fly with me from CA to AZ | tiny airplane, big adventure! day 1

Hi, I'm Stevie and this is my 1949 Cessna 140A that we're going to be flying all the way from California to Wisconsin for EAA Air Venture. If you're not familiar, Air Venture is like the pilot event every single year: 600,000 people and over 10,000 planes show up every year, and everything that you can imagine under the sun in aviation is at EAA Air Venture. My airplane is going to be on display at Air Venture, so we are going to fly it all the way from California to Wisconsin, which will take us 25 hours of flying spread across 5 days.

Today's flight, our first leg, will be from Camarillo, California, to Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, with two stops along the way in Palm Springs and Buckeye. It's 6:41 on Monday, July 17th; right now, we're waiting on some of the marine layer to clear up, so as soon as it's clear, we can blast off and head to Oshkosh.

Got to have the snack bag; it's way too hot on. Come, let's go; doors are locked. Okay, we've got doors, let's get seat belts. Fuel selector is on, both trims set for takeoff, flaps are down, primer unlocked, mixture is rich, carb heat is off, throttle we'll pump in a second. Our beacon light is on, but all our other switches are off, and we probably want some keys. Also, I went and got Starbucks because it was still cloudy for a while and by the time I came back, it was VFR, so can't complain. Both masters on, all twice.

Clear! I maintain 3,000, expect 5,000, 5 minutes after. Oil temp and pressure good. CLS at 600. Tower information is "Papa", time 1455 Zulu, wind calm, visibility 6, haze, few clouds at 600. Ground good morning, N477 Alpha east end with Papa, ready for taxi for an eastbound departure.

N477 Papa, Cam ground, 26 taxi golf alpha 26 V golf alpha 9477 alpha. So unfortunately, it's now 8 a.m.; just had to wait for the clouds to clear, but they're all clear now and we are taking off for our first stop, which will be Palm Springs. It should take us an hour and a half to 2 hours to get there, and then after that, we'll be off to Buckeye, Arizona, and then Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona.

I'm super excited; I'm a little nervous just because I mean three times I've done this stretch in the Bonanza, and the last two times I had all my new Garmin stuff, including the GFC 500 autopilot, so it was definitely on easy mode. I think this plane goes half as fast; it's a tailwheel, so you're much more limited by wind.

It'll take us 25 hours of flying; I have give or take 5 hours of flying a day planned. If all goes according to plan, which I'm sure it won't, but if all goes according to plan, we'll be there by Friday morning. So we're coming up on the runup area here, so we're going to do our run-up, check out of here. We'll check our flight controls first; feels good. Mixture's coming rich; throttle is all the way up, 17 about there. I'll do our mag check; over drop, good, back to both, looks good.

We'll do our carb heat check; good drop. We got oil pressure and temperature; amps are looking good. Pull it back to 1,000; we'll turn on all of our lights. Think we're ready to go now. I think our flight following frequency will be 24.7, and we're going to go up to 7,500, so why don't we bug that in as well? Cool!

Okay, here we go, off on our adventure. Camarillo Tower, Cessna 9477 Alpha, holding short Runway 26, ready for departure eastbound. 9477 Alpha, Camarillo Tower, Runway 26, clear for takeoff, right downwind approved, winds are 2-0-4 at 2-6, clear for takeoff, right downwind departure, 9477 Alpha.

Final is clear, runway is clear, upwind is clear. Mixture's coming rich; keys are on both, hold the stick. Back, okay, here we go.

Get the tail up; oil temp and pressure in the green. There's 50! Beautiful! Turning our right crosswind and we're clear. So, our right downwind, 9477 Alpha, frequency change approved.

See it? Frequency change approved, 77 Alpha. And is Meu on 24.7? Affirmative! Thank you!

Approach, good morning, 9477 Alpha.

A VFR request.

N9477 Alpha, just departed Camarillo at 1,800, climbing to 7,500, looking for flight following to Palm Springs.

N9477 Alpha, squawk 4775.

4775, N9477 Alpha, 2,000; 5,500 feet to go.

7-7 Alpha, radar contact, 3 miles east of Cry Airport, 2.3 indicated.

Go ahead and maintain 2-91, 901, 9477 Alpha.

And we're off; it's going to be a hot one today! So I'm flying the 140 out to Oshkosh, but the Bonanza is also being flown out to Osos by Graham. The plan is that he will actually catch up to me on the last day; we'll be able to go into Oshkosh probably together and meet up, so that will be good.

