Cross country flying tips for safety and efficiency

 I recently returned home to Victoria, B.C. following months of fixed and rotary wing flying operations. 

In the last few weeks an emergency trip to London via Westjet to support my mother and then funeral and estate matters left me in Ontario needing transport home. Diamond Aircraft’s Marketing Manager, Jeff Owen, lined me up with a new C1 Eclipse needing delivery to Seattle. I needed the pleasurable break and it proved deliverance in more ways than one.

This month as I dig out from under the accumulated work load I will provide details on some of the tricks I use during cross country flights. 

Next month I plan to mention others and detail the handling of this 130-plus knot two-place with its delightful handling.

In fact, many of these tips will also be useful for flying in your local area and I encourage you to think about these aspects and how they can enhance your proficiency, efficiency and safety.

After I delivered the Diamond Eclipse, I was ferried home from Seattle, via Vancouver, by an instructor in a Cessna 182 and was quickly reminded what a fiasco a flight can be without adequate planning. 

The young pilot had been planning the flight for 90 minutes and had not been able to get Canadian charts or a VFR Supplement. His arrival in Vancouver was essentially without issues as he was passed from frequency to agency with smooth handoffs. However the glitches began shortly after start up. 

He had chosen not to provide me with a headset (or personal floatation device) as he had not anticipated these needs during the flight. He initially contacted ground control to obtain taxi clearance and was told to contact clearance delivery first. Then he was shut down there when they told him he needed to get a discrete squawk code – but provided no phone number or method to do so. 

At this point I decided to provide aid and got him lined up with a squawk code by cell phone and after we waited for 14 airliners to go ahead of us we were eventually airborne.  Unfortunately, he was told to fly direct to a point of land that was not marked in the VFR Supplement and it was a puzzlement to me too. 

I advised an almost immediate turn to the right of runway 26L towards Victoria would be appropriate because there was a lot of heavy metal behind us ready to zoom through our airspace.

While clearing customs in Vancouver I had retrieved my VFR supplement from the baggage area and subsequently copied down the frequencies and procedures for the remainder of the flight to Victoria and then his departure to Seattle. 

The instructor was well reamed verbally and I noted a number of the handoffs were not overly polite on the overhead cabin speaker – considering the visitor was flying an “N” registered machine and was essentially a guest in our airspace.

So, the overall point here is, be prepared. Obtain the requisite publications, study procedures where applicable and look at the route and the effects of high terrain, open water or other topography might have on your route and equipment planning.

Shortly after take off and the initial obstacle clearance climb (at the correct speeds of course), I like to retract the flaps and convert to a cruise climb. This has many benefits – especially for fixed pitch propeller equipped aircraft. 

With these aircraft, climbing at best rate of climb is rather unspectacular as the slow speed loads the propeller disk heavily and keeps the engine rpm relatively low. By flattening the climb angle with a higher airspeed, the disk is unloaded, the rpm increases – as does the horsepower – and the excess power increases the climb rate. 

So, you have your choice of climbing at 65 mph at 500 fpm or 90 mph at 500 fpm.  What’s your choice? 

Moreover, the higher speed will provide improved cooling through the engine plenum and the lower nose attitude ensures improved visibility. After all, on a long climb out to a distant destination, wouldn’t you want to go faster as well as increase your safety with a better lookout?

Many pilots always set the cruise power the same since they forget they should increase their cruising speed in a headwind to minimize the time in the negative effect and decrease their indicated in a tailwind. These techniques can result in considerable fuel savings.

During level off, I use a trick utilized by jet pilots. It often took minutes for a Tutor or T 33 to reach the indicated mach or IAS after level off in the thin air. This kept the pilot busy for quite some time trimming out the constantly changing load. 

This is also true for many aircraft (especially fixed pitch) as the rpm keeps increasing with airspeed as the disk load reduces. The technique here is to climb a couple of hundred feet above your desired cruising altitude and then dive down on same to quickly accelerate. 

When done correctly the rpm and speed increase proportionately and one adjustment of power is all that is required as the target speed is reached.

Planning ahead is important during the flight too. As weather forecasters learned to rely on satellite images and computers to do their work, we have seen some pathetic forecasting. Unpredicted fog closed off my Seattle destination on the recent flight for instance. 

Moreover, it didn’t lift as the computer/man interface was wrong again. As a result, I suggest it is imprudent to launch on a four hour cross country without checking the weather a couple of times while droning along. You don’t want to be starting your cruise descent into destination to learn it is WOXOF and you are just about down to your minimum fuel reserves with few options.

