This has definitely been a flying long weekend.
My first trip was on Saturday. Somehow, after receiving its hundred hour, the CAP airplane got flown to Vandenberg Airport near Tampa. One of the other newly minted Form 5 pilots and I were given the opportunity to go retrieve it. Our day started off at 0800, with us being picked up by the 182 stationed at Craig, flown by the Craig Composite Squadron commander. Nick volunteered to sit in the back seat so I could ride up front. I was really excited about this trip, as I knew that it would be my first opportunity (at least in the last twenty-six years) to be able to listen in and observe a flight into controlled airspace - Class B no less! It turned out that I got even more than I had anticipated, since both legs were flown IFR.
The trip to KVDF took around two hours - maybe just a bit less. It is so much fun getting to ride, as I got to see so much more than I do when I am at the controls. One of the highlights was flying within easy viewing distance of John Travolta's house just outside of Tampa. That man knows how to live! A 6,400 sq ft home, with covered parking for planeS - his 707 on one side of the house and his G5 on the other - centered just off a 7000 foot runway.
The ride home was equally pleasant. Nick was PIC - due in part of his vast experience as a pilot, and partly to his ability to file IFR - a big advantage given the Class B we had to fly out of and all of the "special" airspace between there and here - not to mention the ability for him to get the airplane back even if conditions were below the VFR minimums I would be limited to. We took a different route, so I got to watch different scenery, and got to talk with someone who spent the last 6000 or so hours of his career as the captain of a Boeing 777!
After spending four hours listening to these two seasoned pilots work within the air traffic control system, I arrived at two conclusions: 1. The ATC system isn't quite as scary as I thought it was, and 2. I really do want to get my IFR rating. While I know that single pilot IFR landings are among the most demanding and nerve wracking endeavors one can undertake, flying on an IFR flight plan on a nice day makes getting from point A to point B about as painless as it could get unless someone else was actually doing the flying. And, having the option of IFR sure makes the idea of a small plane as transportation more viable.
The second trip started yesterday morning. Jeanie and I had made plans to visit her brother and sister-in-law at their lake house on Lake Marion. Our initial plan called for wheels up at 8:30 AM, with an ETA of 10:30 AM. Not only would this be the first overnight flying trip for us, but the first trip taking both of the dogs in a small plane. Jeanie pared down our luggage to the bare necessities, and had everything ready for us to leave the house at 7:30 AM. Unfortunately, mother nature was not fully cooperative. While the weather here was beautiful, the weather near our destination was below VFR minimums. Fortunately, by 9:00 AM, things had cleared, and we were off shortly thereafter.
In addition to having the dogs with us, there were a number of other firsts for me on the way up: first time using VFR flight following, first time using a GPS for navigation, and first time really flying with an auto pilot. The auto pilot in the club plane is only single axis - it only controls heading, not altitude, but it still has a great labor saver. My decision to engage in all three of these firsts was definitely inspired by my experience the previous day.
The trip up was pretty smooth and uneventful. We flew about 1/2 the trip at 7500 feet, and the remainder at 9500 - the additional altitude needed to clear cloud tops. Right as we got near Santee Cooper Regional, the clouds started thickening up, so we had to descend a bit faster than I would have preferred to get through a hole. Jeanie and both dogs arrived appearing none the worse for wear.
I thought my landing could have been a bit better, but Jimmy and Kim said they thought it looked great. They were able to say this because they were waiting for us at the airport when we arrived at around 11:40 AM - forty minutes behind our initial target.
The KMNI airport was really nice. The runway and taxi ways were in great shape, and there were quite a few available tiedowns, all with good ropes in place. The only challenge with the airport was that their fuel pump was not operational.
We loaded the dogs and bags into J&K's vehicle, and headed off to their house, where Kim's sister and nephews were waiting for us to go to lunch.
We had a nice boat ride to Goat Island, where we enjoyed a pleasant meal and good company.
After we returned to J&K's, Robin and the boys packed up and headed off to visit Robin and Kim's parents.
We had a nice afternoon and evening, including a yummy dinner. We then settled in to watch "Momma's House II," but we only made it part way through before tiredness got the better of us.
