Adventure of a lifetime, need travel advice

Next week me and a friend of mine are going to head out on the adventure of a lifetime: We are going to fly a light plane (Cessna 152) from Miami, FL to San Diego, CA and back.
I am wondering if any of you guys know some nice places to land along the way? The places has to be relatively close to local airports since we are not going to have a car.
Our route is going to be as follows: we are going to fly along the gulf of mexico until we reach texas, then we are going to cut straight over heading for the southern part of NM, cross the southern part of NM and AZ before we stay with a friend in San Diego for a couple of days.
On the way back we are going to follow the same route across AZ and NM to avoid the rockies and when we get in to TX we are going to head north to OK and cross trough TN on our way back to the coast somewhere in NC.
The last part of the trip is going to be along the atlantic coast back down to Miami.

This is going to be really fun, we are bringing a really light tent and sleeping bags, planning on camping on the airports that allow it and just being creative wherever we are not allowed to camp on site.

If anyone has got any good ideas on where to camp or things to experience along our route I would really appreciate it!

I can't help you but I do have a comment.

having flown plenty in light aircraft and remembering when I used to work Immigration in San Diego we used to get guys completing their trips having flown in on light aircraft like skyhawk class and they came from the midwest and they looked awfully happy the trip was over though they never would admit it.

I take my hat off to you dealing with weather and turbulence and other traffic like that. Oh if your coming across Southern New Mexico forget it and stop in El Paso, Texas for refuel. Between there and Tuscon there ain't much.

Thanks for the advice!
We are going to ask the locals a lot about what will be the best steps at each leg!

Is the San Diego airspace really busy?

Flagstaff, Az has a small airport (no idea if it would be suitable) that is quite close to the town - and it's basically a nice place.

Good luck, sounds like a great adventure.

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Originally Posted by flyboy

Thanks for the advice!
We are going to ask the locals a lot about what will be the best steps at each leg!

Is the San Diego airspace really busy?

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Yes the San Diego airspace is extremely busy. In addition to Lindbergh field you have several smaller regional type airfields and then you have a few military airfields and you also have Tijuana right across the border all in probably a 10 square mile area. But don't worry Socal will take good care of you.

I would consider Roswell NM or White Sands, they usual have better prices on fuel and are good folks every time I have stopped there. Both have a place to eat on field.

All I can say is good luck and bring a parachute. :)

How about density altitude: is it going to be a lot higher than the airports or approx the same? I would hate to get stuck in a hot and high situation!

And most pilots have a trait that I plan to take full advantage of: they love to give advice, so we are going to ask for good advice at every airport we land on and do what the locals says to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flyboy

How about density altitude: is it going to be a lot higher than the airports or approx the same? I would hate to get stuck in a hot and high situation!

And most pilots have a trait that I plan to take full advantage of: they love to give advice, so we are going to ask for good advice at every airport we land on and do what the locals says to do.

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Hmm that's a big question. if you are going across the southern areas of texas, N.M and Arizona you're talking about 3000 feet above sea level and if your doing it in the summer you can run into temps above 100F so depending on your plane and your weight you may have to be careful. There are times of the year commercial jets can't take off from Sky Harbor in Phoenix because the temp can soar above 120F and the air density is so low and its not even that high in altitude. If you travel further north you will run into sea level altitudes of 5000 feet and higher.

I live in Albuquerque at 5000 Feet and the altitude just saps the power and in the summer with a skyhawk say you could be lucky to climb at 300 feet per minute and of course attaining ceiling can be tricky.

Just came back from the big trip!
Had an amazing trip with lots of different landscapes and a bunch of fun people!
I would never even thin about doing this trip in the summer, but it was ok in the fall, it was either hot or high, not both.

Got to see both the atlantic and the pacific along the way too, so we reached our goal.