jmaynard
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 1,487
- Location
- Fairmont, Minnesota
- Display Name
Display name:
Jay Maynard
Whew. It feels like I spend the entire weekend in my airplane.
Saturday morning, I was sitting around the home office wondering what I was going to do with myself. I'd originally planned an animal rescue flight, but forecast bad weather had cancelled the mission, with a possible reschedule to Sunday. That left me at loose ends with a gorgeous day in Fairmont.
I got a call from Lance Fisher inviting me to come meet him at KFCM to pick up an electric motion sickness wristband he'd offered to loan. The weather in the Cities had been forecast to suck, and earlier observations had backed that up, but things cleared off right about then. I said "sure!" and launched.
The skies were clear all the way to the Twin Cities. When I got to Flying Cloud, the tower controller wasn't quite clear on the concept of my airplane: "Is that a helicopter or an experimental?" It took me a couple of tries to get across to her that it was neither. I landed, found the FBO, and met Lance. He was out to the airport to change the oil in his Baron. "Wanna swap rides?" I'd never been up in anything between an A36 and an airliner (a Twin Otter qualifies for that, if barely), so I accepted immediately. Before we did that, though, we went to a well-known local eatery, the Lions Tap, for their famous cheeseburgers. I didn't get the famous foot-tall version, though.
Back at the airport, and time to go flying. We departed to the west to get clear of the MSP class B, and he handed me the airplane. I can see why people love Barons: fast, comfortable, easy to handle, and, to my moderate surprise, even docile with one engine out - as long as you deal with it properly. I can see why lack of proficiency kills twin pilots, especially when the necessary automatic response to one condition is counterintuitive. I flew it by hand throughout the maneuver, and didn't even bother trimming away the control pressures, though I would have had it been for real.
We returned to KFCM with things nicely warmed up. Lance popped the oil drains while I went back to the FBO to use the little pilot's room. That done, and my fuel bill paid, I went out to preflight the Zodiac, and Lance met me when that was done. The weather had closed in while we were doing all that, but we were still able to get out and introduce Lance to my airplane. I let him have it from right after takeoff until we were back in the pattern at KFCM. With all of that Porterfield experience, he had no problems dealing with my little airplane.
I taxied back to the FBO and immediately headed for the weather room, while Lance went back to his hangar. It took me less than a minute to decide that I wasn't going back to Fairmont: KFCM was reporting a broken ceiling at 1900, and it was worse as I looked south, with Mankato (halfway) reporting OVC014 and Fairmont reporting OVC011. The crappy forecast had come true with a vengeance. The forecast for Sunday was still looking great, though, so I decided an overnight stay was appropriate. I called my roommate, who quickly agreed to my suggestion to come north with some necessities and pay his sister an overnight visit.
I went back to Lance's hangar, and we spent the next couple of hours finishing up the oil change and a few other minor maintenance tasks on his Baron, then meeting some other interesting airplanes he knew of. Three gorgeous T-6s, a T-28 being restored, a Twin Bonanza (man, that thing is huge!), and a couple of phone calls for directions later, my roommate arrived to take me off Lance's hands.
This morning started early, since I wanted to get an early start back to Fairmont. The ARF flight was a go, and the forecast was fantastic. I was back at the FBO by 7:30. They had the aircraft ready and waiting, and even waived the overnight hangar fee since I'd bought fuel. I checked the weather (clear and a million the whole way), preflighted, and got in. Then I looked out at the wings and saw lots of frost. Now, I'm from Texas, where we usually don't have to deal with frost on aircraft that have just been pulled out from a heated hangar. This caught me off guard. I tried brushing the frost off, but that got me nothing but very cold fingers, so the aircraft went back in the hangar to get rid of it. 30 minutes of that got rid of the frost, and I got out of there as fast as I could.
The flight home was as gorgeous as predicted. I PIREPd that, even: gave winds, reported a few high thin cirriform clouds, smooth air, and added "it's a gorgeous day for flying". Minneapolis Approach wasn't busy, so I asked how I could make their lives easier on the flight later. "Just talk to us. We'll probably route you around the south or north, but we'll make it work."
I got back to Fairmont, put the airplane in my hangar, plugged in the Tanis, went home, ate breakfast, printed off the ARF flight plan with contact numbers, showered, gathered some necessities, and headed back to the airport. I managed to launch for KLSE right about when I'd planned. The flight over wasn't bad at all, and the FBO was pleased to be doing another ARF flight with me.
