BlueMaxNovember 16, 2010, 7:05am
(pics added in a following reply)
Last week I took part in an adventure covering nearly 900 miles and taking 3 days, it was a trip neither Bill or myself will soon forget.
The seeds of the trip were planted in late October when after finishing my private license I put the max up for sale and upgraded to a 1967 Cessna 150G. I chose the 150 because I wanted a plane that can take me where ever I desire to go and still have a low enough operating cost to fly around the local area. Anyway, on to the story.........
As some of you may know, Bill (avenger) has been looking for a Taylorcraft for some time and finally located one within his budget in El Dorado Arkansas (or so we thought). Flight planning started around November 1st and the route looked fairly simple, a long 260 mile hop from Wichita to Booneville, AR then a short 130mile hop across some 3000ft hills and a national forest to El Dorado. The day before we were to leave, I received a call from Bill and learned that the crop duster pilot that was supposed to fly the Taylorcraft up to El Dorado from Louisiana was out deer hunting and the plane was still in Bastrop, LA so add another 10 miles to the second leg.
Saturday morning arrived cold and dark. I awoke at 5:30, ate a quick breakfast, gathered up my gear, and headed off to meet Bill at Selby Field. It had been previously decided that Bill would leave his truck at Selby (35KS) then ride with me over to Cook Field (K50) where the 150 is hangared, this would ensure that Bill's truck would be waiting for him when he returned with the Tcraft.
With outside temps in the 30s I pulled the 150 out and we loaded our gear. With frozen fingers I went about my preflight duties, making sure the plane had fuel and oil as well as making sure nothing heavy or important was going to fall off. Preflight complete, I gave the engine a shot of prime and pulled the prop through several revolutions by hand before joining Bill in the cockpit. Doors closed.....windows latched.....master....mags....mixture, I pulled the starter handle. The prop completed one revolution then 2 followed by the familiar sound of the O-200 coming alive once cylinder at a time.
10 minutes later the 2500ft strip fell away below us and the 150 climbed into the cold morning sky at 7:45am 15 minutes ahead of schedule, I leveled at 3500ft and the GPS showed 2 hours 40 minutes to Booneville, AR. As it would turn out, "ahead of schedule" was the theme for the whole southbound trip. We crossed Winfield lake on our way to the Oklahoma border, its muddy water almost blending with the dry fields surrounding it. Crossing into Oklahoma we passed near Bartlesville and over historic Claremore and the Port of Catoosa.
Over the border and into Arkansas the terrain changed from flat to rolling hills populated with pine and oak trees, larger hills began to appear on the horizon signaling the approach of the Ozark mountains. After almost 3 hours in the are we set down on runway 9 at Booneville paralleling a 2400ft ridge several miles to the south. After stretching our legs and taking on 16 gallons of avgas we climbed back into the plane for the 140 mile hop to Bastrop, LA. After taking off from Booneville the size of the ridge to the south became apparent and I elected to circle the airport twice to gain altitude before heading over the ridge.
After reaching 5000msl I looked out the window and studied the land of beauty that lay below and about us. The forests were an ocean of color, the red and yellow leaves of the oak trees combined with the evergreens created a wonderful backdrop of fall color. Suddenly as we crossed over the top of another ridge a mountain lake came into view, situated between two ridges the lake spread out for miles with many coves and islands. The water was a deep blue like I have never seen in an inland lake before. I was completely taken by the landscape below me and was disappointed to have to continue on, I would have been perfectly happy to circle the lake for hours and enjoy its peaceful beauty.
I knew before starting this trip that my gps was having problems and I am surprised it did as well as it did. 30 miles NW of Bastrop it lost signal and showed no sign of getting it back. I asked bill to grab his backup gps and get me to Bastrop but probably would have been better off just staying on the same heading. By the time Bill figured out how his gps worked he had got me so lost that we needed it to get back on course! After making several wrong turns we found our way to the Bastrop airport where Robert and the Tcraft were waiting for us.
Bill and myself gave the Tcraft and extensive preflight then Bill climbed aboard to take the bird up, unfortunately in would never make it to the runway. Bill taxied to the north end of the ramp where the Tcraft performed a double groundloop that I will rate a perfect 10! Bill slowly brought the plane back to the hangar and climbed out. Robert received a call and had to be back in El Dorado soon so we elected to fly back to El Dorado and our hotel and return to Bastrop in the morning. During the 40minute flight to El Dorado we pondered what caused the groundloop and decided that there must be a problem with the locking tailwheel, this discovery had us feeling much better about the whole thing.
The landing in El Dorado was a bit interesting, the main runway had been closed for maintenance but was not included in the notams, on my first approach I spotted what I thought was a lawnmower on the runway and observed it to move of to the side, I then assumed the runway was clear so came around again. Seeing another vehicle on the runway I elected to make a low fly over and inspect it, sure enough I spotted barricades at the taxiway exits and deduced that it must be closed so I came around a 3rd time and landed on 31.
