GA sucks, and also doesn't.

EdFred

EdFred

Taxi to Parking
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
30,204
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Display name:
White Chocolate
So for those of you who are still wondering if the engagement was some convoluted prank, or if it was legit, here's the continuing saga:

April and the kids live(d) in Vero Beach. They aren't fully moving all of the house stuff up until August, but are moved in as far as clothes and important stuff like X-boxes go. That happened this weekend, but how we got here, hoo-boy. Sit down, shut up, and hold on...

Her oldest was supposed to graduate on May 13th, and the plan was for me to fly all the way down to Vero Beach on the 19th, since my cousin had a wedding reception near Cherokee County (CNI) Georgia on the 21st. She would ship up ahead of time a bunch of clothes and other things that would be needed until the full house move in August. I would pick up her, the kids, the 3 dogs (a 9 month old 90lb great dane, a 70lb boxer and an 11lb punt dog) stop at CNI on the way back, attend the reception, stay the night, continue on home the 22nd. Perfect, right? Nope. About 3 weeks before he graduates the school decides, "oh, the other schools in the district aren't graduating until later, lets move graduation to the 24th of May. Much cussing and disparaging words about the school district are said. Really, 3 weeks of notice for something like that? So we change up the plans.

Now instead of me flying all the way down, she gets a plane ticket from MLB to ATL, gets the two biggest suitcases she can, loads em to the gills, and checks them to ATL. I fly down to CNI, and I toss that stuff in my plane, and bring them home ahead of me going back to Vero Beach on Memorial Day weekend. Perfect, this will work out great. I get in my plane on the 20th, fly to CNI without any issue at all. Mom and dad arrived not too far ahead of me (they were doing a big road trip) so they picked me up at the airport, got to the hotel, saw family and April gets in a few hours later and everything is going fine until Saturday. Saturday they issue a weather forecast that does not bode well for me getting home. Embedded TS, hail, etc... That's a nope. So the only flight I can get back out of ATL is a 21-something departure on Sunday evening. Oh, and the only seat left is first class. Get out the credit card. So check her bags as I get two "free" bags with a FC seat. The flight of course gets delayed, I don't end up getting home until 130 am Monday morning, and my plane sits until Friday at CNI.

Friday morning (the 27th) I get an Uber in the 4 o clock hour to make my 6am flight back to ATL. It arrives later than I wanted, but I still make it through security and to by gate with about 5 minutes before boarding. Luckily I'm traveling light - only carried a tablet, phone, keys, wallet, and ID, since I left the flight bag in the Comanche, and sent a couple changes of clothes with April the previous weekend. I Uber again from ATL allllll the way to CNI and the weather in GA is fine, but North FL has a line of TS. I file out of CNI, get on top of what was there, fuel in Baxley, GA, and look to see what we've got going on near JAX, DAB, and ORL/MCO. Eff it. We're going full send. I channel my inner Ted, weave through the line down low, and get to Vero Beach without incident. We do dinner and decide on an 8am departure in the morning. Supposed to be perfect all the way back once we get north of Daytona Beach.

6 am comes, we get up, get out to the airport with 2 cars. Kids have backpacks, April has her stuff. We prepack the plane, (we're fine on W&B, just making sure we fit) and a couple things don't fit, so they are left behind. April and the oldest take the two cars back to the house to get an Uber back to the airport. The dogs are tied to the tie downs, and the two older ones are either sunning, or laying the shade. The puppy however is doing puppy stuff and trying to get on the wing, and other nonsense, so I take her over the the grass, and tie her off around a light pole while I am doing the preflight. Suddenly she's right up next to me. WTF. Yeah, she just bit right through her 1" leash. Ugh. Tie her back to the tie downs, this time with less slack, and April and her oldest are back, so we load up and are on our way. Clouds were lower near Daytona than predicted but we got out over the water and did the 5 D's with the clouds: Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and....dodge. I was going to get a clearance in the air, but suddenly the clouds were gone and it was clear and a million. The kids are asleep, the two big dogs are asleep in the baggage area, the little one is content between the kids in the back seat, we're getting a good ground speed, life is good. We refuel at Baxley, and split the difference between there and home at DVK. I don't file, I'll just get flight following and a pop up clearance with ZID or LEX into DVK if the clouds aren't gone by the time we get there. Or so I planned...