The incoming pilot arrived just a few minutes later. Our carefully laid plans went somewhat awry: I'd thought the crate the dog came in would knock down and fit on the Zodiac's baggage shelf. No such luck. We tried just about everything we could think of, but it was just too tall, even knocked down into two halves. We finally decided the inbound pilot would get a free crate out of the deal, since it would fit back in his A36 with no problems. We loaded Bear, a year-old Australian shepherd with a very outgoing personality and lots of energy, into my passenger seat, strapped him in securely - we thought - and I taxied out. Things got interesting when Bear decided right after takeoff that he wanted to climb onto the baggage shelf, but they didn't get more than interesting. I'm not sure I want to know what La Crosse Tower thought of my takeoff and climbout, though.
KLSE-KCFE direct goes right over the top of KMSP, paralleling the two main runways there. I knew I wasn't going to go direct. When I got close to the Bravo, I asked Minneapolis Approach, "5ZC is headed to Buffalo. Which way would you like me to go?" He had me turn to the FGT VORTAC and descend from 6500 to 4500, then cleared me into the class B. (Take that, C90!) A little vectoring and a further descent later, and I went to KCFE without having gone terribly far out of my way. This was a good thing, as my fuel reserves had dropped below what I like to have.
I got pictures while Bear went off with his new friends. KCFE has the cheapest fuel in the area (100LL was $2.88 a gallon), and I took full advantage. Back in the air, I thanked Minneapolis Approach for all of their help when they handed me off to Center. I was more than a little surprised when Center asked me, "You're the first Zodiac I've worked. Is that a homebuilt, or did you buy it?" My reply got stepped on, and he spent the next 15 minutes or so sequencing airliners and dealing with a speed request from Approach. That done, he got back to me just before handoff and repeated his question. I replied, "You're the first one to know there's a difference! This is a factory aircraft." I could hear the smile in his voice as he handed me to the next sector.
I could see the high overcast off to the west and south as I got back to Fairmont. 122.8 was really busy, but I did manage to get a few words in edgewise as I came back home for the final time today. I was really beat, though. I went to bed about 7 PM, after logging 5.7 hours in 4 flights today and 7.3 total on the weekend. I'm going back to bed now...*yawn*
Saturday morning, I was sitting around the home office wondering what I was going to do with myself. I'd originally planned an animal rescue flight, but forecast bad weather had cancelled the mission, with a possible reschedule to Sunday. That left me at loose ends with a gorgeous day in Fairmont.
I got a call from Lance Fisher inviting me to come meet him at KFCM to pick up an electric motion sickness wristband he'd offered to loan. The weather in the Cities had been forecast to suck, and earlier observations had backed that up, but things cleared off right about then. I said "sure!" and launched.
The skies were clear all the way to the Twin Cities. When I got to Flying Cloud, the tower controller wasn't quite clear on the concept of my airplane: "Is that a helicopter or an experimental?" It took me a couple of tries to get across to her that it was neither. I landed, found the FBO, and met Lance. He was out to the airport to change the oil in his Baron. "Wanna swap rides?" I'd never been up in anything between an A36 and an airliner (a Twin Otter qualifies for that, if barely), so I accepted immediately. Before we did that, though, we went to a well-known local eatery, the Lions Tap, for their famous cheeseburgers. I didn't get the famous foot-tall version, though.
Back at the airport, and time to go flying. We departed to the west to get clear of the MSP class B, and he handed me the airplane. I can see why people love Barons: fast, comfortable, easy to handle, and, to my moderate surprise, even docile with one engine out - as long as you deal with it properly. I can see why lack of proficiency kills twin pilots, especially when the necessary automatic response to one condition is counterintuitive. I flew it by hand throughout the maneuver, and didn't even bother trimming away the control pressures, though I would have had it been for real.
We returned to KFCM with things nicely warmed up. Lance popped the oil drains while I went back to the FBO to use the little pilot's room. That done, and my fuel bill paid, I went out to preflight the Zodiac, and Lance met me when that was done. The weather had closed in while we were doing all that, but we were still able to get out and introduce Lance to my airplane. I let him have it from right after takeoff until we were back in the pattern at KFCM. With all of that Porterfield experience, he had no problems dealing with my little airplane.
