Didn't fly anywhere!

Having carb problems, and have only done about 1.5 around the patch trying to firgure out what's up. It ain't much fun when the engines shaking and blubbering and you're doing the test pilot thing checking egt, mixture, fuel flow, changing throttle and prop settings, and keeping within glide distance of the airport. So the new $910.00 carb was sent back to the place in Texas that overhauled it. Spent $3100 this annual, and that's the most I've ever spent in 15 years of ownership. Usually runs about $700 to $900. The carb and a couple of other items jacked that up this year.

Haven't been anywhere since about the first of September, and it's making me cranky.

So I spent most the day in the shop doing wood work and drinking beer, eating pepperoni and jerkey from my buck.

See ya, Bub

Skylane wrote:Didn't fly anywhere!

Having carb problems, and have only done about 1.5 around the patch trying to firgure out what's up. It ain't much fun when the engines shaking and blubbering and you're doing the test pilot thing checking egt, mixture, fuel flow, changing throttle and prop settings, and keeping within glide distance of the airport. So the new $910.00 carb was sent back to the place in Texas that overhauled it. Spent $3100 this annual, and that's the most I've ever spent in 15 years of ownership. Usually runs about $700 to $900. The carb and a couple of other items jacked that up this year.

Haven't been anywhere since about the first of September, and it's making me cranky.

So I spent most the day in the shop doing wood work and drinking beer, eating pepperoni and jerkey from my buck.

See ya, Bub

Airplanes, boats, cars, spouses, or ex spouses will quickly find a way to liberate any "excess" cash they think you might have on hand.

For some reason your 182 thought you had some extra cash "just sitting there".

Never EVER leave your checkbook or bank statements in the airplane.

Do NOT discuss finances or make comments like, "Woo hoo, I got my tax refund check... Now what should I spend it on?" while flying.

Do NOT let your airplane know you may be gainfully employed. Best to remain unwashed, unshaven, and wearing tattered clothes for all excursions. Even making a cardboard sign, "Will fly for avgas!", and tossing it in the back can help.

Popped up to Chehalis (CLS) today and overflew the airport. The north tip of the runway and taxiway still has water on it. The runway looked mostly clear but pretty mucky everywhere else.

There was a mound with a lot of planes parked on it. I hope they made it to high enough ground prior to the flooding and weren't simply pulled out there to dry.

Will post a few pictures of the carnage.

Well I got up and out to view the flood damage, too. It was a nice, clear, cold, sunny day. First checked out some local road washout scenes then went south to the Rochester area where the Black River converges with the Chehalis River. We could see where friends and volunteers were helping local residents with clean up and assistance. Proceeded south on the west side of the Chehalis Airport and most of the airport area is dry. Just south and west of the airport are large areas that look like lakes and there are farms are homes isolated and devastated by the flooding. Circled back north on the east side of I-5 (which is now open in both directions) and could see a lumber yard that lost most of its inventory, several other large businesses with major impact from the flooding. North of the airport at KCLS again we followed the Chehalis river west and north by Oakville and Boistfort and up to Elma. That whole valley was hit pretty hard by the flooding and some house near the river are now much closer, since the river carved a new channel. Saw a herd of elk sharing a pasture with some cattle, and some cattle that were casualties of the high water. The Elma Airport looked okay from the air, the ramps near the hangars were muddy but the runway looked good. Following the river west to the ocean we began to see stands of timber that were flattened from the high winds and looked like hair on a dogs back, more flood ravage homes and farms. We continued west to Hoquiam and landed for a pit stop at the local diner. Quite a crowd. Returned direct to Olympia up along Capital Peak with magnificent views of the Olympic Mountains, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. It was sad to see the flood damage, but good to see a reprieve from the elements and some healing. The airplane was performing very well with 4 onboard and I discovered how to cure the hiccups in flight. All in all a great day to go flying.

I flew out to Copalis and made an approach but didn't land. (haven't landed there yet.) Back over Chehalis where it looked like a truck was plowing mud from the runway. Heard a Cessna on the radio take off from the taxiway instead. Flew over Rimrock to get east, low to Spokane. Hung out with the new owner of the little airplane I built in high school. Took off around 9 and ran into snow at Moses Lake. And here I sit, with snow getting all over my airplane. So far I'm edging on a 7 hour weekend. I'm hoping for 10 but don't know how long the snow will last.

Two-for-one special!

Wed before Thanksgiving: Took a pilot buddy with a Grumman AA1A down to his folks place, near Melbourne, then continued on to Fort Lauderdale Exec. He got there faster, and I got to split the fuel and the flying. Win-win.

Friday, flew down the coast at 500-1000 feet, following the highway to Key West. 79 and sunny in late November! Spent the day floating in the pool and drinking pina coladas.

