t0r0nad0
Pattern Altitude
Well, I didn't make it to Gaston's this year, but I did have a fun flying weekend anyway. On Friday, I met up at the museum with another volunteer who is a student pilot. We worked together to plan a flight in the raffle plane from West Houston Airport (where we'd be topping off our gas tanks) to Gainesville, TX for the Texas Antique Airplane Association's annual fly-in. We loaded all of our gear into the raffle plane and took off for West Houston.
The short hop over from Hobby was uneventful, and they topped our tanks off for us. Gas was $4.32/gal, which was expensive, but still significantly cheaper than filling up at HOU. We filed our flight plan, loaded back into the plane, and took off from IWS, turning to the west to remain outside the Class B before heading north.
We called and opened our flight plan, then called and got flight following from Houston Approach. They let us climb unrestricted to our cruising altitude of 6500ft, which I chose because it would be cooler and smoother. The flight up to the Dallas area was largely uneventful, and we switched control back and forth to break monotony and keep ourselves fresh. The plane handled great, and we had a slight tailwind to push us along. We were cruising at about 85kias at 2500rpm while burning 7.5gph, so this is a very economical plane.
When we got to the Dallas area, they said they couldn't take us straight across the Bravo, as expected (the direct route would have taken us right over the top of DAL). So, they had us go over Mesquite and towards McKinney before turning us direct to GLE. As we approached Mesquite, there was a cloud layer down low, so we descended to 3000ft to get below it. Unfortunately, this made things much warmer and more humid - to the point where there was some condensation on our panel! But, we bumped our way along until we got to GLE. 3.5 hrs logged HOU-IWS-GLE.
On our arrival we were expected, so they ushered us to our prime spot right in front of the main hangar and we tied down. It was about 3pm and neither of us had had lunch, so we locked up the plane and got the crew car from the FBO to go grab lunch. We ate at a place the FBO recommended called Dieter Bros. BBQ, which was less than 1 mile from the airport and had some great food! If anyone is transiting the area and needs a stop, I highly recommend Gainesville - nice FBO with 2 courtesy cars (just sign your name and the time out when you go and time in when you get back... just replace the gas you use), $3.35/gal 100LL, and really friendly people.
We got back to the airport and set up shop. There weren't too many planes there on Friday, but we did wind up selling a couple of raffle tickets anyway. We saw some storm cell clouds building up to the south and east of us, so my copilot pulled out his iPhone and checked the radar on ForeFlight, which showed a large cell coming right at us. I talked to the airport manager, who found an empty T-hangar across the airport that he just let us have for the night (did I mention that this is a great place to stop and you should give them your business?). So, I taxied the plane over and we tucked her safely away to wait for... nothing. The storm cell split in two and one went south of us and the other went west of us. We dodged a bullet and just got a few drops of rain. Oh well, I'd rather be the idiot who put his plane away on a dry ramp than the idiot with a hail-dented plane (like the guy in the V-Tail Bo that tried to high-tail it out of there ahead of the storm and wound up flying right into a hail storm and now has baseball-sized dents in his plane).
So, dinner was served and the beer keg was flowing, and it was a good evening. Very few people camped at the airport, but we set up camp right next to a guy with a yellow and green Ercoupe who had a cooler full of beer that he offered to share with me. We hung out and chatted with him for a while, then we hit the hay.
I awoke to sunshine at about 0630 on Saturday and I quietly pulled on my shirt and shoes and began the trek across the airport to go get the plane from the hangar. It was pretty cool to just walk across the runways and the field at an airport - the way it's supposed to be. I pulled Scarlet (the raffle plane) out of her hangar, started her up, and taxied her back across the field to our show position. I woke my buddy up at about 0730 and we had breakfast then set up shop. Planes started arriving by about 8:00a, and we had some interest in the plane early on, and sold a few tickets. At about 0930 two Bonanzas arrived from Hooks Airport (DWH) with our support crew and more sales staff. All 7 of us there spent the entire rest of the day selling our a$$es off - grand total for the day was 43 tickets sold, our highest single-day sales ever!
At about 3pm I called for a weather brief and found that I was looking at clear skies, good visibility, and a slight headwind for the whole trip home. I filed a VFR flight plan and we proceeded to load up the plane. We taxied out, did a runup and took off with a wing-wave as the two Bonanzas were just starting to taxi out to the end of the runway. We turned on course and tried to call FSS to open our flight plan, but could never get a hold of them. So, we called up Ft. Worth Center for flight following. They handed us off to approach, who gave us the eastern routing around the Class Bravo airspace, but held us at 3500ft. - in the middle of the bumps, heat, and haze. I had requested the transition right over the top of DFW, but they couldn't give that to us. Meanwhile, the lead Bonanza checked on at 7500ft and was given a more direct routing (he told me before we left that he'd be watching for me to fly overhead from his pool when he got home). Finally, when we were almost to Mesquite, we were cleared up to 5500ft for our cruise home.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful - the air was cool and smooth at 5500ft., so much so that once we had it trimmed out, we were able to fly hands-off and just use a little bit of right rudder pressure to hold our course. While we were on with the last Ft. Worth Center controller, he asked a DA40 if they were a rental plane from Mesquite, saying that he used to rent DA40's from there. Since the frequency was really slow, I keyed up the mic:
Me: "Center, Three-Three-Alpha, if you're interested, we're actually giving this plane away as a raffle to support the Air Museum at Hobby Airport. Chances are only $50 each, would you like the phone number?"
