EdFred
Taxi to Parking
...one of Adam Z's burgers!
Sorry east coasters, but this was like a consolation prize for me after cancelling the trip out west. The weather looked like junk for the 48 hours previous to the Fly-B-Q. I kept checking the forecasts and sigmets and airmets every couple hours, and up until 1am the night before I was not going. I woke up at 8 am Saturday morning (sans alarm clock) and for those that know me, getting out of bed before noon on a weekend is historic. But I woke at 8 or so, rolled over, turned on the laptop and said what the heck lets take a look. No sigmets! Where'd they go? Satellite pictures - nothing major. Eastern seaboard - clear! Ah crap, I have no charts. Ummm....grab an expired L-23, L-24 just in case the FBO isn't open, and I figure with the 430 database, I shouldn't get into too much trouble. I head down to my office (because I'm too cheap to buy a printer for my house) so I can print off the instrument approaches for Wings, just in case forecasts are wrong, (noooo...that never happens) and the kneeboard sheet from AOPA. I call Adam on his cell, and let him know I'm supposed to have 30kt tailwinds on the way there.
So I'm off to the airport, in the rain, t-storms moving into the Grand Rapids/Hastings area, and call up Flight Service. File my plan direct LOM via CRADY (so I could avoid Canadian Airspace) at 9,000 and figure I should arrive just about 1:30. Well, tires were low on the Cherokee, so I pumped them up with a portable B&D pump, got the updated L-23/L-24 from the FBO, along with full set of approaches for MI, PA, OH, WV, and whatever other states were included. Oh shoot, I still gotta fill up...tick tock, tick tock. Ok, 1:30 arrival won't happen - oh well. Get my clearance void from Lansing FSS, tailwind (6kt) departure into 500 OVC and off I go.
The winds from 9D9 were NOT as forecast. More like 10 kt instead of 30kt. Oh great, instead of 3:15 of flight time, it's going to be 4:00 of flying. I get handed off to Lansing Approach, then Detroit Approach. Humorous moment heard on the air:
"Detroit Approach Cessna 12345 request BC at (I forget)."
"Cessna 12345 how will this approach terminate."
"Smoothly."
Not so humorous moment:
Detroit approach forgot about me. I'm waiting on a hand off, and waiting, and waiting. I'm getting close to Cleveland's airspace with no hand off, and I'm talking maybe 6nm outside the Bravo, with no handoff yet. I call Detroit, no response - 3 times. Garmin 430, find me the nearest frequency, which happened to be Cleveland Center, who immediately turned me over to Approach and all was well again - especially since that 10kt tailwind was now a 43kt tailwind. Groundspeed of 161kts on the Cherokee, oh, and it was a smooooooooth ride at 9,000.
Then the bad news: I get an amended clearance from NY center about 100nm from LOM and I'm thinking "Great, I'm gonna have to go to Albany and back." No big deal, RAV --> BUNTS --> Wings. Very doable, and the 430 makes it oh so nice. Just edit the flight plan on the fly. Schwing! I knew there's a reason I bought that. No scouring the chart to look for Ravine or Bunts. Just insert the waypoints in the flight plan and it's cake. Rough air at 3,000 and the plane got to be a handful. Canceled IFR with Philly approach, and snuck into Wings without getting my landing judged - I think. Flight time: 3hrs 20 minutes. Not bad for 482 miles in a Cherokee - avg ground speed 146 kts.
Toby was the first to say hello, and Ed Guthrie and his wife were super nice and put me up at their place for the night, after I decided to head out for a mini tour of the coast, which I hadn't seen since 1996. So a quick stop at Wildwood, which is pretty desolate. But they have a fleet of old cargo planes down there. C-117's or C-130's maybe? I'd never set foot in NJ or DE, so I stopped there and then and Summit, DE where they have a couple of CH-47 Chinooks sitting out on the ramp. Then into New Garden for the night where Ed picked me up and took me back to his place where his wife made a great dinner. I got an entire floor to myself for the night, along with a good night sleep, and then it was the return flight home.
I knew it was going to be a 5 hour flight thanks to Isaac Newton and his laws of motion. Tailwind one way means headwind the other way. but only about 15-20kts or so at 4000 - 6000. So it's going to be a 5 hours flight. I looked at airnav and found a place that had fuel for $2.50 and allowed me to avoid all the Bravo's on the way home. Philly wouldn't give me direct for whatever reason and so I had to go Harrisburg, then to 74D. Nice little place on top of a hill, which drops off drastically at each end. Kind of like a mini Telluride. Fuel stop, sump the human tank, and back on my way.
Air filed IFR (a first for me) with Clevland FSS and get my clearance direct to 9D9 with ZOB. Before I reach Toledo I get another amended clearance, TOL --> HIRED (I know where that is without looking) --> WILMO --> 9D9. Hmmm...WILMO doesn't sound familiar to me. Punch it in the database, and it's 139nm SE of HIRED. It's near Akron-Canton. "Toldedo Approach this is 12R, WILMO intersection is southeast of my current position, and 9D9 is northwest WILMO isn't going to work." "Oops, sorry, I thought it was near Hastings. Direct Hastings from HIRED." I still don't know why that would have been spit out at me.
5:15 minutes home. All in all a fun trip, and a great time. Even if I figure that I had TWO burgers, I was still well over the $100 hamburger cost - but definitely worth it.
Pssst...Adam...look at my tail number (which is even in the picture!), and tell me what's wrong with your caption in the other thread.
