Just a great weekend for Flying - What are ya'll doin?
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 9:09 pm
Well now, it was a beautiful morning and the first weekend morning to
be just goregeous in this neck of the woods for a few weeks now. For
us weekend warriors this was a relief and a rush of excitement.
There were some nice weekday weather patterns but the weekend weather
gods had just not been smiling favorably on us in this neck of the
woods until this weekend, and boy did they make up for it.
I was up to the airport very early - @ 7:30 am; however, the plane
had less gas than I thought so had to take a little side trip and
waste a little time to get gas, then discovered one of the mufflers
was loose, so had to tighten it up, and then finally in the air a bit
before 9:00 am. The air was smooth and it was gorgeous out. Made a
call to Redbird, and got no answer, then heard several others up in
the air. Bluebird and Yellow Jacket were heading to Marianna, then
up to the Flying C to the west of Columbus, and Firehawk was on his
way to Donaldsonville, then over to Sydney Gainfy's field to instruct
a new to UL pilot who had just bought a Chinook with a 912. I
decided to meet Firehawk at Donaldsonville, and headed that way.
Then Redbird got in the air and called out to me on the radio and
said he was heading to Moultrie for our local Chapter Club meeting.
I couldn't see sitting in a meeting on a beautiful morning like this,
especially when there hadn't been that many lately, so decided to
meet Firehawk at Donaldsonville. After which we then proceeded over
to Sydney's. It was my first time going into his strip and he has a
very nice grass strip and fairly smooth. His friend had the Chinook
and the two of them met Firehawk and I when we landed. After a
little jawing on the ground, Firehawk and his student took off in the
Chinook. A little while later, I took off and headed back toward
Thomasville. Redbird was back in the air and informed me they were
putting up a hangar at a friend's. I had totally forgotten about
that so veered toward another field I had never been to with the
intention of landing there. It was a bit after lunch and the
thermals and wind had started to come up pretty good. When I got
there Redbird had just landed. I made about 3 passes, but I ended up
chickening out since it had turned a bit rough and gusty and I was
staying a little fast. I was not comfortable with my approaches and
didn't like the idea of landing long on a short strip over power
lines and trees, so I headed back home from there. Of course now
everyone knows what the "C" stands for in C-Gull.
The next morning was just as beautiful. I was in the air by 7:30 am
this time and it was hands off and leaning forward, backward, left
and right to control the plane in smooth air and turns. I decided to
try and wake up a couple of friends about 135 miles away (Bluebird
and Yellow Jacket). About 11 miles from Eufaula, I heard them in the
air with White Lightning - I just love all these handles - don't
you. Guess they weren't missing this beautiful weather either. We
met at Eufaula, and then another 4 flyers came in. All in all there
were about 8 of us. We headed south to Walden field, a private strip
owned by one of the flyers in this motley group. Lost my radio along
the way. A couple of the leads came disconnected. Got those back
together again, and three of us were off again over to Grand Ridge
(in Florida) where we met up with another buddy flying in to meet us -
We all ate a a greasy spoon called Blondie's - they actually have
pretty good food there. From here, we dispersed a little - I headed
back toward home, and the others toward Panama City.
Now we hadn't planned on any of this. We were up in the air, all on
the radio and just talking and kind of just planned to meet and made
deicisions while talking on the radio. We had not heard from our
friend Firehawk, since I had left him yesterday, so I told the gang I
would check out the field where I had left him on the way home. Sure
enough, he was there. He had stayed there overnight and had spent
the last couple days giving instructions to two new UL types. I let
the rest of the gang know he was alright and landed. Spoke a little
more bull for a while and off into the wild blue yonder. It was wild
as the wind and turbulence finally came up (about 2:00 pm now). It
wasn't really too bad, just annoying as I made my way home.
Overall, a good couple of days flying. Nothing really fancy, just
impromptu going wherever with a bunch of friends from all over the
southwest GA, southeast AL and north FL panhandle as we figured out
what was what by radio after we were all in the air all going
different directions. It just worked out and it turned out to be fun.
Got in 6.6 hours of flying, 460 miles of coverage, used 13.7 gal of
fuel (thats 33.6 mpg and 2.1 gph) - sorry Ron couldn't help it. But
best of all, I still don't have that leak on the HKS anymore.
Jim C