Cross-country planning advice needed

[Bunkie]

I've completed my first solo x-country flight and will do my 150nm flight this Friday. I could use a bit of advice.

The long leg includes flight over part of Pennsylvania that is somewhat short on good checkpoints. I'm flying from KMPO (Mount Pocono) to KIPT (Williamsport). The first half of the leg is no problem, including flight through Wilkes-Barre airspace and good visual references. The second half of the leg is where it gets tricky. My instructor told me that all his students who choose this route all pick the little town of Benton and then never find it. Looking at Google's satellite view, I can see why, it's nestled in a valley that runs perpendicular to the flight path. There are a few roads on the chart that cross my flight path that I could use, but I'm leery of this because the chart doesn't have every road and one two-lane looks like almost every other two-lane.



So my question is this: What is the best practice in this case? I could certainly fly to the Williamsport VOR, but that defeats the purpose of demonstrating pilotage. Any advice would be appreciated.

[champ driver]

Looking at Google maps and a very old sectional I have here, I see your route. If I have the correct airports, it's only 70 nm total, and the first half has relatively easy landmarks, so that only leaves you with about 35 miles to worry about, is that correct? How long does it take you to fly 35 miles in your plane with no wind, about 20 minutes as a rough guess? You and your instructor know the area much better than me, but, I don't see too much problem with using Benton as a checkpoint. It doesn't look like it's in a very steep valley, more like a shallow open valley to me.

If you can hit your first checkpoints in the first half you should be able to fly the rest of the way without any problems. You do need to hit the first ones on course, especially the last good one where you cross the river between Wanamie on the right and Shickshinny on the left. Also, there is a very distinctive zig zag in the river there, you should be about 2 miles north of the one bend. If you can hit that on course, just hold the same course the rest of the way and you should be close. The winds should change very little along the way, unless there's a cold front passage or something like that. Benton, from the bend in the river is only 13 miles, maybe 10 minutes. I see a small narrow lake on the north side of your course about 4 miles from the river, you should be able to see that on your right. From there, Benton is only another 9 miles, or 8 minutes. There is a kind of crossroads near Benton too 3 intersections within about a 6 mile diameter. You should be able to pick out the larger roads, they'll be paved, the smaller ones may be dirt.

When flying, pick a target, something on your course in the distance, a peak, a big white barn, something, anything to aim at and then fly the heading to maintain a track right to that target, as you go along you pick new targets one after the other. That will help you maintain a course too. Don't spend too much time looking down at maps and doing paper work, you may drift off course when you're not paying attention.

Like your instructor said, you may not see Benton, then again you might. If not, it's only 24 more miles to go, maybe 20 minutes, Williamsport is a large town, at least 5-7 miles diameter, that a pretty big target to hit, and you should see it coming from 5-10 miles away. Plus that large bend in the river leads you right to the airport.

What altitude are you planning on flying? The higher you fly the easier it is to see landmarks. Plus you can also set the VOR up for a checkpoint with a crossing radial. Set the VOR on the 198 degree radial, which is right over the big bend in the river at Muncy. If when you cross that radial and don't see the river, you're probable too far north, if you were too far south you're close enough that you should still see the river. Does that make sense?
That bend in the river is only 5 miles from the airport and you should see it from there.

Let me know if this helps and if you have any other questions,
Jim

[Bunkie]

Jim,

That's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me such a detailed reply! I'm thinking of either 4500MSL or 6500MSL depending on the sky conditions. The forecast is calling for partly cloudy conditions, so I'll have to see what I get before I decide.

[champ driver]

Oh, I forgot to tell you the most important thing, don't forget to have fun and enjoy the experience!

[Bunkie]

I am really looking forward to it, I'm sure it will bring some new challenges, but I've done my homework (I spent two hours last night preparing my trip log and notes and reviewing procedures). I took a step back and thought that it's a x-country, not strictly 100% pilotage so I incorporated your suggested Williamsport VOR references into that last part of the first leg. The last leg will be almost pure VOR with the visual references as backup. The weather forecast looks fabulous, a nice fat high-pressure area all over the northeast with calm winds, a great day to fly!

[champ driver]

Well, how did it go?