The weather did not look promising for a VFR return home today, but we decided that worrying about the weather wasn't going to change it, so we took another ride on the boat after breakfast. We returned home around 2:00 PM, and I called in for a weather briefing which implied that conditions were better than they looked. Jeanie and I decided to pack everything up and drive to the airport, and then check on the weather again. Although there was some weather both to the east and west of our route, right along our route appeared to be well within VFR, and more importantly, within what I felt I was capable of flying safely, so, we decided to launch, and were wheels up around 4:20 PM.
I had calculated that at the burn rate published in the POH, we should have had just enough fuel to make it back home while maintaining the minimum legal reserves. But, that assumed that our performance would match the POH, and chances were that neither the airplane would perform as well as the brand-new perfectly tuned planes which are used to generate the POH performance numbers, nor would this pilot perform as well as the incredibly talented professional pilots who flew those tests... two big "If's," not to mention that the weather injected yet another variable.
There is an old saying that goes: "there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots." I guess I have gotten old enough that I have some small amount of sense, because I decided that it would be a good idea to fill up rather than pushing our luck.
So, we made a quick stop in Walterboro. It was right along the way, and they had fuel - self serve no less! It was also a bit of a kick for me to fly into Walterboro, as it had been the destination of my first cross country over twenty six years ago.
I can't say that I remembered the airport from that one other visit, but it seemed to be a nice place with friendly folks.
After topping back off, and extending our flight plan by a 1/2 hour, we headed back on our way, picking up flight following just south of Walterboro.
The flight home was surprisingly smooth. I had also been concerned that the ceilings would be low enough that I would have to transit the Savannah Class C airspace, or have to circumnavigate it. Much to my delight, the ceilings were high enough to allow us to fly at 4500 feet, which was just high enough for us to be able to fly right over the top of the Savannah Airport. Not that transiting Savannah would have been that big a deal considering we were talking with Savannah Approach, but this way we didn't run the risk of getting vectored all over the place. And, I must admit, it is pretty cool putting along in a little single engine plane and looking down and seeing large commercial jets sitting on the taxi ways waiting to take the active runway and depart.
We arrived home right around seven, and I had my final first for the trip - I closed our flight plan by radio rather than my usual telephone call to FSS after landing. The radio stuff worked out really smoothly - I informed JAX Approach as I started my descent. They requested that I inform them when I had the airport in sight. When I did, I let them know, and they terminated the flight following. I then switched to the local CTAF to alert local traffic that I was inbound for landing. I then switched over to 122.2 and contacted Gainesville FSS and as soon as I gave them my tail number, they correctly surmised that I was contacting them to close the flight plan (which I of course confirmed to them). I then switched back to local CTAF for the remainder of my pattern radio calls.
It turns out that stopping for fuel was a wise decision. While we would have made it home, chances are we would not have had the minimum legal reserves when we landed, plus we would have had very little margin for error, and we would have been worried the whole way. The stop added about thirty minutes (by the time we had fueled, called J&K, went to the bathroom, etc.) and $21 (for the extra .3 hours of tach time for the approach, landing, taxi, take-off and climb) to our trip home, but I think it was well worth it.
I was amazed at how much less stressful flying cross country was with a GPS and an auto pilot. While there was still plenty to keep me busy, it was a much more pleasant experience than having to fly the whole trip manually and with fifty year old (VOR) technology.
The trip did reinforce that flying to some place relatively close is not a time saver. Even though the actual transit time in the plane was about 1/2 of the time it would have taken to drive (2 hours vs. four hours), the actual door to door time flying was almost exactly what it would have been had we driven. This was due to the additional time it took to drive to the airport, transfer the stuff from the car to the plane, preflight the plane, get the plane out of the hangar, taxi to the runway, and then on the destination side taxi to the ramp, tie the plane down, transfer the stuff from the plane to the vehicle, and then drive to our final destination.
And it was definitely not a money saver. Flying was about $200 more than driving would have been - and that's based on assuming we had driven the Durango with it's abysmal gas mileage.
And it was not less tiring. Not only was the door to door time the same, but I find two hours of flying much more tiring than four hours of driving.
But, the flying was WAY cooler!
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Posted by David at September 05, 2006 01:26 AM