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Tonight Audrey and I drove to Dahlonega and
got dinner at Zaxby's before flying over to Jackson County for some $5.20
per gallon gas. Some small thunderstorms had come through before
dinner and gone east, so we did our preflight and headed out. As you
can see from the video Audrey took, we landed on runway 34
at Jackson County- the rain was skirting about five miles
north of the airport as we were coming in.
Mild crosswind on landing- no problem.
Even my cameraman was happy for a change. Listen on the video for
the "irk irk" as the wheels touched down independently. As Jim would
say, "Sweet."
Going back was interesting- more rain had
formed up as we were in Jackson, with lightning now (not good), so we
swung around left (southwest) towards Atlanta, then gently turned west as
soon as we skirted the weather.
Eventually we had to point below the rain and get wet, but hey, she needed a bath. We stayed
on track headed directly for Cumming, then as soon as we broke through the
rain in Hall County, we swung Trixie around right again, northwest .
A few minutes on that heading, then north- and we
we looked down and were flying parallel with Georgia 400 and the
Dawsonville Outlet Mall. Cool.
More rain was coming in from the west, so
we decided to get Trixie in the barn before it all closed in. I
pointed her nose at the gold dome at North Georgia College, and as soon as
we swung over campus, turned left and did a straight-in landing on runway
33. Not a bad short field landing, and she got it on camera.
Sure beats that last LOUSY landing she shot of mine!
 Brad,
Alex & Don
(June 21, 2008)
Today (Saturday) we were planning to fly to
Chattanooga and back- me, Brad & Alex Bowman and Don Bowman- friends from
church. But.... we had high clouds, plus some rain showers to the
south of us. I had called the weather briefer, who reported rain and
generally lousy weather both north and south of us, but ok for flying in
the immediate area. But Chattanooga was definitely out.
But I knew that taking off with four of us plus a full load of fuel was
definitely going to be fun- and it was. I'm glad I used 12 degrees
of flaps- needed the extra lift!
 We
put Alex up front for the first part of the trip. I like this
picture she took of herself in the plane- only Alex could make a pair of
headphones look attractive!
We ended up flying a couple of hours-
first, Dahlonega to
Gainesville for two touch and goes on runway 5, then we headed over to
Cumming, where we overflew the church building (which was pretty hard to
find in the haze). Next we headed over to Canton (where Alex is from)
and did one go-around before landing at the Cherokee Airport. After a Coke
and a potty break, we took some photos, then headed west again over to Rome, with Brad at the controls much of the
way.
I really like the Rome airport. Fuel
prices are always pretty good, they have two really good runways, plus a
nice FBO that's manned most of the time. It's a good place to stop
and get fuel when you're coming back in from Alabama, but this trip was
going to be quick- only about ten or fifteen seconds on the ground!
So to shoot this one, I was already coming
in from the east, and since there was no traffic at the airport I came in
right traffic (clockwise), by heading a bit south of the airport, then
turned right and lined up for a touch and go on runway 1. Just a bit
of right crosswind, which I was able to correct no problem.
Coming back to Dahlonega, we flew just
south of the Calhoun airport and just north of the Jasper airport.
Then we flew right over Mount Oglethorpe. It was hazy, so
sightseeing wasn't all that great, but the company was fun and we had some
laughs. Wish every flight could be as much fun as these were with
these guys. Brad, Alex and Don were super company- I'll gladly take
these guys flying again!
Maintenance Week
(June 17-20, 2008)
Three evenings this week, Tuesday, Thursday
and Friday, I spent working on small to medium fixes in Trixie.
(Hey, not to worry, I like to putter.)
Tuesday was the biggie- the liquid compass
needed some work, but Garrett, who's an A&P (and about to retire) had a
repair kit. I flew over to Jasper and he made the fix for me and
help me get it re-installed and working Tuesday evening. Thursday
night was cleanup night- the leading edges of both wings, the nose and
struts were covered in bug splatters- but some strong spray and elbow
grease got those off. I also cleaned the plexiglass all the way
around, inside and out, and at my buddy Ferrell Brown's suggestion, I
waxed the leading edges and struts after I'd cleaned them. I went
ahead and waxed the cowling, too- plenty of dust and dirt. Put some
"shine" on the tires, too.
I'm trying to decide if I want to change
the yellow stripe on the side of Trixie to a dark gray or some other
color. Still thinking about it. Still need to repair the left
wingtip.
Tonight (Friday), as you can see from the
photo Ferrell took of me, I was fixing the seat back. The old 1972
plastic was cracked in a couple of places and the seat back was flopping
around loose, but I was able to get slightly longer screws and washers and
fix things right up. Also fixed the right shoulder harness clip
where it had come out, and generally tighten things up.