I know I said a little bit about this earlier; Oshkosh, or EAA Air Venture, a lot of pilots will just say we're going to Oshkosh, but Air Venture is a flying trade show, air show. Really anything that you could imagine in aviation is probably at Oshkosh. There's over 600,000 people that go every year and 10,000 airplanes, and Oshkosh airport becomes the world's busiest airport for one week out of the entire year.

We're just passing 5,000; we're slowly leaning out the mixture here a little bit, and it's already 80°F at 5,000 feet, so that's awesome.

November 6477 Alpha, contact SoCal approach 28.75.

Is that for 9477 Alpha?

AER, can you give me the frequency again? Sorry, frequency 28.75.

28.75, 9477 Alpha, have a good day!

Good morning, SoCal approach, 9477 Alpha at 5,300, climbing to 7,500.

6477 Alpha, good morning, and it's 9477 Alpha.

Right, got 1,000 feet to go. The 275 HSI has this little banana curve you can look at to see where you're going to reach your cruising altitude that you have bugged in on the attitude indicator, which is kind of cool. It's also nice for when you're descending; you can see when you're going to reach the altitude that you B.

77 Alpha, PCH 24.6.

Good morning, 24.6, 77 Alpha, have a good day!

So Cal, good morning, 9477 Alpha.

At 7,300 climbing to 7,500, 9477 Alpha.

So approaching 7,500, we made it all the way up; we're leaned out, bring the nose down.

77 Alpha, traffic, 2 o'clock, 5 miles off, the direction, 737, 5,000. Climbing high; they pass three miles off your right.

77 Alpha, looking for traffic, Southwest 2593 traffic, 12:00, 4 miles eastbound, climb to 7,500 higher winds, pass them...

I have one more for you, 2 o'clock, 4 miles, north-west bound, Southwest 737 52 for 65; we'll pass right to left.

Insight, 7 Alpha! Whoa, that's cool; they're getting right underneath us, Southwest 2593 traffic.

Is N7 77 Alpha, the V 737, is no factor?

I got one more for you, 2 o'clock, 3 miles eastbound, citation 55 for 8,000, pass about 2 miles off your right, looking for 77 Alpha.

77 Alpha, contact approach 125.5.

125.5, 9477 Alpha! Have a good day!

SoCal approach, 9477 Alpha at 7,500.

94 77p, so approach the altimeter 2955.

77 Alpha, sun is coming back out, but it's nice and smooth out still, which is good. It usually gets a little bumpy in the afternoon, so that's the point of trying to be done by like noon or 1. Since Oshkosh starts in a week, and today is Monday, I figured each day of the trip we can talk about what I'm going to do exactly week at Oshkosh.

So next week Monday, first day of Oshkosh, my airplane will be on display at the Garmin tent, and so I'll definitely be checking on them throughout the day.

But we're going to start with a meet and greet at the Bose tent, which will be super fun. It'll be the first one of the week, so I'm hoping that I'll get to meet a lot of you that day.

And I'm also going to be doing a takeover on Bose's Instagram account for the whole day, and I'm kind of going to be showing off Stevie's perfect day at Oshkosh.

And then I'm going to do a video shoot with Artcraft paint, who painted my 140 and also did the... of course, I have an event after that; I can't remember what it is.

9477 Alpha, approach 134.0!

Good day!

134.0, 9477 Alpha!

You too!

SoCal, 9477 Alpha at 7,500.

9477 Alpha, we're passing Ontario; we're almost to the...

77 Alpha, we’re familiar with...

CFR at over just west of it!

Hey, room, 77 Alpha, we’ll be going to the north of it.

So there's a TFR just southeast of San Bernardino, so we're going to go slightly north of our course.

Coming up on the Banning Pass, we just have about a half an hour left, which will probably actually be a little bit less when we start descending and going a little faster.

77 Alpha, contact 26.7!

26.7, 77 Alpha, have a good day!

X-ray time, 1553!

Wind 1-0 at ner, visibility 1, Z sky clear below 12,000.

SoCal approach, CES 9477 Alpha at 7,500, and we have X-ray at Palm Springs.

We'd like to start a VFR descent if able.

77 Palm Springs, altimeter 2-9-8-8, descent approved, speed straight in, Runway 13.

We have X-ray at Palm Springs; the wind is from 1-0 at 9, and the runway is 13, so almost right down the runway, so we should have no problem.

And we'll check our waypoint info here; elevation 476, and we should be getting a straight in for one of the 13s.

