The TermiteMay 23, 2016, 1:40pm
Saturday May 21st dawned clear, and about 62 deg. I got to ESF about 0900, pulled Charlene out, and pre-flighted her again. I had topped of the fuel tank and looked her over the night before, but since I was going on an 80 mile cross-country, I went over everything again. Talked with fellow pilot Travis while he checked over his Titan Tornado 2, then warmed up my 503 and took off.
Jeff Johns' (20LS) grass strip is about 82 miles from ESF, on a 182 heading. I climbed up to 2500ft, and set off. The air was cool and smooth, lovely flying weather. About 15-20 min later I heard Travis call T/O. After he got 5 miles away from ESF, we switched over to 123.45 Mhz.
I made pretty good time with a 2-3 mph tailwind, and a ground speed of 80mph. Travis usually cruises about 105-110 indicated. He figured he would catch me about 15-20 miles before Jeff Johns' strip, and he was right.
When he caught up to me he slowed down, and he told me "Smile, I'm videoing." I've attached the link to his Youtube video below.
We flew on into Jeff Johns. He made a wide pattern and let me land first. He did a low fast pass down the runway, then came around and landed.
There were about 200 people total that showed up. The crawfish were delicious, and quite large. The only issue was they were getting a bit hard to peel this late in the season, with the shells getting pretty hard.
There were quite a few planes there, including a Lockwood AirCam, which is the coolest thing. If you've never seen one, they were designed by Phil Lockwood, founder of Lockwood Aircraft, and built for the National Geographic Society for research and photography in the Ndoki Rain Forest in the northern Congo Basin in Africa. They mount twin Rotax 912s, have a T/O roll of 200 ft normally, a landing roll of 300ft, and can T/O & fly safely on 1 engine.
After eating and chatting for several hours, most of our EAA 614 bunch started leaving and heading north. The line for the "loo" was fairly long, so by the time I finally took-off, I was Tail-end Charlie heading back to Cenla.
It was just after 1500 hrs, and sunny, so it was fairly bumpy at 2000, and I had a 7-8 mph headwind. I radioed Travis, and he told me it was fairly smooth at 4500 with a slight tailwind, so I started climbing. It did smooth out at 4500, which was nice. However, my track was about 002-003, so thinking about "east is least", I decided to climb on up to 5500ft........which is higher than I've ever been in Charlene. And it was rather........brisk. I was still sweaty, so until I dried off, I was rather chilly.
It was a strange feeling sitting in a QC Challenger 1 over a mile high, with no doors. That took some time to get comfortable with. But once I did, I remembered that it was actually much safer than 1000-2500. From 5500ft, I could glide 10 miles or more if the engine decided to quit. Looking down, there were plenty of landing options that simply weren't available from 2000 ft.
I cruised on back to ESF, and started letting down about 10 miles out. And it got really bumpy about 2000 ft. Landed and put Charlene away, then went home for pizza and a cold brewski. Total flight time was 2.5 hrs, and 9 gals of fuel burned.
All in all, an excellent way to spend a Saturday.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIGRylnwa7w
Jeff Johns' (20LS) grass strip is about 82 miles from ESF, on a 182 heading. I climbed up to 2500ft, and set off. The air was cool and smooth, lovely flying weather. About 15-20 min later I heard Travis call T/O. After he got 5 miles away from ESF, we switched over to 123.45 Mhz.
I made pretty good time with a 2-3 mph tailwind, and a ground speed of 80mph. Travis usually cruises about 105-110 indicated. He figured he would catch me about 15-20 miles before Jeff Johns' strip, and he was right.
When he caught up to me he slowed down, and he told me "Smile, I'm videoing." I've attached the link to his Youtube video below.
We flew on into Jeff Johns. He made a wide pattern and let me land first. He did a low fast pass down the runway, then came around and landed.
There were about 200 people total that showed up. The crawfish were delicious, and quite large. The only issue was they were getting a bit hard to peel this late in the season, with the shells getting pretty hard.
There were quite a few planes there, including a Lockwood AirCam, which is the coolest thing. If you've never seen one, they were designed by Phil Lockwood, founder of Lockwood Aircraft, and built for the National Geographic Society for research and photography in the Ndoki Rain Forest in the northern Congo Basin in Africa. They mount twin Rotax 912s, have a T/O roll of 200 ft normally, a landing roll of 300ft, and can T/O & fly safely on 1 engine.
After eating and chatting for several hours, most of our EAA 614 bunch started leaving and heading north. The line for the "loo" was fairly long, so by the time I finally took-off, I was Tail-end Charlie heading back to Cenla.
It was just after 1500 hrs, and sunny, so it was fairly bumpy at 2000, and I had a 7-8 mph headwind. I radioed Travis, and he told me it was fairly smooth at 4500 with a slight tailwind, so I started climbing. It did smooth out at 4500, which was nice. However, my track was about 002-003, so thinking about "east is least", I decided to climb on up to 5500ft........which is higher than I've ever been in Charlene. And it was rather........brisk. I was still sweaty, so until I dried off, I was rather chilly.
It was a strange feeling sitting in a QC Challenger 1 over a mile high, with no doors. That took some time to get comfortable with. But once I did, I remembered that it was actually much safer than 1000-2500. From 5500ft, I could glide 10 miles or more if the engine decided to quit. Looking down, there were plenty of landing options that simply weren't available from 2000 ft.
I cruised on back to ESF, and started letting down about 10 miles out. And it got really bumpy about 2000 ft. Landed and put Charlene away, then went home for pizza and a cold brewski. Total flight time was 2.5 hrs, and 9 gals of fuel burned.
All in all, an excellent way to spend a Saturday.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIGRylnwa7w