Sunday Afternoon Return (Sunday, July 27, 2008)

Easy!  After church with Andy and Meg, we got lunch at Zaxby's in Birmingham, then Andy took us to the airport.   We loaded up our stuff, Audrey climbed in the back seat, Cathy up front, we got clearance to 9A0 (Dahlonega), I fired up Trixie, taxied to runway 36 and did a run-up.  The tower cleared me for takeoff and "turn on course", so off we went.  I noticed a nice hole in the clouds as we were about to level out at 3500 feet (way too hot!), and got permission to climb.  We did a simple right corkscrew climb, got above the clouds and got some cooler air.  Yes!

Birmingham departure was great.   I kept climbing until we hit 7500 feet, staying on course at about 58º; a mild northerly crosswind didn't seem to hamper us too much, and for the most part we were able to dodge the cloud tops, plus there were nice views below.  We flew 1:40 total- it was cool, smooth and easy, starting our descent just east of Jasper, Georgia, and landing on runway 33.

Birmingham Grandkid Visit (Saturday, July 26, 2008)

Pretty flight to Birmingham, with a refuel stop in Rome, Georgia.  We took off at 10:30 AM and still make it to Birmingham in plenty of time for lunch.

Cloudy morning, with rain en route.  We took off with a half tanks, turned west and climbed, headed for Rome- photo on the right is Jasper, GA.  We had a 10 knot headwind and could only make 93 knots after we leveled out at 6,500 feet, so it was almost an hour to Rome.  I cancelled flight following as I descended, and talked to a Cessna Caravan who was towing a glider aloft.  He headed north of the field, we headed south.  Easy landing on runway 1.

We watched the glider being towed to takeoff (way cool).  Waited our turn for a few minutes and got some relatively cheap gas and a break, I looked at the radar and the satellite images. Light to moderate rain, no lightning.

We had a projected 1 hour flight to BHM, and we climbed to 6,500 feet again to get in between the cloud layers.  Actually pretty easy flying, with obvious rain to the south and to the north.  Dumb luck- we had found a hole, and I'm listening to Atlanta Center giving people all kinds of vectors around weather to other folks.  We were great.  Atlanta handed me off to BHM shortly after we crossed the state line.  Very pretty views below of lakes, farms, mountains.  Beautiful, in fact.

About 24 miles out I got permission to descend (to maintain VFR), but as we entered BHM airspace they turned me right for a few minutes.  We descended on down to 2,500 as we vectored, then they turned us a couple of times until we got really close to the airport.  Was raining lightly, but decent visibility- still VFR.  Finally I saw the runway, and he handed me over to the tower as I lined up and landed on runway 18.  Audrey filmed my landing, and we taxied to the FBO.  Total time FBO to FBO: 1:05.  Pretty good.

Left Wingtip Repair (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Ferrell Brown and I went out to the airport to finalize our earlier repairs from two weeks out.  New strobe light to replace the one I had burned out by handling it without gloves (DOH!) and new red globe to replace the one I had dropped on the hanger floor (DOH!)

We took the wingtip off primarily to fix the metal light holder on the end, that I had bent when I creamed the wingtip last month.  Thank goodness for Ferrell- he's very methodical and great that way.  I figured out that part of the problem was a boogered pop rivet screw holder for the cover itself, so putting the tip on the bench was very helpful to get it fixed.  We put the light tube in the wingtip using silicone, then put it all back together-- this time I used gloves on the strobe light.  Fired it up and it worked like a charm.  Hooray.

Back to Georgia (Sunday, July 20, 2008)

After church with Libby Sunday morning, we went to Moe's for lunch, then Libby drove us to the airport for the flight home.   It was great to be able to see and to meet some of her new friends!

We got to the airport before 1 PM, hugged our daughter, settled up on our fuel bill (not bad), loaded up our luggage, checked the weather on line.  It didn't look too bad- actually showed clear between us and Georgia, with some local clouds over northern Kentucky and southern Indiana.  Easy pre-flight, and we took off on runway 32; I immediately called Louisville approach and got flight following home.

We had a 10 knot tailwind, which was nice, but unfortunately we had weather develop ahead of us (hot Summer day, of course), so we couldn't seem to climb above the clouds and stay there.  I'll spare the details, but it was an up, down, up, down flight.    We stayed at 4500 feet through Louisville, and south of town they finally let us climb to 7500.  That worked well for a while, but in southern Kentucky the cloud tops were getting up in our territory, then they were above us.  We were able to skirt clouds for a while, but I saw a REALLY big storm ahead, and had to give up and drop down after I called Flight Watch at the Tennessee border.

Atlanta center handed me off to Knoxville approach as we dropped to 4500 feet to get below the clouds, and the nice guys at Knoxville FINALLY gave me a decent vector.  He told me there was "moderate to heavy rain at my 12 o'clock and five miles, and he turned me left.  After 5 minutes he called back and said, "November 20026, do you see a clear spot at your 2 o'clock position?"  I agreed to give it a try, and as you can see from the photo, we had a nice clear shot with only moderate rain.  Hooray for Knoxville approach!

We flew right between the major rain cells with Knoxville to our left, then shortly thereafter, there were clear skies ahead!  So we got permission and climbed back to 7500 feet.  We crossed the mountains easily, then cancelled flight following, descended and landed easily at Dahlonega on runway 33.

Today's flight was exactly 2.5 hours- which makes my total flight hours exactly 201.  Way cool.

Intro to Flight Rides for Libby's Friends (July 19, 2008)

It was going to be a warm day today, so when Libby asked if I could take her friends Emily, Brittney and Daniel flying in Trixie, I suggested we get an early start.  Dan and Brittney picked me up at Libby's apartment at 8 am, and while it was getting warm, it was still cool enough to fly, for sure.

We took off from runway 18 and after I turned to the northeast and leveled out at 2500 feet I let Brittney take the controls as we flew along the river.  She did great!  Here's a photo of her at the controls (right).

We stayed low because of the haze (worst I've ever seen it), so the warm weather was making things toasty in Trixie.  I had her steer us towards Madison, Indiana (IMS), which has a nice 4000 foot runway and an easy approach.  Landing was easy, and we went into the facility to cool off a bit.

I took this photo (left) of our intrepid pilots- we decided to let Emily go second, we'd land again here, then Daniel would fly us back towards home.  We took off again, this time with Emily at the controls- she did very well, too.  We flew towards the Ohio River, then overflew the river for about seven or eight minutes before I had her make a gentle turn back to Madison. 

Daniel flew last- he wanted to fly a heading, so I had him fly us back to the east of the JVY airport at Clark County, when I took things back over.  Daniel just moved to Louisville and will be teaching high school English.  Was nice having he, Emily and Brittney flying the plane.

We were starting to get hot, stuffy and tired of riding by the time I took the controls back over and entered the pattern to land.  But our intrepid aviators helped me to park the plane and put the cover back on- sure makes things easier on the old pilot.  Total flying time: a little over 90 minutes.

Dahlonega to Louisville, Kentucky (Friday, July 18, 2008)

Audrey and I are safely ensconced at Libby's apartment in Louisville, having flown up this afternoon.   We took off, turned north and turned almost due north, but as soon as we climbed past 4500 feet the haze was pretty intense late afternoon, as you can see from out the window.  I called Atlanta center at 133.1 and got flight following to JVY (Clark County, Indiana).

Audrey kicked back and started reading one of her books, while I worked the radios and monitored the airplane.  Very little real flying involved once I finished my climb to 6,500 feet and trimmed out- we flew 343° true, and with the autopilot and GPS, about all I had to do was point the nose in the right direction.  We crossed over into Tennessee pretty quickly, but the haze was so bad that everything disappeared below.  I pulled out Ken Follett's "On Wings of Eagles", which seemed appropriate.  It was nice and cool at 6500 feet, without being cold.

Atlanta handed me off to Knoxville, who later handed me back to a Atlanta Center for the flight north.  Everything was going along swimmingly until another plane and I got a call from air traffic control telling us that we were at the same altitude and converging courses.  Uh, oh.  I called Atlanta center back immediately while I disengaged the autopilot, did a 360° turn to the (I hung south for an extra minute before continuing my turn around), and they called me back when I was almost completely back around.  That did the trick- traffic at that point was "no factor."  And that, boys and girls, is why we get flight following!

When he later handed me off to Indianapolis Center I said before I left the frequency, "Thank you for keeping me safe" and he said "Just doing my job."

Had some clouds and bumps in south-central Kentucky, so I called Flight Watch at 122.0 and asked for weather en route to see if the dark clouds I was looking at ahead were going to be a problem.  No- just spotty rain, no lightning.  I got permission to descend to 4,500 and we flew our last 40 minutes of the flight a bit lower, warmer but with better views.

The photo on the left is the Green River (lake?) in central Kentucky.

Indianapolis handed us off to Louisville, who gave me a free hand all the way in to JVY.   I sent Libby a text message and let her know we'd be there at about 8:30 PM.  At 10 miles out ATC gave me permission to descend, although she vectored me just a bit further right, which was fine by me, since it set me up for my 45° entry to the pattern.  Had a nice simple approach and landed on runway 18 at 8:11 PM.  The lineman helped me put the cover on Trixie after I found a place to park, and shortly after we unloaded our gear... LIBBY!

Here's a photo of Libby with Mom at the FBO at the Clark County Airport.  Yeah, Libby!  Sure good to see her.  Tomorrow I'm taking a couple of her friends flying in Trixie.  My flight today puts me at 196 total hours, 140 cross-country hours and 423 landings.

Brasstown Bald with Phillip Moore (Monday, July 14, 2008)

My friend Phillip Moore, a sophomore at North Georgia College and State University (in Dahlonega) went flying with me after work.  I wanted to fly and find Brasstown Bald, highest spot in Georgia (4784 feet).  According to my calculations, it was about 40 degrees from Dahlonega, and just about due east from Blairsville.  As you can see from the photo, found it no problem.

Nice flight with Phil, but it was a bit bumpy flying over the Appalachian ridge.  We took off, swung north, and I few a compass heading of 40 degrees for about three or four minutes as we climbed, but I spotted the visitor's tower pretty quick right where it was supposed to be- 40 degrees true, 35 degrees magnetic.  We climbed to 5,500 feet (700 feet above the mountain), circled it and Phil took this photo.

After one pass around the mountain, we headed west- into the sunset- circled around behind Blairsville and landed on runway 8, touch and go, flying BELOW a flock of Canadian Geese as we took off.  (I held off on my climb as soon as I saw them- talk about avoiding a potential problem...)

Back to Dahlonega for a normal flight over the mountains, which was nice climbing back through the valleys again.  We came over at 4,500 feet, and I let Phil fly the plane for a bit.  He did great!  I took the controls back over and we had a normal approach and landing on runway 33.

Gainesville-Sewanee-Dahlonega  (Saturday, July 12, 2008)

A very early morning flight to Gainesville to practice night landings, but to no avail.  Too late- but at least I got 5 "dawn" landings in anyway, in the middle of sunrise.  I tried to do a grass landing on 29, but saw construction stakes across the grass and decided to do my last one on the pavement.

I waited around at Lanier Flight center until my friend and instructor Matt Perrer made it in.  Got a cup of coffee and chatted with David and Kelley until Matt arrived- nice little visit with "the guys" until students starting arriving a little before 8 AM.   Matt's doing well- full load of students, and of course, a HOT day on the schedule.  (Projected high today of 90 degrees.  "Like flying in a hair dryer" he told me last year.  I still laugh at that one.)

So at 8 AM I had a short taxi to runway 5 and takeoff.  A gentle turn to the north to get around traffic staying in the pattern, then left again on a course of 306.

As I climbed to 8,500 feet I called Atlanta Center at 133.1 and got flight following to UOS (Sewanee, Tennessee).  Flight path was going to take me through Chattanooga air space and over several mountain ranges this morning, but flying west in the early morning put the sun at my back.  It was hazy, making visibility down to the ground mediocre at best.  But in spite of that, the views of the mountains, clouds and highways below were pleasant.

Atlanta center got VERY busy at around 8:20- flights coming into Hartsfield International Airport, of course.  It was pretty fast and furious.

It was a pretty flight.  Enough clouds to make it interesting, and easy handoff to Chattanooga air traffic control (very nice to work with- they gave me easy permission to descend to 6500 to fly below clouds and maintain VFR), and pretty views of Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, the school on top on the mountain (just off my left window), the Tennessee River, Nickajack Lake-- hey, I even got a nice photo of the fireworks stand were Cathy and I bought our fireworks for our July 4 extravaganza a few weeks ago!

As Chattanooga handed me off to Nashville Center, I noticed that I was getting pretty close to Sewanee, at least according to the GPS.  But the view confused me- I was crossing over a mountain range and no airport in sight.  Oh- I get it- wrong mountain.  I saw I-24 winding in between the mountains and realized I wasn't there quite yet.  So I called up Nashville Center and told them I wanted to cancel Flight Following, since I was showing 15 miles out.  Time to descend and land.  The photo I took on the left was as I turned left base for runway 24, getting ready to turn final.

It's a really nice little airport.  Beautifully maintained runway, nice little FBO building with a flag flying- even a friendly official "hanger cat".  (I was told that the cat not only was a great mouser, but she also ridded the property of a big problem they had been having with moles~!  Very friendly place, and nice price on fuel, too.  They even pumped it for me.

Flight back was easy- tail wind all the way back to Dahlonega, but since I was in no rush, I simply climbed to 7,500 at my usual 90 MPH, called Chattanooga approach at 125.1, got flight following to Dahlonega, leveled out and flew almost due east with a bit of a tail wind.

After I left Chattanooga air space, I received permission to descend to 5,500 feet (had some clouds in my way).  I shortly cancelled flight following and flew neatly over the mountains, descending again to 4,500 to clear some lowering clouds as I crossed the mountains closer to Dahlonega.

Normal descent and landing at Dahlonega, runway 15.  Today's flight puts me a little over 193 total flight hours.

Mountain Flying in North & South Carolina  (July 8, 2008)

Since I'm getting very close to my 200-hour mark, I decided to fly Dahlonega (GA) to Pickens County (SC) to Andrews-Murphy (NC) to Blairsville (GA) and home.  The longest legs were only an hour long, and the extended Summer evenings make it pretty easy to fly before dark.

My first leg was to Pickens County SC (LQK) for a total of five landings.  As I was about 20 miles out I heard a Piper SuperCub (1950's vintage) aircraft calling, but much slower than me.  I was in no hurry, so I told him to go ahead while I did a leisurely 360 degree turn to give him more spacing.  When I got 15 miles out I began my descent, and entered the pattern about the time he landed.  I did four "touch and goes" on runway 23, the first one mediocre, numbers 2-4 pretty good and number 5 pretty mediocre.  It's like practicing parallel parking- sometimes you're parking on a hill, sometimes it's raining...  Every landing is different, and you have to practice.  Once I got on the ground, I talked to the guy with the 1954 (!!) light green SuperCub- he just bought it today and is flying it home to Vermont.  Really nice guy.

Leg #2 was to Andrews-Murphy, NC, where I did my FAA checkride with Don Jones last August 24 (2007).  I decided to fly this leg at 8,500 feet-- and see how my body would handle the altitude.   KRHP is tucked into a deep valley, and I had trouble finding it, since I needed to drop below the clouds (without hitting the mountains).  But I found it and landed.

I looked at the radar in Andrews-Murphy, saw some thunderstorms forming to the southwest- but it was still ok to fly.  Now for leg #3- on to Blairsville, where I would get fuel and a Coke.  One of my favorite stops.  That ride was easy- about 20 minutes including taxing at both airports.  Since I seemed to have the place to myself, I came in right traffic into runway 26, landed and taxied to the fuel farm.

While Chris filled it up, I got a Coke and some crackers.  I like Chris- he's got a great sense of humor.  I looked over the radar again and didn't like what I saw- rain and thunderstorms developing between me and Dahlonega.  So I decided to kick back for a half hour and wait it out.  Glad I did- my short flight home (46A to 9A0, above) was easy.  I took off on runway 8, turned south and pointed Trixie at Dahlonega.  I had JUST missed the rain, coming in behind it, and was able to clear the mountains and land in record time.

Landings 399 & 400  (Monday, July 7, 2008)

Made a quick flight to Blairsville Monday evening for landings 399 & 400.  Easy calm conditions, landed twice on runway 26.  Since I was starting to see the runway lights pretty easily, I knew it was time to head back to Dahlonega.  Took off on runway 8 (love that downhill takeoff) and turned due south.  Had a dickens of a time finding Dahlonega- but had a simple enough landing 401.