Tomorrow morning I'm taking three
passengers up for a ride, so I'm glad we've got the old girl looking her
best. But I also noticed that the tires are getting low, so
tomorrow I'll bring an air tank-- front tire is way too low.
 Chapel
Hill, North Carolina Trip
(Saturday-Sunday, June 7-8, 2008)
Our friends Ed and Joan Rigel had a
daughter getting married in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (a 5-6 hour
drive), so we decided to fly instead (easy choice, really). We
got to the airport Saturday morning at 8:25, loaded up Trix and had an
easy "short field" takeoff and turned to a heading of 79 for a projected
2:30 flight to Chapel Hill.
The flight was incredibly easy. We
steadily climbed to 7,500 feet to get over the mountains and the heat
(yep, projected to get in the high 90's today on the ground), and as soon
as we crossed 6,000 feet it really cooled off. I leveled off at
7,500 and was headed just a bit north of Greenville Spartanburg and just
west of Charlotte.
About 40 miles from Greenville I called GSP
approach and got flight following to IGX (Horace Williams Field, Chapel
Hill). They gave me a code to squawk, and eventually I showed up on
their radar. It became pretty clear we had a slight tailwind-
huzzah! As you can see from the photo I took of myself in the
cockpit (Audrey was doing crosswords), we were flying into the sun.
Down below it was hot, humid and very hazy. Very hazy indeed.
GSP handed us off to Charlotte, who cleared
me on a straight course to IGX right through their airspace. (Hmmmm-
the stars are lining up today!) We passed west of the airport, and
we had a Delta jet fly below us (!!) lining up on the runway for a
landing, as well as other traffic passing above us from left to right.
Had two frequency changes in their airspace before they handed us off to
Greensboro (NC).
Still had a tailwind, and still no need to
stop. Fuel consumption good, no headache from my passenger due
to altitude, and still lots of haze below. Sure beats driving six
hours!
By 10:55 AM I called Greensboro and asked
permission to descend to IGX. "Permission granted, radar services
terminated, squawk VFR." (Hey, that was pretty easy.) So
I started my descent checklist- mixture full rich, carb heat on, etc, then
killed the altitude control on the autopilot and throttled back to 2,000
RPM. Nice, easy descent starting at 28 miles out. I changed to
123.000 CTAF for IGX, tuned their weather. Winds favoring runway 27,
making for a landing back to the west. No sweat.
My landing was perfectly acceptable but not
nearly as smooth as I'd have liked. Audrey, of course, got the whole
thing on her video camera- including both bounces at the very end!
(I told her she could tell her friends she'd had three landings in Chapel
Hill.) We back-taxied, exited the runway and parked to get in line
for fuel. Took the bags up the terminal, and I filled Trixie back up
with $103 in fuel- probably the same or less than if we had driven~!
Total flying time: 2:22 from hanger to tiedown.
The return trip was much longer- we took
off Sunday after church, headed for Dahlonega- it was 100 degrees in
Chapel Hill when we left (!!), so we were sweating as we loaded the plane
and looking forward to climbing where it was cooler. Unfortunately,
6500 feet wasn't all that cool- but it was definitely cooler than the
ground. We contacted RDU departure, who cleared us to GVL. We
were shortly handed off to Greensboro, then over to Charlotte.
This trip over Charlotte, as soon as we got
to the edge of their airspace they made us drop to 4,500 feet, turn south,
then they slowly vectored us past downtown Charlotte. Got some neat
photos of downtown.
 But
then they turned us back west, and flew us directly OVER the Charlotte
airport- class B, no less. I was very surprised.
As you can see from the photo on the left
(click for details), we flew over the edge of the airport at 4500 feet.
I took loads of photos while flying autopilot. ATC in
Charlotte was very nice to us- pleasant, professional. They
continued us westbound towards home, then eventually handed us over to
Greer (SC) approach. Fortunately, Greer took pity on us and gave us
permission to climb back to 6500.
This was a hot, bumpy trip, and my longest
flight to date. Audrey was a real trooper, because after we cleared
Charlotte and started working with Greer, it was simply boring and hot.
We passed through GSP airspace and were
handed off to Atlanta approach-- very long stretches with nothing being
said to any aircraft on our frequency, which makes for boring (but safe)
flying. Clouds above us, and thermals from the heat below making
things bumpy. Headwind all the way, but not excessive- we didn't
want to stop because we were wanting to make evening worship services at 5
pm.
Finally, at 4:10 PM we asked permission to
start our descent, which was granted. I was determined, after our
last landing, to make a good one this time! So we dropped down to
5,000, cleared Yonah Mountain, then dropped on down to 3,500 while headed
for Dahlonega. This time I made a clean, simple landing straight in
on runway 33. "Nice landing" said Audrey. (Whew!)