Taxiing towards the terminal and GA parking I observed a person on the ramp directing me to a parking spot, as the airport was for the most part deserted and I was the only GA plane there I feared that I was about to be reprimanded for making approaches to a closed runway! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the person on the ramp was a young lady who I must say looked better than any of Ace’s French nurses! And she could drive the fuel truck! After having the plane fuelled and secured we loaded our stuff in the courtesy car, a relatively new Buick with a leather interior and all the bells and whistles. We made a trip to Wal-Mart for some supplies, ate a delicious steak dinner at a local steakhouse, and headed to our hotel where we were asleep by 7:30 after a long day.
We awoke at 6:00 Sunday morning, grabbed some breakfast in the hotel lobby, and headed off to the airport anticipating an early departure back to Bastrop. Upon arriving at the airport it became apparent that the 150s wings were covered in frost so we visited with the young airport attendant while waiting for it to melt and by 8:00am we were airborne. Arriving back in Bastrop we quickly sorted out the tailwheel lock on the Tcraft and Bill took it around the patch with no trouble. After Bill and Robert agreed on a price we changed the oil, checked the plugs and got the plane ready for the flight home. We were able to fix everything but the brakes. By the time the plane was ready it was too late to make Wichita so we decided the best course of action was to fly back to El Dorado, top off the tanks, and head for Booneville and spend the night there. I landed before Bill at El Dorado and alerted the young attendant to the fact that the Tcraft had no brakes, the sight of Bill racing down the taxiway on his way to an Indy 500 win sent us diving for cover behind the fuel truck!
Leaving El Dorado we once again climbed to 5500msl and headed for the Ozarks. I again watched as the mountains appeared on the horizon and again I saw the beautiful mountain lake. Leading the way home with Bill following in the Tcraft, we realized the 150 is about 20kts faster and I was constantly having to watch my power setting to avoid leaving him behind. Come to think of it, this is the first time I have ever been able to outrun Bill! Every so often I would look out my large rear window to confirm he was still behind me. The final ridge of the Ozarks came into view and I pulled the power to 1500 carb heat on and 15 flaps for the decent into the Booneville airport 3 miles ahead and now 5500ft below. Once again our luck held and there was someone at the airport to give us the keys to the courtesy car, this time a Crown Victoria, and we headed into town to hunt down some food and a place to sleep. Once again no one was awake after 7:30, man this flying stuff is exhausting!
Monday morning rolled around and we headed back to the airport just wanting to get in the air headed home, preflights complete, engines warm, we departed at 8:00 headed to Bartlesville, OK. 30 Minutes into the flight Bill called over the radio that the wing tank on the Tcraft wasn’t draining into the nose tank so his range was limited, I consulted a sectional and we chose Wagoner, OK as our new destination, it was 40 minutes west of us and listed as having self service fuel. We arrived in Wagoner with a south wind at 18kts to 23kts and landed at what looked like a nice airport from the air. As I headed down the taxiway to the fuel pump the place looked more like a ghost town than an airport, open hangars housed various planes in various stages of disrepair. After shutting down at the fuel pump, we discovered that it was locked and there was no number listed to call. Thankfully in the boy scouts I learned to be prepared for the unexpected so I whipped out my ATT 3G phone, pulled up airnav.com, and got the managers number. 40 minutes later we were fueled and ready to go.
With a 23kt south wind I am pretty sure I set a short takeoff record with the 150, I estimated the ground roll at 500ft and I think Bill had the Tcraft off in less than 300. We turned north towards Wichita and watched the effect of the south wind on our ground speed. Flying north to the Kansas border I saw a part of Oklahoma I can only describe as desert! Very few roads with no vehicle traffic, only dirt, sand, and abandoned strip mines, no trace of human life whatsoever. After flying over a barren landscape like that the patchy green fields of winter wheat in Kansas were a welcome sight!
After crossing the Kansas border, Bill radioed that he couldn’t make Wichita and was going to try for Winfield, he also decided that he was no where near ready to try to get in on the 1300ft strip at Selby and would come into Cook instead. Having plenty of fuel in the 150 to make Cook, I went on ahead so I could call the manager at Cook and have a hangar ready for Bill when he got there. Bill appeared in the pattern about 30 minutes after I had the 150 put away and made a decent landing given the wind was 190 at 32kts. With the planes tucked away I Gave Bill a ride back to Selby to get his truck.
It was quite an adventure totaling 3 days, 10.3hrs air time, 63 gallons of 100LL, and 1.5 quarts of oil. This trip reinforced my decision to buy the 150, it does everything I hoped and then some. Well, I spent 3hrs writing this now I need some sleep! I have some great pics I will get uploaded soon!
