Cross country flight
story by Steve Thomas (5-1-00).
Click
here for photos of Steve's machine.
Hi Gang,
Here is
my story of the cross country flight from Greenville,Illinois to Dexter,
Kentucky and back to Greenville.
The planning
that I did before attempting the flights really paid off. My original
plans to fly from home to Greenville
didn't work out due to North winds and fierce
storms. The day before I drove
to Greenville we had a hail storm here that dumped
about an inch thick blanket of
marble sized hail all over the place. So, I loaded up
Purple Haze and drove up there.
After
Ed Neff arrived we took a flight side by side around Greenville. That was
really nice. His beautiful Buckeye
and Purple Haze flew at about the same speed as
we dropped down low and flew over
the local lake just North of town. After we
landed and were shooting the bull
with Roy and Bob, a severe thunder storm moved
in and wrecked the chances for
any further flying that day. The storms went on into
the night and at 8:00 in the morning
the tail end of the nasty looking clouds were
moving out to the East, so I prepared
Purple Haze for the flight to Dexter, Kentucky.
At 9:00
it was partly cloudy and still very wet from the rain. I took off and headed
for Mount Vernon, Illinois 45
miles to the SE. I was expecting a North wind at 5-10
mph, and thought that it might
speed me up a little. I was wrong. I found myself
flying at 20 mph into a headwind.
The wind was ENE and holding me back. I only
had 45 miles to fly and knew that
I could make it, even at 20 mph. I climbed up for
safety and to try and gain some
speed. At 2500' agl I was able to make 23-25 mph.
This leg of the cross country
took me across the middle of Carlyle Lake which claims
to be the largest lake in Illinois.
It was beautiful when I flew over it, and there was
only 1 boat on it that I could
see, due to the stormy weather.
As I flew
Eastward I was chasing those departing black clouds that dumped on us
the day before. I monitored the
radio all the way listening for other aircraft and the
weather stations. I was praying
that those clouds would not do an about face and slap
me! When I passed the Centralia
Airport I notified the area air traffic that I was in
the area since I was only a couple
of miles from the end of the runway at 2500' agl.
Between my GPS and the map that
I created of the route, I knew exactly where I was
all along the route. Then the
major landmarks confirmed it for me, like crossing the
Interstate and the cities and
towns.
As I approached
Mount Vernon the wind was a steady 8 mph from the NE. I tried
to raise the airport to notify
them that I was entering the pattern on a 45 from the
NW, but I could get no response.
I saw a GA plane pass in front of me already in the
pattern, but I couldn't raise
him either. Hmm, I knew something wasn't right with
this picture so I dropped down
below the GA pattern altitude and did a good visual
check for other planes, then I
entered the downwind leg. The plane that passed in
front of me a few minutes ago
was now on his final. After he touched down, I turned
left base for runway 5, then left
again for a final approach.
The grass
was immaculate between the runway and taxiway, and nice and short, so
I set down at the end of the runway
in the grass. I tried to communicate with the
Unicom again now that I was on
the ground, but the radio wouldn't work at all now.
I gave it up for now, and began
packing up to go in for some fuel for the plane and
lunch for me.
About
the time I got the line socks on here comes a golf cart with 2 guys in
it out
to greet me. I explained that
my radio wasn't working. They just wanted make sure
that I was O.K. and that I hadn't
run out of fuel before I could get on down the
runway. I told them that I was
just fine and would be up to the terminal in a few
minutes for some gas. I finished
packing up and taxied in. As I approached the fuel
center there were 5 other aircraft
in the process of refueling, and we were all
controlled by a flag man. When
I got close the flag man pointed the flags at me and
then a spot on the ground next
to another plane already waiting. I pulled up and
stopped with my engine idling
while he flagged another plane into a holding spot.
He let
a plane leave the holding pattern, and then flagged me in to the fuel truck.
This was all a first time experience
for me. After I refueled and went in to pay the bill,
the gal at the desk was all smiles
and asked me what kind of cookies I liked, oatmeal
or chocolate chip. I said chocolate
chip, and she went in the back and brought me
out a bag of fresh Otis Spunkmeyer
cookies and gave them to me for landing there. I
don't think that they have had
a PPC there before, and they loved it! I asked if I
could taxi to the restaurant and
leave my plane on the tarmac. The manager said yes,
please do, the restaurant has
requested that they park some planes out there for the
customers to look at while they
eat, but there were none there.
I filled
in my log book for that leg of the flight and called it an hour and 45
minutes but it was really a little
under a 2 hour flight and 47 miles. The restaurant
was excellent! It had a buffet
with catfish, BBQ pork, chicken, salad and all of the
trimmings. I was a good boy and
only ate one plate of food since I knew that the next
leg was bound to be bumpy as it
was the middle of the day and those nasty looking
black clouds were still lingering
about.
Actually, the line between the low pressure system moving East and the
high
pressure moving in from the NW
was right along my flight path. Before I took off I
tried my radio and it was working
now, so I notified the Unicom and taxied out to
the grass. When I fired up the
engine for takeoff, the radio was dead again. I didn't
get upset, and I didn't want to
waste time messing with it at that point either. I made
a good visual check for traffic
first, then took off and immediately turned left turns
to depart the pattern and head
South to my next stop, 50 miles away. I tried the radio
again after I was back on course
and leveled off at 3000' agl. It worked again!
