Can you get from Barstow to Lone Pine in a C172?

[Keith Smith]

KBTY to Stovepipe to California City to Fullerton.

[breadwild]

This will be fun. Thanks.

[Mark Hargrove]

...Though Hargrove would chide you for coming too close to R-2524 (he's overly cautious in his video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApzUapJII6M. He'd rather fly a single windmill over the ocean than flirt with the Restricted around Camp Pendleton (swimming vs being blown out of the sky).

Indeed I would (chide, that is). The visual cue to make the turn at the south end of the Searless Lake looks clear enough on the chart but I've found in the real world that dry lake beds don't always have nearly the clean boundary that a wet lake has. Assuming you make the turn at the right place, the only continuing visual navigation cue I can see is the mountain peak off to the southwest, and heaven help you if the winds are out of the west and you don't compensate correctly. Years ago when I was flying regularly in SoCal, I had a buddy who inadvertently cut the corner of a restricted area and had his license suspended for year. I've been "overly" cautious about restricted areas ever since. I might try this flight with GPS in real life, but I would not try it with pure pilotage unless I'd had a chat with Joshua approach and had permission to potentially cut the corner of R-2524.

On PE, of course, there are no consequences for busting a restricted area.

-M.

[breadwild]

Points taken. Better to place it safer, especially when flying, especially in SoCal.

[Keith Smith]

I would never advocate doing it without GPS and without flight following, but I'd be ok requesting additional help the approach controller to remain clear of the boundaries.

On a recent flight to Texas, I diverted for fuel just short of my fuel stop, gassed up, and continued on to my ACTUAL fuel stop. I was IFR and the controller vectored me around some airspace that was locked up like Ft Knox....

It turned out to be Ft Knox

[Mark Hargrove]

> It turned out to be Ft Knox

Ok, now THAT made me laugh out loud!

-M.

[Keith Smith]

Here's what that flight looked like, roughly: http://skyvector.com/?ll=37.89761413664 ... :A.K5.KOWB