Florida to Seattle: Packing Prep
Posted Monday, May 30, 2022
As the final departure date draws ever closer, I've reached the stage where I'm test-packing things, to make sure I can get it all into the bags I have available.
When I flew to Ireland in 2013, I had my drybag full of clothes and stuff, but also a tent, sleeping bag, and other camping gear, plus a big riding suit, and a motorcycle helmet. I ended up finding a monster-sized duffel bag, and packing absolutely everything (including the drybag) into that, and having only one checked bag.
I tried that this time, but I've just got too much stuff. Instead, I found a smaller but still capacious duffel bag, and will just suck it up and pay the excess bag fee to the airline. Here's the set of things I'm taking:
This breaks down into three broad categories: camping stuff (a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, towel, bug spray, etc.), clothing (two changes of clothes, but much more importantly, hot- and cold-weather clothing), and flying stuff (headsets, white silk scarves, tools and supplies, radios and accessories).
This trip is particularly hard to pack for, since I don't know for sure what temperatures I'll be facing. Some of my route, which is broadly Florida to LA to Seattle, will be in the high 90s or even 100 degree range, and I see that I can expect 97° F and 95% humidity in at least one of the cities I randomly picked along my route. I am emphatically not a lover of high temperatures, so this is going to be a very uncomfortable trip from that standpoint.
However, as I travel north, I wouldn't be surprised to find that at my preferred ~7000 foot altitude it was at or below freezing, particularly toward Seattle. I am, frankly, not equipped for that level of cold, so I hope that's not reality, but I can always find more insulation layers, fly lower, choose not to fly that day, etc. It certainly means I need a range of layers to make this a viable trip.
It's hard to know what sorts of tools and spares I'll need on the trip. Although I am currently building this exact model of biplane, each builder brings their own flair to the project, and I have no idea what kind of screws, nuts, and bolts Allen Potts may have used on his plane. So, it's a fairly generic set of sockets, screwdrivers, and a sparkplug socket, just in case. I've also got zipties, and perhaps most importantly, a roll of proper, high-quality gaff tape, which is pretty handy in a pinch (including repairing the fabric, should I get a tear or puncture on an unexpectedly rough strip).
Here's that whole mess (minus one folding camp chair, which just wouldn't fit, and was kind of a luxury anyway), packed up into two bags to be checked, and two carry-on bags, the smaller of which is actually a cooler bag for food, once I'm underway:
Unfortunately, it appears I won't get Norbert sold before I have to depart, so I'm hoping Harvey Field can give me a carport hangar for a few months while I get the sale figured out. Honestly, I won't mind having a grass runway to operate from, it's so much nicer than pavement.
I think I have everything sorted out, as far as packing goes. There are one or two daily-use items that aren't shown in the pictures, but I have space for them. Fortunately, loading the plane should be straightforward: everything I'm taking weighs 72 lbs, which seems like a lot, but half of it will be strapped to the front seat (which can accomodate 250 lbs of human, so 30-some pounds of drybag will be nothing) and the baggage area is limited to 60 lbs max.
It grows ever more exciting as I get closer. Watch this space for further updates.
Copyright © 2022 by Ian Johnston.