Busy Weekend

Last Friday after posting here I headed on down to Renton airport to continue the dis-assembly of Double Eagle.  The group made a lot of progress over the weekend, getting the damaged gear off, and a temporary set installed, removing the wing and clearing the area for the welder to do his magic on the fuselage.

I met with the welder this morning, it's going to be a bigger job than hoped to fix the left side tubing.  He's bringing another experienced aircraft welder to the airport this weekend, hopefully we'll have an assessment thereafter on time and expense.

The gear will be shipped out this week once Grove confirms they can fix our set.  And we will be dropping off the wing with our A&P on Wednesday.  There still are a lot of items to do for the condition inspection, so we'll be busy for a while.

So the middle of last week I get an email from my friend Jerry asking if I would be willing to fly is Cessna 172 from Boeing Field to Ephrata to pick him up after he drops off his Extra 300 there for the season.

The weather was predicted to be beautiful, his Cessna just had all sorts of new electronic goodies installed and I really didn't need to be in the Eagle hangar all day... 

...So off I went!

 

The Northwest just rocks when the sun is out!

 

I enjoyed playing with the new Aspen and Garmin equipment.  Now that we have decided to upgrade the panel of N2134Y, perhaps I should make some suggestions.

One last thought, on Friday I got on my soapbox about the pending tower closures.  I received a couple emails from that post, one criticizing my point and saying other funding sources weren't an option.  In this morning's aviation press I see an article about the Texas Department of Transportation having made the decision to fund the towers in their state that are on the chopping block.  Yes, it is possible to keep the towers open, if the desire is there.

My Thoughts on Tower Closures

There seems to be, as always, a lot of misinformation and sound bytes being bantered around about the pending closure of 149 control towers.  Much of the blame in the public outcry, Washington DC and the press is laid upon the FAA's feet.

However, that doesn't seem to be where it should lie.  Yes, the FAA did cut funding for all the contract towers that aren't getting additional Congressional funding.  But that doesn't mean the towers have to close.  That just means the FAA isn't going to pay for them.

You see, a tower does not have to be funded by the FAA.  The controllers in these 149 towers are employees of a private company.  That company could very well continue to offer controller services from other sources of funding.  For instance, a city owned airport could continue the funding of a tower if they felt it was a necessity for their airport.

Here is some text from the FAA Guidance in regards to these tower closures:

When the FAA ceases funding for control tower operations, the airport operator has a choice. The airport operator may choose to operate as a non-towered airport. The airport operator may also choose to continue providing tower services as a non-Federal control tower. The decision made by the airport operator will most likely affect what happens with the existing tower structure and the equipment inside.

So, bottom line is that it's not the FAA's "fault".  If blame has to be assigned, look at the airport owners and companies that provide tower controller services.

Now it's time to go to the hangar and work on the Eagle...

Just when you think you're ahead of the game...

Lots of stresses in life at the moment... work, vendors, family and now airplane woes again...

Unfortunately one of my partners took a wild ride while landing the Eagle yesterday, ground looped her on his second landing of the day.  While he walked away no worse for wear (thankfully!), Double Eagle has been admitted to intensive care for some first aid.

Initial inspections show that we need to replace the gear, wheel pants, one wheel, and all the gear mounting hardware.

  

The right wingtip scraped along the ground for a bit, so at least some fabric work will be needed.  I stuck a bore-scope through a rip in the fabric to see if there was any damage, didn't see anything of significance.  But a closer look will be needed at the spar and aileron attach points.

Along with this damage, the fuselage tubing is broken on both sides by the landing gear.  There is a suggested reinforcing of this area by the factory, I think it's time we do that mod.  Even though it means taking the engine off the airplane.  Hell, I did that with the Wolf Pitts six times last summer!

We have an aerobatic training camp in May, so the goal is to get her flying again in April.  It'll take a lot of work, but I think the group can do it.  Tomorrow I meet with some A&P's to review my initial assessment.  Hopefully I'm not too far off...