On the topic of communicating, you should update your position at least hourly with flight service – for numerous reasons. They will provide you with local altimeters and perhaps new weather advisories that were not available at the time of your take off. 

Also, you will be reducing the area that agencies will need to search if you go missing.  For instance, I took off from Minneapolis area and flight planned to Helena Montana with refuelling stops in Aberdeen S.D. and Miles City Montana a distance of approximately 700 nm. 

With five position reports over that distance, SAR would only have to search a relatively small area if I didn’t make it to Helena. In effect, they would search the area between my last reported position and the next refuelling airport which I did not reach. 

The reports also provide an opportunity for updated weather from flight service. For instance, the forecast upper winds changed twice after my take off and by obtaining updates I was able to minimize the effects of the westerly headwinds. The converse is also true. 

Pilots should use every opportunity to pass on their flight conditions (in the USA, pireps are best passed on flight watch frequency 122.0) and in Canada these pireps are often passed on 126.7 as these reports are very helpful to others. 

For instance, I was the first flight through Snoqualmie and Stampede Passes the other day in conditions that were supposed to present mountain obscuration and a sigmet for moderate turbulence for the entire day with VFR not recommended. 

In fact the passes were all open with the cloud base at least a thousand feet above in smooth air.  My own pirep was subsequently passed on to me during a local flight showing that the system does work. 

Of course, the knowledgeable forecasters then changed their prognostications to what I had encountered so they could provide some accuracy.  As a result, numerous pilots were able to reach destinations that had originally been deemed impossible.

For those who don’t pass position reports, and few seem to, it is perhaps wise to remind readers to report their position at a given time (preferably Universal), cruising altitude, VFR or IFR, next reporting point and ETA as well as any remarks or requests.

A handy tip for maintaining a heading such as 277 degrees on the directional gyro is to set the gyro at “W” when the aircraft is heading 277 degrees and the pilot will have a handy reference whether he needs to turn left or right as he simply needs to steer “W.”

For a heading to maintain such as 109 degrees, simply set “E” when the aircraft is on the 109 degree heading.  This is a lot easier than trying to remember the exact heading.  Don’t forget to update the gyro heading with the magnetic compass occasionally to correct for gyro precession.

GPS. Yes, that acronym says it all. Probably the greatest boon to aviation since Bill Bernoulli found his principles. There are so many things I could say about GPS, it could be a separate article. Come to think of it, it has been numerous times in my column.

For this month, let me simply say, ensure your databases are current and that you carry maps and keep your recent position in mind in case any form of electrical failure causes the unit to doze off. 

Also, don’t get so focused on that magical navaid that you forget to watch for those other merging aircraft.

Just as I cruise climb for efficiency, my descents are also planned well in advance. For that matter I chose my destination/refuelling airports carefully as well. I prefer airports with enough traffic to ensure a refueller will be present when I land and the elevation is as high as possible to minimize the height I will have to lose to land and also the altitude I need to reach in my next climb. 

Yes, there are density altitude considerations, but those high airports tend to have long runways.

 For the descents, I like to leave cruise power on while lowering the nose for approximately 200-300 fpm as this tends to increase my cruising speed the most before airframe drag overcomes the benefits. 

Moreover, it gives my ears a better chance to adapt to changing pressure compared to 500-1000 fpm favoured by those pilots who don’t plan their approaches early enough.  As the aircraft descends, I keep the rpm or manifold pressure at the same setting as the cruise settings. This allows the engine to cool gradually at the higher (cool) altitudes while providing an extra 10-30 knots cruising speed in most aircraft.

If you do it right, you can end up overcoming the reduced speed achieved in the climb and arrive with a block time that is roughly equivalent to your normal cruising speed.

To put all of these aspects into perspective, if the aforementioned Cessna 182 with the young instructor and “my” Eclipse C1 had taken off in formation from Seattle, “little bird” would have beaten the big bird with twice the power to the various destinations.

You don’t have to buy the large engine, fuel guzzling, expensive aircraft to get somewhere quickly. While big engines will help accomplish the speed goal, pilot skill will narrow the gap and efficient flying will save considerable money and provide airmanship challenges along the way.  

Ken is a former COPA director who lives in Victoria, BC. He provides services internationally in advanced training, expert witness, flight test and aircraft sales. He has logged 15,000 hours on 375 types of fixed wing and rotary aircraft. Soaring his Diamond Xtreme is what he does for pleasure.