We are over the Apps at 8500, ride is smooth, still getting decent ground speed, the dogs are calm, and suddenly I hear a weird noise in my ANR headset. I ask April if she heard something. Sounded like something light may have hit the plane. She said she heard it too, so I wasn't hearing things. That's not good. Now we keep hearing it, repeatedly, a sporadic, quiet thumping sound. Maybe dogs they dogs are antsy. "Hey, are the dogs OK?"

"Mom, I can see outside!"

Piper didn't expect to have dogs, or anything that might push against the the baggage door, in the baggage area when they designed the door. In just moving around to adjust body position (the baggage area in the Comanche is actually bigger than the kennel the boxer and dane share at home) the puppy popped the baggage door open. Aluminum flexes pretty easy. And being a puppy, seeing that it's outside, does what puppies do. The thumping in the headsets is her pushing the door open and it being pushed closed by 130 some knots of air and the pressure differential in the cabin.

"Mom, I don't see [the boxer]!"

(internally) Oh F*** I just killed their dog to start this whole new life together.
 
"Atlanta Center, we are making an emergency decent."

RHP is closer than 1A5, so I start for that. The controller at ZTL is helping out, telling me where the airport is, but at the same time I have it on the iFly am getting the info, for runway length, number, etc...

"OK, [the boxer] is still here."

"Grab their collars and hold on. If you need to get out of the seatbelts get out and hold them."

Get down, and make a firm landing, but not the worst I've done, and taxi over to the ramp. Guys come out to the plane ask if everything is good, we say yes, and they let ZTL know we are on the ground. We start brain storming. Her oldest can push the door open with relative ease, even with it being latched. OK, who do we know nearby? Can we do anything else to keep the door shut? Dozens of questions being asked. We decide, and it actually worked out good, April and her daughter in the back seat, with the dane on their laps. The boxer and the little one in the baggage area, and the bags that were on laps in the baggage area between the dogs and the door. Climb out of RHP, dogs are calm/asleep, and off we continue to DVK. Broken to OVC with the bases at 4000 MSL, tops around 5. No problem, get a clearance with ZID, descend into DVK, request a contact approach since we are just in and out at 4k. Cleared to 3. Cancel, land, pee break, snack time, re-hydrate, fuel back to 70 gallons, taxi to the hold short line. We got this. Oh no, it can't be that easy.

1800 RPM. Mag one check. 1760. Perfect. Mag two check. 800. Taxi back to the ramp. It's Saturday, on a holiday weekend. There's no A&Ps around. But there's some great, great, great, great guys at DVK though. One, Richard, ends up calling every A&P he can think of that he trusts, but being a holiday weekend they are all, well, on holiday. But we still have the issue of being in Danville, KY with no changes of clothes, no transportation, 3 dogs, and we still are trying to get back to Michigan. The FBO guys start offering suggestions, none of which will really work. April somehow gets a rental through Alamo for an SUV for a week-long rental for about $600 at Lexington, but, there’s no Uber to get us to LEX. There is a Lyft, but that guy (yes, only one Lyft driver in town) is also on the Fire Department, a police officer, their hostage crisis negotiator, and a couple other job titles, and doesn’t answer. Then Richard says, “If you pay for my fuel, I can get you to Lexington.” OK, deal. So, April, the kids and the dogs, stay at the FBO in Danville, I top off Richard’s diesel pickup – he was on near empty – and he and I get ready to head off to Lexington. He come out of the gas station/convenience store and says I didn’t need to fill it up, just enough to get to LEX and back. I say you’re doing way more than you need to, so don’t worry about me giving you too much fuel.

We make the hour drive to Lexington without issue, and I get to the Alamo desk and talk with the counter guy, ask if there’s a way to make this a one way after telling him the scenario of what has gone on today. Customer service nothing-speak regarding corporate policy ensues states there’s a $300 security deposit for the rental and says if we don’t bring it back there were be a $700 drop off charge for a one way rental. **** it, I’m mentally exhausted. I will deal with this later or just light the car on fire when we make it home and say ‘my bad.’ I start drive the hour back (which is the opposite direction from where we actually need to be headed) and give April a call. She’s doing awful. A headache has set in, she’s nauseous, and everyone is getting ornery. I feel like a combination of Clark W. Griswold and Jerry Gallo/Callo/Vincent Gambini. If there’s was a moose anywhere nearby, whether alive, or animatronic, I was going to cave its face in. The FBO guys were gracious enough to show April how to lock/unlock the FBO, told her to bring the dogs inside, and while I was on the 2.5 hour adventure to and from Lexington she was able to get the kids food delivered.