Sunny Saturday

Had a board of directors meeting for the Arlington Fly In yesterday and the weather was forecasted to get clear and sunny about half way through the meeting. Leaving home I checked weather and despite the cold, the ceilings were nice and high.

Off to the airport, pulled out the Wolf Pitts and headed up to the meeting. Afterwards, one of the attendees, Mark Peterson, caught me on video leaving on my way home. It's a great 7 minutes showing the activities you see on a sunny Saturday here in the Great Northwest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_ycxNOK68

Playing Catch Up

Dammit.  Three months into the new year an no posts?  What's up with that?  Not a whole lot of actual flying for me recently, but that's about to change.

December was the ICAS convention in Vegas.  That's were the whole air show family gets together to plan out the next year.  The Federal budget is wreaking havoc on the air show industry, causing cancellations of all military support and many, if not most, big air shows on bases.  Sad state of affairs.

Other than some fun IAC, WPA and PSAAC club meetings, only one other notable event.  Attended the Northwest Council of Air Shows (NWCAS) the first weekend in March.  Got to climb into the cockpit of the Shuttle Trainer and get a personal tour by John Creighton.  That along with a great presentation earlier in the day on U-2 operations by "Huggy" Huggins made for a very educational day!

 

Next up is the annual Condition Inspection for the Eagle.  Then Paine Field Aviation Day and Acro Camp in May.

See you in the pattern!

Flying Home

The second weekend in November was the Tequila Cup acro contest.  I had left my Pitts in Tucson after the US Nationals with the plan of flying the Cup and then home. 

The weekend before we flew commercial down to Phoenix to visit some friends and family.  And me being who I am, we stopped by the Scottsdale Air Fair to check out that event.  It's a small event but had a number of jets there that surprised me.  Well done!

The Tequila Cup contest went fine, it was nice to get one more in at the end of the season.  There were some fun events around the contest, but most of all hanging with my friends was the best.  In the end, I did walk away with third place in Intermediate.  Next year... Advanced!

The flight home was a great end to the two month round trip.  It took a day longer than anticipated due to weather.  Not sure if I'd want to make this trek again in Winter while flying a heaterless, drafty airplane!

Monday the 12th

KAVQ KBLH KAPV KMAE KDVO

Nothing too exciting this day.  Lots of desert, frustrated that the batteries fell out of my camera before Edwards and I couldn't reach them.  Thought for a second about taking the ones out of my GPS, but decided better of it...  I was amazed at the smog as I crossed the hills east of the LA Basin.  Persisted well north of the metro area.

Tuesday the 13th

KDVO KRDD KLMT KLKV 

This day was a bit more challenging.  Clouds were at the top of the hills crossing from Redding to Klamath Falls.  No real options in case of power failure other than the occasional clearing and my chute.  Once north of Klamath Falls, the clouds went from the surface to over 10,000, I was at both those extremes.  After a bit of back and forth, called it a day and headed for Lake County hoping for cheap hangar, car and hotel.

During my search for a path to Redmond, I was using flight following, which wasn't an issue at 10K.  When I decided to take a peek underneath, I lost radar services at about 7K.  Center notified me that I was too low and radar services were terminated, to which I acknowledged and squawked VFR.  I guess they never heard my radio call.  After I had been in Lakeview for an hour or so I got a call from the FAA saying they were looking for me.  That was shortly followed by a call from USAF SAR.  And not long after that a message through this board from a member who works for the NTSB asking how I liked Lakeview!

Lesson learned, when Center says services terminated, frequency change approved, hang around on the freq for a minute to make sure they heard you acknowledge!

Wednesday the 14th

KLKV KBDN KDLS KTTD KRNT

Based on the weather briefing, this should have been a fairly straightforward flight.  Bend was not my original choice for a stop, I wanted to land at Redmond to check it out.  However, en-route from Lake County it went from clear to 200' overcast.  As I approached I could see a band of low clouds covering about a 10 square mile area.  But Bend was clear so no problem scooting over there.

