EdFred
Taxi to Parking
In response to Kent's super sweet adventure, I'll post my Wings adventure...
Sorry, no pictures, I didn’t have anyone to delegate those duties to like some people do.
Day 1 - 9D9 -> KLOM
Temperatures, bases, tops were mitigating factors in how I should file, or if I should file at all, and when I should leave Hastings for Wings Field. Thursday dragged on at the office, and I had filed for a 2100z departure, but since nothing was happening at work, I cut out at 2:30 and made my way to the airport via Radio Shack. The plan this year was to really document everything with audio and video. Well that was the plan anyway. I don't have a mic input on my video camera, but I do have a laptop that I can record to and then overlay it on video. So I get a patch cable and 1/8 -> 1/4 adapter so I could plug the laptop into the intercom and record all the audio including ATC, my choice of music, and any transmissions I would make. So I get everything I need from the Shack, including an inverter so I can plug my laptop in, and off to the airport I go.
The airplane was already fueled since the 100LL was only $3.19, I kept topping off after each flight knowing the price was going to go up with the next fuel load they got it. I got my L-23/24 from the FBO packed up the airplane with my clothes bag, my laptop bag, and my Jeppesen Flight bag turned electronics bag which had my cell phone, mp3 player, digital camera, video camera, and handheld transceiver. I get everything set up electronically and taxi over to runway 12. I cue the laptop and video camera for recording, fire up the mp3 player with some Motley Crue make my radio call, and launch. "Recording Failure" shows on the video camera after I get about 1500 AGL. Ah crap. Well, I do have the audio, whatever that is worth.
I call up Grand Rapids to open my flight plan and get my squawk, and evidently AOPA's flight planner did not cancel my first IFR plan, and I had re-filed a second one with DUAT so Grand Rapids took a while opening me up. I got my squawk and was told to remain VFR. The bases up ahead were about 7000 so I just slowed my climb to my filed altitude of 9000 as I was already above 5500 by this point. Then I get the 'bad' news:
"2212R we're not picking up your transponder, I can't give you a clearance without a secondary return."
"Uh, ok, what's Lansing's frequency? I'll see if they can pick me up."
They give me the frequency and cut me loose, so I call up Lansing, tell them where I am, and what I am squawking, and lo and behold, they have no trouble seeing me. But they have to now find my flight plan. They open me up, clear me as filed, and I smash through a few clouds as I climb to niner thousand. Then Lansing comes back to me, "12R, your transponder is intermittent at best." What the hell, ok, I've run my laptop before in the plane with no transponder issues, I've run my video camera in the plane with no issues, and I've run the MP3 player in the plane with no issues. So I yank the inverter, which my laptop was plugged into for power, out of the cigarette slot and two seconds later Lansing says that's better. Ok, well we found the problem. Three minutes later they come back saying it's still spotty. Hmmmm, do I turn around and scrap the weekend?
About that time the tops come up just a little bit and I pick up a little ice, I ask Lansing if I can go to eleven and they said not yet, but they will relay that request to Detroit when they hand me off. I get the hand off to Detroit Approach, and I am told unable for eleven, and I can either stay at nine or descend to five. It was just one patch of clouds and I was back in the clear, and the small trace I picked up had sublimated so I continued on at nine thousand. The last two times I've gone into WINGS, I've gotten RAV -> BUNTS -> Wings, and so that's what I had filed. My course should be about 110°-115° to intercept the Ravine VOR, and that's when Detroit gets confused. Fly heading 100, fly heading 120, fly heading 090, and fly heading 130. Finally after talking to the third Detroit Controller, she realizes those vectors were doing nothing and gives me a resume own navigation.
The first Detroit controller had issues with my transponder, but the second and third ones did not so I have decided that I am not going to turn around and I will continue on as planned. By this time I have shut off everything electronic in the plane, and I get handed off to Cleveland Center, who is having problems receiving me. So I cycle, I test, I ident (or is that iDent?) and their reception is still sporadic, even though I am showing a return. Although, maybe it is a bit slow on the flashing. I get turned over to Cleveland Approach, and at this point it is VMC and I have a great view of the Erie shoreline as I leave Canadian airspace. Cleveland must like me better than Kent, because I wasn't given any vectors and was in line with departures off runway 6 out of Hopkins. Approach has no issues with my transponder, and I continue on getting turned back over to Center, who does have issues. This pattern continues on as some sectors are ok, some are not, some have my mode C, and some do not. Sigh.
