Rans S12XL Aircraft - How I Took A 22 Hour Vehicle Trip And Cut It Down To Only 9 Hours.

My trip summer of 2016 transporting a Rans S12 xl from Forest City, IA to Burnt Chimney, VA.
The airplane I'm flying is a light-sport aircraft with a Rotax 912 engine. It is a beast. 80 horsepower and very reliable. Since it's a pusher-mounted engine interestingly enough when you add power as in a take-off roll it pushes the nose down requiring more runway to get off the ground. Around 350 feet or so depending on the time of year with heat and humidity.

One of the great features of this airplane is its visibility. It is like flying a helicopter. There's visibility all the way to my feet. Some of the other great features of this bird are the 18 gallons of fuel it carries in its wings, hydraulic breaks in the pedals, two seats, trim, and lights! Yes, lights. I added panel lights and landing lights for safety. As sport pilots, we are not allowed to fly at night so in case you get back late to your home field you have lights! Once you drop below the tree line you're in total darkness for a few seconds. It's not a good feeling at all.

This trip was planned a year in advance and only took me 9 hours to get to my destination in VA. In a car, it would take 22 hours without stopping. I ended up spending three nights along the way to extend the trip so it wouldn't go by so fast.

A couple of times in the morning VFR was not recommended due to haze or cloud cover so as what a good pilot should do I waited a couple of hours for it to clear up and off I went.