The hop to The Dalles was without issue.  From there it should have been non-stop to Renton.  However, north if the metro Portland area clouds were to the ground and a solid overcast beyond.  So I turned around and landed at Troutdale, grabbed some fuel, warmed up and checked WSDOT webcams.  By then Kelso and Toledo were under big holes.  Fired up to head north and go over on top.  However, by then it had cleared underneath so I just shot up I-5 to Chehalis, then direct to over Puyallup and on home.

Overall a fun and challenging cross country.  Cold and weather played a big role in decision making, some better than others.

I took a number of pictures, if interested.

The Rest of September's Adventure

Well, I made it all the way to Texas, and then on to Tucson. My schedule was pretty packed so I wasn't able to make regular updates as I had hoped. 

Rawlins, Wyoming was a neat surprise.  The guy at the FBO came out to guide me to a parking spot and immediately pulled out his camera and started taking pictures.

He couldn't have been more friendly, even brought the (free) courtesy car out to the airplane so didn't have to carry my bag across the ramp.  The car was great, a mid-1990's Thunderbird with a stick shift! Actually pretty fun to drive.  Off I went in search of a hotel room, of which there weren't many.  Lots of hotels, but all booked.  Finally found one with a restaurant and after a crappy steak, headed off to bed.

The next stop was Greeley, Colorado.  A nice airport with friendly staff in the very modern FBO.  While refueling, ran into another IAC member and Skybolt pilot that was local to the field.  Damn if I can remember his name though... Had to tear myself away from biplane and acro talk to get on with my journey.

In Hugoton, Kansas a local pilot observed that my little Pitts wouldn't be so great for dusting crops. Guess I won't bother going to duster school...  That was a long leg of my flight, the last 20 minutes I just wanted OUT of the cockpit.

My last stop before my destination was Elk City, Oklahoma.  Yet another character of an airport employee.  Guided me to a parking spot a few feet from the fuel truck, but on the wrong side.  Repositioned the truck by drive down the ramp 100 yards or so.  Kept me laughing with his political commentary of current events. 

From there it was a straight shot to Denison and the US National Aerobatic Contest!

Had a great time at Nationals again, I can see how going can be addicting. Once you start to create the friendships with folks around the country, you look forward to seeing them every year. They always have one or two photographers there, you can see all the pictures here. I ended up 11th out of 19 in my category, not too bad considering I hadn't flown the Wolf Pitts most of the summer!

Once the Nationals was over, I had to wait one more day for the weather to clear.  But on Sunday the 30th I launched for Marana, Arizona.  The first stop was Sweetwater, Texas.

I swear the guy there walked straight out of a Dukes of Hazard episode.  It was fantastic!  Rebel flag hat, cut off shirt, homemade tattoos... Couldn't have scripted it better myself.  I poke fun but he was really friendly and ran back inside to get a camera to take pictures of the Wolf Pitts.

Next was Pecos, Texas, a small town pretty much on the Mexican border.  A really nice couple was at the airport office and she guided me to a parking spot while he got the gas truck.  I didn't stay too long as there were some thunderstorms brewing. She offered some free water after I paid for the fuel.  Had to make sure the cows grazing by the runway didn't decide to cross during my takeoff roll...

Had to navigate around the line of thunderstorms to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  They must have stretched 100 miles north.  After a while I heard one of the other competitors trying to communicate with Albuquerque Center to find a way around the storms, but they couldn't get clear communications.  After a bit of frustration on both ends, I offered up the route I had just flow to the other pilot via Center.  Thankfully, she heard me just fine and was able to get around them safely.

A quick gas stop at Las Cruces and I was racing the sunset to Tucson.  I must say, the landscape from Pecos to Tucson was some of the most desolate and beautiful I've seen.  I'll have to go back and explore someday.  Shortly before sunset I made it to Marana and was met with a beer from my friend Will Allen, he'd arrived there a day earlier.

Now the Wolf Pitts is tucked away in Arizona awaiting my return to bring her home.  But first, we'll fly the Tequila Cup aerobatic contest in November.