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna Three-Three-Alpha, stand by while I grab a pen."
Me: "Let me know when you're ready, Three-three-alpha."
(pause)
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna three-three-alpha, ready to copy."
Me: "Seven-one-tree, fower-fife-fower, one-niner-fower-zero."
Ft. Worth Cetner: "Okay, got it. I'll give them a call - thanks!"
Me: "Three-three-alpha."
Later on:
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna three-three-alpha, I just call this number and $50 and they'll send me a ticket?"
My copilot: "Affirmative, tell your friends, three-three-alpha."
Ft. Worth Center: "Roger, contact Houston Center on 134.8."
Kind of a fun finish to a good day. We got into the Houston area and approach descended us down to 2500ft. to stay below the arriving traffic to IAH. We were vectored to the west of DWH, right over the top of EYQ, then pretty much direct to HOU. We had to fly over midfield at 1600ft. and make left traffic for runway 17 since there were two SWA 737's on final for 12R. I did a pretty good landing, turning off the runway right at the museum, where we unloaded everything to our cars before taxiing the plane back to our hangar and putting her away. With the headwinds and vectoring, I logged another 3.5 hrs. GLE-HOU.
So, this was my longest cross-country to date, the 5th Class B airspace I've flown in (Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Phoenix are the others), and my first time camping overnight at an airport. I definitely have to do that again sometime - it definitely sealed the deal that whenever the stars finally align and I get to go to OSH or SNF, I'm absolutely going to be camping out there, at least the first time I go.
This was also a great weekend for the museum as we sold 43 tickets at GLE, and we sold another 16-20 at an event that BMW was holding in our museum's parking lot over the weekend as well. Right now, we're right around the 800 mark on tickets sold, and we're on pace to sell 1200-1300 before all is said and done. So, the odds are good! If you haven't purchased a ticket yet, you should! If you have, thank you very much and you should consider doubling your chances! Even if you don't win, you're supporting a great aviation museum.
Hopefully ticket sales will go well enough next year that I can convince them to let me take the plane to Gaston's (if you all promise to buy some tickets while I'm there). Or, maybe I'll win the plane and get to take it to Gaston's myself!
The short hop over from Hobby was uneventful, and they topped our tanks off for us. Gas was $4.32/gal, which was expensive, but still significantly cheaper than filling up at HOU. We filed our flight plan, loaded back into the plane, and took off from IWS, turning to the west to remain outside the Class B before heading north.
We called and opened our flight plan, then called and got flight following from Houston Approach. They let us climb unrestricted to our cruising altitude of 6500ft, which I chose because it would be cooler and smoother. The flight up to the Dallas area was largely uneventful, and we switched control back and forth to break monotony and keep ourselves fresh. The plane handled great, and we had a slight tailwind to push us along. We were cruising at about 85kias at 2500rpm while burning 7.5gph, so this is a very economical plane.
When we got to the Dallas area, they said they couldn't take us straight across the Bravo, as expected (the direct route would have taken us right over the top of DAL). So, they had us go over Mesquite and towards McKinney before turning us direct to GLE. As we approached Mesquite, there was a cloud layer down low, so we descended to 3000ft to get below it. Unfortunately, this made things much warmer and more humid - to the point where there was some condensation on our panel! But, we bumped our way along until we got to GLE. 3.5 hrs logged HOU-IWS-GLE.
On our arrival we were expected, so they ushered us to our prime spot right in front of the main hangar and we tied down. It was about 3pm and neither of us had had lunch, so we locked up the plane and got the crew car from the FBO to go grab lunch. We ate at a place the FBO recommended called Dieter Bros. BBQ, which was less than 1 mile from the airport and had some great food! If anyone is transiting the area and needs a stop, I highly recommend Gainesville - nice FBO with 2 courtesy cars (just sign your name and the time out when you go and time in when you get back... just replace the gas you use), $3.35/gal 100LL, and really friendly people.
We got back to the airport and set up shop. There weren't too many planes there on Friday, but we did wind up selling a couple of raffle tickets anyway. We saw some storm cell clouds building up to the south and east of us, so my copilot pulled out his iPhone and checked the radar on ForeFlight, which showed a large cell coming right at us. I talked to the airport manager, who found an empty T-hangar across the airport that he just let us have for the night (did I mention that this is a great place to stop and you should give them your business?). So, I taxied the plane over and we tucked her safely away to wait for... nothing. The storm cell split in two and one went south of us and the other went west of us. We dodged a bullet and just got a few drops of rain. Oh well, I'd rather be the idiot who put his plane away on a dry ramp than the idiot with a hail-dented plane (like the guy in the V-Tail Bo that tried to high-tail it out of there ahead of the storm and wound up flying right into a hail storm and now has baseball-sized dents in his plane).
