Diamond DA42 600nm Cross Country from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area

Important – This video is for entertainment only. It is not intended for instruction and should not be used for any training purpose.
In November N62DL was scheduled for its annual inspection down at Absolute Aero in Hayward (KHWD) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is an over 600 nm cross country flight starting in Washington state through Oregon and down to northern California. There are a few possible routes and I’ve flown each of these a few times. Weather is always a consideration for a long cross country like this. In winter when this flight was planned, weather will have a big impact on which route I fly … and whether I can even do the trip or not!
I was very lucky as the day I had planned to fly down, the weather was forecast to be VFR conditions the entire way down. This is unusual in winter in the Pacific Northwest. The only wrinkle was low cloud and fog around Seattle the morning of my departure. As you’ll see, this delayed my departure by a couple of hours but after that everything went according to plan.
I flew the most direct route, down to Portland and over the Willamette Valley in Oregon down to Medford. Then past the Siskiyou Range and down the Sacramento Valley into the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. On a clear day, this route gives incredible views of several big volcanoes including Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, Mt Hood and Mt Shasta.
In these videos, my main goal is to share what it’s like to fly these cross country IFR flights. I hope you enjoy the video. Please LIKE, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE if you do!
03:28 Pick up clearance with reroute
07:30 Take off from KRNT
12:43 Mt St Helens fly by
18:50 In flight “physiological considerations”
21:10 Mt Shasta fly by
36:40 Landing at KHWD
2018 Diamond DA42 VI with G1000 NXi (Phase II) avionics. Certified for Flight into Known Icing (FIKI). Also flying with Garmin Pilot on an iPad Mini. Three GoPro Hero 9 and one GoPro Hero11 with RAM mounts in the cabin.