Chris
Last week I took part in an adventure covering nearly 900 miles and taking 3 days, it was a trip neither Bill or myself will soon forget.
The seeds of the trip were planted in late October when after finishing my private license I put the max up for sale and upgraded to a 1967 Cessna 150G. I chose the 150 because I wanted a plane that can take me where ever I desire to go and still have a low enough operating cost to fly around the local area. Anyway, on to the story.........
As some of you may know, Bill (avenger) has been looking for a Taylorcraft for some time and finally located one within his budget in El Dorado Arkansas (or so we thought). Flight planning started around November 1st and the route looked fairly simple, a long 260 mile hop from Wichita to Booneville, AR then a short 130mile hop across some 3000ft hills and a national forest to El Dorado. The day before we were to leave, I received a call from Bill and learned that the crop duster pilot that was supposed to fly the Taylorcraft up to El Dorado from Louisiana was out deer hunting and the plane was still in Bastrop, LA so add another 10 miles to the second leg.
Saturday morning arrived cold and dark. I awoke at 5:30, ate a quick breakfast, gathered up my gear, and headed off to meet Bill at Selby Field. It had been previously decided that Bill would leave his truck at Selby (35KS) then ride with me over to Cook Field (K50) where the 150 is hangared, this would ensure that Bill's truck would be waiting for him when he returned with the Tcraft.
With outside temps in the 30s I pulled the 150 out and we loaded our gear. With frozen fingers I went about my preflight duties, making sure the plane had fuel and oil as well as making sure nothing heavy or important was going to fall off. Preflight complete, I gave the engine a shot of prime and pulled the prop through several revolutions by hand before joining Bill in the cockpit. Doors closed.....windows latched.....master....mags....mixture, I pulled the starter handle. The prop completed one revolution then 2 followed by the familiar sound of the O-200 coming alive once cylinder at a time.
10 minutes later the 2500ft strip fell away below us and the 150 climbed into the cold morning sky at 7:45am 15 minutes ahead of schedule, I leveled at 3500ft and the GPS showed 2 hours 40 minutes to Booneville, AR. As it would turn out, "ahead of schedule" was the theme for the whole southbound trip. We crossed Winfield lake on our way to the Oklahoma border, its muddy water almost blending with the dry fields surrounding it. Crossing into Oklahoma we passed near Bartlesville and over historic Claremore and the Port of Catoosa.
Over the border and into Arkansas the terrain changed from flat to rolling hills populated with pine and oak trees, larger hills began to appear on the horizon signaling the approach of the Ozark mountains. After almost 3 hours in the are we set down on runway 9 at Booneville paralleling a 2400ft ridge several miles to the south. After stretching our legs and taking on 16 gallons of avgas we climbed back into the plane for the 140 mile hop to Bastrop, LA. After taking off from Booneville the size of the ridge to the south became apparent and I elected to circle the airport twice to gain altitude before heading over the ridge.
After reaching 5000msl I looked out the window and studied the land of beauty that lay below and about us. The forests were an ocean of color, the red and yellow leaves of the oak trees combined with the evergreens created a wonderful backdrop of fall color. Suddenly as we crossed over the top of another ridge a mountain lake came into view, situated between two ridges the lake spread out for miles with many coves and islands. The water was a deep blue like I have never seen in an inland lake before. I was completely taken by the landscape below me and was disappointed to have to continue on, I would have been perfectly happy to circle the lake for hours and enjoy its peaceful beauty.
I knew before starting this trip that my gps was having problems and I am surprised it did as well as it did. 30 miles NW of Bastrop it lost signal and showed no sign of getting it back. I asked bill to grab his backup gps and get me to Bastrop but probably would have been better off just staying on the same heading. By the time Bill figured out how his gps worked he had got me so lost that we needed it to get back on course! After making several wrong turns we found our way to the Bastrop airport where Robert and the Tcraft were waiting for us.
Bill and myself gave the Tcraft and extensive preflight then Bill climbed aboard to take the bird up, unfortunately in would never make it to the runway. Bill taxied to the north end of the ramp where the Tcraft performed a double groundloop that I will rate a perfect 10! Bill slowly brought the plane back to the hangar and climbed out. Robert received a call and had to be back in El Dorado soon so we elected to fly back to El Dorado and our hotel and return to Bastrop in the morning. During the 40minute flight to El Dorado we pondered what caused the groundloop and decided that there must be a problem with the locking tailwheel, this discovery had us feeling much better about the whole thing.
The landing in El Dorado was a bit interesting, the main runway had been closed for maintenance but was not included in the notams, on my first approach I spotted what I thought was a lawnmower on the runway and observed it to move of to the side, I then assumed the runway was clear so came around again. Seeing another vehicle on the runway I elected to make a low fly over and inspect it, sure enough I spotted barricades at the taxiway exits and deduced that it must be closed so I came around a 3rd time and landed on 31.