Saturday, flew across the Gulf and the Everglades back up to Fort Lauderdale. The 'glades are full of airboat trails where the vegetation is missing and what appears to be canals that the trails join and sometimes cross. We got a great view of one of the few private houses out in the swamp, and of KTNT, the planned home to the US Supersonic Transport: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/FL/Air ... N.htm#dade The story goes that it would be more environmentally destructive to tear it up than to leave it, so now there's a 10,500 nearly unused runway in the middle of the swamp, visible for 10s of miles.

Sunday, filed an IFR and decided to see how far I could get before needing to open it. Picked up the co-pilot and proceeded VFR up the coast at 1000 feet to Jacksonville, then climbed "on top", opened the IFR, and took advantage of a nice tailwind. Stopped for some $3.55 fuel in Alma. This passes for a bargain compared to $5.98 at the home FBO. The TAF for Atlanta had been getting worse all day, and the ATIS was reporting OVC005 by the time we got in range. Entered solid IMC just north of Macon. FTY was reporting 7 kt winds down the runway, but on the downwind vectors, GPS showed a 10 knot headwind. Hmm... Flew the ILS down to 450 AGL in some seriously bumpy weather. Note to self: practice approaches on windy days.

Today, decided that two weeks was way too long for the plane to sit idle, and, really, I should get the battery charged and the oil flowing. Did some touch n gos, stop n gos, short approaches and slips, alternating between the 5800x100 foot runway and the 2800x60 foot runway and left and right traffic. Ahh... just like primary training.

KTTD to my friends 2500' turf strip to Independence, Or. Had lunch then back the way we came. 1.5 hours. Beautiful sun and smooth air. No wind. Cheers...Rob

Whew! Flew out to a cabin on a lake on sunday December 23rd for lunch and errands- 50+ mile vis in all directions and forecast to stay that way throughout the day. Flight and landing fine, get out engine blanket and ice screws, anchor plane to lake, put on snowshoes, head for cabin... Great Day! No Problems!

Suddenly, looking back over a shoulder- ground fog looming out from nearby valley, directly for lake Ground fog blanketing lake and swallowing nearby hills Race for lake, rip off engine cover, etc, pile in, taxi down lake, studying sky. Put power in... take power out... put power back in...

Realize homebound flight not going to happen today

Back to end of lake, re-secure plane, put on wing covers, cancel wife-plan on the sat phone, head to cabin for the night to RON

Plenty comfortable night, good eats, crackling fire, lots of provisions- only one problem: Not too cool to be missing christmas back home if this drags on Prepare for early departure, hope for best, and turn in early.

Christmas eve morning: wake up about 6:00 am- still 3-1/2 hours till dawn, but lo- the entire Alaska range is out under the light of the full moon, stars everywhere, not a wisp of cloud in sight.

Hasty breakfast, temps around 0F, hustle down to lake to fire up Northern Companion preheater Oops, fuel knob spins off in my fingers No problem: Needle-nose visegrips that ride along in the tool bag for double-duty as safetywire pliers are found and clamped on bum fuel valve. Stove roars to life

Let's see- an hour and a half of preheat?? Sky should be starting to lighten up around then. Pace laps in yesterday's ski tracks to keep warm. Pace, pace, pace some more. Keep pacing. Some clouds starting to emerge along crest of Alaska range from the south Come on, Preheater Continue pacing...

Alright, getting light enough to see colors. Pull ice screws. Stow random gear in plane. Pull preheater and engine cover. Hop in plane, cross fingers, try not to breathe on inside of windshield too much. Headlamp switch doesn't like cold suddenly. Get flashlight in teeth to watch dials. Pull starter...

Engine purrs to life out on dark, frozen lake in middle of roadless Alaska bush

Oil presure slow to rise, but engine sounds fine. Blame it on cold oil in instrument line on pilot's side of firewall. Need to replace that with kerosene one of these days Lock throttle down, get out, pull wing covers, DO NOT go in front of idling plane on slippery snow in the dark Last look around for stuff, look at sky, clouds still distant, but increasing...

Taxi down lake, start making some power (Dang generator- need to replace that with an alternator one of these days ) Start making some heat (come on windshield...) Keep breathing over shoulder toward cracked open window. Sky looking lighter.

End of lake, left turn, mag check: left good, right good, carb heat: tiny drop... sweep eyes over engine instruments- all in the green... One notch flaps, doors and shoulder harness secure, power in, and off into the wild twilit yonder

Circle above lake several times for altitude, fair in the direction of home Raise FSS, file and open plan. File PIREP for added good Karma

One hour en route, with clouds still encraoching behind, but ahead, the beginnings of a glorious sunrise. Smooth all the way to touchdown, like sitting in the easy chair. Close flight plan on 5-mile, straight-in final. Home for Christmas Eve , instead of stuck in cabin on lake hoping it doesn't stay socked in for a week, then drop to -40F

For years my C180 buddy has been after me to get a respectable nickname for 8388A. Looking out the windshield at the red cowl, making the christmas eve flight (with presents on board, no less!), exchanging a Merry Christams with the FSS guy, "Rudolph" suddenly comes to mind. A worthy name for this bird? May have to try it. At least it will always bring happy memories.