Somewhere over eastern Ohio it starts to cloud up over me and below me, and I'm in between layers now. There's no outside reference at all, so I am really on the instruments. OAT is about -5C and I'm going in and out of some wisps. Then it starts to get a bit more solid, and this is the first actual I've been in since, um, August I think and first extended time in the clouds at all in over a year. No big deal, nothing more than a 5 degree drift here and there as I keep messing with the transponder. I then get a advisory from ZOB telling me they are painting some precip in front of me, about 7 miles across about 30 seconds after I start to get a little accumulation on the windscreen and leading edge. Now, I probably should have gotten out of it right away, but it was only 3-4 minutes of my time and I had warmer air below me if it got too bad, so I just watched a little bit of rime build up, but nothing that affected my ground speed, or required a trim adjustment to maintain altitude. I got through the precip with hardly any buildup and was out the other side of it with no issues, except one. I had clouds above me, so I had no solar radiance to help get rid of it. Oh well, it's not affecting anything, and my pitot static is still working, so I won't worry about it as I get handed off to New York Center.
"12R advise ready to copy amended clearance."
Son of a...I even filed what they always give me.
"Ready to copy, 12R"
"12R amended clearance is RAV -> V170 -> V210 -> BUNTS -> Wings."
I read it back, he doesn't acknowledge my read back is correct and I don't worry about it, as I am still messing with the transponder and by this time I have accumulated enough ice that it blocked my pitot tube. I really probably should have a heated pitot put in, but this only happens once a year so it always slips my mind, besides, I've got 4000 of safe zone below me where it's warmer. So I am cruising along holding my altitude perfectly (static is blocked) and an IAS of 0. I do have the altimeter on the 430, it's no big deal yet, and it's still only a trace on the wings and ground speed and AoA hasn't changed. So I finally check to see where V170 and 210 are. What a stupid amended clearance. It's only about a 3 mile deviation to the west before intercepting BUNTS. By this time my gas caps started to grow horns, and I said that's enough and asked for 7000 from ZNY. I descend to 7000 which is under the bases, and an OAT of 33F. Not quite warm enough to get rid of the ice, but I'm pretty much VMC even though I'm only about two hundred feet below the clouds.
With the sun setting behind me the temperature starts to drop, and what happens, the cloud bases start to drop a little, I'm just at the very bottom of the clouds now and then I'm in actual again. Then I start hearing banging on the windscreen. Rain and my OAT says 32. Ok, rime is one thing, clear is a whole 'nother donkey, so I don't ask for 5, I tell them I'm 5000 for ice. By the way the VSI shows opposite trend when the static is frozen over. My altitude is granted, like they had a choice, now I'm nice and warm at 38 degrees, everything peels away and I get all my instruments back before I am handed off to Harrisburg - who doesn't see my transponder at all. The frequency was pretty quiet and we had a discussion about my transponder, and that I know what my bonus money this year was probably going to pay for. I ask if they want me on an airway or position reporting and they say no, they have a great primary return on me.
I do keep a set of Allen wrenches in my plane, so I dig around for them, pull out the correct size on the first try, and loosen up the screw and try and pull the transponder out, but it's pretty tight so I shake it a bit, and give it a little rap with the palm of my hand to push it into the connectors and tighten it back up.
"12R I don't know what magic you worked, but we have a perfect secondary on your transponder what did you do?"
"I hit it."
I can hear the controllers laughing at my response, and then I tell them what I really did after they asked if I had a magic hammer in the plane. I get handed off to Reading, and then Philly approach who clears me direct to Wings just before I hit V210, which is something like the 113 off the Lancaster VOR, so I hit the FPL button on the 430, turn to KLOM, and punch D, enter twice, and make my turn. I haven't come in here at night, so I'm looking in the wrong place for it, but pick up the beacon just as Philly tells me it's 3 miles and 12 o clock. I cancel IFR, and hop over to advisory get on downwind for 6, and hear this:
"Wings Field, any traffic in the area please advise."
"Well I had a couple bottles of wine for you, but after that I think I'll just have to keep them.......Adam."
I make my tight slipping base turn to final, and set her down just past the numbers make the turn at Bravo and get directed into a tie down space by Adam. I shut down, climb out, shake his hand, unload and head off to his place for dinner and a good night sleep.
