Turkey Day Week Trip (kinda long)

[Jim C]

Thanksgiving Trip

Friday 11/21

This is the day the trip to San Antonio, TX from Thomasville, GA
began. I got up at 5 am, loaded up the Jeep and drove up to
Thomasville from Tallahassee. I stopped enroute to TVI and purchased
fuel for the Gull 2000, the plane the journey was to be in along the
way. Once at TVI, I loaded up the plane, did the preflight and warm
up and was in the air around 0730. All was quiet on the radio. The
air was smooth; winds were calm overall, maybe a 5 mph headwind at
altitude (@ 2500'), and the visibility was great. I had a nice quiet
flight to Greenville, AL, my first stop along the way for fuel.
Early on I could tell where the rivers and lakes were by the surface
fog that marked the lakes and the fog that ran along the river paths.

After I left Greenville, I headed to Meridian, MS to Topton Airpark,
where I was to stay the night with a friend of mine. As I came up to
Meridian, I dropped down to about 1200' (@800' agl) to avoid the Navy
training jets that were operating out of Meridian NAS, @ 5-6 miles or
so to the north of the airpark. I encountered my first bit of real
turbulence of the day at this time as well. I landed with little
fanfare and was ready for some food. It was @ 1130 my time (or
1030ish CST).

Cap'n Richie was doing well (from the Fly-UL list). He had just
bought himself a used 26' Wahoo boat. This boat was rigged with 2
Yamaha 200 hp outboards, an outrigger and all kinds of fishing stuff,
as well as being rigged as a dive boat. He bought this thing to do
offshore fishing in the Gulf, and I got to say it was a nice setup.
We went out in the lake that afternoon to run the thing a little and
it rode very nicely. He is doing a little fixing up on it, but
overall, it in pretty decent shape and well equipped. By the way we
were doing 53 mph over the water at the lake and it rode just as
smooth as can be.

Saturday 11/22

The forecast was for it to be windy later in the day, so I was going
to get off to an early start, especially if I was going to have any
chance to get to San Antonio in one day, today. But this day was
going to bring a whole new experience and meaning to flying in the
wind. My flight plan was to initially take me to San Antonio, via
stops at Natchez, MS (right along the Mississippi River); Jasper, TX
(just over the Louisiana state line into Texas); and Brenham, TX
(just to the NW of Houston); then onto Pipe Creek where my Dad's
small ranch is at (near Boerne, TX, about a 45 minute drive to the W
of San Antonio just past the start of hill country).

I was able to get off from Meridian pretty close to 0700, and the
wind sock was limp. Looking good, or so I thought. I no more got
into the air and was going through 400' agl than when reality set
in. I started to be tossed around like a bean bag. As I went
through 800' agl I think I hit a wind wall. My GS dropped almost 20
mph, and it was early. When I leveled out my ASI indicated 90 and my
GS was 71, and with slight heading changes was able to get that up to
75. OK, all was not lost – I was still making headway, so I
continued onward. I plan my trips with GS of 85, 80, and 75 so I was
on track.

Overall my ASI read about 90 the whole way. My GS shifted between 75
and 58 and overall I averaged 68.2 for the day. By the time I got to
Brenham I had lost pretty close to 2 hours off of my original plan.
The winds were pretty much 15-18 gusting to 23, or so the weather
people said on all of the frequencies giving weather advisories.
Personally I think they were off about 8 mph or I was obviously
continually in the gust they kept on mentioning. I also had to crab
into the wind about 20 degrees to hold my track. Anyway when I got
to Brenham, I only had about an hour and 45 minutes of daylight left
after I had refueled. Normally this next leg would only take about
1.7 hours, but the way I was going today, this leg would take about
2.5 hrs. The winds had not subsided as the day got later either.
They had grown stronger. So, I made the decision to hold up here for
the night, only 158 miles from my destination. The only problem, a
front was coming through the next day. The big question was whether
I could beat the front or would have to hole up and let it go through.

