Sooner or later...

So I made it to the west coast and back. Maine, New Hampshire, Boston and back. All separate trips with basically no problems. Sometimes I had to swash buckle with the weather a little but the plane always went when I asked it to.

Well this Christmas was a completely different story. The Plan was to leave on Thursday before Christmas for West Palm Beach Florida. The additional part of the deal was to give my significant other's brother a lift to Florida. This would be his first trip in any kind of a small plane. The significant other had already made the trek VIA USAir a week before. So the day of the trip comes around and it is the most perfect weather day imaginable. I'm totally pumped about having a great flight to Florida from DC. I pick up my all too willing passenger at Union Station and in 45 minutes we are on our way south. The plan is one fuel stop after 3 hrs flying time and then another 2 hrs and we are at our destination.

45 minutes into our flight I get a sporadic low oil pressure indication. Oil is pretty important so I figure I better land right away... This has happened one other time but the symptoms are different, the other time I only got 2 different indications: normal pressure and zero pressure very quickly. Right away I knew this was a loose wire and didn't pay the faulty indication much mind. This time the oil pressure goes randomly from 80(normal) to 20, to 40, to 60 and so on. I know of at least 2 other failures of the oil pressure sensors so I'm pretty sure it is a faulty sensor. I get on the phone to Vans, the airplane kit manufacturer, and they say may be able to get a replacement at an autoparts store and they suggest I call an engine expert to make sure my engine is OK.

Great. Looks like the plane isn't going anywhere today. I am at Crewe Municipal Airport, Crewe, Virgina. pretty far from anything.

There are 2 other pilots there about to leave in a plane and they tell me of the nearby airports that have mechanics. I tell them I may be in over my head but I am the certified mechanic on this plane.

I call around to auto parts stores and can't find an exact replacement. Most of the stores don't want to talk to me unless I can tell them what kind of car the sensor is for... This isn't very easy to explain to people. The nice guy at the town hall that also comes out to the airport to pump gas picks up a part that might be a fit and brings it by. Unfortunately it doesn't fit so I get one overnighted with shipping costs greater than the cost of the part itself.

In the meantime I've got a hold of my engine guy. He agrees that I've got some kind of sensor issue on my hands and to make dead certain there isn't any wrong with the engine I should cut the oil filter open and make sure there is no metal. I've done this to every filter I've removed from the plane so far and the only problem is I've got to track down a replacement filter. Turns out Dinwiddie airport about 45 minutes drive away has one.

I call enterprise and arrange for a car. We drive over get the filter. Go out to dinner and the most crowded restaurant in town(pork barbecue) and head back to Crew, VA.

Well I'm droning along the highway about 12 miles from Crew. 60 miles per hour. It's really dark between these small towns. Its been a long day. Suddenly not more than 6 feet ahead of the car a dog darts out and we smash in to it. I pull off the road right away and radiator steam is billowing up. I walk back. It is dead, green collar, no tags and looks like a beagle. What a day.

Enterprise says the tow truck will be there in 90 minutes, they won't be able to get us another car since we are so far from a location that is open and since I wrecked their car they won't even pay for a cab to get me where I need to go. Its not like I can just get out and hail a cab where I am now. I figure I'd kill 2 birds with one stone. I bit the bullet called the state police, had them do a police report and then bummed a ride back to the airport. The only good news is that the airport building is heated and has 2 sofas. Since we are transportationally challenged now we agree that sleeping at the airport is our best, maybe only... option. If we go to a hotel I don't think that Enterprise is going to be very keen on giving us another car and cabs seem to be non existent...

While waiting for help a guy stops by in his truck, blaring music, smelling of beer and asks us if we're OK. I tell him we hit a dog and split open the radiator. After asking what kind of dog he is convinced that we've hit "Jack." He calls his friend who owns Jack, it seems he has been drinking as well and finds out that Jack has a different color collar. As much as I'd like to tell the owner what has happened I really don't want to face a drunk and angry dog owner.

Its now 10 PM, we're back at the airport and I do the oil filter dissection and it comes up clean. Good news: I don't need a new engine. The part is on the way and I take a roll of paper towels for my pillow and get some sleep.

7 am I wake up. New sensor isn't coming until noon. Having nothing better to do I fiddle with the sensor wiring and end up finding that I've got a wiring problem not a sensor problem. I fix this problem in about 5 minutes are we are operational.

Now, 1 dog is dead, 1 rental car is wrecked, 1 day of perfect weather is lost. It turns out that the weather between us and our destination is horrible and we aren't going to see anything on our trip. I didn't think I would be forced to fly in the clouds so I didn't bring the right charts for that... Well back over to Dinwiddie where I drove last night, this time via airplane, and get the instrument charts...

We flew pretty much uneventfully to our destination and I flew home on Christmas day with similar lousy weather in the Carolinas.

I've always been very lucky with weather and mechanical problems but this time that wasn't the case. When things go downhill that can really go downhill quick...

Merry Christmas!

PS: the car damage estimate from hitting the dog came in at $1700 and discover card insurance covered the damage so don't ever bother with the rental company's super expensive insurance.

Heading Home

So with nearly 3000 miles of flying behind me in the past week, great views of the entire continent from coast to coast, time well spent with friends and family reality has to come back at some point. I've got to point the nose of my little plane east and get to work somehow on Monday. All week long the forecasts show that I'll have an opportunity to get all the way home in one day from Salt Lake on Friday. I'd love to stay an extra day in Salt Lake and get another day of snowbording in but with the risk of not making it work on Monday I quit while I'm ahead and plan an early morning departure Friday.

The night before I call and get the SL Jet center folks to put my plane in a heated hangar to keep the frost off. That in and of itself was a pretty big effort. They call back and say they don't have any equipment to move my plane to a hangar. I tell the guy that it only weights 1000 lbs and can easily be pushed by one person from the tail. The guy on the other end of the phone was completely shocked to hear that you can move a plane without machinery. So anyway armed with this new earth shattering information he tells me that they will get it done and I need not worry.