I taxied back to the FBO and immediately headed for the weather room, while Lance went back to his hangar. It took me less than a minute to decide that I wasn't going back to Fairmont: KFCM was reporting a broken ceiling at 1900, and it was worse as I looked south, with Mankato (halfway) reporting OVC014 and Fairmont reporting OVC011. The crappy forecast had come true with a vengeance. The forecast for Sunday was still looking great, though, so I decided an overnight stay was appropriate. I called my roommate, who quickly agreed to my suggestion to come north with some necessities and pay his sister an overnight visit.
I went back to Lance's hangar, and we spent the next couple of hours finishing up the oil change and a few other minor maintenance tasks on his Baron, then meeting some other interesting airplanes he knew of. Three gorgeous T-6s, a T-28 being restored, a Twin Bonanza (man, that thing is huge!), and a couple of phone calls for directions later, my roommate arrived to take me off Lance's hands.
This morning started early, since I wanted to get an early start back to Fairmont. The ARF flight was a go, and the forecast was fantastic. I was back at the FBO by 7:30. They had the aircraft ready and waiting, and even waived the overnight hangar fee since I'd bought fuel. I checked the weather (clear and a million the whole way), preflighted, and got in. Then I looked out at the wings and saw lots of frost. Now, I'm from Texas, where we usually don't have to deal with frost on aircraft that have just been pulled out from a heated hangar. This caught me off guard. I tried brushing the frost off, but that got me nothing but very cold fingers, so the aircraft went back in the hangar to get rid of it. 30 minutes of that got rid of the frost, and I got out of there as fast as I could.
The flight home was as gorgeous as predicted. I PIREPd that, even: gave winds, reported a few high thin cirriform clouds, smooth air, and added "it's a gorgeous day for flying". Minneapolis Approach wasn't busy, so I asked how I could make their lives easier on the flight later. "Just talk to us. We'll probably route you around the south or north, but we'll make it work."
I got back to Fairmont, put the airplane in my hangar, plugged in the Tanis, went home, ate breakfast, printed off the ARF flight plan with contact numbers, showered, gathered some necessities, and headed back to the airport. I managed to launch for KLSE right about when I'd planned. The flight over wasn't bad at all, and the FBO was pleased to be doing another ARF flight with me.
The incoming pilot arrived just a few minutes later. Our carefully laid plans went somewhat awry: I'd thought the crate the dog came in would knock down and fit on the Zodiac's baggage shelf. No such luck. We tried just about everything we could think of, but it was just too tall, even knocked down into two halves. We finally decided the inbound pilot would get a free crate out of the deal, since it would fit back in his A36 with no problems. We loaded Bear, a year-old Australian shepherd with a very outgoing personality and lots of energy, into my passenger seat, strapped him in securely - we thought - and I taxied out. Things got interesting when Bear decided right after takeoff that he wanted to climb onto the baggage shelf, but they didn't get more than interesting. I'm not sure I want to know what La Crosse Tower thought of my takeoff and climbout, though.
KLSE-KCFE direct goes right over the top of KMSP, paralleling the two main runways there. I knew I wasn't going to go direct. When I got close to the Bravo, I asked Minneapolis Approach, "5ZC is headed to Buffalo. Which way would you like me to go?" He had me turn to the FGT VORTAC and descend from 6500 to 4500, then cleared me into the class B. (Take that, C90!) A little vectoring and a further descent later, and I went to KCFE without having gone terribly far out of my way. This was a good thing, as my fuel reserves had dropped below what I like to have.
I got pictures while Bear went off with his new friends. KCFE has the cheapest fuel in the area (100LL was $2.88 a gallon), and I took full advantage. Back in the air, I thanked Minneapolis Approach for all of their help when they handed me off to Center. I was more than a little surprised when Center asked me, "You're the first Zodiac I've worked. Is that a homebuilt, or did you buy it?" My reply got stepped on, and he spent the next 15 minutes or so sequencing airliners and dealing with a speed request from Approach. That done, he got back to me just before handoff and repeated his question. I replied, "You're the first one to know there's a difference! This is a factory aircraft." I could hear the smile in his voice as he handed me to the next sector.
I could see the high overcast off to the west and south as I got back to Fairmont. 122.8 was really busy, but I did manage to get a few words in edgewise as I came back home for the final time today. I was really beat, though. I went to bed about 7 PM, after logging 5.7 hours in 4 flights today and 7.3 total on the weekend. I'm going back to bed now...*yawn*