Sunday 11/23

The forecast was to be even windier after the front came through.
Winds were predicted to be 23 gusting to 30. By the time I was able
to get off it was about 0800. There was the illusion that it was
fairly clear in the direction I was going. My Dad mentioned it was
clear and fairly calm at the moment up at Pipe Creek where I was
going, so I decided to try and beat the front. I took off and it was
just as calm as could be. There was a light broken overcast at 400'
agl, and two more layers above that. The skies to the North looked a
little hazardous and I would need to keep an eye on how fast that
system moved along the way. It was just as smooth and nice as it
could be. Except for one little itty bitty thing, which I could not
see from the ground, or was even advised about from the weather
briefing. I had a wall of clouds directly in my path. So I decided
to turn back and weather the storm at Brenham. They had a nice
restaurant there as well. Good place for that $100 hamburger if you
are in the area. As soon as I landed, tied down and put the cover on
my engine, I called my Dad to let him know of the delay. The weather
then came in very quickly, even as I was talking on the cell phone; I
ended up having to get under cover. It came in a lot quicker than I
thought it would. The rains were fairly light and mostly drizzle,
but the winds were something else. The cloud layer was very dark and
very low. It was interesting to see the 180 degree in wind shift,
once again not favorable to the direction I was going at all. The
winds were pretty much at 30 mph. I decided to sit things out for a
while and let the initial stuff pass on through before deciding to
make another attempt. I stayed through lunch and ate at the airport
café. It was one of the better airport restaurants I have eaten at.
Afterwards, I continued to check the weather. Clouds were pretty
much at 2500-3000', but the real issue was the winds. They were
continuing to increase and were not subsiding at all. About 1400, I
decided to make the journey over to San Antonio.

I went out to preflight and the engine cover looked like a big airbag
fully blown up. I had to chock the plane (rear side of the mains
only) to keep it from moving after turning it into the wind so I
could get into it and depart. Winds were currently at 23 gusting to
30 per the airport weather advisory. I had barely turned onto the
runway when I am sure a big gust of wind hit. I had barely put the
throttle to full and was off the ground. I was at 500' before the
next ramp exit, and was well over a 1000' before halfway down the
runway. I then turned toward San Antonio. My route would actually
take me to the north of San Antonio between it and Austin going over
San Marcos, directly over Boerne onto Pipe Creek where my Dad's place
was at. I only had 158 miles to go, but at a GS of 62 it was going
to take me a little over 2.5 hrs to get there. The winds were
supposedly lighter over toward San Antonio, but when I got over San
Marcos the winds were still extremely strong. I climbed up to 4500'
to get out of the turbulence and came close to an Air Force jet going
the other way. I was admiring the jet so much I forgot to take a
picture. As I was going over the Boerne Stage airport (named that
way since the airport was right on the old stage route going through
Boerne) I decided to put down here since the runways were lined up N –
S. With the winds pretty much S to N and my Dad's field closer to
E - W and having to use an extreme crab angle I was not even thinking
about landing at his place into a 900 ft strip. I made this decision
as I went over the Boerne Stage airport at 4500' (field elevation was
at 1300'). I turned down wind and nosed down. My airspeed went from
62 to 118. I turned base, and was only coming through 3000' (still
1700' agl) and then turned final at 2700' (1400'agl). I was coming
in at a cruise speed of 85 IAS and still had to add power to make the
runway (GS was 56). When I set down after this helicopter landing I
could have turned off immediately, only there was no place to do so
and I had to power up to taxi. The runway was about the width of a
two lane road, so it was very nice that the wind was pretty much
directly down the centerline. Once on the ground I found someone who
would let me put the Gull into a hangar (for a nominal fee) and I
cleaned her up and put her to bed for the night. My Dad's property
was only another 14-15 miles further east, so he came over to get me,
and I decided that I would fly the plane over when the winds were
more favorable.

Monday 11/24

The winds were much lighter on this day, being about 5-10, but that
felt like no wind at all after the last couple of days. My Dad
dropped me off at the Boerne Stage airport and then headed over to
his property. Surprisingly, there was a little turbulence near the
ground, but that may be more the hill country affect than anything
else. The winds were more NE – SW which lined up better with the
strip at my Dad's place, so off I went. I took a couple of pictures
of his land from the air and then landed and tied the plane down.
Overall the day turned out to be nice.

The next couple of days were great weather with very little winds.
Of course this was after I had already flown over in what I would
term very interesting conditions for this light of a sport plane.
Friday was a very enjoyable flying experience, but Saturday and
Sunday were not much fun. It was more work than fun. If I had been
home, I would not even have messed with it.