Taxiing towards the terminal and GA parking I observed a person on the ramp directing me to a parking spot, as the airport was for the most part deserted and I was the only GA plane there I feared that I was about to be reprimanded for making approaches to a closed runway! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the person on the ramp was a young lady who I must say looked better than any of Ace’s French nurses! And she could drive the fuel truck! After having the plane fuelled and secured we loaded our stuff in the courtesy car, a relatively new Buick with a leather interior and all the bells and whistles. We made a trip to Wal-Mart for some supplies, ate a delicious steak dinner at a local steakhouse, and headed to our hotel where we were asleep by 7:30 after a long day.
We awoke at 6:00 Sunday morning, grabbed some breakfast in the hotel lobby, and headed off to the airport anticipating an early departure back to Bastrop. Upon arriving at the airport it became apparent that the 150s wings were covered in frost so we visited with the young airport attendant while waiting for it to melt and by 8:00am we were airborne. Arriving back in Bastrop we quickly sorted out the tailwheel lock on the Tcraft and Bill took it around the patch with no trouble. After Bill and Robert agreed on a price we changed the oil, checked the plugs and got the plane ready for the flight home. We were able to fix everything but the brakes. By the time the plane was ready it was too late to make Wichita so we decided the best course of action was to fly back to El Dorado, top off the tanks, and head for Booneville and spend the night there. I landed before Bill at El Dorado and alerted the young attendant to the fact that the Tcraft had no brakes, the sight of Bill racing down the taxiway on his way to an Indy 500 win sent us diving for cover behind the fuel truck!
Leaving El Dorado we once again climbed to 5500msl and headed for the Ozarks. I again watched as the mountains appeared on the horizon and again I saw the beautiful mountain lake. Leading the way home with Bill following in the Tcraft, we realized the 150 is about 20kts faster and I was constantly having to watch my power setting to avoid leaving him behind. Come to think of it, this is the first time I have ever been able to outrun Bill! Every so often I would look out my large rear window to confirm he was still behind me. The final ridge of the Ozarks came into view and I pulled the power to 1500 carb heat on and 15 flaps for the decent into the Booneville airport 3 miles ahead and now 5500ft below. Once again our luck held and there was someone at the airport to give us the keys to the courtesy car, this time a Crown Victoria, and we headed into town to hunt down some food and a place to sleep. Once again no one was awake after 7:30, man this flying stuff is exhausting!
Monday morning rolled around and we headed back to the airport just wanting to get in the air headed home, preflights complete, engines warm, we departed at 8:00 headed to Bartlesville, OK. 30 Minutes into the flight Bill called over the radio that the wing tank on the Tcraft wasn’t draining into the nose tank so his range was limited, I consulted a sectional and we chose Wagoner, OK as our new destination, it was 40 minutes west of us and listed as having self service fuel. We arrived in Wagoner with a south wind at 18kts to 23kts and landed at what looked like a nice airport from the air. As I headed down the taxiway to the fuel pump the place looked more like a ghost town than an airport, open hangars housed various planes in various stages of disrepair. After shutting down at the fuel pump, we discovered that it was locked and there was no number listed to call. Thankfully in the boy scouts I learned to be prepared for the unexpected so I whipped out my ATT 3G phone, pulled up airnav.com, and got the managers number. 40 minutes later we were fueled and ready to go.
With a 23kt south wind I am pretty sure I set a short takeoff record with the 150, I estimated the ground roll at 500ft and I think Bill had the Tcraft off in less than 300. We turned north towards Wichita and watched the effect of the south wind on our ground speed. Flying north to the Kansas border I saw a part of Oklahoma I can only describe as desert! Very few roads with no vehicle traffic, only dirt, sand, and abandoned strip mines, no trace of human life whatsoever. After flying over a barren landscape like that the patchy green fields of winter wheat in Kansas were a welcome sight!
After crossing the Kansas border, Bill radioed that he couldn’t make Wichita and was going to try for Winfield, he also decided that he was no where near ready to try to get in on the 1300ft strip at Selby and would come into Cook instead. Having plenty of fuel in the 150 to make Cook, I went on ahead so I could call the manager at Cook and have a hangar ready for Bill when he got there. Bill appeared in the pattern about 30 minutes after I had the 150 put away and made a decent landing given the wind was 190 at 32kts. With the planes tucked away I Gave Bill a ride back to Selby to get his truck.
It was quite an adventure totaling 3 days, 10.3hrs air time, 63 gallons of 100LL, and 1.5 quarts of oil. This trip reinforced my decision to buy the 150, it does everything I hoped and then some. Well, I spent 3hrs writing this now I need some sleep! I have some great pics I will get uploaded soon!
Chris
When in doubt just use full throttle.... it might not help but it will end the suspense.
