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September-October 2007 Web Log
Weekend in Alabama
(October 26-28, 2007)
Friday evening I drove to Jasper and
flew Trixie to Gainesville. Audrey drove to Gainesville to meet me
and I flew us to Oneonta, Alabama to go to Dion and Emily Clark's wedding.
Lots of broken clouds, but we were able to climb to 8,500 feet in a break
in the clouds (had to climb over them). VERY strong head wind- our
90 minute flight was 2 hours, plus Aud got a bit woozy and headachy after
an hour up so high- fortunately the clouds were much less in Alabama so we
dropped down the last 45 minutes before we landed.
The wedding was GREAT, plus Cathy,
Audrey and I got to spend Friday night at my pal Eddie Robbins' cabin in
Oneonta. He had also loaned us his car while we were in town, so we
took them to breakfast Saturday before we headed out.
As soon as we climbed, we saw solid
cloud cover to the west, so Walker County was out. I diverted to
Birmingham, which is where we were ultimately headed anyway. Meg
picked us up at Mercury Air (only 10 minutes from their house) and gave us
a ride to their place.
Our grandson Evan Williams had his 5th
birthday party, and after the party late in the day, Cathy and I flew up
to Walker County (where I graduated from high school). Nice cheap
fuel- only $3.90, as opposed to Birmingham's
 $5.50.
Pretty unbelievable. After we filled up, we overflew Carbon Hill,
where I used to live, took some photos while I circled the town, and then
headed back to Birmingham at dusk. VERY nice and easy approach- ATC
vectored me a bit south of the airport, then gave me a left turn and a
landing on runway 36. I parked the plane and took Cathy's photo on
the ramp. Nice sunset!
Sunday was hectic. Andy Williams
(our son-in-law) took us to the airport right after church; Audrey and I
grabbed a couple of vending machine sandwiches, did our pre-flight, gave
everyone a hug and took off heading for Gainesville. Easy departure
for Gainesville, but it was obvious soon after we departed that we had a
headwind from the east, really slowing us down even after I kept the
throttle up at 2450 RPM. The GPS was telling us 2 hours into
Gainesville, and since I was teaching a class at 3:45 Atlanta time, we
weren't going to have time to fly to Gainesville, so we stopped in Jasper
(where I'd left my truck) and headed straight to church. Made it
with 10 minutes to spare!
The weekend wasn't over yet. After
church, Audrey and I got some cheap Mexican food and waited for it to get
nice and dark. We drove back up to Jasper, and Audrey took my truck
on home while I flew on to Gainesville for some night practice. Had
a short 24-minute flight to Gainesville, had a night landing on runway 4.
Full stop, then four more landings for a total of 5 night landings in
order to keep my night flight with passengers currency.
 Trixie
Sticker; Moving the Plane to Gainesville
(October 25, 2007)
Thursday I'd gotten the call that I was
able to work out a tie-down in Gainesville! How cool can it get?
So after we get back from Alabama this weekend, we get to keep Trixie much
closer to home; plan is to move the plane Friday or Sunday.
I'd bought a vinyl "Trixie" sticker from
a guy on eBay, so once the rain quit enough for me to clean off the
cowling... I put it on both sides of the plane as a surprise for Audrey.
Hopefully it will stick to the plane and work out ok.
Flying the Douthitt Gang
(October 21, 2007)
A nice Sunday afternoon flight to
Chattanooga and back with Cecil, Garrett, and Justin Douthitt from Jasper.
Had a great time- the sky was clear and the flying was easy. Well,
most of it, anyway. (Garrett, Cecil and Justin on the right.)
A nice short flight from Jasper to
Chattanooga, where yours truly took a wrong turn trying to line up on
runway 2, instead of runway 20 (duh!), but was able to get things turned
around and landed no problem. After a short break at Tac Air, we
took off again and headed home. I gave Garrett some basic
instructions, even taught him how do do a basic 30-degree banked turn.
He did great!
"Interesting" crosswind landing at Pickens
County. Almost had to do a go-around, but was able to pull off a
landing ok- it had been a straight-in approach from the northwest, landing
on runway 16.
Had a great time with the guys- hope they
can go flying with me again sometime! Brake Problems Fixed; Plane Moved to
Pickens County (JZP)
(October 19, 2007)
Monday I spoke with AB Aviation in
Gainesville- they strongly recommended I replace both wheels and replace
the brakes and calipers. I gave the OK. Seem to be very
capable guys.
