A Long Day Approaches

KGON 181156Z 02004KT 10SM CLR 13/10 A3022

Early tomorrow morning, I am going to launch on my ferry flight from Groton, CT (KGON) to Farmington, MO (KFAM). Today would have probably been a better day to go, at least as far as weather goes, but it is what it is. I had a long day traveling back east and a day to rest is a better idea.

One of the really nice flight-planning tools is Airnav's fuel flight planner. It computes the great circle route and then finds the best places to fuel, based on your preferred airspeed, fuel burn and leg length. You can opt for safest (depart with full fuel each time, cheapest (leave with minimum fuel when you can save money) or you can pick the routing. Since I hold that the only time you can have too much fuel is if your airplane is on fire, I plan using the "safest" mode.

One gripe is that it doesn't avoid Class B airspace. In the northeast, you'll have to tinker with it. One routing would take me to Harrisburg, PA, but that would require going smack-dab through the NYC TCA, which I prefer not to do.

Anyway, I'm off to the airport today to do an extended preflight.

UPDATE: Pumped the tires, topped off the tanks (the line guys did the first two), added a quart of oil, and did a ground-turn of the engine with a full run-up. I did that all early so as to finish before most people started flying and demanding line services. Looks good to go!