a trip! 'Ready to come back this way for the Page Fly-in? Well, maybe next year! Welcome aboard. 'Looking forward to more posts (and those pics!). tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_MATT Posted September 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Thanks for the warm replies and offers! Check out the pictures I was able to post in the Gallery. Unfortunately most were taken in the mountains (most exciting for me anyway). I am sure there will be many more to share. Page would be a great trip for sure. I definitely have it on my to do list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runtoeat Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Matt, it is good to hear about another pilot who is remaining active by way of Light Sport flying and doubly good to hear that there's another CT owner in the forum. Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tip Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Great write up Matt and welcome. One of the tweaks Matt mentions was a prop repitch from 5100 RPMs to 5600 at 8000'. The repitch made the climb to 14,000' a nonevent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runtoeat Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 This is a great Light Sport aviation story about Tip taking the time to help Matt get his CTLS from out West and back to Pennsylvania along with the interesting trip over the Rocky mountains. I think it would make a good story for the EAA Sport Aviation magazine. Would there be a way to bring this to the magazine's attention? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_MATT Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Runtoeat, That is a very interesting idea. I would be happy to share but have no idea who to contact about it. It certainly was a once in a lifetime kind of adventure as I am sure Tip can attest to. I wonder if anyone from the magazine follows this site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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