I monitored
the weather channels as I getting concerned about the black, swirling
clouds moving across my flight
path right in front of me, and the big turbulence that
I was getting from them. My cart
was twisting from side to side under the canopy as I
continued on my journey. A little
later it added a rocking motion to the twist for
really fun ride! I was working
my butt off to keep on course. Without touching the
throttle I was experiencing climb
rates up to 700' per minute, and descents of the
same. Were we having fun yet?
You betcha! An hour and a half and 50 miles from
Mount Vernon I arrived at my clearing
in the woods for a refueling stop.
Things
got a little hairy here. I had to land between trees that were about 150'
apart and the wind was howling
over them at 10-15 mph dumping dirty air onto my
landing zone. The lower that I
got to the surface, the wilder the ride was. Then when I
dropped down to treetop level
to enter the clearing, I was already turned around
facing the wind, and found it
to be blowing from about 30 degrees off the centerline
of my strip. Now I knew that I
had to make a somewhat cross wind landing into the
dirty swirling air onto the narrow
strip. I approached about 30' above the trees and
then cut power as soon as I was
over the clearing to drop quickly, then I powered
back up to slow the descent at
about 30' agl. I was having to push left rudder hard,
then right rudder hard, and some
of both at the same time to counter the twisting
that the cart was trying to do
in the dirty air coming over the trees to my right.
I was
twisting so bad that I was looking directly at the trees on one side of
the strip
one second and then the ones on
the other side the next. Working throttle and flare I
was able to set it down in the
middle of the ridge and actually dropped the chute
behind the cart. Whew! I was glad
to be on the ground. I threw on the line socks to
keep the chute from inflating
while I refueled and checked out my radio.
One of
the neighbors came up to the field on his 4 wheeler because he saw me
coming in. He helped me out by
holding the front wheel up while I got under the
plane and checked my fuses because
the radio was dead again. That was it, a blown
fuse that was making intermittent
contact. I didn't have a spare, but he did. He
graciously went down the hill
and returned with a replacement and a spare to take
with me! He even hauled my gas
from the garage at the house, out to the plane for
me on the 4 wheeler. I had a 2
liter of soda pop stashed in the house refrigerator
when I sent the fuel up there,
and I refilled my drink bottle while I was there.
Now I
was ready to takeoff for the final and longest leg of the flight. It was
65
miles and half of it was over
unfriendly terrain, Shawnee National Forest and major
rivers. I checked the weather
forecasts good because it looked like one of those black
clouds could open up and rain
on me at any time. It was not suppose to rain, and the
high pressure was predicted to
continue to build and push the clouds to the East. The
winds were gusting around at 10-15
from the NNE, and I knew that I might have
trouble getting out of the clearing
and climbing over he trees.
I never
moved Purple Haze from the spot that I landed on, but opened the chute
inverted, said thanks and good
bye to the neighbor, and took off right down the
center of the ridge between the
trees. At liftoff I was a rocking chair, and at first
wasn't sure if I was going up
or down as I fought my way through the dirty air.
Finally I cleared the tree tops
and hit the wind head on. I felt some definite climb at
that time and after a few hundred
feet turned downwind and got on course for home.
I had
to turn 5900 rpm's downwind in order to maintain a steady 200' per minute
climb rate, but I was cruising
at over 40 mph. At 3000'agl I reduced throttle a little to
only climb at 100 feet per minute
as I was getting into more dense woods over the
North end of the Forest. I continued
to climb until I hit 4500' agl. and leveled off,
still turning 5400 rpm's. When
I flew over the heart of the Forest it looked like a
pretty green blanket below me,
but I knew it was really huge trees.
Before
I got to the Ohio River at Eddyville, Kentucky the terrain changed back
to
large expanses of bottom farm
land, and any anxiety that I had dissipated. I checked
out Paducah, Kentucky and Metropolis,
Illinois (home of Superman), from 4500'
above southern Illinois. The Ohio
made a big bend through this section and I crossed
it at the southern tip of the
bend, into Kentucky. The Tennessee River joined the
Ohio just below me and to my right.
It was a beautiful picture.
I was
back on familiar turf now ad began bleeding off altitude slowly until I
was
back to 2000' agl. I could see
Kentucky Lake along my left side as I continued on
home. Landing at my home field
was a real pleasure after the last stop. That leg only
took an hour and 45 minutes. Total
fling time from Greenville was just over 5 hours
and I traveled 169 statute miles
including flying the patterns and taxiing.
I spent
the next few hours refueling the PPC and getting some more fuel over to
my Mother's house in Benton, KY
so she could deliver the fuel to the house in New
Burnside, IL for me. Everyone
that I know, and those that I met along the way also,
were very helpful and supportive
of my flight and I really appreciated it. I was worn
out from fighting the gusty winds
and thermals all afternoon, but I felt great inside
having made it all the way with
no incidents, and the scenery was very nice too.