Sorry, no pictures, I didn’t have anyone to delegate those duties to like some people do.
Day 1 - 9D9 -> KLOM
Temperatures, bases, tops were mitigating factors in how I should file, or if I should file at all, and when I should leave Hastings for Wings Field. Thursday dragged on at the office, and I had filed for a 2100z departure, but since nothing was happening at work, I cut out at 2:30 and made my way to the airport via Radio Shack. The plan this year was to really document everything with audio and video. Well that was the plan anyway. I don't have a mic input on my video camera, but I do have a laptop that I can record to and then overlay it on video. So I get a patch cable and 1/8 -> 1/4 adapter so I could plug the laptop into the intercom and record all the audio including ATC, my choice of music, and any transmissions I would make. So I get everything I need from the Shack, including an inverter so I can plug my laptop in, and off to the airport I go.
The airplane was already fueled since the 100LL was only $3.19, I kept topping off after each flight knowing the price was going to go up with the next fuel load they got it. I got my L-23/24 from the FBO packed up the airplane with my clothes bag, my laptop bag, and my Jeppesen Flight bag turned electronics bag which had my cell phone, mp3 player, digital camera, video camera, and handheld transceiver. I get everything set up electronically and taxi over to runway 12. I cue the laptop and video camera for recording, fire up the mp3 player with some Motley Crue make my radio call, and launch. "Recording Failure" shows on the video camera after I get about 1500 AGL. Ah crap. Well, I do have the audio, whatever that is worth.
I call up Grand Rapids to open my flight plan and get my squawk, and evidently AOPA's flight planner did not cancel my first IFR plan, and I had re-filed a second one with DUAT so Grand Rapids took a while opening me up. I got my squawk and was told to remain VFR. The bases up ahead were about 7000 so I just slowed my climb to my filed altitude of 9000 as I was already above 5500 by this point. Then I get the 'bad' news:
"2212R we're not picking up your transponder, I can't give you a clearance without a secondary return."
"Uh, ok, what's Lansing's frequency? I'll see if they can pick me up."
They give me the frequency and cut me loose, so I call up Lansing, tell them where I am, and what I am squawking, and lo and behold, they have no trouble seeing me. But they have to now find my flight plan. They open me up, clear me as filed, and I smash through a few clouds as I climb to niner thousand. Then Lansing comes back to me, "12R, your transponder is intermittent at best." What the hell, ok, I've run my laptop before in the plane with no transponder issues, I've run my video camera in the plane with no issues, and I've run the MP3 player in the plane with no issues. So I yank the inverter, which my laptop was plugged into for power, out of the cigarette slot and two seconds later Lansing says that's better. Ok, well we found the problem. Three minutes later they come back saying it's still spotty. Hmmmm, do I turn around and scrap the weekend?
About that time the tops come up just a little bit and I pick up a little ice, I ask Lansing if I can go to eleven and they said not yet, but they will relay that request to Detroit when they hand me off. I get the hand off to Detroit Approach, and I am told unable for eleven, and I can either stay at nine or descend to five. It was just one patch of clouds and I was back in the clear, and the small trace I picked up had sublimated so I continued on at nine thousand. The last two times I've gone into WINGS, I've gotten RAV -> BUNTS -> Wings, and so that's what I had filed. My course should be about 110°-115° to intercept the Ravine VOR, and that's when Detroit gets confused. Fly heading 100, fly heading 120, fly heading 090, and fly heading 130. Finally after talking to the third Detroit Controller, she realizes those vectors were doing nothing and gives me a resume own navigation.
The first Detroit controller had issues with my transponder, but the second and third ones did not so I have decided that I am not going to turn around and I will continue on as planned. By this time I have shut off everything electronic in the plane, and I get handed off to Cleveland Center, who is having problems receiving me. So I cycle, I test, I ident (or is that iDent?) and their reception is still sporadic, even though I am showing a return. Although, maybe it is a bit slow on the flashing. I get turned over to Cleveland Approach, and at this point it is VMC and I have a great view of the Erie shoreline as I leave Canadian airspace. Cleveland must like me better than Kent, because I wasn't given any vectors and was in line with departures off runway 6 out of Hopkins. Approach has no issues with my transponder, and I continue on getting turned back over to Center, who does have issues. This pattern continues on as some sectors are ok, some are not, some have my mode C, and some do not. Sigh.