So, dinner was served and the beer keg was flowing, and it was a good evening. Very few people camped at the airport, but we set up camp right next to a guy with a yellow and green Ercoupe who had a cooler full of beer that he offered to share with me. We hung out and chatted with him for a while, then we hit the hay.
I awoke to sunshine at about 0630 on Saturday and I quietly pulled on my shirt and shoes and began the trek across the airport to go get the plane from the hangar. It was pretty cool to just walk across the runways and the field at an airport - the way it's supposed to be. I pulled Scarlet (the raffle plane) out of her hangar, started her up, and taxied her back across the field to our show position. I woke my buddy up at about 0730 and we had breakfast then set up shop. Planes started arriving by about 8:00a, and we had some interest in the plane early on, and sold a few tickets. At about 0930 two Bonanzas arrived from Hooks Airport (DWH) with our support crew and more sales staff. All 7 of us there spent the entire rest of the day selling our a$$es off - grand total for the day was 43 tickets sold, our highest single-day sales ever!
At about 3pm I called for a weather brief and found that I was looking at clear skies, good visibility, and a slight headwind for the whole trip home. I filed a VFR flight plan and we proceeded to load up the plane. We taxied out, did a runup and took off with a wing-wave as the two Bonanzas were just starting to taxi out to the end of the runway. We turned on course and tried to call FSS to open our flight plan, but could never get a hold of them. So, we called up Ft. Worth Center for flight following. They handed us off to approach, who gave us the eastern routing around the Class Bravo airspace, but held us at 3500ft. - in the middle of the bumps, heat, and haze. I had requested the transition right over the top of DFW, but they couldn't give that to us. Meanwhile, the lead Bonanza checked on at 7500ft and was given a more direct routing (he told me before we left that he'd be watching for me to fly overhead from his pool when he got home). Finally, when we were almost to Mesquite, we were cleared up to 5500ft for our cruise home.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful - the air was cool and smooth at 5500ft., so much so that once we had it trimmed out, we were able to fly hands-off and just use a little bit of right rudder pressure to hold our course. While we were on with the last Ft. Worth Center controller, he asked a DA40 if they were a rental plane from Mesquite, saying that he used to rent DA40's from there. Since the frequency was really slow, I keyed up the mic:
Me: "Center, Three-Three-Alpha, if you're interested, we're actually giving this plane away as a raffle to support the Air Museum at Hobby Airport. Chances are only $50 each, would you like the phone number?"
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna Three-Three-Alpha, stand by while I grab a pen."
Me: "Let me know when you're ready, Three-three-alpha."
(pause)
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna three-three-alpha, ready to copy."
Me: "Seven-one-tree, fower-fife-fower, one-niner-fower-zero."
Ft. Worth Cetner: "Okay, got it. I'll give them a call - thanks!"
Me: "Three-three-alpha."
Later on:
Ft. Worth Center: "Cessna three-three-alpha, I just call this number and $50 and they'll send me a ticket?"
My copilot: "Affirmative, tell your friends, three-three-alpha."
Ft. Worth Center: "Roger, contact Houston Center on 134.8."
Kind of a fun finish to a good day. We got into the Houston area and approach descended us down to 2500ft. to stay below the arriving traffic to IAH. We were vectored to the west of DWH, right over the top of EYQ, then pretty much direct to HOU. We had to fly over midfield at 1600ft. and make left traffic for runway 17 since there were two SWA 737's on final for 12R. I did a pretty good landing, turning off the runway right at the museum, where we unloaded everything to our cars before taxiing the plane back to our hangar and putting her away. With the headwinds and vectoring, I logged another 3.5 hrs. GLE-HOU.
So, this was my longest cross-country to date, the 5th Class B airspace I've flown in (Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Phoenix are the others), and my first time camping overnight at an airport. I definitely have to do that again sometime - it definitely sealed the deal that whenever the stars finally align and I get to go to OSH or SNF, I'm absolutely going to be camping out there, at least the first time I go.
This was also a great weekend for the museum as we sold 43 tickets at GLE, and we sold another 16-20 at an event that BMW was holding in our museum's parking lot over the weekend as well. Right now, we're right around the 800 mark on tickets sold, and we're on pace to sell 1200-1300 before all is said and done. So, the odds are good! If you haven't purchased a ticket yet, you should! If you have, thank you very much and you should consider doubling your chances! Even if you don't win, you're supporting a great aviation museum.
Hopefully ticket sales will go well enough next year that I can convince them to let me take the plane to Gaston's (if you all promise to buy some tickets while I'm there). Or, maybe I'll win the plane and get to take it to Gaston's myself!