Wednesday afternoon I got the
long-awaited call- the plane was all neatly repaired by AB AND the
two days of low ceilings were replaced by blue skies- at least
temporarily, anyway! Audrey took pity on me, drove me to Gainesville
and I picked up the plane while she drove on to meet me in Jasper Pickens
County airport (JZP). The guys at AB had done a great job replacing the
wheels, brakes, tires. I taxied down to the flight center, picked up a few
charts, spoke to a few of my old friends, then flew to Lumpkin County
(9A0), where I'd been keeping the plane up to now. For now, I
think I'm going to keep the plane at Jasper instead- longer runway, more
services, other amenities.
I fueled up the plane (gas is MUCH
cheaper in Dahlonega) and flew on to Jasper, where I was given my own
tie-down space. How cool is that? Ok, gas is more expensive, plus
it's another 10 minutes of driving to Jasper instead of Dahlonega.
But it's ok driving a bit longer- it's only $35 per month for the
tie-down.
Glad I moved the plane Wednesday,
because the next two days were lousy. After two days of much needed
rain on Thursday and Friday (we didn't get much rain, but it was surely
needed), I was able to take off from work a bit early and take Jim (home
from Florida College) and a few of his friends up for a plane ride two at
a time.
Either I'd left the Master Switch on, or
I have another problem, but no juice at all. Battery completely dead. (I'm
pretty sure I left the Master on. Duh.) So master A&P Garrett, bless his
heart, came out and swung the propeller- just like in the old World War I
movies. We eventually got the plane started, but it still wouldn't charge
the very dead battery. So I taxied over to his hanger and he loaned me a
battery. How cool was that?
 Time
to go flying!
We had a fairly stiff breeze from the
west, a direct crosswind across the runway. Not too bad, but enough to
really keep me on my toes. But I gave the kids a good ride- two at a time.
My first landing I came in low and slow (textbook) with full flaps. But
fighting the crosswind was tough- couldn't keep it lined up for landing,
so I did a go-around while I bucked the cross-wind. Set her up and
did it again.
The next two landings I came in faster
with only 20 degrees of flaps- much easier landings, and was able to
easily glide down the runway and set her down gently. Lesson
learned.
The kids had a great time, as did I. It
was beautiful blue skies, high clouds at 12,000 feet and a late afternoon.
As you can see above, I lined them up and took their picture in front of
the plane in the late afternoon after we tied it back down and got ready
to leave.
I got supper with them at Zaxby's in
Jasper and drove back to Cumming to make the last (Friday) night Gospel
Meeting at church. Smile on my face, too- two tricky cross-wind landings
with passengers. I'm a happy camper.
Oh- and did I mention that Audrey wants to
call our new baby "Trixie"? Ankle Sprain and Right Brake Pain
(October 13, 2007)
What started off
as a pleasant flight from Dahlonega to Birmingham and back turned into
more than I bargained
for. But fortunately, it worked out ok.
Jeff Lacquement
and Darrett Douthitt, friends of mine from church, were going to accompany
me to Birmingham this fine Saturday morning. They came by the house
and we headed for Dahlonega. So what happens? As I'm hopping
over a very small ditch, I must have mis-planted my left ankle, which
twisted enough to bring tears to my eyes. It was a pretty obvious
sprain, the question really became "How bad?" But after sitting down
for a few minutes, it was good enough. Arrrrg.
We looked over the
right brake (described above) on the right side, and Jeff was of the same
opinion as me: needs to be fixed quicker than "soon". (Hind sight
translation: "Ross, don't fly the airplane.") But we decided to go,
and had an
uneventful runup and takeoff on 15 from Dahlonega, then swung the plane
around to the south-southwest headed for Birmingham. It was a
beautiful morning- not one single solitary cloud in the entire sky, and 44
degrees on the ground. Nice flying weather. We climbed to
6,500 and I set the autopilot. I had Jeff take the controls and he
flew very, very well. (Jeff is an FAA-certified "A&P" mechanic, but
he's let his certs lapse.) Garrett sat in the back seat taking a few
photos as few flew along at 6,500 feet.
