Pilots: I need a route suggestion from WI to southeren CA in a Zodiac.?

Hello,





I may be flying a Zenith Zodiac from WI to southern CA. I have not flown this route before so I am looking for suggestions of a route to take to get around or past the mountains without much trouble. And because it is a home built I don't have any room for long parts over the mountains so I am looking for a way to minimize it as much as possible even if it means going far north or far south to do it. Thanks!|||Sounds like a cool flight...





I enjoy pilotage, so east of the Rockies, I'd plot a fairly straight course to the southwest so that I'd be reasonably close to airports (within a half hour or so).





Tend towards the south so that you can pick up Interstate 40 (the old Route 66) over Albuquerque thru the mountains, till you get into the western desert area around Kingman, AZ, then avoid the many restricted areas and into SAN.





The airspace east of SAN is a nest of special use airspace and they take up a LOT of the area, so I suggest spending a good deal of time looking at the restricted area locations and times of use. If your schedule allows you to fly when they are cold (often on weekends), it will allow you to go more directly.





The time of year will make a difference... Summertime in Tornado Alley (OK, TX, NE, KS) calls for early morning flying. In the Southwest, the normal monsoon season is June-September, with intense weather in what otherwise is a fairly benign area. Keeping an eye on the weather ahead with Flight Watch every hour or so is a good idea





When crossing the Rockies, if a fuel stop is required, you can use the high altitude airports to minimize the fuel burn in the climb back to altitude.





Sounds like a blast... Have fun!|||First off, buy sectional charts and plot it our or go to skyvector.com to plan out a route around. Second, you can go to fltplan.com and look up the routes planned by pilots recently for that route.|||Oshkosh to San Diego:


OSH V341 CID V294 DSM V77 WILSY V280 HUT V234 ACH V12 ABQ V190 PXR V95 GBN V66 HAILE|||I've flown every way you could possible go between those two points in smaller planes at low altitude, from Chicago to Seattle to New Orleans to San Diego, probably covering close to 400 airports between those points. For the most efficient trip and minimal rough terrain, the short answer is to fly more or less direct to Dalhart, Texas (DHT), then Tucumcari NM (TCC) then follow Interstate 40 all the way to Barstow-Dagget CA (DAG) and then on to your final destination. In the summer, I'd plan on doing the segments from Albuquerque or Santa Fe to Southern California as early in the day as possible, starting before sun-up, or the low level turbulence, heat and density altitude can turn the last leg into misery.





However, do you want it to be as efficient and fast as possible or do you want to have a lot more fun, wander around a bit and see some nicer sights along the way? To give you the best advice on that you'd need to provide some pertinent information. Email me and I'll give you my 2 cents on those considerations..|||Just as the previous posters stated, plan on going as far south as ABQ in New Mexico - the Rockies finally peter out by that point. From there I'd highly recommend skirting the Grand Canyon zone. Even from outside the airspace over the canyon the view is spectacular as well as Lake Powell and Mead. Some of your best stories and adventures will come from hitting the smaller fields along the way.





Your biggest concern will probably be MOAs and Restricteds being low and VFR. Southwest and West coast flying is notorious for that.





Happy flying if you end up doing the trip. I am definitely envious of that one.