From the top of the Canyons ski resort you can look West into the Salt Lake Valley and the visibility was getting worse. Which is exactly what you expect when there is a source of moisture(The Great Salt Lake) and nothing to displace the stagnant air like a really strong, windy cold front. So I pretty much expected the departure from Salt Lake to be tough but after that it would be a milk run. Before I go to bed the night before I get and outlook brief and they tell me basically what I expected: fog early at Salt Lake International(SLC) clearing later on. My problem is that I really need to get going early if I want to have any chance of getting home at a reasonable hour. I wake up a few times over night and call the automated weather system at SLC and the news is horrible. Horizontal visibility of 1/8 mile and ceiling(height of the clouds) of 100 feet. In layman's terms really bad weather; so bad that many transport jets would have trouble getting air.

This kind of weather isn't a complete nonstarter if you don't have any intentions to return to your departure point. But if you have problems right after take off then your attitude toward returning may change. So a take off in weather that you can't land in represents higher risks than good weather take offs. Legally you have to be instrument rated and current meaning you must be able to proficiently control and navigate your craft without reference to anything visual outside of the plane. Not having these skills and flying in bad weather kills many people.

Well it's 5:30 AM, the weather at SLC is crap and Mike is taking me to the airport. Right now it's dark but you can see wisps of fog blowing about in a light breeze. We get some breakfast and head over to SL Jet Center as promised the plane is in a hangar. They let us drive Mikes car on to the airport and it takes a while to load the plane. After giving Mike a ride on Wednesday I have to pull the rear seat and control stick out and so my snowboard will fit in my microscopic plane. My plane always feels small but when you're at a field that had planes that carry hundreds of people you feel especially small. After the plane is loaded I head back the the office at the Jet Cetner and commence checking weather. Time it ticking away. The sun already came up at 7:45 AM, which is 9:45 AM east coast time and I've got 10 hrs of flying ahead of me not including down time. The weather guy that answers the phone tells me the bad news I already know and then tells me that he really can't possibly tell me all the significant information for my planned flight. My plan is to fly to McCook Nebraska and then some place east of there that will get me with in striking distance of home. The guy briefing me is completely frazzled at the idea of the the bad things he needs to tell me about on a 2000 mile flight like I'm proposing. I tell him to just give me the info on weather and I'll take responsibility for the rest. This is huge assumption of risk but it appears to be the only way this guy will work with me and I've already checked other sources on the internet for this kind of info... I basically reach the conclusion that if I want to leave SLC anytime soon that I will have to contend with the weather and not depart visually like I've been able to do on every other part of this trip.

To do this the rules are very different. The Visual rules allow for lots of flexibility since you can see and avoid other airplanes but since I'm proposing to depart in weather that will not allow me to see other planes I have to rely on the FAA to provide that service. This is what the FAA is all about and in short to do this you have to file a flight plan and call air traffic controllers before you depart and get a clearance all the way to your destination. This is a massive oversimplification but it'll have to do. The clearance contains instructions on exactly how you are going to get where you want to go and if you lose contact with ATC then you follow those instructions. They will follow your progress on radar and clear traffic away from you.

Even though the weather on the ground at SLC is crap there is a note in the weather observations for SLC saying "tower visibility 4 miles" This little note is my saving grace that will allow me to get to work on Monday. What they are saying is that yes there is ground fog but our buddies up in the tower can see reasonably well. The game plan is to take off on a clearance to some place east of SLC, and after I get above the fog cancel the flight plan and head to McCook Nebraska for cheap fuel. The bogus destination that i file fore is Rock Springs, Wyoming. I had never heard of the place but thats where I file to. I hang up and now My quest is to find some charts for this trip, The charts you use for flying in the clouds are very different than the ones I have. I really wanted to make the trip visually the whole way so I could see things but I have to I purchase the other charts. Lots of guys are changing to electronic charts and so I end up running all over the place trying to get the right charts to make the trip. I get them. Say my goodbyes to Mike and head for the plane...

Departure from an airport as busy as SLC takes a while especially when I'm proposing to fly in the clouds. I don't even start the engine before calling the controllers, it takes them a good 15 minutes to get to me. After getting a clearance I start the engine and have to wait another 15 minutes to get released for departure. 11:00 am as I remember was the approximate departure time.

After blasting through the very thin layer of fog I am commanded by the controller to "expedite my climb through 14,000 feet." My response is something like Scottie from Star Trek: "I'm givin' all I got kiptan but she kan't take much more!"

I canceled the IFR flight plan as soon as I was above the fog which was about 30 seconds after takeoff.

Now I'm back in my element, captain of my craft, master of my domain and happy.

I climb to 12,500 and head east of over the mountains. Every inch of Colorado passes under me, then half of Nebraska.

While crossing the mountains I get flight following from the controllers. First guys asks"N845WJ, Are you familiar with the terrain on you route of flight?" I acknowledge that I am. 5 minutes later he says "N84WJ, the minimum en route altitude in your area is 14,000 feet". Now this guys is trying to tell me that he is uncomfortable with me flying at 12,500 in my present position suggesting that a mountain is going to sneak up and slam into me. I can see 200 miles in every direction and the terrain is always 2000 feet below me. If I smack into a mountain it's my own damn fault. To put it even more bluntly, I have the where with all to get a pilot license, log 1000 hrs of flight time without any incidents, build my own plane, fly it California and back. If I run into a mountain in this pristine weather I deserve it. I want to say all of this but don't I just say "roger" and leave it at that. A few minutes later i climb to 14,500 and put on the oxygen rig for first time of the trip. The tail wind I get a 14,500 isn't much better than 12,500 and the Oxygen rig isn't very comfortable. ugh. Whatever. I stay at 14, 500 well past the mountain range, across the flat part of Colorado until it's time to descend and land at McCook, Nebraska.

There doesn't seem to be any body home at McCook but then I see a woman waving me in to park. I stop shutdown and by time I'm out of the plane the fuel truck has pulled up and is fueling me. I hand my credit card to the woman who parked me, head into the bathroom and by the time I'm out the woman has my credit card slip ready to sign. Damn good service and exactly what I need if I want to get home at a reasonable hour.

I call my next destination, Mosby Field in Cuba, MO, West of St. Louis and verify that they will have fuel when I get there in three hours about 5 pm local. He says that he will stay and that they've got a nasty crosswind. Good and Bad. Cheap fuel and bent airplane. I've landed this plane in some heavy crosswinds before and you better be awake but its not a problem. I assure him I'll be there by 5 and depart. The Trip is totally uneventful. I've got nice tailwinds that are getting stronger as move east, 210 knots across the ground isn't unusual now, damn near 50 knots help from the elements and fast enough to leave a indy car in the dust.

