At the request our esteemed M12 chairman – Craig Albright, the following is a M12 route planning exercise from the Florida panhandle (Pensacola, FL/Gulf Shores, AL area (Jack Edwards - KJKA) to Las Vegas, NV (Henderson – KHND).
For those COPA members who rarely fly long XC flights, or for those of you that are not familiar with this area (like me) this is a good exercise to start planning your own routes to M12.
It also reinforces the magic of COPA and the wealth of knowledge that exists in our fine organization. Even though I have a lot of flight hours (close to 20,000), the majority of that was in the military and at Northwest Airlines where I had “people” do the flight planning for me (and I was flying very high in pressurized high performance jet aircraft). As everyone knows, it’s an entirely different matter when you are alone in your Cirrus doing everything yourself.
So the following is a sample planned IFR flight plan and my thoughts and Craig’s thoughts for the approximate 1,500nm flight to M12.
Even though I am based in Minneapolis, MN, I will be in Pensacola for business during October and have never flown the “southern half” of the USA to the western part of the country, so I was not at all familiar with the routing and planning issues.
Straight line distance looked to be about 1,500 nm so I was originally planning 3 direct legs, each about 500nm. My plan was to do 2 legs on day 1, overnight and then the final leg into KHND the next morning.
Close to a straight line route, I saw the following:
KJKA - Jack Edwards (Gulf Shores AL) to KADS (Addison, Texas) just north of Dallas. 495nm
KADS to KAEG (Double Eagle) just northwest of ABQ. 512nm
Layover at KAEG
KAEG - KHND (Henderson). 410nm
I’ll be flying in a Normal Aspirated SR-22 and those leg lengths work great for my personal physiological needs.
I have Oxygen available for when the altitudes require it (not that I am a fan of using it…).
Looking at the IFR lo-alt charts however, I see that high elevation starts to be a big issue and unlike the direct routes I always get in the flat midwest, I doubt ATC would agree to this DIRECT routing.
So on second thought, I decided to look at the Victor airways.
It looks fine to go direct to KADS (and this keeps you away from giant and extremely busy KDFW).
From KADS to KAEG, I think a better routing is:
KADS
UKW
V278
GTH
V278
PVW
V278
TXO
V62
ACH
V12
OTO
V60
CYOTE
V60
ABQ
KAEG
From ACH onward I will need to be at a minimum of 10,000’.
I would layover at AEG, then the next day fly:
KAEG
ABQ
V12
ZUN
V12
INW
V291
FLG
V291
PGS
V210
PRFUM
V105
BLD
V21
DICSA
KHND
Minimum altitude varies from 9-11,000’ along the route, so O2 should not be much of an issue for too long.
Craig lives in Arizona, so he is more familiar with this area. I sent the above to him, and he reviewed the proposed flights above and commented as follows:
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I inserted 3 points into your initial straight line leg from KJKA to KADS. AEX, SPS, and CDS will keep you out of the MOAs. Flying during the weekdays, they could be active. Of course, ATC would have you deviate if they were.
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KADS looks like a good choice for a break. They have cheap fuel.
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KAEG would be a great overnight stop (although their gas is expensive) but… October in New Mexico is synonymous with thunderstorms in the afternoon. And, with the mountain ridges east of ABQ and the usual western winds, the thunderstorms often build in that area. The problem is the north-south terrain in the ABQ area. The orographic lifting from the westerly flow creates some great thunderstorms in the afternoon. Sometimes they extend N-S for a long ways. You may be better off stopping sooner and east of that area.
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For those of us who live in mountainous terrain, we often fly VFR in VMC because the MEAs tend to be high. I’d probably fly up to Vegas VFR at 6,500’ and avoid the higher terrain in the Flagstaff area.
That also bring up another option:
Fly a more southerly route and avoid the higher terrain around ABQ altogether. Note that it is a little longer route.
Here’s a quick south route without thought to fuel or lodging:
KJKA-PCU-ELP-TFD-BXK-KHII-EED-KHND.
Once you’re in AZ, you can fly the rest of the way at 6,500’ and go under the MOAs between PHX and LVS.
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On your original more northerly route, assuming that you are in VMC around PGS, consider going VFR at that point with Flight Following. Then, you could simply fly PGS direct VPVTR direct KHND. It will be pretty easy to descend and stay below Bravo at KLAS.
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Once you get into NM and assuming good VMC, I’d probably just go VFR with Flight Following. That would make things a little more flexible at non-O2 altitudes.
None of the above should be considered the last word on anything. It is just an example of the type of route planning decisions and dialog between two pilots planning a long flight.
Hopefully other pilots will add to this thread with their own planning thoughts from their specific home locations to M12.
See you at M12!