The plan was to reverse the same route on the return starting the day
after Thanksgiving, Friday, but as I looked at the weather, the winds
were to be just as bad only going the opposite way so I would have
the same heavy headwinds on the return as well (forecast to be 20 kts
gusting to 30). I must have really angered the Big Guy upstairs.
However, the winds were to turn favorable and light if I waited a day
before starting the return and it would allow this system to work its
way to the East, so I would not catch up to it too quickly, so I
decided to head off on Saturday and stay one more day in San Antonio
instead.

Saturday 11/29

The small ranch is about a 45 minute drive to the W of San Antonio,
so we were up early and heading out to the property. We got out to
the field about 6:30 or so and the plane was covered in frost – very
thickly covered. The temp was 19 degrees up in the hill country and
so we decided to let the sun have its affect and go get some
breakfast in nearby Pipe Creek. We took an hour to do that and then
another 3/4 of an hour to wipe the plane down, pack and preflight
(with 2 of us doing the job). I had basically lost about 1-3/4 hours
but some of that should be able to be made up with the favorable
winds (or about half of it anyway). Got in, started up, warmed up
and got ready to take off. Added power and was rolling – however,
about halfway down the field I was not moving very well so had to cut
power and stop and turn to avoid hitting the other end of the runway,
fence line, and headed back for another try to get out. I just was
not getting the power I needed. This problem has been persistent
ever since I put this new exhaust system on. The performance of the
plane has just not been the same. I took another half hour to
readjust the prop tip angle back another degree. This hurts cruise a
little but helps climb. I tried again. I was able to lift off about
2/3 of the way down (@ 6-700') and cleared the trees just fine but I
had a fairly flat climb out still (@ 6-700 fpm and its not even warm
out at all). It's a good thing the rest of my runways enroute are
pretty long runs. I've got to figure this issue out when I get back
home. I have been extremely disappointed in this exhaust system,
however it is quiet, but I'd rather have a little more noise and the
performance instead. I am going to repair my old exhaust system and
put it back on and see if that corrects the problem or if I still
have an issue. It may be something else that happened just when I
put the new exhaust system on, but that seems to be a little too much
of a coincidence to me at the moment, but we'll see. Anyway this
whole escapade put me about 2-1/2 hours behind schedule.

1st stop was Brenham. I went up to 3500' and gained a 10 mph
tailwind. That was good since I had to use about 2-300 more rpms to
indicate the same airspeed I was getting before. The day was very
nice and clear, and it was a pleasure to fly again (especially after
the previous weekend winds). The air was fairly smooth during this
leg. As I came into Brenham, it was close to lunchtime. I ended up
following a P-51D Mustang into the pattern and landed directly behind
him. This was a beauty of a plane, and of course its one of my
favorite war birds. After landing, a formation of RV4's came in and
made a military break to the downwind. The first two looked sharp
and #3 forgot his timing or was a rookie at this maneuver. Several
planes were coming into the airport here at lunchtime and several
were already here. Apparently I was not the only one who thought
this was a good airport restaurant. I, however, skipped the meal
since I was trying to make up time. I just refueled and got back
into the air. I was only on the ground 15 minutes. As I was going
out, there were another 3 or 4 planes coming in.

Next two stops were Jasper and Natchez. I encountered a lot of
turbulence at Jasper, which always seems to be the case when I go
there, but by the time I got to Natchez it was fairly smooth again.
It seemed to smooth out after I went past Alexandria, LA enroute.
Once at Natchez, it was 1550 before I was ready to go again. Sunset
was at 1708, in another 78 minutes, and I needed 102 minutes to get
where I was going. I had made up about 1-1/2 hours enroute, but
still needed another half an hour or so more to make Meridian before
sundown. I decided to stay at Natchez for the night. I was also
able to hangar the plane as well (once again for a nominal fee, but
hey, no frost)

Sunday 11/30

I had gotten a good nights rest and was able to get to the airport
around 0630. The morning was still, and the winds were reported to
be out of the south at 5. I was in the air by 0720 and the
visibility was outstanding. I could see for miles and miles. I had
not seen this clear of a day in a very long time. The air was smooth
and I had about a 4-5 mph tailwind. I booked on over to Meridian, MS
where I saw my friend Richie again. We went over to a truck stop for
breakfast and then I headed on out. Next stop was Greenville, AL.
Not a whole lot of action enroute, but I did admire the view along
the whole way. It was just beautiful out and the day was very scenic
from the air. It got a little bumpy in the landing pattern at
Greenville, but I landed without incident and refueled.