I land in the crosswind and it's not horrible but a challenge none the less. The nice guy at the airport asks how the landing was and I tell him it was cake. He responds "nothin' to it". he must of said "nothin' to it" about a dozen times.

I fuel up, and head for DC about 6 PM East coast time. Can't believe I woke up in Salt Lake and and going to go to bed in DC. The Sun goes down shortly after I depart and the air is smooth as glass. I pick up flight following and watch the plane take me home. As I get closer to DC I start to see places on the map that are more familiar and finally I'm talking to Potomac Tracon. These are the guys who will let me pass in the dreaded Air Defense Identification Zone, (ADIZ) and Flight Restricted Zone the surrounds the Capital. I have to wander around some airspace to get to my home airport. Pretty soon I'm down at 1400 feet running parallel with traffic in landing at national airport. Big jets all land at about the same speed range 115-150 knots, I'm scooting along at 160 knots and so I'm keeping pace with these big jet landing over top of me. The controllers are pointing me out to the big boys and one controller tells a USAir jet: "you have traffic in XXX direction, a homebuilt experimental that that guy probably built in his garage, he's head up to his little airport".

Racing the big boys was a pretty cool way to end the trip. I land, don't bother fueling, push in the hangar, drop the oil out because its due for a change and head home. Man and I tired and wired all at the same time. It has been one heck of a trip. Thanks for reading about it.

Bill

Up and Down

So I came to Utah to meet with a good friend and partake in the best snow on earth. Unfortunately Utah has been having a lousy season and there isn't much fresh powder. The upside of that is that I was able to fly in with out any problems at all. Getting out was a different story but you can't have everything. My friend Mike lives in Park City and so we go to the Canyons resort for 2 days. From the looks of the forecasts for the weekend I have to get back east in a hurry or risk getting caught in nasty weather and miss work on Monday. As appealing as that sounds to me it seems I need this job thing to keep my airplane... Friday departure seems to be inevitable.

Even thought the snow isn't too good it's better than anything back east. The runs are longer, the weather when it isn't snowing is usually blue sky, sunny and warm and whats more is that the terrain is much more challenging. Anyone who has skied both east and west has come to this conclusion. Anyway. I'm not trying to tell you what it's like to ski the Rockies, this is about what it's like to fly a little homebuilt plane coast to coast. Even still I'll put up a few pictures.

The first one above is Mike and I at the top of the Canyons resort after a 10 minute hike from the lift you get rewarded with an excellent view and that sign that is supposed to scare the bejesus out of you... I think it's there because of the lawyers but anyway it didn't bother us in the least. We went through the gate several times and had a blast doing it. The last picture is of a guy that was para skiing? you strap on a para foil and ski down until you have enough speed and the slope is steeper than the glide angle of the apparatus and voila you are flying . Pretty cool to watch but you have to be nuts to do that. One one of his flights he came right over top of me and made a steep turn that came about 3 feet from clipping a tree. That would have at least meant a very painful fall and serious damage to his rig.

Salt Lake Via Death Valley

Its Tuesday and time to say goodbye to Long Beach, CA, My Brother and impeccable weather. I won't see any of those for a long time. Matt is headed to South Africa, I don't get out to CA much and I'm headed to Salt Lake City Famous for it's "inversions." In general Inversions mean poor visibility. I'm Going to miss all of those things.

I'm going to get into some meteorology here, skip ahead if you want to avoid the tech talk.

Inversions are where the temperature of the air either stays the same as you go up in altitude or increases with Altitude. Ideally for every thousand feet you go up in altitude the temperature goes down about 3.5 F. This is referred to as the Dry Adiabatic lapse rate. All that means is that generally it gets colder as you go higher. During the day the sun warms parcels of air near the ground, they rise, slowly at first but as they reach colder air at higher altitudes they accelerate from the higher temperature difference, at the same time the air cools because it is expanding, if the parcel of air cools/expands/rises enough to reach its own dew point then a cumulus cloud forms. These are the nice puffy white clouds that are friendly especially for glider pilots since they mark areas of rising air that gliders ride up. The formation cloud or water vapor is a change of state from gaseous to liquid that put out heat hence an exothermic process that keep that parcel of air warmer and drives parcel of air with even more force. If there is enough energy and the air rises rapidly enough it becomes a thunderstorm. This process of air on the ground rising causes the air on the ground to lose moisture and hence better visibility: Morning fog gives way to afternoon sun... Now, the problem with an inversion is that the air at ground level doesn't rise because there isn't enough temperature differential to lift the air. The end result is the air by the ground stays moist, visibility suffers and flying isn't nearly as fun.

The Salt Lake adds moisture to the valley constantly aggravating the visibility situation. Evidently the weather gets so bad at Salt Lake International that they fly a small "cloud seeding" aircraft to cause the fog to break down and allow for air liners to land. My friend Mike told me this and I could hardly believe it until I saw a posting at Salt Lake looking for nut case pilots willing to do this job: take a little airplane and fly in weather so bad that large airliners can't land so that they can land. I'd do it if I was looking for work.

So anyway, I'm leaving good SoCal weather for crappy Salt Lake weather but hopefully picking up a few days of snowboarding. My friend Mike is a First Officer for Skywest and is on reserve until 4 PM so I've got time to kill and I think that I'll stop at Death Valley on the way to Salt Lake.

I depart Long Beach at 8:15 AM or so. I'm light on fuel since I didn't get gas since Kingman, AZ about 3 flight hours ago and so the plane climbs like a rocket. 30 minutes later I stop at Big Bear airport, 6000 feet elevation just over the mountains from the LA basin and also at the bottom of a ski resort. You wouldn't expect cheap fuel but this was the place. Pretty valley. Wander around a little bit and finally get directed to the fuel pumps by some nice person on the radio. I get out and try to fuel but the credit card machine tells me to wait for the last transaction to finish before fueling... I realize that the last customer forgot to hang up the pump and I've got the green light to get a free fill up... $100 probably... I decide that that would be really bad Carma a long way from home and do the right thing, hang up the pump and swipe my credit card.

I depart the deserted airport and head out across a small ridge and pass from lush evergreen forests to desert in a matter of minutes. I'm at 9,500 above mean sea level and around 4,000 feet above the terrain.