Somewhere over eastern Ohio it starts to cloud up over me and below me, and I'm in between layers now. There's no outside reference at all, so I am really on the instruments. OAT is about -5C and I'm going in and out of some wisps. Then it starts to get a bit more solid, and this is the first actual I've been in since, um, August I think and first extended time in the clouds at all in over a year. No big deal, nothing more than a 5 degree drift here and there as I keep messing with the transponder. I then get a advisory from ZOB telling me they are painting some precip in front of me, about 7 miles across about 30 seconds after I start to get a little accumulation on the windscreen and leading edge. Now, I probably should have gotten out of it right away, but it was only 3-4 minutes of my time and I had warmer air below me if it got too bad, so I just watched a little bit of rime build up, but nothing that affected my ground speed, or required a trim adjustment to maintain altitude. I got through the precip with hardly any buildup and was out the other side of it with no issues, except one. I had clouds above me, so I had no solar radiance to help get rid of it. Oh well, it's not affecting anything, and my pitot static is still working, so I won't worry about it as I get handed off to New York Center.
"12R advise ready to copy amended clearance."
Son of a...I even filed what they always give me.
"Ready to copy, 12R"
"12R amended clearance is RAV -> V170 -> V210 -> BUNTS -> Wings."
I read it back, he doesn't acknowledge my read back is correct and I don't worry about it, as I am still messing with the transponder and by this time I have accumulated enough ice that it blocked my pitot tube. I really probably should have a heated pitot put in, but this only happens once a year so it always slips my mind, besides, I've got 4000 of safe zone below me where it's warmer. So I am cruising along holding my altitude perfectly (static is blocked) and an IAS of 0. I do have the altimeter on the 430, it's no big deal yet, and it's still only a trace on the wings and ground speed and AoA hasn't changed. So I finally check to see where V170 and 210 are. What a stupid amended clearance. It's only about a 3 mile deviation to the west before intercepting BUNTS. By this time my gas caps started to grow horns, and I said that's enough and asked for 7000 from ZNY. I descend to 7000 which is under the bases, and an OAT of 33F. Not quite warm enough to get rid of the ice, but I'm pretty much VMC even though I'm only about two hundred feet below the clouds.
With the sun setting behind me the temperature starts to drop, and what happens, the cloud bases start to drop a little, I'm just at the very bottom of the clouds now and then I'm in actual again. Then I start hearing banging on the windscreen. Rain and my OAT says 32. Ok, rime is one thing, clear is a whole 'nother donkey, so I don't ask for 5, I tell them I'm 5000 for ice. By the way the VSI shows opposite trend when the static is frozen over. My altitude is granted, like they had a choice, now I'm nice and warm at 38 degrees, everything peels away and I get all my instruments back before I am handed off to Harrisburg - who doesn't see my transponder at all. The frequency was pretty quiet and we had a discussion about my transponder, and that I know what my bonus money this year was probably going to pay for. I ask if they want me on an airway or position reporting and they say no, they have a great primary return on me.
I do keep a set of Allen wrenches in my plane, so I dig around for them, pull out the correct size on the first try, and loosen up the screw and try and pull the transponder out, but it's pretty tight so I shake it a bit, and give it a little rap with the palm of my hand to push it into the connectors and tighten it back up.
"12R I don't know what magic you worked, but we have a perfect secondary on your transponder what did you do?"
"I hit it."
I can hear the controllers laughing at my response, and then I tell them what I really did after they asked if I had a magic hammer in the plane. I get handed off to Reading, and then Philly approach who clears me direct to Wings just before I hit V210, which is something like the 113 off the Lancaster VOR, so I hit the FPL button on the 430, turn to KLOM, and punch D, enter twice, and make my turn. I haven't come in here at night, so I'm looking in the wrong place for it, but pick up the beacon just as Philly tells me it's 3 miles and 12 o clock. I cancel IFR, and hop over to advisory get on downwind for 6, and hear this:
"Wings Field, any traffic in the area please advise."
"Well I had a couple bottles of wine for you, but after that I think I'll just have to keep them.......Adam."
I make my tight slipping base turn to final, and set her down just past the numbers make the turn at Bravo and get directed into a tie down space by Adam. I shut down, climb out, shake his hand, unload and head off to his place for dinner and a good night sleep.
Last edited:
