An aborted breakfast run

August 23

Steve and I got ready to take to the sky with no destination in mind. As I walked out to the plane to meet Steve who had beaten my by a few minutes, a fellow plane owner flagged me down. Barrett owns a Cessna 182 (he actually asked me to buy a partnership interest in his plane before I bought Aggie). He told me that he and a friend were heading to Monks Corner, SC to attend the SC breakfast club. I asked him about the forecast weather - he told me it was expected to be VFR all morning. After speaking with Steve, we decided to make the trip. After a quick pre-flight, we started Aggie up and taxiied to Runway 02. Barrett in his 182 taxied about 2 minutes behind us. We took off and made the right turn to the East and immediately noticed a cloud layer at around 3 thousand feet which started 6 miles East of Concord. There is a 2,300 foot antenna 6 miles East of the mid-point of the runway at concord and right above the antenna this layer started. By the time we got 6 miles east, we were climbing through 4,000 feet, well above the layer. Barrett and his 182 were 2 miles behind us. We set up for a cruise at 5,500 feet and headed off to breakfast, or so we thought.

We signaled to Barrett to monitor frequency 123.45, the 'unofficial' air-to-air frequency. We talked throughout the flight. Barrett had tucked in about a mile behind us. While we were burning around 11 gallons per hour, he was burning through 15-16 gallons per hour to match our speed. We talked about the forecast weather at Monks Corner and what Steve and I were thinking about our options. The forecast was for VFR, but as we looked down and saw no holes in the clouds, it was clear that our VFR on top situation was unlikely to change. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot. Our go-no go decsision was agreed to be 30 miles. As we approached 30 miles, we tuned in the AWOS at Monks Corner and heard what we already knew - a ceiling of 700 feet with no holes. We decided then it was time to turn around.

Barrett asked that we make our turn to the North (left) so Steve put us in a left bank and started a standard rate 180. Barrett wished us well as we headed back to Concord. Interestingly, though he was only 1/2 mile away as we turned, we NEVER saw him!

Fayetteville approach allowed us to stay at the 5,500 ft altitude. Typically, you cruise at an odd altitude plus 500 feet when going East and an even plus 500 when going west. However, we had a layer below us and another layer above us, so we had little choice. The return trip was uneventful. Steve planted us on the runway about 45 minutes after our decision to turn around. Taxi back and we were done for the weekend (2.3 hours total time).

Interestingly, before we got back to Concord, we heard Barrett file a 'pop up' instrument flight plan with a GPS approach to Monks Corner. Clearly our decision to turn around when we did was the prudent choice. Steve and I have a pretty good track record regarding our decision making while flying together.

Anyway, by the time we were done, we had nothing more than a 2 hour flight in the pattern - just the one landing. 2.3 hours total flight time. Even though we didn't make it to our destination, the flight was beautiful and fun. All-in-all, a good morning.

Taking Spencer to Jacksonville

Spencer is going to Key West with his Jacksonville grandparents. Because they were planning on leaving first thing on Saturday, he needed to be there on Friday. Steve and I took Friday off so we could go early to avoid the typical Summer weather in the Southeast.

The last 3 weeks the plane has been out of commission due to a dead alternator. Marc was able to get to the problem this week, so this was to be the first flight with the replacement. After rousting spencer out of bed at 6:15, we all arrived at the airport at 6:45 to pre-flight and get on our way. 3 weeks of no flying left Aggie in dire need of a good pre-flight. We noticed that tires needed inflating, so we had to wait on the line for the ramp guy to come out with a compressor. Once we were fueled and aired up, the three of us jumped aboard for the 310 nautical mile flight to Jacksonville.

Aggie started right up as if she had been flown every day for the last 3 weeks. We got our clearances from Concord and after taxi and run-up, we were on our way.

Unfortunately, summer in the Southeast is hazy. The TAF for Charlotte told us to expect 4 miles of visibility for the climb out and the forecast was spot on. 4 miles of visibility is next to nothing. It's VFR, but barely and it results in what really amounts to instrument flying.

The en route forecast called for hazy, but no clouds until we were near Jacksonville. We chose 6,500 feet for the flight down. High enough to keep cool, but low enough to keep the engine power up. We leveled off South of Charlotte and were on our way. The haze stuck with us for about 200 miles of the trip, but otherwise the flight was pleasant and smooth, except for Spencer's constant reminder to Steve and I of his pizza dinner the night before....whew!