California and Nevada are littered with airspace that the military gets to play in. There are 2 major types: MOA's(Military Operations Areas ) and Restricted areas. Death Valley is actually within a MOA. MOA's are OK to fly through without permission and I do that all the time, if your lucky you see F-16s flying in formation doing amazing things. Most of the time you see nothing. Restricted areas required talking to the "controlling entity" for permission to pass. Usually the answer is no. To get to Death Vally I have to pass through several MOA's and navigate around several Restricted areas that are associated with China Lake, Naval Air Weapons Station and Edwards Airforce Base. Many times these areas have altitudes associated with them and you can go over or under them but at Edwards and China Lake they tend to fly their planes from the ground to the edge of space and so flying under or over these restricted areas is out of the question.

I wander around these invisible polygons of airspace and make my way north to Death Valley, elevation minus 210 feet. Weird. Desert, not much else. Very little vegetation. Not sure why anybody would want to come here. I'm on a mission, 3 days ago I landed at the highest airport in North America and today I get to land at the lowest an hour after leaving Big Bear at the rim of the LA basin.

There is another plane landing in front of me which is unusual for such a small airport in such a horrible place. I land and chat with the other pilot and he's golfing... I guess that golf is good in the winter and literally hell in the summer. As far as I'm concerned golf looks like hell all the time.

Even in the dead of winter its a balmy 65 degrees at 10 AM.

Nothing much to do... I walk out on the sand and sink in a little... desert, definitely desert... What the hell am I doing here?

Back in the plane, 2 hrs to Salt Lake. I navigate around a few more restricted Areas and slowly the desert turns to mountains. I climb to 11,500 to get around Wheeler Peak and start talking to Clover Control. I call them hoping they'll work a smooth hand off with Salt Lake Center and then Salt lake tower. No such luck. They do how ever give me a heads up and point out 2 F-16s flying low in formation. I spot them and they look like 2 black bullets. They are probably only 300 feet above the ground going 700 MPH. Very cool.

Wheeler Peak, NV is the highest Nevada has to offer at 13062 or so. I approach from the west and its a smooth peak with 2 major avalanche tracks running left to right in the picture. From the pictures you can see I'm looking up at it since I'm only at 12,000 feet. After I pass by the north side of the peak you can see that the Northeast side is very rugged.

The rest of the ride before getting into The Salt Lake Valley is peppered with ordinance depots. After you see one of these you recognize them everywhere. They look like many evenly spaced mounds of dirt with a 45 degree pie shaped section taken out for a door. The idea I guess is that you put your explosives inside and if one blows up the integrity of the building and spacing from the other buildings prevent the entire depot from going up or "sympathetic detonation" as they say...

After that the next interesting thing to see is the copper strip mine down through the western ridge that encloses the Salt Lake Valley. Big deep ugly hole. Evidently deepest strip mine in the world. The next thing to see is that it's hazy in Salt lake... just like the weather guessers said it would be. I chat with the controllers at Salt Lake and it's like a dream compared to LA. They cheerfully let me in their airspace . I end up parking at Salt Lake Jet Center and meeting my airline pilot friend Mike . We take the plane up to Ogden where fuel is like $1.50 cheaper than it is at Salt Lake and get filled up. I called the jet center the night before and they tell me they don't charge for parking and they don't have any requirement to purchase their really expensive fuel! Sweet! Since it gets really cold there with lots of moisture in the air I'm pretty sure they are going to get $90 from me for a single night in a heated hanger to defrost my plane so it's not a complete loss for them...

Grand Canyon

OK, now I've had a day of rest after hanging out on Catalina for a day and I got to stretch the legs a little by hiking around. Its Monday and time to go check out the Grand Canyon.

Flying over the Canyon is carefully regulated to make sure:
1. Tourist aircraft get the best possible views.
2. Private aircraft don't ever hit tourist aircraft.
3. Some areas of the Canyon remain free of aircraft noise.
4. Private aircraft have some chance of not hitting each other.

The tour operators get to fly helicopters below the rim of the canyon, you can't do this in private aircraft. Evidently flying below the rim is an amazing experience. Makes me want to quit my day job and fly for a living there. The tour operators have special flight patterns that are approved by the FAA. All the Private aircraft must stay above these routes. People Camp in and on the rim of the Canyon and deserve to do so without a constant stream of aircraft and associated noise for this there are Flight Free zones. To help private aircraft avoid hitting each other different areas of the Canyon have different frequencies that aircraft are supposed to monitor and announce when they are passing certain points. This is pretty normal: The same type of systems is set up at every airport that doesn't have an air traffic control tower which by a huge majority I mean most of them. The system works very well.

So from Long Beach, CA we depart for Kingman, AZ to get fuel, stretch our legs and maybe eat. about 2 hours to get to Kingman. Flight Service says that there are several reports of NASTY turbulence over Ontario airport which is on our route. I'm not familiar with the area and I ask what the best route was for a light airplane and the briefer suggested that I head Southeast and then east across Palm Springs then direct Kingman. I have been out to Mt San Jancinto before and Palm Springs and it's rather nice terrain so I decide to take that route.

Turbulence isn't usually a big deal but this time there a 2 reports of Severe Turbulence around Ontario one from a little plane, which usually I blow off as some guy who can't hold on to his lunch. The problem is there also report of severe turbulence from a business jet. here is the definition:

Severe: Turbulence that causes large, abrupt changes in altitude and attitude, and large variations in airspeed, with the aircraft temporarily out of control. Occupants are forced violently against their seat belts and objects are tossed about, with food service and walking impossible.

Now that paints an ugly picture. Light planes get tossed by turbulence much easier that Jets and the pilots are typically more experienced than your average Sunday driver so when they make reports like that you pay attention.

We take the long way and are rewarded with a smooth ride, good views of the wind Generators at Palm Springs, The Salton Sea, Mt. San Jancinto and the desert.

On the way to Kingman I start screaming a stream of expletives in the front seat and make my brother a little nervous. My sunglasses break and I'm a little Pissed off. Oh Well, That's why I look so screwy in some of the pictures. My brother thinks I look like the guy in Waterworld. He graciously loans me his sunglasses when I need them.

We land Kingman. It's something of a bone yard for United Airlines and USAir commuter planes. They are everywhere. We find the fuel pumps , get fuel and ask about the restaurant and it happens to be closed every Monday. We depart for the Grandest of Canyons with my brother's stomach rumbling and him grumbling. about 30minutes later we are over the Canyon and it's spectacular. Big, Deep ditch! Words can't do it justice, you have to see it. With My brother still whining about his hunger I call on the radio down to Grand Canyon West airport and Ask if they have food. I get a response from a tour operator pilot that they have food but you have to take a free bus to get there. Jackpot! I set up and Land Grand Canyon West. This means dodging a constant stream of helicopters and dealing with a mean cross wind. Good fun.

