What An Awesome Turnout!

Photo by Del Angelo

It was beautiful Saturday and a I think a huge success for this year's Wings 'N' Wheels show at my home airport of Craig Field (KCRG) in Jacksonville, Florida.  I got to the airport before sunrise to put my plane out on the ramp so I could also attend the morning Men's Ministry at my church.  At that time my plane was the third one on the ramp and only a few cars were just starting to arrive.  When I returned at 9:00 am, the row of planes was full and the multitude of cars went on forever!  It was awesome!

I opened the doors to my plane, set up my chairs, and waited for the public to arrive while I chatted with some of my fellow aviators.  I met a lot of great people and had some enjoyable conversations with a lot of folks throughout the day.  I put out a little display with information about the Bahamas Habitat which garnered a lot of interest.  I even met and chatted with one gentleman who was there with his wife that recognized my plane and me from this blog!  Pretty cool!

Participating in this event was rewarding, but I did have a few people that tested my trust.  Towards  the beginning of the show I had one family come by who's son promptly tried to jump up on one of my wingtips and try to hang from the nav light/strobe assembly.  I of course politely, but forcibly intervened as the parents did nothing.  Needless to say that made me realize  I would not be closing up the plane at different times and wandering around to see for myself what was at the show.  So therefore I do not have a lot of cool plane and car pictures to share.  There was only a small handful of people that obviously had no respect for the displays, but that did not diminish my enjoyment in the day.  I had a great time and hope to do it again!

At the end of the day I did get to walk down the ramp to see David Marco's beautiful Lockheed 12A Electra that is based at my airport.  Just a gorgeous plane.

Wings 'N' Wheels 2012 - Jacksonville, FL

My home drome is once again having their Wings 'N' Wheels aviation and car show on September 8, 2012.  I didn't get to visit the show last year, but I might actually be putting our Piper Lance on static display for this event!  So come on down and enjoy a great day of aviation and cars and if you find me on the ramp with our plane, please stop by and say hi!

What:  Wings 'N' Wheels Aircraft and Car Show

When:  Saturday, 8 September 2012 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Where:  Jacksonville's Craig Airport - KCRG

Flying Around the 2012 County Line Fire

As usual I haven't flown since we got back from Spring Break over two weeks ago. Not good for the plane or me! Unfortunately fire season has arrived with a vengeance here in Florida and visibilities were down to less than 3/4 mile in smoke yesterday all the way out to the coast. Yesterday's afternoon sea breeze pushed it all back inshore, but it was forecasted to return today. (See: Florida Forest Service)

With some available time this morning I decided to head out to the airport to at least "see" the plane and complete a few housekeeping items. When I left the house it was beautiful clear skies; no smoke! So with my chores complete, I went flying instead. Yeah!  I had no plan other than to just go fly. I thought about flying along the coast or flying to Plataka for fuel, but decided to just head west at first and then we'll see where we go.

I always try to "play" with something in the plane each time I fly to get to know her better. This time I played with the power setting tables to see if my airspeed remained unchanged with various combinations of RPM and manifold pressure to maintain 65% power. Sure enough it worked! I really shouldn't be surprised, but it was nice to confirm that the engine is working properly. So at 4500 feet I was flying at about 134 KIAS and 144 KTAS. While flying at 65% at the lower RPM of 2100 and higher manifold pressure of 24.3 in, I was burning well over a gallon per hour less. Every little bit helps so when I find myself flying a little lower, I'll have to remember to pull out the tables and use the lower RPM for desired settings.

So after heading west and with my playing complete, I came in to view of the County Line Fire located about 40 miles west of Jacksonville near the Taylor VOR in Northeast Florida. Currently there is a TFR over the area, but I stayed well above it and on the north and east sides of the fire lines. I took a few pictures and then descended to 3500 feet as I turned around an headed back for Jacksonville. I snapped a few more shots and enjoyed the flight back home.  It was a great morning, and I thank all those firefighters on the front lines!

5 in the Plane!

My mom is visiting for Thanksgiving so we decided to "fly out" for dinner last night. This was the first time we've had five people in the plane and our Lance performed great! We went to Palm Coast to eat at Hijackers. It has been abnormally warm, even for North Florida weather. Even though the temps are pleasant, the early afternoon flight down was a little bumpy at first, but it settled out pretty quick. Shortly after leveling off at 5,500', we started a gradual descent for the field. Mary did ok, but she really doesn't like being confined to her seat or wearing her hearing protection. The noise isn't to bad so I'm not worried about it right now and other than take-off and landing, she is allowed to happily roam the rear seating area.

We found some nice seats outside and Abby quickly set off for the playground. Since our last visit they have added some nice new swings and teeter-totters. The food was great again. This time I tried their Pasta Carbonara, Kristi had a Chicken Quesadilla, my Mom had the Fried Shrimp Platter, and Abby of course had chicken tenders with fries. I think Abby's favorite part was that her meal came with Oreo cookies! The portions were sizable enough that we all had some leftovers to bring back and enjoy later.

After dinner, while the family strolled on the flight line, I taxied the plane over to the self-serve fuel pump. We loaded up and after a short run-up we were back in the air for the short 25 minute flight home.

