I watched all three of your videos on your go out west trip. You did everything that I wouldn't remotely consider. I have 23,000 hours and 24 engine outs. I'm 67 years old. Landing in lake Michigan is much more forgiving than landing in a gorge! What, you don't have flotation and emergency survival gear? Good luck dude, keep it up 👍

I just wanted to thank you for doing this series. It really was inspiring.

Awesome adventure. Your final comments were great. Where would we be if aviation pioneers never left their home area. Glad you did your best to get the plane ready and then ventured. Love how you just handled your breakdown situations. Awesome story and an inspiration for those who hope to be able to do something like that someday.

It's great to see such an honest approach to aviation with humility, a shame more pilots don't do this!

what a good story.

Been to Sandpoint multiple times. Great area great people. Glad it worked out. If you worry too much about unknown unknowns you will never take off.

It sucks being broke down in an unfamiliar airport or state but it gives the chance to meet more people and from my experience I had a lot of people willing to help me

I have a Mooney and this is inspiring. Wish you would post again!

Agreed thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip , great coverage and stories and love the spirit of adventure that you have!

This series did really inspire me since my Plan is to fly from Germany to the States this summer (2024) and your reports of Johnson Creek and Moose Creek strengthened my wish to get there 😊

I grew up 30 miles from Orofino & have been up around Cavanaugh bay area lots & if you have a chance to visit it again I suggest checking out the natural waterslide of lions head just a hop, skip & jump away or stones throw from the strip. I use to fight wildland forest fires & flew in & out of many backcountry airstrips in my beloved state of Idaho. Sure is some breathtaking views out here only seen by wing, safe travels Sir.

I'm a real old guy that had a lot of time in a 0 360 M20C in the '60's and I don't remember high oil temp as a problem. I climbed at 120 mph and usually full throttle which kept the enrichment valve open. I once flew from STL to South Jersey on a CAVU zero wind day at 11.5k, 18" map and 1800 rpm, 143 mph TAS , 850 miles in 6 hours nonstop. I landed with 12 g remaining out of the 48.

@HairHelmet

3 жыл бұрын

I’ve got a 62 C and if anything it’s a low oil temp problem, always just under 180. My prop lacks rpm restrictions, so the other day I ran it at 2000 rpm/22” and reduced gph by 20%. I still need to find a way to reduce it further for those long legs and this gives me some ideas. You can only lean so much with a carb.

@leeoldershaw956

3 жыл бұрын

@@HairHelmet You can lean until it runs rough or quits. In the above trip I leaned until it ran rough and then richened it a tad till it was smooth. I had no EGT then. They make it easy. You could also turn off one mag, lean til rough, then go to both and it would smooth out. At low power settings you can't hurt the engine. Lindbergh proved it in WWII with Allison V 12's in P 38's. He ran at 30"MP and 1400 RPM almost doubling the range. The above trip demonstrated a range of of 1060 miles with 30 minute reserve and total endurance of 8 hrs.

@HairHelmet

3 жыл бұрын

@@leeoldershaw956 I had heard about Lindbergh's method, showed the square manifold pressure/rpm law to be an old wife's tale. I appreciate the advice and will put it to practice.

You're a cool dude. Love your good will and enthusiasm.

Great series, man! I'm about to buy a 1964 M20E and plan to take her on adventures like these.

Thanks for a few hours of sharing your adventure.

Thanks for sharing an awesome experience with us. Glad you made it back safe and sound, start planning your next trip!

Welcome home and thanks for sharing your amazing experiences. So cool of you to give props to the folks who helped you along the way and simply recognizing the good in those you spent time with. Best wishes towards your next adventures!

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. - Samual Johnson

Great series, thanks for sharing and bringing us along :)

Living the dream! Thank you for sharing this great series! Plenty of food for thought - bucket list stuff! How about float plane rating in Alaska?

Thanks for sharing. Was looking forward to this one. How providential to meet those people and get the help you needed! Amazing views, that a great memorize.

Awesome trip Travis thanks for sharing, you’re so right to just get out and go and experience some great times with great people despite the mechanical setbacks which you overcame nicely. Do it again!

This is a great series about your adventures. I could identify with your difficulties and admire the way you solved them. And you are right, the people are what makes the flying community so much fun. YOur way of taking off one runway and then switching to another after wheels up....Bloody marvelous!

Great series, almost done with my ppl and I cant wait for the time that I can try a trip like this.

What a awesome journey you'd with your M20C. Thanks for sharing! I own a J, never landed on a grass field because we are to low to the ground!