We taxi up and park next to an enormous plane called a Navajo which to most people looks microscopic... well anything is enormous compared to my plane. We park and ask about food. The nice guy says that the pilot was a little misleading: The bus rides are Free for the commercial pilots not us private pilots. We end up having to Pay $33 each for a bus ride to an overlook there there is Native American food in a buffet style. Well it's only money right? We cheerfully pay and take the ride to the overlook. It turns out to be a great view, right on the rim and the food is pretty good too. Obviously this is a tourist trap at $33 per person for a little bus ride and food but the view was spectacular. We get out and walk around Guano Point, named for the product they harvested from the cave under the end of the point. We throw a few rocks in the canyon and see how long it takes to hear them hit. There isn't much else to say. You just have to go and see it for yourself.

So we take pictures, some of me acting like I'm a jackass about to fall in the Canyon... Then we take the bus back to the airport. We depart, fly over the canyon some more and then head west back to Long Beach.

Along the way I call Flight Service on the radio and ask for updates on the weather and especially the turbulence situation. I get the green light. No reports of turbulence and smooth sailing. Sweet. 1:30 later we are passing back into the the LA basin, over the mountains and suddenly my physical model of how the world works ends. The plane is tossed gently at first but abruptly gently turns to a good solid violent thrashing. Things are flying around the cockpit, the attitude of the aircraft is all over the place and I don't much feel like a pilot but a steerage passenger. As soon as I can I turn the autopilot off, slow the plane down and ask if Matt if he is OK. He bumped his head through the padding of the headset but is otherwise fine. Ouch. This was probably a scaled down version of what we would have experienced that morning if we didn't heed the earlier turbulence reports. I'm exaggerating a bit it really wasn't that bad but still not a good experience.

30 minutes later we are in Long Beach and I take the Line service guy for a ride. CJ, employee of Long Beach Air Center, was a super standup guy getting my airplane parked and taking care of us even though they usually don't have small aircraft on their ramp. He is a pilot with a few hours of flight time and so I install the rear seat stick so he can fly the plane. We take off about 15 minutes before sunset and fly around Catalina Island and watch another day end. Spectacular!

Catalina

I have spent the past 2 days riding around in my little plane and really don't want a long trip today. It's Sunday, day of rest so we set out for Catalina Island. They call it the airport in the sky since the island is a continuation of the mountains on the mainland. The airport is 1600 feet above sea level; for an east coast guy this is really high but I'm not too worried since I've been into Leadville! The Island really does look like a mountain top as you are approaching it. Fascinating.

We land, pay the $20 landing fee, get hiking permits and set out to see what there is to see. the place is very dry and to make matters worse they are experiencing a drought. There are a few lakes and watering holes but due to lack of rain they are mud holes. During our hike we come across some researches who are taking soil samples and they direct up to a reservoir where they saw Bison. We walked over and found the Bison. We didn't see much else. Cacti and dust... Rough place to carve out an existence. Evidently the island had a trade with the mainland a long time ago by making cooking utensils out of soapstone. This has long since ended but evidence of this still remains.

After a 2 hour hike we go back to the airport Cafe and have a bison burger: We got to see it now we got to eat it. pretty sweet.

We got back in the plane and headed back to Long Beach.

Good fun

Leadville and Beyond!

OK, so before I went to bed Friday night the Flight Service people didn't have any good news for me. Snow, mountain obscuration and Ice would be the weather I was going to wake up to. In case you didn't know that's not good. Snow means bad visibility, mountain obscuration means you can't see the mountain tops and Ice means your airplane gets covered with Ice if you enter the clouds. The Ice is a double whammy: It destroys the lift of the wings while adding drag and adds weight to the plane. Ice is nasty stuff. Stay away!

I get more weather info in the morning and the story isn't much better. Leadville, 70 Northwest is showing good weather but when I look outside it's snowing and I can't see the mountains around me. Crap. Well I have nothing better to do so I head to the airport and see what the weather is doing. The basic deal I get from Flight Service is that if I can get to Leadville I'll be able to get West and on to my destination... Long Beach, CA... Which seems like an awfully long way away.

As I'm sitting looking at the light snow fall on my plane I notice a tumble weed blow across the airport. I thought they only existed in TV commercials. After a few more roll across I realize that they actually do exist and I also notice that the snow is starting to end and I looking at the local Radar it is shows a band of snow has moved through and that I may have a chance to escape. The weather continues to improve as I can see up the valley. 40 miles away is Salida which is reporting good weather according to their automated weather system that you can call on the phone. Leadville is showing good weather too.

A little more on Leadville: Small town in the Colorado Rockies at 10,000 feet above sea level and it also happens to have an airport that is the highest in North America. Aircraft performance degrades as you go higher in elevation since there is less air for the engine to make power with and less air for the wings to make lift. This all means that getting in and out of Leadville airport is much more challenging than most airports. Leadville is something of a legend. Most people never fly higher than 10,000 feet, landing at 10,000 feet is unheard of... Except at Leadville. The name for airplanes at least is fitting.

So with the weather getting good enough to depart comfortably from Canon City I set out for Salida which is also showing good weather. A mere 40 miles away, 15 minutes by air. I can't go above the mountains because the tops are in the clouds so I follow the road out of Canon City up the valley to Salida. I'm so nervous on this part of the trip: more nervous than any other part. Every pilot I know warns me to be wary of mountain weather and here I am up to my eyeballs in it. I Know the weather is good where I am, I know it's good where I'm going and its not that far between... from looking at the radar if I have to turn back I don't have any reason to believe the weather is going to turn south in the 15 minutes. Still this is a little nerve racking.

I follow the roads, up the valleys, see Salida airport in good weather just as advertised. From there I can see the next airport, Central Colorado, and from there it's only another 30 miles north to Leadville. I turn north and pass Central Colorado Airport and a few minutes later Leadville airport comes into the windscreen. Sucess!
Where I am now the mountain tops are covered in cloud but to the north from Leadville I can see Blue Sky! I'm home free.