On the way back I get a call from the Lyft driver, and I think it’s one of the A&P’s that I left a message for. He’s going to meet us at the airport and look at the plane as he only lives 5 minutes away. I thank him; I get to the airport, and start getting the family ready to pack up the SUV. Jim arrives and I realize he’s the Lyft guy when I see his first responder’s shirt. I ask if he’s also an A&P and he says “Well, I can do stuff…” I say that no offense but, I really want this looked at by someone that can sign the logbook, and he’s totally understanding of it, and we talk for a bit while the SUV is getting loaded up. He asks if there’s anything else he can do, and I jokingly say, “Well, if you could give us a police escort so we can knock down some of our 9 hour drive time, that would be great.”

“I would if I had my cruiser, but I tell you what I can do. I know every highway patrol officer on the interstates if you go towards Cincinnati, and my dad was [some position] in Ohio, I will send a message to give you a pass.”

He snaps a picture of the license plate and sends out a text message to that effect, and wishes us luck, and if anything comes up give him a call.
 
Going the Cincinnati route was going to be longer time wise even if I did do my best impression of 1977 Burt Reynolds. So we headed off towards Louisville with the sun in our eyes. I’m fuming, frustrated, agitated, swear I’m selling the plane, but I press on. I had the cruise set for about 8 over. So I still had people passing me, and I was creeping up on cars to pass. Rather than move over and cut people off when I would pass, I would lay off the cruise to let them pass. But every single car that I did that for would get up right next to me, slow down to match the speed of the car I was going to pass for about a mile, and then after that, slam on the gas and be gone. What the **** is wrong with you people in Indiana? (Yes, all Indiana plates.) We stop at a Love’s somewhere in Indiana. Might have been after Indy, might have been before, but somewhere in the state where not a single ****ing person knows how to pass. We go in and get snacks, caffeinated drinks, use the facilities, and I’m the first one back out to the car. Mother****er! The dane had jumped over the back seat and knocked the drinks from Zaxby’s all over the back seat. I march back into Love’s…

“Well, there’s another $300 wasted on this trip!”

Start grabbing the super non-absorbent brown paper towels out of the dispenser in the men’s room. Wipe up the back seat. It doesn’t go well. More towels. OK, well one of the kids is going to have to sit on a wet seat. We get back in the car and on a scale of 1-10 my stress level is about a 25 and now I am ready to kill one of the dogs. Continue along, still dealing with the idiots that have no idea how to pass, or use cruise control. Get past Fort Wayne, and we’re in the home stretch. Just have to keep my eyes open for another couple hours and we will be good. Finally this day can end. Nope. You surely didn’t expect me get off that easy, did you.

Just crest a small hill and red and blues are flashing in the right lane, and everyone has moved over to the left lane. I slow down and start to move over. Oh, but they aren’t just lsowing to move over, the dumbshits at the tail end of the left lane that is dead-ass stopped don’t have hazard flashers on, or their brake lights. They just put it in park and give absolutely no warning they are at a standstill. I weave back into the right lane and get the vehicle slowed to a stop, put on my hazards, and put in it in park. And we wait. And wait. And wait. Remember when I said no one in Indiana knows how to drive? Well some dip**** can’t keep his vehicle on the road and closes down the highway. On top of that, this was a southbound accident that the accident occurred. But the brain trust that is the police for this section of I-69 opted to close the northbound lanes as well. Because even though they routed all the southbound traffic off the highway so those people could continue on their way, and had plenty of space in those there, they decided that the northbound lanes would be where they would land the helicopter. ****!

Finally, after nineteen and a half hours we made it home…where the A/C now wasn’t working.
 
Holy hell what a CF. The dog opening the baggage door had to have been a real butt pucker moment. It made my stomach drop just reading it.

As someone who has experienced the "long drive home", I can empathize. Hope the mag is a simple fix. Got a mechanic lined up yet?
 
Jim K said:
Holy hell what a CF. The dog opening the baggage door had to have been a real butt pucker moment. It made my stomach drop just reading it.

