I'm quite certain others have clocked in longer flights than this in their Cirrus but yesterday I did my longest direct flight in my '13 SR22T, a direct flight from KAPA (Centennial near Denver, CO) to KTOL (Toledo, OH) which is 970nm. My previous longest flight was KTOL - KTPA (Toledo, OH to Tampa, FL), which is about 818nm direct.

Since this was at the edge of the range capabilities, I chose to begin the flight VFR as I could go direct under the Denver class B airspace vs. going IFR which would've involved a routing that would add too much time & distance to make the trip comfortable from a fuel reserve standpoint. I launched VFR to 7,500 until I cleared the Bravo and then climbed to 17.5k ft VFR. Once I was well clear of Denver airspace and talking to Denver VFR for flight following, I switched to IFR and completed the flight at FL190.

I knew I would have a modest tailwind (5-20 kts) at the beginning of the flight and would increase to about 30kts tailwind on the 2nd 1/2 of the flight. Once I began picking up the higher tailwind, I could then begin to make a decision on fuel reserves and whether or not I needed to stop for fuel. I did the first 1/2 of the flight at max cruise power but once I got to the 1/2 way mark and the higher tailwind, I was showing that I'd be landing with only 7-8 gallons on board. I wanted a minimum of 45 minutes of fuel onboard since it was VFR conditions at my destination which equated to ~11 gallons. I then brought the power back until my FOB calculation showed I would have 12-13 gallons remaining on landing. On this flight, that equated to 60-67% power. I modulated the power during the remaining of the flight so that I always had 12-13 gal FOB at my destination. No rerouting or weather was a factor along my route of flight although I did get to fly adjacent to a sizable storm on the south side of Lake MI, which was an absolutely gorgeous view out of the window.

Here's a link to the flight on Flightaware. It doesn't show details for the entire flight since I began the trip VFR:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N83 ... /KDEN/KTOL

The flight time was almost exactly 5 hrs, which is a LONG time to be at FL190. As always on high altitude flights, I wore a full-time pulse-ox meter that also has a built-in alarm should my O2 sats get too low and I also drank LOTS of fluids. I drank a bottle of water before the flight and then had 32 oz of Gatorade and another 24 oz of water during the flight. For the mother nature calls, I had plenty of Travel Johns on board, as always. When I keep my O2 sats high and stay this hydrated, I have zero fatigue after flights like this.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/vIl-wiD5Mjg[/youtube]

Nice trip. A lot of factors go into a long trip like this is a single engine piston airplane. Great photos! I have the Jetshades, but picture quality through them is bad

My longest in the Malibu was 1050nm at 23K - 4.8 hours from Galveston, TX to North Eleuthera, Bahamas. Total fuel used 92 gallons from 120 total. Two adults and three teenagers. Cabin altitude 7k.
Kevin

Here's mine from a few years ago in my Mooney 201. ~1070 NM IIRC from Chino, CA to Wichita. 6:50 flight time and 55 gallons. I didn't get a consistent tail wind until northern NM, and had mild mountain wave until that point.

It was a long day, but still beats commercial airlines any day!

Nice job Don.

KSAF (Santa Fe, NM) to KRMN (Stafford, VA) nonstop about 1380 nm. The flight took 7.2 hrs at an average groundspeed of 192 kts. I landed with 24 gallons of useable fuel.

-Kurt

You certainly win on the style points Kevin! That’s the way to travel!

...and you win in the economy dept Scott! I used 80 gallons so for you to go slightly farther on 55 gallons is awesome!

I don’t think I could do a 7 hr flight though. 3 hrs is my normal personal limit. I wouldn’t even want to do 5 hrs on a regular basis.

Don,
What type of Pulse Oximeter are you using? Is it wearable? I'm picturing having to keep something clipped to my fingertip while I fly for 6+ hours...

Farthest I've done in a Cirrus was Vegas to Dallas, 922 nm. I want to say it took us just under 6 hours. It got pretty boring most of it was at night.

John,

It's a wrist-worn device with a finger probe that I put on my left pinky finger. Completely out of the way and doesn't interfere with my flying.

You can pick one up on Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LK ... g=btalk-20

Wow!!! That's a monster flight. Was that in a Bo? You must've had a honking tailwind and been running at a very low power setting.

Wow!!! That's a monster flight. Was that in a Bo? You must've had a honking tailwind and been running at a very low power setting.

114 gallon capacity! Do you have those big tip tanks?
Vince

My record is Houston (KDWH) to Milwaukee (KMKE). 6 hours on the Hobbs. Helluva tailwind in the beginning. 9k feet IIRC. Very LOP.

114 gallon capacity! Do you have those big tip tanks?
Vince