It was a nice and
easy flight to Birmingham, and at about 30 miles out I called the
Birmingham tower and got our instructions to vector in, right pattern
(heading 210) and land on their
runway 36. It was a very simple and easy process for a nice Saturday
morning. Frankly, my landing REEKED-- the ankle pain made it
difficult to use the rudders without wincing.
It wasn't dangerous, just not pretty. Jerky, uncoordinated, sloppy
and poorly executed. Shame on me.
When we got on the
ground they gave us clearance to taxi to Mercury Flight Services, where we
parked, got a Coke, took a bathroom break and sat down to relax.
Total time en route: 1:40. A most easy and enjoyable
flight, in spite of a sprained ankle, which still wasn't hurting all that
much.... yet.
But when we got
back in the plane, got our taxi and departure clearance from the tower and
started out to the taxiway, it became immediately obvious that we had a
serious problem with the brake on the right side. One of those,
"park the airplane and look at it" kind of problems. We called
the tower and told them we were headed back to Mercury, which they ok'd,
but we pretty quickly decided that since we were out of everyone's way
where we were to park the plane and see what was up. It became clear
that the entire brake was in serious disarray, with bolt heads shearing
off and parts rubbing against other parts. Nasty.
But Bob, from
Mercury Flight Services, came pulling
up in the golf cart and took things into high gear. He told us to
taxi it back and we'd look it over. We did, and when Jeff told
him that he was an A&P, he volunteered to get his
 tools!
We pulled the wheel pant off the right side and took our first hard look.
It was UGLY. But Bob went and got us some more serious help, who
helped Jeff get the entire brake assembly off, get things bent out of the
way, and eventually, tied off where we could takeoff and fly (VERY
carefully) with a wobbly right wheel and no right brake. (Oh, and
now the ankle's starting to really throb. Of course.)
From now on, it's
Mercury in Birmingham. Period. I decided to fly the plane back
to Gainesville so that the mechanics at Gainesville could look it over-
plus GVL has a 5500 foot
runway, so it would be very safe to land there. I'd never tried to
taxi and prepare to fly with brakes on only one side. "Interesting"
is the only word that works. We shook hands with Bob, pre-flighted
the plane, crossed our fingers and climbed in.
After speaking
with the tower, we taxied down and we took off again on 36, with an easy
climb and heading east towards Gainesville. The tower was great to
work with. Very easy on the green new pilot!
The flight back
was fun. Garret took the controls
for about a half hour. He did super- he flew an intercept course,
held the altitude, then merged in nicely with the assigned course as we
picked things up for Gainesville. As we left Birmingham
departures, they handed over to Atlanta Center, who vectored us slightly
around the restricted area around Gadsden, then had us fly to Gainesville.
(That process of handing over from one center to another is called "flight
following".) I liked doing things that way- makes for safer
flying.
Atlanta center was
great. We had to change frequencies three times, but eventually we
had Gainesville in sight, and would you believe, I get to use runway 4
(oh, yes!) Matt, my instructor, heard me calling and I told him what
was up with the brakes. Of course, same old pain problem again
landing, this time complicated by being too high on my final approach.
(Shame on me.) But that nice, long airstrip slowed us down quite
nicely, even though it held up another Cessna 172 waiting to takeoff.
I hated having two lousy landings, but I guess I did "good enough."
But we got her
comfortably and safely down, taxied down to
AB Aviation
(who were closed) and had a chat with Matt. My ankle was really
throbbing. But I was happy to have the plane where it could get
looked at and repaired. Audrey picked us up at Gainesville and took
us to lunch at Burger King. (God bless that sweet wife of mine!)
I hobbled home, wrapped my ankle, put ice on it, took 2 ibuprophen (a.k.a.
"I be hurtin"). Sure feels good to put my ankle up and work on this
instead!
Using My Plane for Practical Purposes: Crossing Hour
75
(October 8, 2007)
Today (Monday) I was able to use our Cessna
for very practical purposes: I flew a three-legged trip; first to
Chattanooga late morning to get lunch with Karl Hebert and Scott Fosse, to
discuss some Boy Scout business in my new role as VP of Venturing for the
Cherokee Area Council, BSA. So instead of having to drive 2+
hours, I get a 28 minute ride to the airport and a 39 minute flight to
Chattanooga. And since the Chattanooga airport is 5 minutes
away from Karl and Scott, how cool is that? Karl and Scott drove up
five minutes early, just as I arrived, so it was as easy as walking out of
my plane and hopping into Scott's SUV, then getting lunch with Scott &
Karl. After lunch, I had an easy
flight down to Rogers field in Oneonta, Alabama to meet with a client,
Eddie Robbins of Ameritek. I've been his sales and marketing
consultant for over ten years now, and we've developed quite a friendship.
