In early 2006, my son, David, decided that he would like to possess a taildragger plane more suitable for flying into "bush strips" as well as to broaden his flying experience. After lengthy search and evaluation, with special attention to price and economic considerations, the decision was made to purchase a Cessna 170B type. Then, after evaluation of several 170B's, one was selected for purchase located near Memphis,Tennessee. Considering the purchase location, it was decided that it would be fun to fly coast-to-coast across the U.S. as part of bringing the plane back to his home airport of Auburn, Washington. The following notes summarize the flight, which was a wonderful adventure of father and son.
Photos taken during the flight are shown at 400 pixel width. You may click on them for a larger photo of 700 pixel width. To return to the 400 pixel photos, use your 'back' button.
Unfortunately, a tragic mishap occured whereby all flight photos taken after reaching west Texas were destroyed as the result of a wipeout of the camera chip memory. Fortunately, the loss of the photos was the only mishap suffered on the trip.
April 1, 2006
We flew to Memphis, Tenn. on April 1 where David purchased the Cessna 170B (N1946C) at Millington , Tenn. He had previously had the plane surveyed and an annual performed before our arrival. After a personal flight check out and plane ownership transfer paperwork, we decided to began our flight to Kittyhawk, North Carolina, First Flight Airport (FFA), where we would begin our cross country flight. The flight to the east coast meant flying an additional 1400 nautical miles since First Flight Airport (FFA) was 700 miles to the east.
We began by flying from Millington, Tenn. -- Charles W. Baker Airport (2M8) to Crossville Tenn.-- Crossville Memorial Whitson Field (CSV), a distance of 245 nautical miles, on the afternoon of the plane purchase. It is of interest to note that Crossville is the home of Trade-A-Plane publication. We stayed overnight at the Days Inn.
The above map is taken from the AirNav.com program which we used extensively in planning our flight stops in view of widely varying fuel prices. Actual fuel prices at the various airports we visited ranged from $3.09 to $5.47 pergallon for 100LL.
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April 2, 2006
The next day we continued on eastward with a fuel stop at Burlington, North Carolina, Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport (BUY). We fueled taking on 17.3 gallons for the 273 miles at approximately 6.5 gallons per hour.
From Burlington we continued eastward 185 miles to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (Kitty Hawk). We circled out over the Atlantic Ocean and landed at the First Flight Airport (FFA). The field is located on the National Monument itself and we found it to be an extremely well maintained and interesting site. It is quite a thrill to pace off the original flight distances made by the Wright Brothers and attempt to visulaize what they felt during their trials.
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