Loved following along with your journey. I have recently got a Rockwell Commander 114A and look forward to doing similar around Australia

way to go! enjoyed.

Great series! Time to tell us about the Mooney trade!

if you ever go again look me up and I would tag along in my RV 14a. It is always nice to fly with some one else. Upstate NY in KFZY. Nice trip thanks for sharing. Tom

Your are a great story teller. Reminds me the hours reading Flying magazine some 30 years ago. The spirit of simple GA flying. Well done.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

Great video !!! Keep doing what your doing ,

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I appreciate it!

'Against all odds'... The journey begins with the first step in the right direction. Congratulations on you sojourn to the 'back country' of Idaho. You handled it well. Most would've completely 'freaked out'. You didn't! Your plane ought to be ready for an 'annual' eh?.. ;)

And a little nugget of what’s to come in there!

Surely you can leave the following pins in and take the studs out along with the nuts and roll pins.

Angels protect children and fools.

Dude you fly over rough mountains and your worried about Lake Michigan. I have a c model also and you had a great trip , like to do it myself. The annual should have replaced that generator belt. Thanks for sharing that wonderful trip. We love our money's a whole lot better than a fixed training wheel cirrus.

@AverageAviator

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I mean I guess I wasn't worried about drowning in the mountains lol Nice! Glad you're enjoying your C, trips like that are definitely what the Mooney was made for!

@carmenallocco6497

Жыл бұрын

Yea, mine breaks a lot to but it’s a 1966:, I still love it.

Get rid of the generator! Upgrade to a alternator. Get stuck taxiing at night and come back to a dead battery.

What an awesome video! I felt like I was riding right seat with you! 2 weeks ago I decided to recreate my first solo cross country and had a left mag crap out. The airplane is still marooned at F46. Hopefully I will have the mag ready to go in a few more days.

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

Man I definitely feel for you! Hopefully you can get it fixed soon!

G,day from Sydney Australia. That was a good adventure series. The release of each episode to KZread was a waiting period, but appreciated. The Mooney had quite a response to the cross country under the cowl. Has the (D40) an autopilot? Otherwise you were hand flying the trip. That STOL collision with one on top (Jackson- grass RWY) just how a visual wasn't made on final is confusing. Your friends that had the cancer oncology: she's a lucky camper. I'm interested if she had been a smoker? The generator AC or DC current- did you put a multi metre on the cable terminals seeing if it produced and maintains current? With engine belts, if the belt has steel bands, minor cracking is ok. Its the belts with nylon need replacing, but check with A&P. Great mountain views and looking at the great lakes. Well, that's put some hours in ya logbook, that's for sure. Thanks for your time. 🌏🇦🇺

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

I apologize for the wait between episodes, it takes 5 days of straight work to make one video and life kept getting in the way. No autopilot, so all hand flying! The Johnson creek collision, I can see how it happens, People get focused on the touchdown zone and nothing else. Jackie has never smoked, that's why it was kind of a crazy thing to happen. Thanks for your input!

Even with preventive maintenance new planes breakdown not just old planes. Long flights is usually where shit happens. That cowling speed mod on the air inlet reduction probably didn't help your engine temperatures. The 201 cowling mod is great but expensive.

when were you in Yuma? hit me up next time. I work at YPG.

👍☑️

What is your work airplane?

I loved all your stories. Please get trained for IFR before you do this again. Stay safe!

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I am starting instrument training next week, however, the Skybolt isn't instrument certified (there's not even an attitude indicator) so if and when I take it on a long cross country like I did with the Mooney, it will still be VFR only.

Great vids from a new Sub and hopefully a new AC owner in the near future. Do you plan on uploading more frequently? Also, is that you flying the yellow tail dragger?

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome! What kind of aircraft are you planning on getting? I have a couple videos in the works but it's hard to pump them out as it takes so long to make them what I want and I have a main job along with other responsibilities. The next video is going to be explaining why yes, it is me flying that yellow taildragger, so hopefully that will answer any questions you have haha

@joeymartinn1

3 жыл бұрын

@@AverageAviator I’m currently searching the market for a Grumman Tiger. So if you know of any coming up for sale let me know. ha. That AC tics all of the boxes except going upside down. I will have to just rent a Citabria or something of the sorts when I want to do Aerobatics. I heard you say that you are in the Pitt area. I regularly fly commercial to PIT to see my daughter who is in Poland Oh. Flying that area must be a site to see. I’m looking forward to flying myself there at some point after I make my purchase. I may hit you up for some feedback on flying in that area.

