You are going to have the time of your life!

As mentioned above, do not push the weather, your plane, or yourself.

Please take lots of pictures and notes for your trip report.

DAY 1
Looking for a better way out of the LA metro area than driving thru Malibu, Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, and LA, I tried something different. I boarded the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner in Camarillo and a little over an hour later moseyed off of the train at Burbank Airport ending the most carefree trip to the airport in my life. I feel like I've finally cracked the code to flying out of the LA area! As I walked up to the airport, I saw the first sign that this is going to be a good trip:
-a bush plane
Due to train schedule I was at the airport 3.5 hours early, just enough time for a couple of Long hammers.

-obligatory cold beer shot for Zzz
Family tradition mandates chocolate cake on your birthday, luckily I was able to track some down in San Francisco. Pleasant, restful flights to Chicago and Syracuse ended day 1 and carried me into day 2.

SD

This is going to be awesome... good luck!

Cold beer shot accepted and high fived. Have fun!

Straydog wrote:... As I walked up to the airport, I saw the first sign that this is going to be a good trip: **image snipped**
-a bush plane

You owe me a new monitor! This one has water all over it now...

Love the bush plane. Great start to this adventure.

It looks like once that line of CB's west of Syracuse moves south you will have around 350 nm of fine weather until you hit the next line south of KORD.

Very much looking forward to your adventure!

Dear God, thank you for giving me the presence of mind to bring along a handheld radio for a backup. I just wish I'd had the brains to not leave it in the rental car when I turned it in.

SD

Happy belated b-day, SD!

Looks like you're on your way! I bet some Good Samaritan at the Rental Car Co. found your Handheld, and is trying to track you down...

Gotta keep the good karma flowing to appease the Lords of Flying!

SD,
If for some reason you weren't able to launch today, I've got a Sporty's hand held you can borrow. I'm five minutes from 7G0, Ledgedale airport in Brockport NY and could meet you there. It's about an hour due west of Fulton-Oswego airport. If interested just call me at fife ate fife- seven too seven- for zero zero niner.
Al

If your travels push you South you are welcome at our campfire. Nearest airport at Fabens, Tx (E35). You are welcome to stay at our bunkhouse on the ranch (and your sister at appropriate lady accommodation at the big house). Or, I have free hangarage for you at El Paso (KELP) and a free ride to the same bunkhouse. Whatever we can do to help.

Jim

He flew 198 miles to Meadville KGKJ yesterday and probably stopped due to the deteriorating weather.

The weather looks better today and he should be able to get further west.

MAU MAU wrote:He flew 198 miles to Meadville KGKJ yesterday and probably stopped due to the deteriorating weather.

The weather looks better today and he should be able to get further west.

Mead vile, PA?? There's a great hot dog joint just shouts of the airport (walking distance) called Eddies. Great chilli dog sauce!! I happen to stumble across it about 10 years ago when u spent some time in northeast Ohio (Painesville) and went for long day drives in the rental car when my rig was being worked on at High Tech Performance Trailers (now Bruce Transporters) in Painesville, OH.

Sorry for the lack of updates folks. Short version is, ran into so mechanical issues in meadville. Boarding a Delta flight in Pittsburgh now and will put together the rest of the TR on the flight.

Thanks so much for all the encouragement and support, truly a unique community.

SD

Day 2: after landing in Syracuse at 0900 and picking up my copilot we drove up to Fulton via Walmart for some supplies (freeze-dried ice-cream sandwiches too). Upon arrival at the airport I finally set eyes on her.


The previous owner and the CFI were both waiting.
After introductions were made preflight commenced. A few issues were discovered and, after a fashion, dealt with. One of which was that every time I opened the freshly minted left engine cowl it reverted to its formerly flat shape with blinding speed thus whacking me in the face or knuckle (only injury of the trip) also the radio would receive but not transmit, enter the handheld.
The Instructor and I hit the pattern and for hours worked on breaking in the newly replaced bungees. Once we were both satisfied, we headed back to the barn and parted ways. In the meantime the previous owner had rustled up a length of cable in order to hook the handheld to the a/c antenna, but we lacked an adaptor. The rental car needed returned 12 miles away and given the time of day and mounting number of issues we'd had, the decision was made to throttle back and leave the next day. After finding an adaptor and eating some dinner in town we stopped for a few groceries. Figuring it'd be just my luck for some scumbag to break in to our car, I hid the borrowed radio in the console. We found the rental place and while waiting for a cab I cleaned the trash out of the car and even double checked the trunk to ensure nothing left behind.
The cabbie dropped us off and we walked to the hangar where copilot worked on some IFR course homework and I crawled under the panel to find the cable and hook up our...........son of a.....
Well I spent a while cleaning windows, finding where to secure our cargo and generally fiddling before we finally put down our sleeping pads and crawled in sleeping bags for some rest amid the massive T-storm that had rolled in.

Day 3
The car rental place opens at 8 and the airport has no crew car so I called a cab. He said It'd be an hour the gal in the airport office overheard and offered to have one of the other airpot employees take me into town for my radio. I very gratefully accepted. A short while later I had my radio back, airplane preflighted, weather checked and we're ready to rock.


*flipped pic*
We climbed up to 2500 and headed SW quickly discovering that although the wind was less, it was rougher than a three legged mule with a drinking problem.

To add to the fun, our handheld which transmitted and received beautifully was rendered virtually useless due to cabin noise. This was remedied an hour later when I discovered that my iPhone earbuds, when plugged into the radio and inserted into my headset ear cups functioned flawlessly. We have a radio!!! This was the biggest sense of relief on the whole trip. Amazing how naked it feels being essentially NORDO.
At 4500 the air was slightly better but only slightly. As a bonus we now had 22kt of wind in the face. Factor in the climb prop and draggy tires and you have 76kt over the ground. Yippee. The mule kept buckin' as we kept truckin' and it got so bumpy that my copilot, a seasoned flyer had to use one of the gallon freezer bags (thanks somebody for that idea). We got within radio range of Franklin and tuned up the weather. 22G26 variable gasp! Ok time to divert. Meadville was reporting from 9 to 11 a couple degrees off runway heading with occasional gusts of higher. This is doable. I pulled on a notch of flaps and got us on the ground. At this point our adventure took an unexpected turn and we discovered some mechanical difficulties. We sadly parked our chariot next to the local A&P's hangar. Depending on the prognosis we may need to ship her home.

The adventure's not over, we're making the best of things, Its just going very differently than planned.

I guess thats what makes it an adventure

I'm deeply grateful for you following along with us as well as all the well wishes, recommendations and offers of help.

SD & CP

Sorry to hear it didn't go as planned, but glad everyone is fine. That is a great looking plane. As I was reading your report I was reliving my first flight home picking up my PA22... a bumpy ride in an unfamiliar and untrusted plane flying over desolate mountains but exciting for sure. Sounds like you made some great judgement calls. Hope you get her back in the air soon.

Thanks for keeping us updated.

What mind of mechanical problems were you having?