Merry Christmas to all you BCP'ers out there!

Great story, DP. Very illustrative. It fits right in with my Noel Wien book, with stories of hunkering down on frozen lakes in bad weather at some old sourdough's cabin.

Christmas Eve installed the skis and made about a 1/2 hour shaking out the rigging on the ground handling and a bit more in the air. Made 4-5 T&G's , poked my nose in the Talkeetnas to say hi to all the Moosies and put the Peril away on the lake. Winter is here as is the ski flying. Good to be back on boards.
Merry Christmas guys

Hi Yellowmaule, Looking forward to more of those fantastic pictures now that you're back on skis...

Well, we did have snow, winds are back tonight gusting 30-40 at +10*. F@#$ing wind!

Guatemala City, Guatemala,
Left Ft Pierce Fl around 8 AM. Got here around 3 PM. Should have been a ten hour flight, but this one was faster than most. That with a 20 kt. tailwind put me here in only 7 hours.
Neat city, surrounded by Volcanoes. I could see three on the way in. Much nicer than Ecuador, maybe even a worth a vacation trip?
Getting here in only seven hours left me with a problem. I still had 7 hours of fuel on board, full wing tanks and 150 gl. in the hopper. Field elevation here is around 4800 and my 20 kt. tailwind was now a direct 20 kt. crosswind. I rolled it on around 100 mph. stupid fast, but with the DA, me heavy and directly behind an A320 and a 757 eating up my rear I kinda wanted down and off of the runway in a hurry.
Immigration / customs was interesting. They asked if I was the pilot after I gave them the general decleration form, I said yes and they waved me on. That was it, no searching anything, no stamp in the passport, no visa, no fee, nothing.
Tomorrow, I get to play with the TSA fools in Atlanta. They always go nuts when they see my ferry radio pack, gyros, GPS's etc. They confiscated my O2 bottle last time even though it was in checked baggage. Apparently you are supposed to remove the valve to fly with it. Ever tried to remove the valve from an O2 bottle?

YELLOWMAULE wrote:Well, we did have snow, winds are back tonight gusting 30-40 at +10*. F@#$ing wind!

Yeah It's pretty cold here too. Gets down to the high thirties at night and only up to the mid sixties in the afternoon. Must be that global warming stuff Al Gore keeps talking about.

Well, finally got the carb issue squared away on the 182. Had not flown it since late October, when I changed out the carb at annual.

However good news, flew just fine, fuel flow was even, engine purred like a kitten. Flew around the valley, over the hills, down a canyon, buzzed by my buddys son, whom he bribed to feed the cows, while he went flying with me. Hey it's low teens with wind, dang cold.

Came back and landed at BNO, wind kept pushing me to the snow burm. Went to turn around and back taxi, no go there. Had to turn around by hand without busting our butts on the ice. Couldn't find a non icy spot to stick a tire to turn.

But hey, feels good to be back in the air.

See ya, Bub

Gotta love California wx and scenery for a little new years eve flying...





Chris

Had to clear the cob weds out this morning from last night. Then went to Gallup with my dad for some killer chicken enchiladas.

Nothing very exciting, but a good day to be in the air, and a good start for the new year.

Gary

Had to clear the cob weds out this morning from last night. Then went to Gallup with my dad for some killer chicken enchiladas.

Nothing very exciting, but a good day to be in the air, and a good start for the new year.

Gary

I went out this afternoon, 1/1/08, From Santa Fe, to Moriarty for a touch n Go, to Estancia(4000 foot dirt/gravel) for several touch n go's then I stopped and stretched. After that I took off again and flew about 5 agl over a dried lake bed that stretches 10 miles long and less than a mile wide.

Its always fun to pretend you're going a whole lot faster than 100mph when you're only 5 agl.

After that I turned east towards Santa Rosa. Landed Santa Rosa and then came back to Santa Fe.

Yee haw.. 3.3 hours of flying

I've been reading First Light by Geoff Wellum (thanks to BCP's book thread) and really enjoying it. There are no Spits in the neighbourhood, but all of that reading about them, the Hurricanes, 109s and 190s got me wanting to see some warbirds. So when the time came to relieve my wife of the company of our 5 year old on the afternoon of New Years Day, we went straight to the airport and took off for Hollister.

The aircraft museum hangar was closed, but as luck would have it, a tandem seat P51 Strawboss II came in to land just as we were walking back out to the plane. We enjoyed watching it land and taxi in, and had a nice visit with the pilot at the fuel island. What a great treat it is to be able to see these aircraft in action.

The grass a Frazer Lake looked mighty inviting on the way down, but we were running into dinner time, so I figured we should head on home. I pulled the power back to a slow cruise at 4500' and let the little guy experiment with the yoke. He likes to turn. The sun went down on the way home and I had a nice squeaker to finish. Not a bad start to 2008.

CAVU