I land Leadville, fuel the plane, call Flight Service and they verify what I already know: Leave the valley to the North, turn west and you've got good weather all the way to Long Beach. Not only am I going to make it to my destination, I got to land at Leadville! Jackpot!

I get a free certificate from nice lady at Leadville to certify that I landed at the highest airport in North America! Then I set out for North Las Vegas airport for cheap fuel.

The takeoff from Leadville wasn't normal by any stretch: Normally I'm off the ground and climbing in 300 feet but at Leadville the plane struggles to get off the ground in 1000 feet. For this altitude getting off the ground in 1,000 feet is amazing.

The picture with the Ski Trails is Aspen Resort and if you Click on it you'll see a long range radar in the foreground.

From Leadville I head north for a few miles then west past Aspen, then Grand Junction, Moab, Bryce Canyon, Lake Mead, Nellis Air Force Base(home of the high priests), and land North Las Vegas.

Until about 50 miles from Vegas there isn't any sign of haze but as you get closer to Vegas the temperature starts to rise, the air can carry more moisture and there is some component of air pollution. This makes Haze. Nothing too bad but Haze none the less. Interesting to see changes like that.

I fuel up and North Las Vegas, call my brother and tell him when I'm going to be there and depart for Long Beach.

While waiting for departure at Vegas I peel the tape off my air vent, it's getting warm and it will be warmer in the LA basin. After I peel the tape off I hear the incredible sucking sound. I'm a little startled that that kind of noise is coming from the air vent. I cover it back with my hand and it doesn't go away. Now I'm really spooked. What the hell is going on? then I look behind me and there is a 4 engine jet bearing down on me waiting to depart as well. I'm relieved but halfway worried I'm going to get sucked into his engines. I don't get sucked in and all is well.

A little over an hour and I'm getting ready to enter the LA basin. Surrounded by mountains to the north and east and water everywhere else LA sets up some interest weather. The Desert outside of the mountains has no clouds and a small amount of haze. In the basin there is plenty of Haze, clouds at 5000 feet that I will have to pick through and airspace that is so complicated that you need a PHD to understand it completely. Try to picture an upside wedding cake with 5 tiers: That would be the forbidden airspace of LAX. Then for good measure pack 2 more 3 tier cakes under the first cake and finally pack another 7 or so short cylinder type cakes under the first cake. The airspace that I'm allowed to fly in is outside of all of the cakes. Fun Huh?

So I pass over the mountains, ask for clearance into the wedding cakes, get denied and commence picking my way down through the most complicated airspace I've ever seen. Painful but all went well. I landed Long Beach at 2 PM the day after I left from DC. Not Bad. Good fun too.

I eat a late lunch with my brother and then take him for a ride. I probably should have rested but he wanted a ride... All went well.

Departure

OK, I've got 11 days of my work schedule cleared to do this trip. This trip will be done with good weather only meaning that I won't fly through clouds. Friday is my first day off and the weather doesn't look cooperative but at the same time doesn't look like a complete shutout. A cold front is on it's way, and for this particular front this means:
strong headwinds
cold temps
snow
some cloud cover.

My other problem is that there is a nasty snow storm moving East Northeast that will engulf Eastern Colorado all the way to St Louis. This system will take days to pass. If I don't get into the Rockies by sundown Friday night I will be stuck for several days in the plains of the Midwest with nothing other than bad weather and books to keep me company.

Thursday Night: I called flight service and they don't say good things but they don't say bad things either. The mountains of West Virgina are going to get snow(bad visibility) and the cloud tops will be near 10,000 feet. 10,000 feet isn't too bad I can get over the snow but will be battling serious headwinds...

Friday morning, 5 AM: I called flight service again. Most stations across the route are reporting OK weather. Mountains of West Virgina are getting snow. I've got the day off anyway and so with all my stuff for the trip I leave for the airport. By sun up at 7 AM I've got the plane off the ground and I'm flying west in to gale force headwinds. I can't stay low out of the strong headwind because of lousy visibility in snow and the risk of getting trapped between rising terrain and lowering clouds in the mountains of west Virginia. Ouch. I take the less painful option of flying into a 50 knot headwind at around 10,000 feet. Thanks to the winds I end up having to shorten the flight distance by 90 miles. The flight is beautiful, smooth and in the sunshine over the clouds. Below me there is a may lay of wind and snow that will become my demise should my engine decide to stop turning money into noise.

My cheat sheet from www.airnav.com says that "Rough River" airport has cheap fuel and it happens to be on my route. I change my destination to Rough river. 100 miles away from rough river the undercast starts to break up just as it was forecast to and I descent down under the clouds. The air under the clouds is turbulent. This flight so far has been smooth but I've only been doing 110 knots across the ground according to the GPS. Below the clouds my ground speed come up to 130 knots, only a 30 knot headwind instead of 50 knots but the price I pay is having my little airplane tossed around by continuous turbulence. This is welcome trade.

After nearly 4 hours and 450 NM of flying, I spot The airport, land, taxi to the pumps, notice they say "out of order" and call the number listed on them. I tell the woman I need fuel. She says they don't have any and aren't planning on having any for a while... ouch. With an hour and a half of fuel on board I fly 10 miles away to the nearest airpot and they've got fuel albeit expensive fuel. I fill up , get the green weather light from flight service and depart for Ellsworth, KS.

Ellsworth is by Salina, which is by... not much else. Smack in the middle of Kansas. Cheap fuel. I don't see much other than Ice in the trees giving way to snow on the ground later on and lots of flat land. It still is pretty scenery but scenery that I'm familiar with. I've flown in this part of the country before.

another 4 hours of flying and this time 545 NM and I land at Ellsworth municipal airport in Ellsworth, KS. It is listed in airnav.com as "assisted self serve." Not sure what that means but I'll find out.

I taxi to where the fuel pumps are and you need a key to make them work... I enter the building and there is a phone with several numbers to call. I call the first and they say someone will be right out to fuel my plane. They were right; less than 10 minutes later a nice gentleman shows up, fuels me up and with a few pleasantries and talk of experimental homebuilt aircraft I depart for Canon City, Co. nestled in a canyon just inside the Rockies. The "N" in Canon is supposed to have a "~" above it so it sounds like Canyon.