We flew directly to Savannah and then down the coast to Jacksonville. Our destination airport was Craig Municipal Airport (KCRG) - complete with a tower and two 4,000 foot runways. The airspace around Jacksonville is pretty crazy. Between the Navy base, the numerous GA airports in the area and Jacksonville Airport, it gets pretty complicated. The Jacksonville controllers were very professional and helpful. When we arrived in Craig airspace, there were 3 other planes in the vicinity. The tower controller at Craig fit us in nicely and after 2 1/2 hours in the air, we touched down smoothly. We pulled into the FBO ramp area to find Spencer's grandfather in a rocking chair waiting for us.

Knowing the weather was forecast to turn sketchy, we wanted to make our turn quickly. After a hug with Spencer, we sent he and grandpa on their way, paid for the 29 gallons of fuel needed to replace what we had burned, and were on our way. We took off to the North, made a slight right and were headed for 7,500 feet. With the reduced weight, we climbed a bit faster and were at 7,500 feet in less than 15 minutes. The haze lifted quite a bit and we were prepared for a pleasant flight home. Unfortunately, the neutral cross wind we had on the way down turned into a 10 knot headwind on the way home - so our ground speed pegged at 126 knots - making our return leg a bit longer.

The return flight was quite pleasant until we came upon Columbia, South Carolina. I line of building clouds, starting at about 4,500 feet was rising toward us. The line appeared to be thin, but we had to decide whether to drop below 4,000 feet, leaving a bumpy 80 miles to Concord, or climb over. We took option B and headed to 9,500 feet. The clouds were building quickly and even at 9,500 feet we had to dodge a couple of them. Of course, we knew that Charlotte controllers were going to make us come back down quickly, but we wanted to delay the warmer, less stable air as long as we could.

True to form, immediately after we were handed to Charlotte, they commanded a descent to 4,500 feet. We informed them that we would have to take our time due to clouds in the area, but we were able to drop altitude pretty quickly. Once we got to 4,500 feet, Charlotte turned us to the East and left us on that heading, even as we were within 6 miles of Concord. Though Charlotte Approach can be hit or miss, they were more miss this time around than normal. The controller was certainly less than cordial - and frankly, was a bit surly. Anyway, after being routed well East of concord, we were finally given permission to turn to the airport. An uneventful landing and taxi to the ramp and we were done. 5.3 hours logged time.

Steve remarked as we walked to our cars, 5.3 hours is about our limit - our rear ends were a bit sore.

I hope Spencer has a blast in Key West!

Back in the air - another weather diversion

Steve and I are planning on attending our first SC Breakfast Club fly-in next Sunday at a private airport called Triple Tree near Greenville, SC. This airport has a 7,000 foot turf runway, a first for us. So, to prepare for this trip, Steve and I decided to fly to Laurens, SC with a 10 mile detour to scout Triple Tree. I flew the away leg.

Sunday was Father's Day and the day before my birthday, and Steve's. That's right, my flying buddy and I have the same birthday. We shocked each other with that news after we started flying together 3 years ago.

We were anxious to get up in the air, so both of us were at Concord a bit early to pre-flight. Aggie has been sitting for 3 weeks, so her tires were a bit low. We asked the line crew for some air. Once the rubber balloons were full, we climbed aboard. Aggie started right up and within minutes we were holding short of Runway 02. It was a very hot day, so density altitude was around 2,000 ft. That meant a longer than usual takeoff roll and a sluggish 500 ft per minute ascent.

A left cross wind turn and then downwind and we were talking to Charlotte departure. Luckily, Charlotte decided to route us directly over the airport, which meant we were going to get to fly straight over uptown. With me in the left seat, Steve was free to take some shots of the Charlotte skyline.

Once Charlotte was in our rearview mirror, we were cleared direct to Laurens. We were handed off to Greer approach which, though busy, was very helpful. As we passed over Union, SC, about 15 miles from Laurens, we turned to the ATIS at Laurens. Under "remarks" the ATIS noted there was lightning West of the field. Greer confirmed there was thunderstorm activity 9 miles West of Laurens. Steve and I looked at the clouds ahead and decided we didn't want to risk getting anywhere near a thunderstorm and informed Greer we were going to divert to Union. as we descended toward Union, a place I've landed a couple of times, we noted the runway there is less than 4,000 ft. and given the heat and humidity, we were going to have an interesting takeoff if we decided to stop there, so as we approached 2,500 feet, we decided we should instead go East to Chester.