Total flight time for the return: 3:10. Total round-trip flying for
this trip: 5:32.
 To Jefferson for fuel
(Saturday, May 31, 2008)
Since the pump at Dahlonega (9A0) is
broken, I decided to fly to Jefferson (19A) to fill up, where fuel is
considerably cheaper than everywhere else around here. Next weekend
Audrey and I are planning to fly to Chapel Hill for a wedding, plus I need
to practice crosswind landings and grass takeoffs and landings at
Gainesville. So I got to the airport about noon, took off for
Gainesville.
GUSTY bursts of updraft and downdraft
within 300 feet after takeoff. But after climbing to 3,500 and
getting away from the mountains is eased off considerably. I flew to
Gainesville, did asphalt and grass takeoffs & landings on 29, then southeast for a short flight to Jefferson.
As I entered the traffic pattern, I noticed
LOTS of planes coming in from the west, east and south- I was probably one
of six or seven. ("Hmmmm... I thought this was a small airport!")
Soon it became obvious- I wasn't the only one there for the cheap fuel.
Made a perfectly acceptable crosswind landing, left wheel down first,
although my taxi left much to be desired. I got in line, met some
nice folks, got a Diet Coke and a doughnut (now there's a real dichotomy),
then filled Trixie up with some of their $4.66 per gallon 100LL.
You may have also noticed that the airport
is right next to.... STATHAM, Georgia. How kewl is that?
Back to Gainesville for a straight-in landing
on 29 (traffic coming in fast behind me), then a grass takeoff and back home to
Dahlonega for a most acceptable landing on 33 in the middle of that same
bumpy west wind.
According to my logbooks, my 353rd landing
and a total of 162 hours total flying, including 119 cross-country.
Did My Own First Major Repair
(Friday, May 30, 2008)
Last weekend Trixie's vacuum suddenly quit.
I was in Canton, but no vacuum means no gyrocompass and no attitude
indicator. Not life threatening, but still important. But it
was an easy flight home using the GPS and magnetic compass. I
called Garrett Cobb (my A&P), who told me my vacuum pump (mounted on
the engine) had probably died, and I
could easily replace it myself.
Small aircraft vacuum pumps suck air across
vacuum instruments-- in my case, it powers the attitude indicator and the
gyrocompass. It's a "gotta have."
I bought a replacement vacuum pump on eBay, which
came in today, but I was pretty nervous about about doing my
own repair. But Garrett had assured me that it was pretty
easy, and that I could do it. Getting the first three bolts off was
indeed
pretty easy, but that fourth bolt had me stumped. It was down on the
bottom, but the cable on one side blocked it, plus the distributor on the
other side of the photo blocked the other side. I REALLY didn't want
to take the distributor off- too much to go wrong if I messed something up
during the re-install.
 Eventually I decided that if I was going to do it, I had to take off the
entire distributor to get to it. Arrrrgg. But I did,
very carefully. Got the last nut off and removed the pump.
Yep, the pump was broken- it was obvious.
I put some
liquid gasket on the new pump and let it set for about ten minutes.
I put the pump back into the engine (with the old hose fittings on).
Next, I gently put the distributor back on where I thought it was exactly
as last time. I was concerned about the distributor- want to make
sure the timing was right. But I was careful and got it all
done.
But at that point, it was just a matter of
putting the cowling back on. Simple, right? Nope. Took
me over a half hour to get the bottom and top cowling back on, since I got
in a hurry and wasn't paying attention to how the top half
fit over the bottom. Finally, I figured it out.
Set the camera on top of the airplane, set
the timer and took a self-portrait of yours truly. Hope this thing
don't kill me!
Carefully, I pulled Trixie out of the
hanger and climbed it after a thorough pre-flight. Cockpit
checklist, prime the
pump, turned the key and she fired right up first time. Yeeha!
Of course, I did an extended runup, then did a short field takeoff.
Trixie climbed like a champ in the warm summer air, so I did two touch and goes as the light
faded, then a full stop. Mission accomplished!
Much to report!
(April 27, 2008)
Much to report in this posting- but I will
work to keep it as simple as possible. February was, thank goodness,
a lousy flying month. Why am I happy? Because we got RAIN,
that's why, and as a result, Lake Lanier is now back up a whopping six
feet. That's tremendous. I did get some piddling flights in
here and there, but work and Scouting has kept me pretty slammed- stuff I
can't and won't talk about here.
 March
1 I moved Trixie to Dahlonega into a hanger. Hooray! Some
decent March trips- a day trip to Chattanooga, but even better, a late
March trip with Cathy to go see Jim at Florida College in Tampa.
That was a nice trip- our four hour flight down was only 3:15, thanks to
strong tailwinds. Nice flight back until I hit strong turbulence
right before landing- barely got it down. Yikes.