All right, there's the airport just around the M; temperature slowly climbing, we're up to 80°F.

77 Alpha, can take Palm Springs Tower one niner, seven niner, seven.

9477 Alpha, have a good day!

Palm Springs Tower, CES 9477 Alpha, 8 miles to the Northwest with X-ray and non-full stop!

94 for Palm Springs Tower; state parking Atlantic!

77 Alpha!

77 Alpha, Roger, continue eastbound along the interstate and expect a straight in, 13 left.

We'll continue eastbound along the interstate and expect straight in, 13 left, 9477 Alpha.

Mixture is all the way rich; got all our lights on; fuel...

Exit 631; your readback is correct!

Break, November 77 Alpha, make straight in Runway 13 left, clear to land.

Straight in Runway 13 left; Runway 13 left; 9477 Alpha.

We're on a long final here; got to get slowed down here a little bit; one notch flaps!

Two and one-half miles to go; get a second notch of flaps in and always go around.

Okay, B, 77 Alpha, contact ground.

Over to ground, 77 Alpha!

121.9!

CES 904, 77 Alpha, off of Runway 13 left at Fox, would like to taxi to Atlantic!

9477 Alpha, taxi Echo to Atlantic!

Echo to Atlantic, 9477 Alpha.

This is Echo; we're going this way!

If I wasn't trying to go where I'm trying to go, I would be in that pool!

I brought a swimsuit; you never know when you're going to need a swimsuit!

So I'm walking back to the plane right now; just spent some time hanging out in the foo, got some fuel, and we are going to head to Buckeye, Arizona.

Our backup is Goodyear if it's too windy, but we should be good, and it's going to take us like 3 hours to get there, so this is the longest leg of the day.

So let's get to it!

You guys, there's a giant lizard! Look at this thing!

Oh my God, sorry buddy, but you're about to lose your shade anyway!

Let's go!

We're on to leg number two, the longest one, the hottest one!

I wish we got started earlier, but it's okay; we are going to make the best of it!

Okay, lesson learned: don't put your keys on the dash!

Okay, clear; it's hot, hot, hot!

We've got oil temp and pressure; both in the green.

We're going to pull this back and lean it out quite a bit!

Airport, Zulu time, 1753 Zulu; wind calm, visibility 1 Z sky clear below 12,000!

77 Alpha, departure frequency 26.7; squawk 7610!

Departure frequency 26.7, squawk 7610, 9477 Alpha!

9477 Alpha, back 13 left; taxi via Echo Juliet!

13 left, taxi via Echo Juliet, 9477 Alpha!

Let's go!

So our second leg is Palm Springs to Buckeye; should be a hot and hopefully not too bumpy flight.

We're going to go up to 5,500; probably bug that in right now; be a good idea.

Run up area; perfect, right next to this little 172!

Okay, light controls, mixture rich, throttle is coming up!

Backcheck.

Bing, St SK, 1252 Ners holding short of 13 left, ready for departure.

1252 Niner, Palm Springs Tower, make a left crosswind departure to Interstate 10; Runway 13 left cleared for takeoff!

Make a left crosswind departure to Interstate 10; we are cleared for takeoff on Runway 13 left; 1252 Niner!

Palm Springs Tower, 9477 Alpha holding short of 13 left, ready for departure!

9477 Alpha, Palm Springs, Roger!

9477 Alpha, make a left crosswind departure!

Runway 13 left cleared for takeoff!

Left crosswind departure, Runway 13 left cleared for takeoff, 9477 Alpha!

Okay, we got that jet in the upwind, but our final's clear and our runway is clear, and that jet is going the other way!

Exit, jet 783, turn left heading 1-0-0 and contact SoCal departure!

Good flight, departure!

Exit, 73, good...

52 ner, contact SoCal departure!

Good flight!

Going to departure, 59.

There we go, tail up!

Oil temperature and pressure both in the green, 30, 40, 50!

She's working real hard right now!

SoCal departure, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 1,100 climbing 5,500!

9477 Alpha!

77 Alpha, navigation B RL2 to your discretion!

Oh, N477 Alpha getting some updrafts and downdrafts, that's for sure!

Wow, all those people down there at the pool; I am so jealous right now!

Still hasn't hit me that we're going to Oshkosh!

We're just passing 3,700 feet; we're doing a whopping 300 feet a minute at 80 knots!