It would have been a 3-4 hour drive over to Oneonta from Atlanta (not to
mention a 3-4 hour drive home), and the weather today on the second leg
(from Chattanooga) was nice. I kept the plane at 4,500 feet for this
leg to keep it below some developing cumulous clouds. 1:20 flying
time from Chattanooga. Nice.
After meeting with Eddie and his ace
sales guy Bill all afternoon, I few home late in the day at 5,500 feet.
Arrived after 1:35 minutes of easy flying from Robbins Field (20A) to
Lumpkin County (9A0). The flight took me over Gadsden, Alabama;
Rome, Georgia; and Jasper, Georgia. Nice views- lakes, rivers,
mountains. The light was fading as I came over the north Georgia
mountains around Dahlonega, but no problem setting up for a landing.
Unfortunately, the right brake was
rubbing while in Oneonta- not enough to cause a problem, but enough to
make me realize that I was going to have to work on it very soon.
And would need to watch it carefully.
Today gave me some good cross-country
cockpit time (translation: "experience") but was also very practical, too.
When I tallied up my total hours of flying,
I ended up today at exactly 75 hours of total flying time.
Brake Problems Crop Up
(October 8-12, 2007)
After flying on
Monday, I had Tuesday back in the office, and Wednesday through Friday
traveling to DC and New York. I've been looking up brakes and
brake-related questions on Cessna 172's and speaking to Cessna owners.
Looks like I'm going to have to replace the caliper and/or pads on the
right side or pay someone to do it. First, I talked to Tom Thornton,
previous owner- had not been a problem for him. Second, I talked to
another Cessna owner up at Lumpkin Airport- he told me it was probably the
pads, could be pads and or the calipers. I bought a service manual
for the airplane on eBay for $26. Cheap. From what I'm
reading, it looks like brake repairs on Cessna 172's are relatively
simple, and I'm certainly mechanically inclined enough to take a stab at
it myself. It appears to be a "routine maintenance" item that's
allowable by the FAA for an owner to repair himself.
I'm going to
take off the wheel pants as soon as possible (Saturday afternoon, if I
can) an look things over more closely. I'm going to try to effect
the repair myself, if at all possible (since legally I'm allowed to
perform "routine maintenance"). I've further decided I can safely
fly the airplane and land it, as long as I'm careful, but I won't drag
this out. Taking off the wheel pants will slightly slow the plane
down, but it will make maintenance much easier as well as tire and brake
inspection when I pre-flight the aircraft.
 Figuring
Out the Lumpkin Patterns
(October 2, 2007)
I figured now that I've been flying in and
out of Lumpkin for a week, I needed some pattern work- especially runway
15, which has some steep hills on approach that make it hard to see and
line up with the runway.
Here's a Google Earth shot looking high and
down runway 15, as if you were at about 2,300 above the ground.
First, I decided not to try any touch and
goes until I was a lot more comfortable with the length of the runway.
But the airport has very limited taxiways, so one has to back taxi to
takeoff on runway 15. Ok, so be it.
For my first approach I tried the textbook
landing- 1000 feet AGL (above ground level) on downwind leg, then cut the
power back to 1600 rpm, put in a notch of flaps and fly it the way you'd
fly most airports. The same problem I'd had before
cropped up- the steep hills you see on the left side of the picture block
the view of the runway. But I was able to pull off a normal enough
landing, in spite of not being able to see what I was doing during my base
leg.
So I took off again, and this time I tried
a slightly higher approach. Better. Still couldn't find things
like I wanted, but I was also starting to learn some of my ground
reference points, too. So landing number 2 was workmanlike enough.
Back-taxi, and took off a third time.
This time I decided to stay high and not
cut my power until I was more beyond the airport- more of a long, extended
downwind leg with a broader base leg, too. MUCH better. Was
able to keep runway 15 in sight almost the entire time, and was able to
set up for an easy and long-extended final leg. Very nice landing
that would have made my passengers happy if I'd had any. So much for
the work- now it was time to reward myself and have some fun.