So, we headed to Chester and set up for a long left base for Runway 23. We landed there and then taxied on the closed runway - that's being charitable - the concrete needs mowing - and headed over to Skydive Carolina for a cup of coffee. Skydive Carolina is an interesting operation. There are a number of RVs there - evidently people spend weekends there - and they look like they have a good time at night b/c every time we go over there, most of them are still asleep. Our arrival has a tendency to wake one or two people up and it's not pretty.

Anyway, as we got our coffee, we took a look at the weather. The storm which caused us to divert was staying about 10 miles Northwest of Chester, but we didn't want to risk getting stranded so we gulped down our coffee and headed back to the plane. 5 minutes later we were taxiing to the active runway. We took off on Rwy 23 and made a right turn towards Concord. Unfortunately Charlotte didn't let us back in the airspace so we stayed well south of Uptown. We were clared for a straigth in to Rwy 2 at Concord. Steve put us on the ground and we taxiied to the ramp. 2.3 hours of flight time and a lot of fun as usual.

We didn't get to scope out Triple Tree, but we will still try to make there on Sunday.

Shuttle trip

I didn't fly this weekend - neither did the Space Shuttle - damn.

Dad and I have been talking about meeting in Florida for a Shuttle launch before the program ends. I've always wanted to watch a launch and the opportunities are dwindling. Dad has been a rocket enthusiast since he was a kid - building and launching model rockets in the 50's. A hobby he tried to get me to pick up. I was never much into model anythings, but I did enjoy flying rockets.

So, last month dad and I set on the June 13 scheduled launch for STS 127. We both waited until the last minute to make arrangements - just in case the mission was delayed. I made a reservation on Wednesday to fly to Orlando on Friday. Dad decided to drive - he was in Dallas visiting my sister.

Dad arrived on Thursday night and spent Friday getting information. Neither of us have seen a launch and since I struck out getting tickets, we needed to figure out where we could go to watch. Dad found out that we could get within about 6 miles at the astronaut hall of fame. There were 3000 tickets going on sale at 1:00 a.m.

I arrived in Orlando at 7:30, grabbed a bite to eat then hit the sack for a short nap. We left at 11:00 Friday night. When we arrived at the astronaut hall of fame, we were told that we could actually get onto the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center and watch there if we got there before 0100. So, we drove up the road to the space center.

What they do there is allow patrons to watch from a field on the grounds. Unfortunately, there is not a clear view of the shuttle on the pad (in fact, there are very few ways to see the shuttle on the pad - and that's pretty disappointing) but once it clears the tower, the space center is a good venue (supposedly).

Anyway, we paid our admission and entered the space center just past midnight. They were running bus tours until 0230, and since we had nothing else to do, we decided to take the tour. We had actually taken the tour when he and I went to the Daytona 500 in 2007.

First stop - the Saturn V display. We sat through a short film and then piled into a theater/mock up of the launch command center. Right in the middle of that presentation, my BlackBerry buzzed. I took a look and saw that the e-mail was a CNN Breaking News Alert. I knew before I even opened it that it was bad news about the Shuttle. Sure enough, at 1:30, less than 6 hours before the scheduled launch, the mission was delayed. That took the wind out of our sails.

Nevertheless, we finished the tour and then spent some time in the rocket garden playing with our cameras. I got some pretty interesting (at least to me) shots and a couple of great shots of the moon. we arrived back at our hotel at 4:45 a.m. and went to bed. After some sleep, we went exploring. We hit a professional camera store (a dying breed these days) and then had lunch in downtown Orlando by a lake with an impressive fountain. We then headed back to the coast to scout potential spots for dad to view the Atlas V launch on Wednesday and possible the Shuttle later that week. Unfortunately, I can't go back due to work commitments, so I will have to rely on his telling of the experience.

We came back to the hotel and dad hit the sack pretty early. Sunday was spent doing very little as I had a 3:00 p.m. return flight.

Here's hoping dad gets to see a couple of launches this week before he heads back to Texas. I sure wish I could join him.

Steve and I will take to the skies again next weekend.

Back in the air!

Sunday the clouds cleared, the rain stopped, and the sky opened up for flying!  I was so anxious to get in the air, I went to the airport half an hour early and pre-flighted Aggie.  By the time Steve got there, I was ready to go.  Steve hopped aboard and a turn of the ignition and Aggie, even after 3 weeks asleep, woke right up.  I decided I wanted a familiar trip and a side trip to shoot some pictures of the Lowe's corporate HQ, so Hickory (KHKY) was our destination.  

