Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
Morning flight to Lubbock, about 1.5hrs today in the Viking.
I was following my Bo bud up to drop his off for service.
We took off, him ahead of me by abt 4 minutes. We have done this several times before and I enjoy trying to spot him and group up, it can be a challenge.
We have gotten to where we don't talk on the radio. Because he is slower he beelines for the destination and I get to dawdle, do circles etc.
After 10 miles I spotted him, he had gone high. Mistake; I was getting a 35kt kick at 55 and he was no gain at 95. (haha I had checked the winds closely before). He was WAY up there, barely a spec at 2 miles away. I had pulled power back to 16" in order to not blast past him. We continued on top of a scattered layer and below an intermittently high ovc layer. I found it very hard to keep track of him in the gray cloud background. Sometimes I would lose him and it was the same challenge again to relocate him. Across the panhandle/NM border area with its mesquite flats, sand dunes and the oil patch. Wink, Andrews, Brownfield. Coming nearer Lubbock the sct layer below thickened up and I listened in approach. Carriers were using the bc,
hope we don't need a pop-up. Eventually I knew he would need to start down so I barrelled ahead of him to keep us clear and after getting p'PAH, called in. Approach radar was down, so we were getting vectors and giving pos reports. I guess I prefer radar because they put another bo-nana a half mile in front of me (called his pos. wrong), as he crossed over to a parallel rwy. Quick turn no fuel and after dropping off his bird we departed to the S, going to Midland airpark, where we used the (non-a/c, window doesn't move) 'courtesy' car to run errands and go for lunch. Nice ride back on top of building popcorn at 10K, did a practice engine out landing on arrival - too much flap early on, had to retract them but landed on the numbers.
I was following my Bo bud up to drop his off for service.
We took off, him ahead of me by abt 4 minutes. We have done this several times before and I enjoy trying to spot him and group up, it can be a challenge.
We have gotten to where we don't talk on the radio. Because he is slower he beelines for the destination and I get to dawdle, do circles etc.
After 10 miles I spotted him, he had gone high. Mistake; I was getting a 35kt kick at 55 and he was no gain at 95. (haha I had checked the winds closely before). He was WAY up there, barely a spec at 2 miles away. I had pulled power back to 16" in order to not blast past him. We continued on top of a scattered layer and below an intermittently high ovc layer. I found it very hard to keep track of him in the gray cloud background. Sometimes I would lose him and it was the same challenge again to relocate him. Across the panhandle/NM border area with its mesquite flats, sand dunes and the oil patch. Wink, Andrews, Brownfield. Coming nearer Lubbock the sct layer below thickened up and I listened in approach. Carriers were using the bc,
hope we don't need a pop-up. Eventually I knew he would need to start down so I barrelled ahead of him to keep us clear and after getting p'PAH, called in. Approach radar was down, so we were getting vectors and giving pos reports. I guess I prefer radar because they put another bo-nana a half mile in front of me (called his pos. wrong), as he crossed over to a parallel rwy. Quick turn no fuel and after dropping off his bird we departed to the S, going to Midland airpark, where we used the (non-a/c, window doesn't move) 'courtesy' car to run errands and go for lunch. Nice ride back on top of building popcorn at 10K, did a practice engine out landing on arrival - too much flap early on, had to retract them but landed on the numbers.