Flying With David Nash  (Saturday, July 5, 2008)

A really nice morning flying- mountains, rain and my first fly-in!

David Nash (an Army Recruiter friend from church) wanted to fly with me (bless his heart), so we met for a biscuit at McDonald's in Dawsonville,  headed for Dahlonega and flew north up to Blairsville.  David's eyes were getting big (heh, heh, heh) as we headed into the 4,300 foot mountains between us and Blairsville.  It's a short, beautiful flight with the mountains immediately below, with an immediate drop into Blairsville.  Fun!

We skimmed over the passes with at least ten feet to spare (well, it probably seemed like that to David anyway!), and just as we turned northeast and headed for Blairsville the rain really started to come down.  Winds were dead calm in spite of the rain, so we did five landings all together- four touch and goes, one full stop.  I wanted to wait until the rain quite before Chris (at the FBO) had to fill up Trix.  We met some nice folks from Bradenton, Florida who had two Mooneys, and they were getting ready to head home.  Before we left, Chris took our photo (on the right).  Proof for my parole officer.

We next decided to fly to Gainesville, so David could see the lake, and I let David take the controls.  He did great!  I gave him a course to fly (183) after we cleared the mountains, and he held the course and our 4500 foot altitude. 

Over the radio I could hear a LOT of airplanes coming into Gainesville, but none seemed to be leaving.  Hmmmm.  Winds were 280 degrees at 6 knots, but when I'd got my weather brief this morning they had told me that runway 29 was closed for the day- I wasn't happy about a strong crosswind landing.  We overflew the field at 4,500 feet and noticed about 80 airplanes parked all along runway 29 and in the grass on both sides.  As we swung around to enter the pattern, I was told it was "The Georgia Cracker Fly-In."  I'd never been to a fly-in before, so I asked David if he wanted to park Trixie and nose around for a bit.  "SURE!"

I've been in some busy pilot-controlled airports, but that landing was the opposite of Blairsville.  There were four people in the pattern ahead of me, so I had to watch my place in line- and I noticed that while I was lined up for final, there were four people behind me, and more coming in behind.  Crosswind landing, of course- but no pressure, right?

We parked, and there was a lineman with a radio that directed us to turn left on the 29 taxiway.  We parked, pushed her back into place, and decided to walk around.  LOTS of really cool airplanes everywhere you looked- a Lockheed Electra, Stearmans, Piper Cubs and experimental (home built) stuff that was just fun to look at, and had to be a blast to fly.  We took lots of pictures, including this one in front of this pretty little bird.

We stayed around for about an hour, I bought a t-shirt (of course) and we got back into Trixie and headed back to Dahlonega.  It was getting hot (the rain was long gone), and I figured Audrey would be sending out the RCMP to look for me.  Simple and easy flight back to Dahlonega, albeit really bumpy.  David bought me lunch at Zaxby's-- the perfect end to a perfect morning.

Tennessee Fireworks Run  (Friday, July 4, 2008)

Cathy and I made a fireworks run Independence Day morning by flying to Chattanooga, borrowing a car from TacAir, driving out I-24 to exit 61, buying the stuff, driving back to the airport and flying home.

Ok, I admit it.  A lame excuse to fly.  We could have driven to Alabama in less time and for less money, but it was fun to fly on my day off.

A normal takeoff on runway 33, and as we climbed, we As you can see from the GPS on the right, we were right on target flying into CHA, where it was a REALLY quiet morning.  How quiet?  They cleared me to land 8 miles out!  We landed on runway 20, taxied to TacAir north, where we parked Trixie and went inside.  Borrowed a car, swung by Krispie Kreme for coffee and fat pills (doughnuts), then we got on I-24 for our ride west.  Traffic on the interstate was light- not bad at all. 

We  drove back into Georgia, then out again into Tennessee, until we hit exit 61 right at Nickajack Lake, where there were two really big fireworks stands- so we parked, went inside and spent the big bucks.  Well, not the big bucks, but enough to have some fun tonight!