As someone who has experienced the "long drive home", I can empathize. Hope the mag is a simple fix. Got a mechanic lined up yet?
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Mtns2Skies said:
Wasn't just a fouled plug was it?
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There's a guy that is supposed to be looking at it today. And I never thought it was a fouled plug. It's like the cylinders were only firing every other time.
 
I don't know who had a worse weekend, you or this guy!
boat sink.jpg
 
Holy crap! That’s quite a misadventure! Sorry you had to go through that. It’ll be a fun one to retell at some point in the future.

I had an (airline) trip back from Shanghai to the US about 10-12 years ago that is almost funny now.
 
EdFred said:
Going the Cincinnati route was going to be longer time wise even if I did do my best impression of 1977 Burt Reynolds. So we headed off towards Louisville with the sun in our eyes. I’m fuming, frustrated, agitated, swear I’m selling the plane, but I press on. I had the cruise set for about 8 over. So I still had people passing me, and I was creeping up on cars to pass. Rather than move over and cut people off when I would pass, I would lay off the cruise to let them pass. But every single car that I did that for would get up right next to me, slow down to match the speed of the car I was going to pass for about a mile, and then after that, slam on the gas and be gone. What the **** is wrong with you people in Indiana? (Yes, all Indiana plates.) We stop at a Love’s somewhere in Indiana. Might have been after Indy, might have been before, but somewhere in the state where not a single ****ing person knows how to pass. We go in and get snacks, caffeinated drinks, use the facilities, and I’m the first one back out to the car. Mother****er! The dane had jumped over the back seat and knocked the drinks from Zaxby’s all over the back seat. I march back into Love’s…

“Well, there’s another $300 wasted on this trip!”

Start grabbing the super non-absorbent brown paper towels out of the dispenser in the men’s room. Wipe up the back seat. It doesn’t go well. More towels. OK, well one of the kids is going to have to sit on a wet seat. We get back in the car and on a scale of 1-10 my stress level is about a 25 and now I am ready to kill one of the dogs. Continue along, still dealing with the idiots that have no idea how to pass, or use cruise control. Get past Fort Wayne, and we’re in the home stretch. Just have to keep my eyes open for another couple hours and we will be good. Finally this day can end. Nope. You surely didn’t expect me get off that easy, did you.

Just crest a small hill and red and blues are flashing in the right lane, and everyone has moved over to the left lane. I slow down and start to move over. Oh, but they aren’t just lsowing to move over, the dumbshits at the tail end of the left lane that is dead-ass stopped don’t have hazard flashers on, or their brake lights. They just put it in park and give absolutely no warning they are at a standstill. I weave back into the right lane and get the vehicle slowed to a stop, put on my hazards, and put in it in park. And we wait. And wait. And wait. Remember when I said no one in Indiana knows how to drive? Well some dip**** can’t keep his vehicle on the road and closes down the highway. On top of that, this was a southbound accident that the accident occurred. But the brain trust that is the police for this section of I-69 opted to close the northbound lanes as well. Because even though they routed all the southbound traffic off the highway so those people could continue on their way, and had plenty of space in those there, they decided that the northbound lanes would be where they would land the helicopter. ****!

Finally, after nineteen and a half hours we made it home…where the A/C now wasn’t working.
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But other than that, how was the trip?
upload_2022-5-31_13-51-19.jpeg
 
EdFred said:
Going the Cincinnati route was going to be longer time wise even if I did do my best impression of 1977 Burt Reynolds. So we headed off towards Louisville with the sun in our eyes. I’m fuming, frustrated, agitated, swear I’m selling the plane, but I press on. I had the cruise set for about 8 over. So I still had people passing me, and I was creeping up on cars to pass. Rather than move over and cut people off when I would pass, I would lay off the cruise to let them pass. But every single car that I did that for would get up right next to me, slow down to match the speed of the car I was going to pass for about a mile, and then after that, slam on the gas and be gone. What the **** is wrong with you people in Indiana? (Yes, all Indiana plates.) We stop at a Love’s somewhere in Indiana. Might have been after Indy, might have been before, but somewhere in the state where not a single ****ing person knows how to pass. We go in and get snacks, caffeinated drinks, use the facilities, and I’m the first one back out to the car. Mother****er! The dane had jumped over the back seat and knocked the drinks from Zaxby’s all over the back seat. I march back into Love’s…

“Well, there’s another $300 wasted on this trip!”