To remove the prop you DO NOT REMOVE the roll pins.... You treat the stud and roll pinned nut and stud as a BOLT.

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

There was a reason we had to remove the one roll pin, I just can't remember what it was now. I was working under an A&P, he knew what he was doing. Only one roll pin was removed, so you can take your caps lock off haha

Hi again, this is going to be long! I’m an old ( not bold ) pilot. I’ve owned 8 airplanes and am currently flying a Mooney 252 and I’m a CFI. Your travels bring back memories. The adventure, the people... it’s like nothing else in the world! ...now the bad part. Airplanes do break. And it hurts when the ground comes up and smites thee. You seem like a great guy and I hope to see many more of your flights on KZread. So please take some constructive criticism in the way it’s meant...constructive. After ANY work is done on an airplane the odds of something going wrong go up A LOT.post maintenance flights should be flown over familiar,friendly terrain....certainly NOT Glacier national park. The first 5-10 hours should be considered post maintenance. In that time you crossed the Rockies and one of the Great Lakes. BAD BOY! Next ( constructive remember?) criticism,...Don’t fly post maintenance over unfamiliar, HOSTILE terrain at night. You may have noticed few lights on the ground in South Dakota. That’s because nobody lives in those vast open spaces...meaning nobody’s gonna drag your butt out of the flaming wreckage ( me1998) should one of those prop bolts that didn’t get torqued properly( hypothetical) let’s loose and the imbalance tears the engine off the Plane.( me again, same wreck). last but not least. “ don’t take a sick airplane into the sky”, not even for a ten minute flight. Those are the ones that get you . That generator was still wired in and spinning. Potential fire? ( me again 2018 arced cable, shitload of smoke in the cockpit). You can’t let all potential risk keep you on the ground, but when the airplanes talkin to you.... listen.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I did a post maintenance test flight in the pattern before leaving the area.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

You are saying the post maintenance test flight should be 5-10 hours long? I disagree. Oil changes are every 25 hours with the oil screen, and between that and other random maintenance items, the airplane would almost constantly be "post maintenance" by your definition. I thank you for your constructive criticism but I disagree with the time frame. I conduct post maintenance test flights, land, and recheck the engine or any other areas of interest. But 5-10 hours would have me burning fuel I can't afford and I'd never be able to go anywhere.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

So understand that this was all solo, so my acceptable level of risk was much higher than if I had passengers. But again, I thank you for the input.

Just an advice you never take the roll pins out from the studs! I’m an A&P btw and took off an on many Hartzell props. You just turn the nuts with the stud to come out.

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure why we had to take one of the roll pins out but I know there was a reason, the rest we left in. I wasn't the A&P in the situation so I was just doing what they told me to do, but thanks for the advice.

@Nord3202

2 жыл бұрын

You should only remove the safety wire that goes threw the roll pins.

I traveled from Florida to Colorado with a broken Alternator. Charged up every night and flew dead reckoning. No such thing as portable nav stuff at this time. The big difference. Lotsa airports and low terrain and I carried a handheld radio. I would never ever recommend doing that in the west.

So what trip is next on your bucket list?

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

Good question, honestly aerobatic competitions. And North Fox Island in Michigan. I've been trying to get there for a while now.

@PilotJimmyJ

2 жыл бұрын

@@AverageAviator I was wondering about the islands in Lake Erie as well as North Fox. I live off of Lake Michigan

Sand Point to Chetek Wi is 1200 miles, doubt it took 4 hours, flying at night with a new generator over the mountains was not smart, or just made up.

Great series I own and was flying the Brown Stinson landing at Cavanaugh Bay in part 3. I live in Cavanaugh bay airport estates full time come find me you will see my Stinson in hanger Steve Pryor

I started flying lessons near Chetek. Its ;0)

Adventures, adventures, it is good to be young. I would have been a whole other story if you had a wife with you. LOL

@AverageAviator

3 жыл бұрын

Definitely, though admittedly the ex is one of the reasons I had to take the trip in the first place! lol

I have to say, this is what happens when you don’t do preventive maintenance for years and years, the airplane becomes unreliable.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I hadn't even owned the aircraft for years and years... Plus, what type of preventative maintenance would you have done to prevent this? A generator is a self contained unit without a specified lifespan, why replace it randomly if its not broken? You're more likely to introduce maintenance induced failures replacing things needlessly. And like I said, I don't even care that I had to fix the airplane on the road because if I spent all the money fixing everything I could possibly think of first, I probably wouldn't have had any left to actually spend for fuel on the trip. But thank you for your ever encouraging input!