Sorry east coasters, but this was like a consolation prize for me after cancelling the trip out west. The weather looked like junk for the 48 hours previous to the Fly-B-Q. I kept checking the forecasts and sigmets and airmets every couple hours, and up until 1am the night before I was not going. I woke up at 8 am Saturday morning (sans alarm clock) and for those that know me, getting out of bed before noon on a weekend is historic. But I woke at 8 or so, rolled over, turned on the laptop and said what the heck lets take a look. No sigmets! Where'd they go? Satellite pictures - nothing major. Eastern seaboard - clear! Ah crap, I have no charts. Ummm....grab an expired L-23, L-24 just in case the FBO isn't open, and I figure with the 430 database, I shouldn't get into too much trouble. I head down to my office (because I'm too cheap to buy a printer for my house) so I can print off the instrument approaches for Wings, just in case forecasts are wrong, (noooo...that never happens) and the kneeboard sheet from AOPA. I call Adam on his cell, and let him know I'm supposed to have 30kt tailwinds on the way there.
So I'm off to the airport, in the rain, t-storms moving into the Grand Rapids/Hastings area, and call up Flight Service. File my plan direct LOM via CRADY (so I could avoid Canadian Airspace) at 9,000 and figure I should arrive just about 1:30. Well, tires were low on the Cherokee, so I pumped them up with a portable B&D pump, got the updated L-23/L-24 from the FBO, along with full set of approaches for MI, PA, OH, WV, and whatever other states were included. Oh shoot, I still gotta fill up...tick tock, tick tock. Ok, 1:30 arrival won't happen - oh well. Get my clearance void from Lansing FSS, tailwind (6kt) departure into 500 OVC and off I go.
The winds from 9D9 were NOT as forecast. More like 10 kt instead of 30kt. Oh great, instead of 3:15 of flight time, it's going to be 4:00 of flying. I get handed off to Lansing Approach, then Detroit Approach. Humorous moment heard on the air:
"Detroit Approach Cessna 12345 request BC at (I forget)."
"Cessna 12345 how will this approach terminate."
"Smoothly."
Not so humorous moment:
Detroit approach forgot about me. I'm waiting on a hand off, and waiting, and waiting. I'm getting close to Cleveland's airspace with no hand off, and I'm talking maybe 6nm outside the Bravo, with no handoff yet. I call Detroit, no response - 3 times. Garmin 430, find me the nearest frequency, which happened to be Cleveland Center, who immediately turned me over to Approach and all was well again - especially since that 10kt tailwind was now a 43kt tailwind. Groundspeed of 161kts on the Cherokee, oh, and it was a smooooooooth ride at 9,000.
Then the bad news: I get an amended clearance from NY center about 100nm from LOM and I'm thinking "Great, I'm gonna have to go to Albany and back." No big deal, RAV --> BUNTS --> Wings. Very doable, and the 430 makes it oh so nice. Just edit the flight plan on the fly. Schwing! I knew there's a reason I bought that. No scouring the chart to look for Ravine or Bunts. Just insert the waypoints in the flight plan and it's cake. Rough air at 3,000 and the plane got to be a handful. Canceled IFR with Philly approach, and snuck into Wings without getting my landing judged - I think. Flight time: 3hrs 20 minutes. Not bad for 482 miles in a Cherokee - avg ground speed 146 kts.
Toby was the first to say hello, and Ed Guthrie and his wife were super nice and put me up at their place for the night, after I decided to head out for a mini tour of the coast, which I hadn't seen since 1996. So a quick stop at Wildwood, which is pretty desolate. But they have a fleet of old cargo planes down there. C-117's or C-130's maybe? I'd never set foot in NJ or DE, so I stopped there and then and Summit, DE where they have a couple of CH-47 Chinooks sitting out on the ramp. Then into New Garden for the night where Ed picked me up and took me back to his place where his wife made a great dinner. I got an entire floor to myself for the night, along with a good night sleep, and then it was the return flight home.
I knew it was going to be a 5 hour flight thanks to Isaac Newton and his laws of motion. Tailwind one way means headwind the other way. but only about 15-20kts or so at 4000 - 6000. So it's going to be a 5 hours flight. I looked at airnav and found a place that had fuel for $2.50 and allowed me to avoid all the Bravo's on the way home. Philly wouldn't give me direct for whatever reason and so I had to go Harrisburg, then to 74D. Nice little place on top of a hill, which drops off drastically at each end. Kind of like a mini Telluride. Fuel stop, sump the human tank, and back on my way.
Air filed IFR (a first for me) with Clevland FSS and get my clearance direct to 9D9 with ZOB. Before I reach Toledo I get another amended clearance, TOL --> HIRED (I know where that is without looking) --> WILMO --> 9D9. Hmmm...WILMO doesn't sound familiar to me. Punch it in the database, and it's 139nm SE of HIRED. It's near Akron-Canton. "Toldedo Approach this is 12R, WILMO intersection is southeast of my current position, and 9D9 is northwest WILMO isn't going to work." "Oops, sorry, I thought it was near Hastings. Direct Hastings from HIRED." I still don't know why that would have been spit out at me.
5:15 minutes home. All in all a fun trip, and a great time. Even if I figure that I had TWO burgers, I was still well over the $100 hamburger cost - but definitely worth it.
Pssst...Adam...look at my tail number (which is even in the picture!), and tell me what's wrong with your caption in the other thread.