A weak front had just come through, clearing the clouds out, so winds were out of the North.  We were cleared to taxi to Runway 2.  After taxi and a thorough runup, we were cleared for departure, though a C-172 had just come by on a touch and go so we needed to let him create some distance before we took off.  I lined us up on centerline and waited for the 172 to gain a little altitude.  Once he had, it was full forward on the throttle and away we went.

Our flight to Hickory, though with a 19 knot headwind, was pleasant and rather short.  As we approached Hickory, we were handed off to Atlanta Center and then Hickory Tower.  We were advised to expect Runway 24, so we set up for a very long left base.  I handed Steve my camera to take some pictures of the Hickory Crawdads baseball stadium and I started our descent.  Three miles out, I made the turn to final and put down a good (not great) landing.  Chirping tires signals a good landing, but we were able to feel the touchdown, so it wasn't a greaser.

As we taxied by the Hickory terminal, we marveled at a collection of old aircraft next to the terminal.  When we got to the FBO, we asked the attendant if we could go take pictures of the planes.  She told us that they were a part of a museum located in the main terminal and she thought they were open.  So, we walked over to the terminal, what a depressing sight.

Hickory hasn't had commercial air service for a couple of years.  So the terminal is deserted.  The ticket counters and baggage claim are there, but they are dark and empty (except for the old schedules still on the wall).  In front of the ticket counters there is a mockup of a pilot ready room, complete with briefing chairs.  

After exploring the empty terminal, we headed to the museum.  Unfortunately, the free museum was closed (they don't open until 1 - we'll make a return trip).  So, after a restroom break, we went back to the plane and got ready to head home.  We switched seats, meaning Steve would fly the return.

Back to Runway 24 and we were on our way home.  First, we had to make a small detour to the North so I could take some shots of Lowe's HQ.  Charlotte Approach was kind enough to provide RADAR service on what sounded like a busy Sunday morning for them.  We flew to the HQ and then Steve set us up for a right 360 so I could take some pictures.  We made our circle and then headed to JQF.   After waiting for another plane to land, Steve put us down on Runway 2.  

A short taxi back to the FBO and we were done flying for the week.  1.3 hours back in the air - a wonderful way to spend a sunny late-spring morning.

No flying today . . .

The joys of spring in North Carolina include regularly unstable air.  Storms rolled in from the south most of the day today - resulting in no flying for me and a delay in the NASCAR race which I had planned to attend.  

I've been ramping up to begin my instrument training - it's past time.  I need about another month to get through the DVDs and read a couple of texts and then I'll be ready to start....right about the time of my 42nd Birthday in late June.

The weather pattern we experienced today is supposed to last through the week.  I'm hopeful that the weather will clear out by next Sunday.....I need to get in the air!

It's been a while

Life and work intervened to stop my blogging for a number of months.  In addition, I few less this winter than I had expected, so there wasn't all that much to talk about.  However, I think it's time to start up again.  

In January I got to experience an owner-assist annual on Aggie.  My A&P Marc and I took a weekend and took her apart.  I learned a great deal about her systems and developed an even greater appreciation for the skills of an A&P mechanic.  Marc really knows his stuff and he's called upon to do sheet metal work, avionics, electrial systems, aluminum fabrication, airframe work, and much much more.  I was a glorified go-for, and did little more than remove screws - lots and lots of screws.  Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile experience and if Marc will have me, I'll do it again next year.

The following weekend I had the pleasure of taking the secretary to the Judge I clerked for out on a birthday/retirement trip with her daughters for lunch in Columbia before they returned to Concord for a spa visit.  On the coldest day of this winter, one of the daughters and I flew to Rock Hill to pick up the rest of the party.  We flew to Columbia and had lunch at California Dreaming before flying back.  It was a wonderful trip.

The last real trip I have taken was a roundtrip with Spencer to Chapel Hill to watch the ACC lacrosse tournament.  We had a great time until we got slapped around by a thunderstorm as we were descending to land.  The storm was 15 miles away and still tossed us around.  

Anyway, it's time to start this again.  I have a BFR due this month and I need to get started with my instrument training....I've put if off long enough.  So, maybe I will use the blog to log my my training.