route a straight line in a panel without a plunge router

Hello,

I am trying to route a straight line inside of a panel. The line would be the exactly the width of the bit. But I only have a palm router and not a plunge router. So I am not sure how to do this.

I was planning on clamping pieces of wood either side of the line to fit exactly the router base. And then I would put one edge of the route in push the router in the wood. Would that work or will I kill myself?

Any advice welcome?

Update: based on feedback, I went for tilt and plunge.That worked well enough. I then tried only clamping one edge instead of both, And that didn't go quite as planned. I had to sand to fix it. I guess my router skills aren't good enough yet.

Pictures in the thread!