The final leg was a 174 mile jaunt to my home field (TVI). It was a
little bumpy taking off out of Greenville, but after getting about 20
miles further east, it got smooth again. When I got a little SW of
Troy, AL I heard some familiar voices on the radio. As it turned
out, it was some of the guys from Panama City flying around to the
south side of Dothan. My route was taking me to the north side of
Dothan. It was fun conversing with the guys as I made my way to the
east. As I got to Headland (just to the north of Dothan on the east
side) I was able to make out Lake Seminole to the southeast of me and
Lake Eufaula to the north. I was able to see the lakes fairly
clearly. There did not seem to be any haze at all. It was just a
beautiful day to fly. I landed at Thomasville without incident and
truly enjoyed my return trip, much better than my initial run over to
San Antonio (well, days 2 and 3 of that run anyway).

Distance - 1991 mi
Hrs - 26.0
58.0 gal
Ave Spd – 76.6
GPH -2.23
MPG – 34.3

Also George - thanks for the invite to Dallas - I didn't see it until
I got back. However, with the uncertainty of the winds I don't think
I would have done much deviation enroute this trip.

Jim C

[derbaier]

--- In ThunderGull@yahoogroups.com, "Jim C" <jimc@d...> wrote:
> Thanksgiving Trip
>

Thank you for another great story, Jim!
It keeps me anxious to get my G2K completed!! :-)

Ritchie, on fly-UL started a thread about how great he thought the
peformance of your plane was. From what he said, I thought maybe
that you got the engine performance problem licked before you started
your trip. Now I am wondering what he would have had to say if your
planes performance was up to your original standards. <G>

Thanks again!
--Dave

[msbelton]

Hi Jim,

I would have to agree with David another impressive trip.

> Distance - 1991 mi
> Hrs - 26.0
> 58.0 gal
> Ave Spd – 76.6
> GPH -2.23
> MPG – 34.3

Here's a question for the group. I was wondering how the performace
is of the HKS as you go up in altitude, and is there an altitude -
where the carburators (which are somewhat altitude compensating)hit
the point where the performance goes down and the the mixture becomes
too rich?

Thanks,

Mark

[Jay D]

Good trip recap, Jim. I hate those kind of winds. My 75-80 mph cruise in
the Ch2 with those winds would make me wait for more favorable winds. I
am glad everything worked out on your trip.

Jay D

Well, you are certainly welcome anytime. Texoma is in June. You and Chad can
fly most of the way together... :-)

George

[adwsail01]

Jim, the Gator Field Flyin that got cancelled is being held on Dec
13. Any chance you might wander down that way? I'm still trying to
get a look at one up close :-)

[Jim C]

--- In ThunderGull@yahoogroups.com, "adwsail01" <adwsail@b...> wrote:
> Jim, the Gator Field Flyin that got cancelled is being held on Dec
> 13. Any chance you might wander down that way? I'm still trying to
> get a look at one up close :-)

Would love to, but I got other things planned this weekend I can't
get out of. Is there a list I can get on that would inform me on
when and/or if the fly-in changes and the new dates (by email etc -
any knod of a heads up type of thing). I wasn't even aware that the
date had changed again till now. This is one of those I keep wanting
to get down to. Thanks

Jim

[adwsail01]

Well sorry you won't be able to make it :-( I don't know of any
events site that will email you, other than me!!!, but this link is
pretty inclusive. Jerry makes it to our meetings fairly often and is
real sincere about keeping his dates for events current.

http://jerryrooks.tripod.com/

FWIW, EAA UL Chapter 149, 2 miles south of Sun-n Fun - X49 is the
designator, will be having its annual flyin at the end of January
(it's always Superbowl weekend) and we see over 100 aircraft visiting
that weekend so come on down!!! I'll be working aircraft parking but
I can damn sure take some time out to check out a TG2000.