Hey all,
Me and a friend are discussing the possibility to visit the US in late summer or early autumn to do a week of flying. He has already converted his license and I will do the same (we both have EASA PPL+IR).
We are just starting to look into it and first question is, where do we go? Florida is a given option, but I’ve heard Texas is very aviation savvy too. Then we have SoCal. Any input on options to plan for would be most appreciated.
Given that we are planning September or so, wx needs to be taken into account of course. There’s a lot of it in the US..
Thanks in advance all!
Living and flying in SoCal, I’m obviously not objective ( 
), but here goes:
September / October are great months to fly here, the later the better. At that time of year we’re coming out of the summer haze season, although seasons don’t mean much anymore. Landscape is spectacular with anything from ocean vistas to mountains to deserts and there are plenty of places to fly to. Airspace is complex around LA and San Diego, but once you’re away from these areas it’s very simple. Many (most) non-local pilots have some trouble with ATC round here, but this can be mitigated by listening to LiveATC before coming. ATC here is usually also very helpful and normally happy to guide pilots through the various Bravo and Charlie airspaces. Just be prepared to mix it up with the big boys!
Costwise, one of the best options is PlusOne Flyers in the Sand Diego area. They are spread over four airports and have over 100 airplanes. They’re a club, but the monthly dues are only about USD 35. You’ll need to fly a checkout, but you need that anywhere and their daily minimum is, IIRC, only 1 (maybe 1 1/2) hours, so you don’t have the usual FBO problem with high minima/day. IIRC some posters on here have used them.
As for the other options: Texas is just an endless flat expanse and Florida is, well, Florida.
Wherever you end up going, definitely get a ForeFlight sub, this makes life a breeze.
Feel free to DM me for more concrete info should you decide to come to the ‘Shaky Side’.
I’d recommend October over September and it is indeed the best month of the year in southern California, weather wise. September and October can also be good months in a lot of other places.
A week is not very long and I think it comes down to your objectives for the short trip. If flying is the objective with little time for anything else, my tendency would be to optimize the combination of flying costs, accommodation costs and stability of the weather. Lots of places might be good at that time of the year. On the other hand California can be expensive but of the areas you mention if you want to visit a combination of interesting towns and interesting geography, California and the adjacent west is probably number one. I’d advise avoiding the largely ugly and outrageously congested Los Angeles basin in favor of areas north or south. Same for the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s a zoo. Areas around Paso Robles or San Diego would be better to me. Plus One Flyers is a good suggestion, or so I understand. Then of the places you mention in order I’d choose Florida (weather could be an issue), then Texas. Arizona might be interesting at that time of year, although the largest urban area (Phoenix) is a not hugely attractive and has airspace that’s complex, and it’s likely to be hot in September. Northern Arizona (e.g. Sedona) is regardless nice and so is Utah and New Mexico if you’re looking for geography very different than that in most of Europe.
For the best combination of cost, scenery, and weather I highly recommend New Mexico. There are loads of interesting places to see, with great food culture and huge variation in landscape. It’s easily the most underrated place in the country.
There’s some lovely footage for inspiration in Jay William’s Luscombe Road Trip 2020 posted previously by Silvaire.
Thank you all for your responses, they are much appreciated.
I see this as an intro to flying in the US. This time we are planning for a week of flying roughly, so it will be very focused on enjoying time in the air rather than going to a lot of places and have the time to actually see them. Thus, we of course would like to be in a place where the weather is predictable so we don’t stay grounded due to WX for days.
SoCal is of course interesting, I’ve never visited San Diego for example. The downside of SoCal is the time difference, the 9h compared to 6h for Florida makes a huge difference for me personally in how easily I acclimate. I see that as the biggest driver for staying on the east coast. It’s always been a mess the first 2-3 days when I’ve visited LA/SF.
New Mexico made me curious. If you have the opportunity to expand a bit on why it’s on your list I’d love to learn @dutch_flyer @Silvaire. Isn’t Matt Guthmillar flying in that area now? Certainly nice scenery in that case.
Weather wise, SoCal and Florida is favouring October I suppose. Is it the same for the New Mexico area or is it fine there in say September too?
Cheers,
Martin
First of all – one week including flights from/to Europe is cutting it very fine. Don’t forget, you’ll also need to fly a checkout before any FBO or club lets you loose into the Wild Blue Yonder. As for MIA vs LA/SF: flight time is almost identical, time difference of course is not, I give you that.
WX: in general, you want to avoid summer in the mountain West, due to three factors:
- hot (and I mean HOT) and high
- afternoon CB and widespread thunderstorms
- turbulence over the deserts
So, late September into October is ideal (or right now – we have the most incredibly gorgeous wx here at the moment). All that said, of course you never really know what curveball the wx throws you.
As for NM: this is a great idea. You’re away from the complex coastal airspaces. Although, again, this is not as bad as it’s often made out to be, especially if all you do is to leave it towards calmer areas. NM stretches from the west Texas lowlands to the Rocky Mountains with lots of desert in between and you could also visit the bordering areas of Arizona like Sedona or Monument Valley (you need to stay at the hotel there to be able to land, but it’s spectacular) and venture into southern Utah. In NM itself Santa Fe is definitely worth a visit and Albuquerque, although a big town, has a nice feel to it and an excellent museum of nuclear power. If you go, don’t miss that!
I don’t know what the FBO situation is in NM, I always flew there from the LA area. A compromise might be Las Vegas. Tons of FBOs, opportunity to lose all your flying money or win enough to buy a jet , you name it. It’s a class Bravo, but there’s no airspace to speak off around it. Another base option could be Phoenix, again tons of FBOs and you’re out of their airspace in a few minutes.
HTH.
Thanks a lot for the advice. Indeed, 7 days including the flights to/from the US is probably just wishful thinking, so 7 days of flying including check-out make more sense I suppose. Both Las Vegas and Phoenix have great connections so getting there won’t be an issue.
Here in Sweden, we have both C172 (G1000), DA40, PA28 and PA32 experience. Considering we are “only” flying for say 7 days, should we aim to find ourselves a nice C172 or similar to have an easy check-out? Do you have any sense of how much time would it add to get checked out in something a bit more exotic? Say C182 or Cirrus.
Do you have any sense of how much time would it add to get checked out in something a bit more exotic? Say C182 or Cirrus.
For C182, not much really if you had some time in C182 and if not you need FAR signoffs lined up (+201hp, complex…)
For SR22, they are likely to insist on VFR + VFR transition by your or their CSIP (even if you have lot of hours on type you need checkout by one of the “cool guys”), for SR20, they may skip CSIP requirements if you have time in the type & avionics
If you are renting a retractable turbo Arrow you should budget for “10h checkout”, that was with 150h PIC on Arrow, I am not sure why it required “type rating for rentals” 
?
If you decide for east coast maybe look into the area around Charlotte or Atlanta as a base and head inland to some „milder“ mountains or out to the coast?