Take a look at the photo on the left- on
April 26, I was at Wood Badge weekend number one and had received prior
permission from our Course Director to overfly the bottle rocket
competition (at a safe altitude, of course). I took up fellow
Staffers Captain Ed Lacey and Shawn "Elvis" LaFave. Ed took the
great photo on the left-- we had a great time, did four full curcuits
before heading back.
Audrey and I did get in a spin a week ago-
I showed her power on and power off stalls. "Weeeew!" she said.
Now that the weather's getting nicer, I'm
hoping we can start flying more again. I like Dahlonega ok, but
would prefer Gainesville so I could use the ASOS and lighting for night
takeoff and landing. Still on the waiting list for a tiedown in
Gainesville-- some day!
Grass and Emergency Practice
(January 26, 2008)
Got back into town from Saudi yesterday
(Friday) morning, and the weather lifted enough to get some flying in come
Saturday afternoon. Dropped by Lanier Flight Center, and asked my
young pal David to come flying with me. We did a couple of circuits
each around the pattern, and he loved the way Trixie flew. ("Nice
bird. She sure isn't like flying the 172's here at the school.")
So after a half hour of circuits, David
talked me into practicing emergency 180's- flying parallel to the numbers,
cutting the power to idle, flying downwind just a bit with no flaps,
slipping and landing as close to your "mark" as possible. I did
pretty good both times, missing my mark both times by only 50 feet.
Considering no practice, it was pretty good. But then the really fun
stuff: GRASS! David and I taxied to runway 29, and I did my first
actual grass strip takeoff and landing. It was an absolute blast,
and it included a crosswind from the right.
A good hour of flying and good company.
David can fly right seat or left seat with me ANY time.
Break in the Rain and Snow
(January 18, 2008)
After rain (hooray!) and snow (yep, even in
Georgia), and with even more snow forecast for tomorrow, I thought I'd
take off right after work and see if I could get two or three circuits
around the pattern before I headed to Saudi Arabia tomorrow evening.
My truck is in the shop, Audrey gave me permission to use her doodle bug,
so over to Gainesville for two quick turns around the airport.
Runway 22, winds were reasonable and light. Some days it's fun, and
today was one of those day. Unfortunately, I only had time for two-
I could have easily have done 10.
Oil Change
(January 14, 2008)
Trixie's oil was dirty, and she had just a
bit over 50 hours on it. I called AP Aviation, and they wanted $250-
so I did it myself. No sweat! Got a 5/8 inch by 36 inch hose,
drained the oil into a pan. Put a new filter on, tightened it using
a borrowed torque wrench. Should have let it run for 5 minutes to
warm up, so it drained R E A L L L L L Y
slow- but it drained. I buttoned her up, did an extended engine
runup at the end of runway 29 before taking off into a really strong and
gusty headwind with some crosswind. Did one turn in the pattern and
landed. Success.
Happy Birthday Hannah
(January 12, 2008)
Today (Saturday) I got to take a new future
pilot on her first small aircraft plane ride. Ken Gay (from
church)
had told me last weekend that his daughter Hannah was interested in taking
a plane ride, so today was the big day for Hannah to take her plane ride
with her Dad.
The photo on the right says it all- just
look at that smile!
Hannah's a natural pilot. Good
control, and a nice, gentle
 touch
at the controls. Better than old ham-handed Ross.
After we took off we headed over Lake
Lanier ("Wow- it's really low") to the city of Cumming, then turned
towards Sawnee Mountain where we could see our
church
building on highway 20. Finding the church was easy, because it sits
at the base of Sawnee Mountain and has plenty of landmarks around.
But finding their house was a bit of a challenge, but we found it, and
circled it a few times. Mom was outside the house watching with
brother, Grant.
Next we flew north to the Dawsonville
Outlet Mall, then back to Gainesville for a normal approach, although the
winds were definitely picking up due to late morning. (Right after I
turned on my downwind leg, the bottom fell out of Trixie and she must have
dropped 20 feet- felt like a thump.) But we had a normal base
leg and final leg, cross-wind landing on runway 4.
Father and Daughter had a great time.
So did I-
Happy New Year 2008!
(January 4, 2008)
After work Friday I flew down to
Millidgeville, Georgia just so I could land on runway 28 again- it's
always so nice to fly into such a beautiful and friendly airport,
especially lining up on base and final over the lake, then skimming over
the island before you land. VERY nice. Coming back to
Gainesville was easy, too, with a late dusk landing on runway 22.
Knew it was getting dark when I could see my landing lights on the runway.
View Ross's November-December 2007 Weblog Posts
View Ross's September-October 2007 Weblog Posts
View Ross's "Learning to Fly" Posts
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