I'm trying to keep the nose pointed forward just a tad to keep it cool; we could climb at like 70, but for now, we're just going to chug along here and do a slow gradual climb; there's no terrain or anything in our way, so we're good.

All right, there's 4,000!

You know what? I'm going to crack open that cookie I took from Atlantic, even though I have a whole bag of snacks behind me; this is the winner!

I know there's mixed opinions on oatmeal raisin cookies, but I love them, which is awesome because usually people don't eat them, so it leaves all the oatmeal raisin cookies!

Am I citation Max yet? Do I need to rate this? Is that how it works? Does it only work with chocolate chip cookies? I don't know; TH 000 feet to go!

Syon runs really, really cool in temperature; my Bonanza can definitely get pretty hot.

All right, we are over thermal right now, so we're making our left turn to 073.

Okay, and there's 5,500; just under 2 hours to go now we're going!

So obviously, we got a little bit of a late start today because of the marine layer; I'm hoping tomorrow we can depart Just Before Sunrise so it'll still be light out but the sun will not be up yet, so we can get some nice cooler air!

I say cooler, but at 90° is cool!

So I think we'll leave super early in the morning and we should only have to make one stop on the way to Albuquerque, so it shouldn't be too bad.

And then we'll stay in Albuquerque for the night.

Albuquerque Center, 128.15!

128.15, 9477 Alpha, have a good day!

Los Angeles Center, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 5,500!

N9477 Alpha, Roger. Thermal altimeter 29.81!

Thank you!

8177 Alpha, look, approach there, 381 Delta, checking in at 11,298!

1 Delta, contact 26.7!

2674, 741 Delta, M, 3903 contact Albuquerque 26.45, get it 2645!

You have a great day!

393, just about an hour and a half to go.

You know, for hand flying, my track lines are actually pretty straight!

Time for some water!

We just passed BLLE and we are about to cross into Arizona; our Garmin 375 says that the wind at Buckeye, the automated observation, is 160 at 5, so right down the runway for 17, so we should have no problem landing there!

We'll get some self-service fuel and get back on our way!

77 Alpha, contact Albuquerque Center 26.45!

2645, 77 Alpha, have a good day!

Albuquerque Center, CES 904, 77 Alpha at 5,500, less than 50 miles to go, about 30 minutes to go!

There's definitely some thunderstorm activity out in the distance!

Life has this weather information; contact assignment 27, Western 25, Western valad, H 215 for Arizona New Mexico, available flight service frequency.

We've got some traffic at our 11:00, 10 11:00, 700 feet above!

I'm looking but not seeing!

77 Alpha, starting a VFR descent.

November 9477 Alpha, try Luke approach again; contact Luke approach 2545!

12545; we'll try them again, 9477 Alpha; thanks for your help!

Luke approach, C9 Niner 477 Alpha, 4,900 descending!

Luke approach, C9 Niner 477 Alpha!

Albuquerque Center, CES 904, 77 Alpha!

Still not getting them; if I could just cancel flight following with you, I've got the airport site, that would be great!

November 9477 Alpha, radar service terminated; squawk TFR, change approved; see you later!

77 Alpha!

We tried Buckeye Municipal Airport automated weather observation...

2-0-1-3 Zulu, wind variable at five knots, visibility 9, sky condition clear below 12,000!

Buckeye traffic, 850 right base!

Buckeye traffic, 9477 Alpha, 9 miles to the west and B right downwind 17 Buckeye!

Buckeye traffic, 850 final, Runway 17 touch and go; right close traffic!

Buckeye traffic, 9477 Alpha, clear of 17!

Okay, we'll lean our mixture out and we'll taxi to fuel; it's hot; it says 105!

Looks like we just have like an hour left on our next leg, so let's get fuel and get over to Falcon Field!

Me see, and all my mornings tend to tease me since you gone...

Ripping off sandy bands on the beach; my grasp from circles round my reach.

I've grown overthrown, bloody flowers and broken bones; all my nights and morning, all my morning!

All right, last leg should only take 45 minutes in theory; that is the plan!

I know my tow is not perfectly straight; I have to hit the brake ATT Tad to straighten it out!

That's good; feels so good!

Even if it messes up my hair, I don't really care at this point; got to do what you got to do!

There’s definitely some thunderstorm activity over those hills.

Buckeye Municipal Airport automated weather observation 2-1-0-7 Zulu, wind 1-9-0 at 7 knots, wind variable between 1-6-0 and 2-3-0, visibility...