On day
2 I awoke at 6:00 and checked the weather forecasts for each of my
destination cities. The forecast
was still calling for a 5-10 mph SE wind all the way! As
I preflighted the plane and warmed
up the engine, I checked out the windsock and
windmill and there wasn't even
a whisp of a breeze. It was dead calm. Both still
pointed in a North direction from
yesterday. I setup at the South end of my field and
took off on a direct heading for
my landing field in Southern Illinois at 7:20.
As soon
as I cleared the electric lines and could take my eyes off of them, I glanced
at the GPS to find to my surprise
that I was already going 40.8 mph in extremely
smooth air. I set the throttle
to climb slowly for about 8 miles, until I was at 3,000'
agl. I was now making 44-45 mph,
and it was so smooth that I refer to it as a "Magic
Carpet Ride". It felt wonderful
after the rough stuff yesterday.
On the
long climb I used the line trimmers to hold right rudder for me to
compensate for the torque. My
leg appreciated that first thing in the morning. I
crossed the Tennessee and Ohio
Rivers and began another slow climb to 4500' agl to
fly over the Forest again. I was
feeling so good in the bright sunshine and steady air
that I fired up a CD and listened
to some Jeff Beck as I went over the Forest.
I arrived
at New Burnside at 8:45 and landed at 8:50 for an hour and a half flight.
The landing today was a snap,
and my fuel arrived just as I was touching down. As I
was refueling the plane I was
also preflighting, and found a broken exhaust spring.
Even though I just replaced all
of them about 10 hours ago, I planned for this
scenario and had an extra set
under the seat along with safety wire and pliers.
The wind
was getting stronger now and a little gusty, so I taxied back up the strip
a
little ways so I could clear the
trees, and took off. Once again it was a little struggle
getting through the dirty air
coming over the trees, but not nearly as bad as the day
before. Once I cleared the trees
I turned North and waved at the folks on the ground
as I headed for Mount Vernon.
I climbed slowly back up to 2500' agl and then the air
was smooth again and I was cruising
at 45 mph.
The flight
was uneventful and pure pleasure. I tuned into the airport frequency
when I was about 15 miles out
and heard a GA plane coming in from behind me. I
alerted him that I was there and
also heading for the airport. He later saw me and
flew by me on his way in. This
time I could communicate with the Unicom and
everything went by the numbers,
just like they are suppose to.
I landed
and refueled, then I parked in front of the restaurant again and went in.
The place was packed with people
after going to church. One elderly lady came over
to my table and asked if that
craft outside was mine. She asked if it flies and couldn't
really understand how it worked,
even though I tried to explain it to her. As I was
eating I overheard people at a
few tables discussing the funny looking craft outside,
but no one had a clue!
On the
way out I told the owner that I would ask for permission from the Unicom
to take off in front of the restaurant
windows so the folks could see it, and then
maybe understand it better. Unicom
granted permission since my radio was working,
and they only requested that I
keep traffic advised as to my position on the airport
since there was inbound traffic.
Takeoff
was perfect and without seeing their faces, I could imagine the looks and
smiles from within the restaurant
as I turned away and climbed out of sight. This day
was going great and I was digging
it! Now on my final leg for Greenville, the wind was
not pushing me very much as it
was from my side and I was cut back to a 30-33 mph
speed. At Carlyle Lake I was at
3,000' looking down on an island in the middle with
boats pulled up to it's shore
and people playing in the shallow water.
I couldn't
resist the temptation to make a low pass around them and cut the engine
to idle while I spiraled down
to about 50' above the lake. Then I circled the island
taking photos of the people waving
at me. I waved back and climbed back up and
continued on to Greenville.
When I
was about 6 miles out from landing I called the Greenville Unicom and
told them that Purple Haze was
returning from the cross country flight and that I was
10-12 minutes away. Unicom responded
with a wind report and told me that there
wasn't any PPC's in the air at
that time.
There
was a plane behind me headed in to do some touch and goes and two on the
runway ready to take off. One
took off as I was approaching, but the other wasn't
ready yet, so I advised that I
would do a holding pattern of circles until he departed.
He took off and then I landed
in the grass beside where the welcoming committee was
setup to greet me.
Ed Neff
radioed me as I was landing to guide me to the right spot. The landing
was
good and the chute went right
down behind the cart as pretty as you please. After
that there was a lot of hand shaking
and congratulations, a few photos and then I
packed up and went to the hangar.
This leg
of the flight was an hour and a half, making a total of 4 hours and 15
minutes of in flight time from
home, and it was 170 miles. That made the entire trip
339 miles and 9 and a quarter
hours long, plus stops. All of the gang that was still at
the fly in signed an Easy Flight
T-shirt and Roy presented it to me for completing the
flight.
Folks,
I'm hooked! I love this cross country flying. Now we need to push for the
Sport Pilot License so we can
carry more fuel and make safer long distance flights!
Thanks for taking the time to
read about my first cross country flight, a weekend that
I will never forget!
Steve Thomas
Dexter, Kentucky SR-7
steve@hcis.net