Start grabbing the super non-absorbent brown paper towels out of the dispenser in the men’s room. Wipe up the back seat. It doesn’t go well. More towels. OK, well one of the kids is going to have to sit on a wet seat. We get back in the car and on a scale of 1-10 my stress level is about a 25 and now I am ready to kill one of the dogs. Continue along, still dealing with the idiots that have no idea how to pass, or use cruise control. Get past Fort Wayne, and we’re in the home stretch. Just have to keep my eyes open for another couple hours and we will be good. Finally this day can end. Nope. You surely didn’t expect me get off that easy, did you.

Just crest a small hill and red and blues are flashing in the right lane, and everyone has moved over to the left lane. I slow down and start to move over. Oh, but they aren’t just lsowing to move over, the dumbshits at the tail end of the left lane that is dead-ass stopped don’t have hazard flashers on, or their brake lights. They just put it in park and give absolutely no warning they are at a standstill. I weave back into the right lane and get the vehicle slowed to a stop, put on my hazards, and put in it in park. And we wait. And wait. And wait. Remember when I said no one in Indiana knows how to drive? Well some dip**** can’t keep his vehicle on the road and closes down the highway. On top of that, this was a southbound accident that the accident occurred. But the brain trust that is the police for this section of I-69 opted to close the northbound lanes as well. Because even though they routed all the southbound traffic off the highway so those people could continue on their way, and had plenty of space in those there, they decided that the northbound lanes would be where they would land the helicopter. ****!

Finally, after nineteen and a half hours we made it home…where the A/C now wasn’t working.
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So I take it Indiana is off your list of places to retire to
 
eman1200 said:
TLDR - bad mag, almost punched a moose, driving on I-69......that's right, I-69.
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I almost called you on Saturday to see if you wanted to split passengers and fly back to Michigan when we were brainstorming in North Carolina.
 
EdFred said:
I almost called you on Saturday to see if you wanted to split passengers and fly back to Michigan when we were brainstorming in North Carolina.
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you totally could have called me. I'd have said no thanks, but please feel free to reach out :)

I just flew around a bunch on saturday. went to talk to a local guy about refurbing my glorious 1970's interior, then went to check up on the pik n pig status (a lot further behind where I'd expect them to be), then flew to lunch/fuel then back home. I prob could'a flown to michigan and back.
 
Damn! The popped baggage door with dogs in the back made my stomach sink
 
Well written, sorry for the misadventure.
 
Sell the script to Hollywood. This would make a great family comedy and you'd cash in, making this trip your best trip ever in hindsight. Sorry to hear your trip went bad. I think most, if not all of us flying those little planes around can relate to some extend.
 
Copy and paste in an email to all aviation magazines for their “I learned about flying from that” or whatever they might call those columns. But only if Hollywood doesn’t make you an offer for another Griswold sequel where Clark does his first long cross country with the family in the Super Turbo Bugsmasher Deluxe.

Glad you had enough Credit Cards with you.

Cheers.
 
Ok, I fell off the wagon. I'm trying to understand the logistics of carrying live animals in the baggage compartment of pre-'66 comanche. Is the hatshelf panel removable in order to gain access to the compartment? Light deprivation, ventilation?
 
kaiser said:
Who else but @eman1200
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Hey I’m not gonna say this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in a Mooney, but there ain’t no dog on earth that’s gonna push the baggage door open on a rock solid Johnson bar mooney.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Ok, I fell off the wagon. I'm trying to understand the logistics of carrying live animals in the baggage compartment of pre-'66 comanche. Is the hatshelf panel removable in order to gain access to the compartment? Light deprivation, ventilation?
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Removed the hat shelf over a decade ago so I could fit a mountain bike in the baggage area. When I did that, I also made the back panel a solid piece of aluminum with padding and covering with an access panel to the battery. That entire back panel was thicker aluminum than the door's. And with the carpet from Airtex being cut just smaller than the baggage area there is airflow from under the back seat. If I don't put another blanket in back and seal it off you can feel the airflow in the passenger area as well.
 
eman1200 said:
Hey I’m not gonna say this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in a Mooney, but there ain’t no dog on earth that’s gonna push the baggage door open on a rock solid Johnson bar mooney.
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I'd like to see you get a dog that big in there.
 
Welcome to the life of a family man.

Wish I could tell you it gets better. But I can’t. Cuz it doesn’t.
 
So, when her parents heard how the move went, they were sympathetic, right?
 
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