Tomorrow I'll be beginning a cross country VFR journey from KPVG, Norfolk VA, to KAPC in the Napa Valley of California. The aircraft I've chosen is the A2A Cessna 172R  equipped with the handheld Garmin 295. The route will be determined daily flown in current weather conditions and will steer toward GA airports. I wish to hand fly the majority of the crossing using the autopilot only when necessary. My aircraft will depart in excellent shape and I will allow a $500 maintenance budget along the way, I'll serve as my own mechanic and keep track of the real cost of items which hopefully will be $0! My biggest concern will be crossing the Rocky Mountains so I'll be looking for passes that can be flown under 10k. Any help that can be provided along the way will be appreciated. A log of the crossing will be kept on this thread.

• P3D 2.2
• FTX Global
• UTX
• ASN
• VATSIM

10,000 ft crossing the Rockies will be tough unless you plan to make a detour - say going through southern Wyoming.

I would probably stay out of Colorado altogether.

Grab sectional charts from skyvector.com and look for best routing.

Looks like I'm headed for Casper and the Muddy Mtn.VOR in central Wyoming, then toward the Great Salt Lake. Conditions today were not suitable for VFR, overcast all day at 1300 with clouds near the surface at times. Perhaps I can make it out to Lynchburg VA if it clears some later.