Took off again, this time heading due
south. I flew to the west of the Dawsonville Outlet Mall, looking
for our house. The landmarks were hard for me to recognize from
3,500 feet, but I finally was able to pick out a big lake (I had no idea
was there), found the John Deere Nursery and was able to find our house.
Finally. So I picked out Gainesville on the GPS, and set my heading
for the Gainesville airport to practice just one landing. Hopefully
runway 4 will be in use!
I dialed their ASOS, and the winds were
favoring runway 4. All right! Sure enough, Gainesville Unicom
reported runway 4, so I set up a simple pattern entry and landed on my old
friend. Ahhhhh. Taxied down, exited the runway at runway 11,
then another left turn on the taxiway to take back off on runway 4 again.
Nice easy takeoff, and turned gently to a
heading of 352, heading for Dahlonega. ONE more landing on
runway 15, now that I had it figured out earlier. Sure enough, I saw
my now recognizable hills for landmarks, gently entered the pattern,
stayed high and flew a longer and wider pattern for runway 15 and landed
easy as could be.
Total flight time 1:20. I gassed up
the bird, then taxied it down and parked it. Time to head home.
Test Flight to Chattanooga
(September 30, 2007)
I decided to fly to Chattanooga Sunday
afternoon in order to get comfortable flying into a towered airport.
I was amazed how easy it was. I decided to try to takeoff from
Lumpkin on runway 33 and see if the plane could easily climb over the
4,200 foot ridge several miles northwest of the airport, and that was no
problem at all- I kept climbing until I was a 6,500 feet. A
beautiful day to fly, clear as could be, deep blue skies.
I got Chattanooga weather ok, and at about
25 miles out I called Chattanooga tower and told them I had information
poppa (from their ASOS), gave them my altitude. They gave me a
transponder code to squawk, and gave me a frequency for Chattanooga
approach, whom I immediately contacted. Approach told me to hold my
vector and altitude, then "call the airport in sight." (Hey, that
was easy!)
About 8 minutes later they told me to
descend at my discretion, asked if airport was in sight yet. Yep, it
was- it was taking up about half of my windshield! (Nice taking off
from a 3,000 foot strip and landing on an 8,000 footer.) They
assigned me a runway, gave me a nice right turn as I was descending to
1,900 feet (pattern altitude) and gave me an ok to land. (So far so
good.) I flew a wide pattern and had a nice easy landing, touching
down gently right beyond the threshold (for a change). Crying shame
I didn't have a passenger on board that I could have impressed with that
one!
They gave me taxi instructions, I switched
to ground frequency and told them I wanted to go to Tac Air north.
No sweat. I taxied over, parked the bird, got out and got a Coke.
Other than having to pay a $10 landing &
parking fee (oh, well), I was impressed with how simple and easy the whole
process was. Wheels up to wheels down, 39 minutes. Taxi out at
Dahlonega to engine shutoff in Chattanooga, 43 minutes. Leaving the
house in Cumming to arriving at Tac Air, 1 hour 21 minutes. Sure
beats the 2+ hour drive and the insanity called I-75.
Ross & Audrey's First Flight
(Sept 28, 2007)
"Wanna go flying Friday night and get
supper in Dahlonega?" I asked the boss lady. "Sure!"
So we drove up to the Dahlonega airport,
pre-flighted the Cessna and took off on runway 33- right over the hills at
the end of the runway. The plane had lots of gas in it all right- it
was just a bit sluggish on takeoff, but nothing too serious- more
annoyance than anything else. I knew from weight and balance
calculations we'd be in good shape, mostly wanted to see how she handled.
Audrey was grinning from ear to ear. "Neat!" said the boss lady.
It was an easy flight over to Jasper
Pickens County (JZP), but their ASOS was out and I couldn't find their
windsock. Dummy me, winds in Gainesville were coming from the north,
so what do I do? Set up for a downwind landing. But with a
5,000 foot runway, who cares? The "front porch gang" at Jasper were
great-- in addition to hearing some funny stories, one of them took our
picture with our new bird. They looked her over and pronounced her a
nice plane with great avionics. We feel the same, of course.
It was a relief to know that they had
tiedowns available at Jasper in case Dahlonega doesn't work out.
