A friend has offered to let me "borrow" his Piper Cherokee 140 while he's out of the country for a few months. The plane is in Buffalo, NY and I'm in St. Louis, MO so another pilot friend and I will be flying up to Buffalo, NY commercially to fly the plane back to St. Louis. My local pilot friend and I recently got checked out in a Piper Cherokee 140 near St. Louis and we both felt it was an easy plane to fly. We're both rather fresh private pilots, both with around 100 hours. Neither of us has an instrument rating, but both of us are working towards it. So, I'm asking for some words of wisdom and experience:
* What's the longest amount of time you'd fly a single leg? I haven't flown anything longer than the long XC required for my PPL. The flight from Buffalo to St. Louis would be two 3.5 hour legs. (The plane has no autopilot)
* Trying to find a few days of good VFR weather across the eastern half of the US is nearly impossible so my idea is just to try and find a window that looks "ok" and head to Buffalo and deal with the weather along the way. I've budgeted at least one non-flying, contingency day to deal with weather/mechanical issues.
Finally, any advice you have or words of wisdom from experience would be greatly appreciated. Tips for dealing with fatigue, route planning, etc.
Thanks,
Geoff
* What's the longest amount of time you'd fly a single leg? I haven't flown anything longer than the long XC required for my PPL. The flight from Buffalo to St. Louis would be two 3.5 hour legs. (The plane has no autopilot)
* Trying to find a few days of good VFR weather across the eastern half of the US is nearly impossible so my idea is just to try and find a window that looks "ok" and head to Buffalo and deal with the weather along the way. I've budgeted at least one non-flying, contingency day to deal with weather/mechanical issues.
Finally, any advice you have or words of wisdom from experience would be greatly appreciated. Tips for dealing with fatigue, route planning, etc.
Thanks,
Geoff