From Ellsworth, KS, elevation 1,600 feet the terrain remains flat all the way to Denver and Colorado springs except for the fact that the elevation rises to more than 5,000 feet. During this flight between the plains and the Rockies somehow my little plane almost completely by itself maintained 1500 feet above the ground for the two hour 350 NM trip. Even though I know it was just coincidence it seems like gravity and the lift of my wings were in perfect equilibrium as I inched closer to the rocky mountains. From 1500 feet the view was spectacular. I could see details in all the little streams that generated small canyons and see how the powerful Northwest wind had forced snow into perfect lines as it whipped past "L" shaped lines of trees that form wind breaks around farms. And then, out in the distance more than 120 miles away I could see the scenery that I had come for. The Rocky Mountain Range was coming into view. Massive mountains stretching up nearly 10,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. I passed Pueblo, CO went up the Valley to land Canon, City.


After landing The nice guy that worked at the airport fueled my plane and got me squared away with a courtesy car and gave me directions to the local Holiday Inn Express. Living in style. I went to eat at and had a Beer. Got settled in at the hotel and called Flight Service for weather. The news wasn't good. The storm I was trying to beat was going to be my nemesis tomorrow...

To the Left Coast and Beyond!

OK, with the 40 hours of test flying out of the way and virtually no problems with the aircraft during the testing phase it was time to stretch the legs of the silver stallion.

My brother is living in Huntington Beach, CA. he's been there for 18 months and I have not visited him once. I'm In DC. Originally he was going to get moved to South Africa with his job before I finished my airplane and so flying out to see him wasn't going to work but alas his relocation got postponed and the opportunity to fly across the entire continent with a purpose was there.

I also had a good friend living in Park City, UT. It's tough to pass up flying to a premier snowboarding destination when there is a free couch to crash on.

So the plan is fly to the West Coast to see my brother for a few days then fly up to Utah and see a good friend... in a homebuilt aircraft!

Flight test

OK, with the first flight out of the way it was time to get on to the nitty gritty of flight test. Technically the first flight is part of the flight testing but it feels completely different. Per the FAA rules my plane needs 40 hours of flight test time before I can carry passengers or exit my designated test area.

My assigned test area is 50 nautical miles around Cambridge airport in Cambridge, MD. This allows me to get over to the Delaware shore and over Seaford, DE where I grew up. Not bad but still the airplane can easily cross 50 nm in 20 minutes... Pretty limiting but those are the rules.

Right away I start talking with my Guru's about fixing my "can't slow down problem" They don't think it's a big issue but they also think it needs to be corrected. The fix turns out to be easy. I swap out a shim under the horizontal stabilizer the original shim was 1/8 and the new shim is 1/16. I do this and now the airplane slows down just fine. More aft weight or a more aft center of gravity has the same effect but I don't want to carry ballast unless I have to. The shim fix works just fine.

The test flying consists of flying the airplane in every imaginable condition that you would encounter. Climbing, Gliding, stalling, loops, rolls and many other maneuvers. I did all these things. The airplane design is well documented. There are over 800 of the same model flying and nearly 5,000 of the same make flying so I wasn't worried about how it would perform. Lots of the test flying became verification of how it was performing.

The one thing I paid special attention to was fuel burn rates. I wanted to know exactly how much fuel the plane would burn at different cruise altitudes. The reason for my concern was that I had some major trips planned in this plane and when you want to travel and stretch the range of your bird you must know positively how much fuel you have at all times. no questions, ever. Insurance companies feel so strongly about this that if you EVER run out of fuel in a aircraft you may be uninsurable for life. Ouch!

Test flying went well. No major problems, the aircraft did what it was supposed to do. Now armed with 40 hrs of flight experience in the airplane and good knowledge of how far it could go it was time for a trip.

First Flight

So finally after nearly 3 years of building, 6 years of preparation and a lifetime worth of dreaming it was time to fly the homebuilt.

November 18, 2006. Early morning flight from Potomac Airfield. For those that don't know Potomac is about 8 miles Southeast of the Washington monument. This close proximity to the "brains" of the US government makes a few people nervous. The airport requires a United States Secret Service background check. The other painful part of this airport is that there are only 2 modes that they want to see you in when flying there: coming or going. Some people think "they " don't even want to see those modes but that's another subject all together.

First flights are dangerous. Serious business. There are no two ways about it. Untested airplane, untested engine can have disastrous results for both the plane and pilot. For this reason I really want to stay over the airport during my first flight.

During the time getting ready for my first flight I called the FAA controllers in charge of the airspace around Potomac airfield and got stone walled. They told me there was nothing they could let me do other than fly south outside of the flight restricted zone. This meant beyond glide distance of the airport and if for some reason my engine decided to quit I wouldn't have a prayer of getting back on the airport.

This turned out to be rubbish. With a flight planned filed, the plane and pilot ready for departure on a land line I called the controllers for permission to depart, the conversation went like this:

Potomac Tracon: Mount Vernon Flight Data
Me: NXXXX at Potomac
Potomac Tracon: NXXXX, what are you doing testing your engine?
Me: No Sir, First flight of a homebuilt aircraft. I would like to stay over the airport.
Potomac Tracon: Oh, I see. Yes, you are going to stay over the airport. Sqwak XXXX
Me: Yahoo!

So from that exchange I was totally relieved that I wasn't going to have to worry about being far from the airport and out of glide distance from the airport. This was great. Thanks to who ever that was that had a clue what I was up to.

First flights of homebuilt aircraft are rare events and often difficult to witness. Why? Builders who have their heads screwed on right don't tell a soul about the flight unless they are essential for the flight. People that are essential are not numerous but maybe 3-4 people to man fire extinguishers and one person with a plane that can come and look for you if something happens. That's IT. My girlfriend wanted to be there, my airplane partner desperately wanted to be there, the friend who let me help him finish his plane wanted to be there, I wanted my Dad to be there. So a small list anyway. The reason is that if you invite everyone and their brother you have a wee bit of undue pressure to fly and you don't need anything pressuring you to fly an unproven plane. Nuff Said.

By the time the plane and I were ready to go there were about 25 people standing around the airport with nothing better to do than watch a my baby go down in a ball of flames... oh well, I didn't know most of them and if I delay my first flight I won't worry the least bit about disappointing them.

Of the 42 gallon capacity, I only put 15 gallons of gas aboard for the first flight. For many reasons but two major ones:
Less fuel to burn at the scene of a crash.
Less weight aboard.