Whew. Plus they're only a 38 minute drive from the house- not too
bad, I guess.
So we buttoned back up and headed back to
Dahlonega. We skirted the 4,200 foot ridge by flying just south of
it, and thank goodness for the GPS, because finding Wimpy Field is always
a challenge! But we set up for a nice little approach and landed on
runway 33, parked the plane and got dinner in town on the square.
 Buying
our Cessna 172M (Sept 24, 2007)
After lengthy deliberations (and looking at
lots of airplanes online and talking to lots of owners), Audrey and I bit
the bullet and bought a neat little Cessna 172M, built in 1972 and in
superb condition.
"Why a Cessna 172?" I hear you ask.
Good question. First, I learned how to fly on a Cessna 172, so the
learning curve was minimal. I had no problem getting into an older
172 and flying it well. Second, it will hold a pilot, two passengers
and a bit of luggage comfortably, and still perform reasonably well.
Third, parts and aftermarket add-ons are cheap and easy to come by (think
of them as flying Fords.) Fourth, they hold their resell value
extremely well.
The owners of the 172M we bought, Thomas and Beverly Thornton of
Jacksonville, Florida, had taken excellent care of their "baby" and it
really showed. I flew down on a Monday morning (commercial) and Tom
picked me up at the Jacksonville airport. We drove over to Craig
Field to get acquainted with my new toy.
The plane, N20026, is a 172M with a
beautiful white, green and yellow paint job. What had really sold me
on the plane was the engine (only 250 hours) and it's powerflow exhaust as
well as the great instrumentation that Tom had upgraded- two GPS units,
autopilot (!!), two radios and a mode-C transponder... as well as other
goodies. How cool can it get?
After spending a half hour going through
the avionics, we took off from Craig and headed for St. Augustine, where
Tom filled up the plane one last time. Bumpy flight at only 1000
feet (clouds were only 2000 feet above the ground.) We came back to
Craig and Tom landed the plane one last time, then Tom, Bev and I went to
lunch at Denny's. Nice visit with very nice folks.
Soon enough it was time to leave for
Gainesville. I called Craig Ground and got clearance for takeoff on
runway 5, then took off and turned north. I called Jacksonville
tower, got a transponder code to "squawk" and a new bearing to 30 degrees
until I was able to swing north of Jax airspace. Then 20 minutes
later, they cleared me to Gainesville, Georgia. Whew!
For the most part, it was an uneventful
flight. Just north of Jax I was flying over the swamps and I saw a
large bird slightly below me but headed my way. Would you believe it
was a bald eagle? It swooped up and to my left and passed me going
in the other direction, about 75 feet off my left wing. Whew!
But I could see the white plumage clear as day.
I was finally able to climb up to 4500 feet
as the clouds lifted, and then it was a simple matter of letting the
autopilot do all the hard work while I listed to radio traffic, tuned in
weather frequencies, took pictures and monitored engine instruments.
I made some small tweaks to my heading a few times, but for the most part-
it was a simple, straight-forward flight.
 After
about 2:30 of flight, Gainesville was in sight and I found that they were
using runway 11 (oh, well, can't have everything you want). So I
swung a bit east, dropped down to 2,300 feet (pattern altitude), got into
the pattern and made an acceptable landing on runway 11, with a mild left
crosswind. While in the pattern, Matt Perrer (my instructor)
recognized my voice, and when I got on the ground I invited him down to
the fuel farm to see my new toy.
I wanted to practice one more takeoff and
landing, so I swung back around and took off again, stayed in the pattern
and landed again. This one was better. I taxied down to the
fuel farm, parked the bird and got a Coke.
After a bit, Matt was done with his student
Kevin, so they came on down to check out my new toy. He loved it-
said it was just like the one he learned in, and he really liked the
instrument package. Like most pilots, he was more interested in the
controls and avionics than the outside of the plane, because when you've
seen one Cessna 172....
But soon it was time to fly our baby to her
new home at Wimpy Field in Dahlonega, Georgia (9A0). I had an easy
takeoff, a short 20-minute flight and an easy touchdown on runway 15 after
only one go-around. I was putting the plane away when Audrey drove
up in her Volkswagen. She looked the plane over and said, "Neat
paint scheme. I like the colors." (Whew! Good.)
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