Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

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waynemcc999
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Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by waynemcc999 »


The hounds jump into the plane and we’re off to Dallas to visit our not-seen-since-COVID son! So what’s the plan? Two medium-length flight legs, an overnight in El Paso, and then two short legs into Dallas. Welcome aboard! Wayne, GeezerGeek Pilot
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gtmize
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by gtmize »

Wayne,

I continue to enjoy your flights so please keep them coming. A few observations and questions:

Like you I fly with my dogs, two 80lb Labs - finding Pet Friendly VRBO or hotels is always a challenge.

Rides to/ from the airport assuming you don’t rent a car - more often than not the FBOs don’t offer transport. So we have to Uber or Lift which is a challenge in smaller towns especially with large dogs. I’ve had to beg for rides more than once. Do you screen for AP/FBOs which offer transport?

I see you’re still using Windy - I’m using WeatherUnderground & Briefers .. I still need to play with Windy to see its added value
Unlike you I fly VFR with Flight following - IFR seems more restrictive

Cameras - appears you have one mounted behind and another looking back? Also are you integrating IPhone video?

Editing - you have a lot of inserts from FF .. using this as an example how long did it take you to edit and what software are you using?

Sound - excellent low noise in the cockpit and with the controllers - how is your Audio setup?

I recently flew into Dallas at Addison ADS and it was a nightmare of traffic - lots of training - next time I’ll go in southside and try RBD Executive - going in IFR vs VFR prob helps with priority .. ditto Phoenix.

Thanks again for your post
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waynemcc999
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by waynemcc999 »

gtmize wrote: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:55 am Wayne,

I continue to enjoy your flights so please keep them coming. A few observations and questions:

Like you I fly with my dogs, two 80lb Labs - finding Pet Friendly VRBO or hotels is always a challenge.

Rides to/ from the airport assuming you don’t rent a car - more often than not the FBOs don’t offer transport. So we have to Uber or Lift which is a challenge in smaller towns especially with large dogs. I’ve had to beg for rides more than once. Do you screen for AP/FBOs which offer transport?

I see you’re still using Windy - I’m using WeatherUnderground & Briefers .. I still need to play with Windy to see its added value
Unlike you I fly VFR with Flight following - IFR seems more restrictive

Cameras - appears you have one mounted behind and another looking back? Also are you integrating IPhone video?

Editing - you have a lot of inserts from FF .. using this as an example how long did it take you to edit and what software are you using?

Sound - excellent low noise in the cockpit and with the controllers - how is your Audio setup?

I recently flew into Dallas at Addison ADS and it was a nightmare of traffic - lots of training - next time I’ll go in southside and try RBD Executive - going in IFR vs VFR prob helps with priority .. ditto Phoenix.

Thanks again for your post
Thanks, Gary, for watching and I'll see if I can do justice to your excellent questions...

Hotels/VRBOs: I simply filter for pet-friendly places, and have never had an issue. Some hotels will charge a nightly pet fee or perhaps an advance fee for possible cleaning. The greyhounds ("45 mph couch potatoes") are super quiet, clean, and don't even shed.

Vehicles: If we're staying somewhere several nights (e.g. Dallas in this case) then we rent a small van or SUV. Surprisingly, our three somehow arrange themselves to fit in the back seat of pretty much any 4-door car, so courtesy cars if available work fine for us (and we've never been refused one because of the dogs). Also, we've never been refused a ride in an FBO shuttle van. If we're staying overnight(s) I'll let the FBOs know in advance that we have dogs.

Video stuff: Here's a list of the video gear I use... I'm use pretty much a low production value and low hassle approach (i.e. "set it and forget it"). https://bit.ly/wam-video-hw-sw

For every hour of video I guess I probably spend 1.5 hours in editing. For this Dallas video, unlike many of my flights, I didn't record from engine start to shutdown... so I only had about 3 hours of recorded video for the 8.5 hour flight... and probably spent 4-to-6 hours in editing.

I use the simple iMovie for all editing.

The audio cable I use for ATC is in the document linked above.

Dallas Executive was pretty quiet the times of day we were there, early afternoon for arrival and early morning for departure. Plus I flew those two legs IFR so that removes much of the hassle and also the concern about airspace.

Again, Gary, thanks for watching and the solid questions!
Wayne
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Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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Don
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by Don »

Nice video Wayne. Question. With three good size pups in the back, do you still have room for luggage? That said, our 35 pound pup has close to a thousand hours logged, but we have yet to take this long of a trip with him. Anyway, thanks for posting.
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waynemcc999
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by waynemcc999 »

Hi, Don, thanks for checking out the video.

Here's the W&B strategy I use:
-- in the footwells of the back seat goes the personal luggage for my wife and me (<15# each; many years of ultra-lite backpacking 8) ) plus any other heavy items (spare quarts of oil)
-- then the back seats are folded down; and a memory foam mattress laid out for the dogs
-- 3 light bags for the dogs (blankets, a couple nights of packaged food) are put in the insert storage area (20-to-30# total) behind a netting -- all other dog food is dropped shipped to our son at the destination
-- nothing goes in the rearmost storage area behind the door
This puts us at just below max gross and the cg just forward of the rear limit

... bottom line, no room or weight available for a fourth dog (whew!).
All the best,
Wayne
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Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by clsuther »

That’s a really fun flight. Great Video! My girlfriend and I did:

Tulsa to El Paso
1 night
El Paso to Sedona
Lunch
Sedona to Las Vegas
3 nights
Las Vegas to Santa Barbara
4 nights
Santa Barbara to Grand Canyon
1 night
Grand Canyon to Scottsdale
3 nights
Scottsdale to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Tulsa

Had a great time on a very similar trip to yours!
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waynemcc999
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Re: Family Flying Adventure - Santa Barbara to Dallas

Post by waynemcc999 »

clsuther wrote: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:29 pm That’s a really fun flight. Great Video! My girlfriend and I did:

Tulsa to El Paso
1 night
El Paso to Sedona
Lunch
Sedona to Las Vegas
3 nights
Las Vegas to Santa Barbara
4 nights
Santa Barbara to Grand Canyon
1 night
Grand Canyon to Scottsdale
3 nights
Scottsdale to Albuquerque
Albuquerque to Tulsa

Had a great time on a very similar trip to yours!
Chris, that was a very cool trip! Hope you enjoyed Santa Barbara... next time, check in with me, and my wife and I will meet you for lunch. Thanks for watching our little video.
Be safe and healthy,
Wayne
Last edited by waynemcc999 on Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wayne McClelland
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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