After Cathy and I loaded up the borrowed car, we drove back to the Chattanooga airport (stopping en route for gas- since they were nice enough to loan us a car).    Took off on runway 20, and after being briefly vectored by air traffic control, we had a nice flight back to Dahlonega, making it home in time for lunch.  How were the fireworks that night?  Great!

Left Wingtip Replacement  (Thursday, July 3, 2008)

As you can see from the photos, I was able to find a used replacement wingtip for Trixie online- the one I found was painted black and white, so the first job was to use a heat gun to take off the Cessna decal,  sand down the paint, then get a computer match on the green color (I used automotive paint, worked fine).  After I put on four coats, compounded and waxed the "new" tip, it was time to go out to the hanger with my Ham Radio buddy Ferrell Brown.  Pull off the old busted tip (screws on the bottom and top), then pull out the wires holding the strobe and red wingtip light, then mount the "new" plastic tip with the lights and cover on the end.

I was able to do the sanding and painting in the basement at home.  Left to right above:  Sanded down new tip, new tip after fourth coat of paint, and the above right photo shows the wing in the hanger, in between swapping out the wingtips. 

The photos below show Ferrell screwing in the bottom screws, while yours truly screws in the top screws.  Notice the wires hanging down for the wingtip strobe and left (red) running light.  The entire wingtip swapout took less than 30 minutes.

"Routine maintenance" is allowed by the FAA, and this is a very easy do-it-yourselfer project for a Cessna.  Looks great!  As soon as Ferrel and I were finished, I took two trips around the pattern at dusk in Dahlonega to celebrate a successful repair.  And yes, I WILL be more careful in taxing in the future.  Duh!

Cornelia-Jefferson-Blairsville  (Tuesday, July 1, 2008)

This evening was a nice evening for flying- one of the best.  I took off work at 5 PM, grabbed my flight bag and headed for Dahlonega.  Easy preflight and takeoff on runway 33. 

I needed to unwind (been a long day at work) and I wanted to practice some crosswind landings, and I knew Cornelia (AJR) would be good for that!  I ended up doing 5 right crosswind landings- I didn't like my first one, then my left brake starting sticking on #2, then I had to see if I got my brake fixed... then I had to practice a few more for good measure!

After Cornelia I headed for Jefferson (19A) for cheap fuel (as if $5.20 per gallon is cheap), another crosswind landing (last Friday's video is the one playing in the upper right), then  filled her all the way to the top with 100LL.   Of course, everyone was gone for the day since it was after seven PM, but there was a Diamond shooting touch and goes as well as an instructor I know, Richmond, teaching a student pilot in a Cessna 152.

Decided to fly to Blairsville, since I'd never landed at the airport and it was "right over the mountain" from Dahlonega.  I climbed to 4,500, pulled out my dual band radio, put in airbuds in my ears under my headset and talked to my Ham Radio buddy Ferrell Brown (KE4QDC) via the Cumming repeater as I flew along for a little over a half hour.  Didn't talk very long- I always worry about using repeater frequencies when I'm at altitude.  I signed off, put away the radio, and noticed the mountains ahead where higher than I was, so I decided to climb to 6,500.  I ended up WAY over the mountains, then having to drop 4,500 feet to drop into Blairsville.  (Next time I do that I'll stay at 4,500 and simply drop through the passes as I descend to the airport.)

Blairsville is a pretty airport with a long runway, but it was closed- no self service fuel, office and rest room closed and locked.  Oh, well.  I took the photo (above) as well as a few others, and decided to climb back into Trixie and head home.

My flight from Blairsville to Dahlonega was only 16 miles, and it was fun.  I took off on runway 8, and turned south and began climbing through the pass.  I stopped at 4,500 feet and had very nice views below.  I headed for Dahlonega, then turned northwest and had an easy landing on runway 33.   60-90 minutes of driving through mountain passes-- versus a 15-20 minute flight.  Stopped at the end of runway 33, then I turned around and took back off on runway 15; took one turn around the pattern and landed on runway 15- last time I landed here last Saturday morning I had screwed up my runway numbers on the radio. Duh!

My log book now lists 178 hours total, 123 hours cross country, 384 landings.  Progress.   I've flown over 100 hours the 9 months.