The first one is obvious the second I'll explain. With less weight I can take off shorter and climb faster. The sooner I'm off the ground and away from the ground the sooner I'm out of the what I'll call the "Danger Zone" where I can't land on the remaining runway infront of me because there isn't enough and I can't turn around and land because I don't have enough altitude to execute the gliding turn back to the airport. So anyway less weight means more options sooner should something go wrong. This is the case for every airplane, every takeoff.

I allowed the oil temperatures to warm up above 75 F. I did one test run down the runway to verify that the airspeed indicator was working properly. Then I taxied back and pushed the throttle all the way in...

300 feet down the 2600 foot runway.
60 miles per hour
Rotate and fly off
right turn continued to a 180 degree turn over the airport and I'm passing through 1700 feet!
The clearance I have only allows me to go to 1400 feet. CRAP! Beg forgiveness rather than ask for permission, right?

Switch from the airport frequency to Potomac Approach.
I check in and don't mention my altitude... They see it anyway but why highlight it?
Right away the controller clears me to 3000 feet over the field. Thank you!

While I'm at 3000 feet the controller is actually alerting and maneuvering jetliners headed to National airport around my little 1000 pound airplane. Wow!

I climb up to 3000 feet in about 45 seconds and start to do a few maneuvers. The aircraft responds the way it is supposed to except for slowing down. I have the stick all the way back and can't get it to Stall.

This is a normal maneuver that you do when you want to land. Basically by pulling the stick back and bringing the nose up you fly the airplane so slowly that it stops flying. If you are 3000 feet above the ground the plane falls 50 or so feet, gains speed from falling and starts flying again. If you do this a foot or less above the runway you get a nice pretty "full stall" landing.

My problem now is that I don't think I'm going to be able to go slow enough to land the plane!!!

After flying with the stick all the way back and being patient for it to slow down I can get the plane to slow to about 70 knots. 65 would be better for landing but 70 will probably work OK. Still fast but what the hell else am I going to do?

15 minutes has passed and with the limited fuel supply on board I tell the controller that I'm headed back to the airport and thank him for letting me tread on his hallowed ground!

I fly over the middle of the airport at 80 knots, make a right turn for downwind, put full flaps down, make a right turn to base leg, another right turn to final with and with the plane as slow at I can go I fly down final approach, land and taxi to the fuel pumps. What a relief! The Girlfriend comes running over to the pumps and in tears gives me a big hug and kiss. Well worth it!

Building

After Helping a Friend on the same plane for nearly 3 years I'm reasonably well prepared for tackling the extremely frustrating, tedious, expensive, time consuming and finally rewarding process of building a plane.

I buy a house on October 29, 2003 in Cheverly, MD. What better day to become a homeowner than the annerversary of the 1929 stock market crash. I feel real good about where my down payment is going... the overriding factor in selecting this house is that is has a garage large enough to build the airplane I want to build.

here is a quick rundown on the process:
Christmas 2003 FedEx Ground is kind enough to drop off boxes containing all the parts needed to build the tail feather or more professionally know as the "Empannage" this is the rudder, elevator, Horizontal and Vertical stabilizers. Around $1,400.

Tools:
Well you need tools for this. I spent around $1,500 right off the bat.

Time 2 years 6 months building at the house and then I get a hangar at Potomac airfield and have to take a Hiatus from building to sell my house. The DC real estate market is getting soft and I need to get out during the Summer. I end up getting out with a tidy profit, then buying another house in Arlington, VA. I closed on that house October 27, 2006. All this buying and selling of houses didn't leave much time to finish the plane...

October 2006 I was finally ready to have final inspection of the airplane by a FAA designated inspector. All went amazingly well and I received a certificate of airworthiness for my plane. At this point I should have been ready for my first flight. I had been flying the Citibria regularly and reading accident reports from RV-8 crashes. I was ready.

Getting there

June 2000 I earned a Private Pilot License and called an insurance broker for a quote on the homebuilt plane I wanted to build. The quote was nearly $10,000/year. Ouch. The only solution for this problem is either pay the money or get more experience.

Aircraft ownership although expensive is much cheaper if: You fly enough, have some clue as to how mechanical things work and are willing to get you hands dirty.

April 2001 I along with a partner buy a 1953 Piper Pacer. I log 15 hours and my partner ground loops(wrecks) it and it is considered a total loss. I did have the foresight to insure it for $4,000 more than we paid so we actually made money on the deal but still I'm back at square one with no plane.

I go back to renting a Citibria for the next year.

9-11-01 6 AM, I depart the DC Area in a rented 172 for Ocean City, NJ to pick up my French Cousin and Her friend. We depart Ocean City at 8:30 AM and head back to DC. Georgous day, cold and windy but not a cloud in the sky. Due to the headwind it's 1:45 back to DC and coming across the Chesapeake Bay I start talking to the controllers at Baltimore. It's 10 AM, one of the controllers asks an airliner "did you hear what happened?" they respond, "We heard it on the AM, We heard it was an American." Many Airliners have the capability to listen to AM radio. Baltimore controllers hand me off to Andrews controllers and I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. 20 minutes from College park my portable GPS stopped working. I started the timer and maintained heading to College Park. While flying I saw a narrow column of smoke across the Potomac and thought nothing of it. When I landed the airport manager filled me in on the happenings of the past 1:45.

Not much flying for a while.

I fill my time Working on a friend's homebuilt RV-8 learning the tricks of the trade.

March 2002 a new partner and I purchase a 1950 Cessna 170A. This plane cost exactly twice what the Pacer costs. one year later and my taste in airplanes has doubled. Ouch!

This plane turns out to be a real workhorse. East to fly and reliable. Not fast but I'm trying to gain experience here. Hours of logged time mean experince.

December of 2003, While working at the Centennial of flight celebration in Kitty Hawk, NC I fax in my order for the first parts of my RV-8. My friend that had been building for 7 years has finished his and it's time for me to start mine. At this point I have the experience to build the plane but don't quite have the flight time to get reasonable insurance: now the insurance quote is $3500/year. Not bad but still expensive.

The concept

OK:
So getting out of college in '99 as an engineer I realized I had to build and fly my own airplane. A little bit of research revealed that you can't just go do this all at once. Here are a few of the things necessary:
1. Pilot's license (Bullshit!)
2. Flight experience (I am the greatest, what do I need that for?)
3. Know how (I'm and engineer Dammit, I can build anything!)
4. Money (this crap isn't cheap...)