Ner, sky condition clear below 12,000, temperature 4-3 C, dew point 1-5 C.

Okay, let's check our controls; oil pressure, temperature, both in the green!

Traffic 9477 Alpha departing Runway 1-7; will be a straight-out departure!

Buckeye, final's clear; runway's clear!

It's clear; go!

Phoenix approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha, VFR request!

Cessna 9477 Alpha, just departed Buckeye, 2,100 climbing 3,500, looking for flight following to Falcon Field.

Luke approach, 12545!

2545, 25 4577 Alpha; thank you!

Luke approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 3,500!

Phoenix approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 3500!

Luke approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha; I can't seem to reach Phoenix app!

Do you want me to stay with you or just try again in like 5 minutes?

November 77 Alpha, you can reattempt the frequencies, 124 Point Niner!

We'll give him a call here in a second!

124 Niner, I'll try again, 77 Alpha; thanks!

Wow, there are some angry looking thunderstorms out there; I'm glad we're not trying to go any further!

So we're going to Falcon Field; I've stopped there many, many times.

They have a super nice flight on the north side of the airport; they are going to put my plane in a hangar tonight and I have a rental car, so that's super nice!

Once we're around this mountain, we're going to go direct to Stellar Air Park, and then we should be good!

Phoenix approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 3,300!

Phoenix approach, Cessna 9477 Alpha!

9477 Alpha, Phoenix approach, got you loud and clear now!

Falcon altimeter 29er 86; ad is Juliet is curb!

8677 Alpha, and we'll grab Juliet.

77, did you want to stay low level, or did you want to climb a little bit?

We'll stay low level; we'll go underneath the Bravo shelves over Stellar Air Park!

Sounds good!

All righty, so we are going to go beneath all the Bravo shells!

Information, Juliet, 2054 Z, wind 2707 gust 14, temperature 43, 2.15!

13 minutes to go!

Okay, we're going down to 2,500 to stay underneath all the Bravo shelves.

Approach, 77 Alpha has Julia at Falcon Field!

77 Alpha, radar service terminated; SVFR frequency change approved; you have a good day!

77 Alpha, thank you!

4758 Falcon Tower, make 2 left!

2 left, 4758!

We're just now going underneath the 2700t shelf, so very important that we do not let the updrafts get the best of us!

Falcon Tower, Cessna 9477 Alpha, 9 miles southwest with Julia, B full stop!

9477 Alpha, Falcon Tower, make left traffic 2 left!

Left traffic, 2 left, 9477 Alpha!

Tower arrival off 2186 to left base 2 left!

Basal 26, 3, 2387 traffic heading to your left, entering the downwind outside traffic approved!

77 Alpha, why not slide to your right?

Follow Archer, heading to your right!

Base following the Archer, head to our right, 7 Alpha!

2186, 2 left land clear!

Land, 2 left clear, got the traffic!

5048, number three, follow left, three miles down to left clear!

Clear down, 2 left, 5048; contact we see you!

Attention all aircraft, contact segmentation 37 West valid until 2355 Zulu for Arizona; severe embedded tub thunderstorms moving laterally, tops above flight level 450, hail to one in wind gust to 50 knots possible for further information!

Cont fight service frequency!

Wow, no thanks!

Okay, one fls!

We have our landing clearance; our lights are on; we got gas, everything's good!

48, we'll slow it down!

Tower, 6 holding of 64, 217 right close traffic, approved only 22 right, clear for takeoff!

22 right, clear for takeoff and right traffic!

Exit, 2186, left 5, contact ground!

Left, contact ground, 26 wind 2 niner 0 at 1 Z, g 16!

Back wouldn't have it any other way!

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Approach, 77 Alpha is parking at AB flight north!

7 Alpha, turn right on Bravo, hold short of Runway 22 right!

Turn right on Bravo, hold short of Runway 22 right, 9477 Alpha!

7 77 Alpha, cross Runway 22 right at Bravo, taxi via Echo 3 and contact ground!

Cross Runway 22 right at Bravo, taxi Echo 3 and contact ground, 9477 Alpha!

Falcon ground, Cessna 9477 Alpha off of Runway 22 right at Echo 3, taxi AB flight north!

9477 ground, taxi ramp Echo, ramp Echo, 9477!

You too!

Well, we are successfully one day into our 5-day adventure to Oshkosh.

Thank you guys for coming along on this flight!

Can't wait for day two!

Pretty good!

How have you been?

You know...

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It'sing you know...

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