The air was smooth and we cruised up the coast and enjoyed the views from 2,800'. The shadows made by the setting sun were pretty cool and we flew right over St Augustine prior to landing back at Craig. It was a nice afternoon of food and flying and I'm thankful the idea for it all came from my wife! Life is good.

HAPPY THANKSGVING EVERYBODY!!!!!

Bringing home our "new" Piper Lance

After selling the Arrow we were lucky to find a plane that meets our needs fairly quickly. We bought N424RM which is a 1977 Piper Lance. It was located in Salt Lake City, Utah, so plans for another long cross country flight began. After a terrible set of flights on Delta Airlines, I finally made it to Salt Lake City on Wednesday evening. I was lucky enough to have my Mom join me on this adventure, so after meeting at the airport we went and had dinner at Red Robin.


After dinner we met with N424RM's pilot/representative. He kindly let me look over the plane and get the POH/AFM out so I could study it at the hotel. Luckily he is a CFI so we made plans to meet the next morning for a checkout in the Lance. The checkout was fun and I enjoyed flying out to the west of Salt Lake City while I got used to the plane and did some slow flight, stalls, and steep turns. We did some touch and goes at Tooele (KTVY) and even though the Lance is pretty much just a larger version of the Arrow, my landings were so much better right off the bat!

With the checkout and purchase complete, I picked my mom up at the hotel and we went back out to the airport to get the plane ready for our departure early Friday morning. We loaded up and organized the plane a bit and then worked on the cleaning the windows. Priority was to ensure my "photographer" had clean windows for our flight home!



We left the plane at Million Air for the night. They filled my O2 bottle and helped me out Friday morning by letting me return my Hertz rental car with them instead of back over at the commercial terminal.



We took off from KSLC at 0710 and followed Interstate 80 through Parleys Canyon as we climbed over the Wasatch Mountains to our initial cruising altitude of 11,500 feet. As we passed Park City on our right we could see the Olympic Ski Jumps, Bobsled Tracks, and other facilities as well as some hot air balloons. We proceeded NE towards Fort Bridger, then E to Rock Springs and Rawlings, and continued to pretty much follow I-80 to the east side of Cheyenne until our first fuel stop in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming (82V).












Pine Bluffs is in the very SE corner of Wyoming and surprising enough has a filed elevation of almost 1000' HIGHER than KSLC! The self serve fuel was cheap and after using the restrooms and stretching our legs, we departed for Kansas City, which would be our overnight stop on this trip home. While watching the weather on the Garmin 496, I noticed that there were some overcast cloud layers being reported west of Kansas City, so I called Columbus Radio (FSS) and air filed an IFR flight plan. As soon as I switched over to Denver Center, they had my clearance in the system and we were cleared IFR in to Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC), located on the Missouri side of Kansas City .






We did manage to dodge and fly through a few clouds enroute to Kansas City, but luckily all the severe convective weather remained well north and south of our track. We had an uneventful visual aprroach and landing into KMKC and taxied over to the city's self serve fuel tanks to top off so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. We tied down at Hangar 10 who gave us a ride to our hotel. We unpacked and rested a bit before dinner. My Mom and I had a nice walk down to the Plaza area of Kansas City and she treated my to a great steak dinner at the M&S Grill!






After a good night's sleep, we were up early and back to the airport for an early morning departure. I got my clearance and we were wheels up by 0730 heading for our fuel stop in Savannah, Tennessee. The route was clear and smooth. According to the XM Weather, we wouldn't see any weather until just before Savannah (KSNH). As we approached the airport we flew through some low cloud layers and flew the GPS 19 approach breaking out at 1900' AGL for another uneventful landing. Apparently we had just missed the rain.






We topped off and even added some oil for our final leg home to Jacksonville. After a short break, I called FSS and got our clearance out of KSNH for home. In the 45 minutes we were on the ground at SNH, the weather went from almost no thunderstorms east of us to numerous small cells enroute and growing. I have to give my mom some big kudos; she experienced quite a lot of stuff during these two days and handled them very well. One bit of advice that helps: give your passengers a heads up on what to expect before, during, and after a flight. Surprises aren't fun.




I had initially filed for 7000' but quickly ended up at 11,000' so we could remain on top of most of the weather. This also made the towering cumulonimbous clouds, thunderstorms, easier to spot and divert around. The controllers, as usual, were great to work with and we were pretty much allowed to weave our way around the weather as needed all the way to Jacksonville.




It was a calming feeling to make that initial check-in with Jacksonville Center and the JAX Approach controllers. We were cleared for the visual approach into Rwy 14 at Craig (KCRG). We flew through a little rain on final approach, and the passing rain shower had left an interesting visual mark on the runway exactly halfway down. We landed N424RM and taxied her to our hangar that is now her new home!



Kristi and the girls came out to get us after we landed and spent some time looking over our "new" plane. Kristi and Abby both liked the big club seating in the back and Kristi really liked the rear door that makes it much easier for passengers to get in and out of the plane. Of course the really big feature we are excited about........the plane has air conditioning!!!!!



Well, she got us home safe and sound. In two days we flew almost 1700 miles in 12.5 hours of flight time. I look forward to cleaning her up and getting to know her better. Hopefully we'll be making our first family flight in N424RM very soon!

My Mom also wrote her own blog entry. You can read her article to get her perspective on our trip here: Travel Writer Rants and Raves