Today's Message Index:
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1. 11:43 AM - Sunday at Meylors (Lenleg@aol.com)
2. 11:46 AM - Sunday (Lenleg@aol.com)
3. 12:05 PM - Oshkosh trip (SportAV8R@aol.com)
4. 05:59 PM - Re: Sunday (Demeylor@aol.com)
Message 1
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Subject: | Sunday at Meylors |
--> RVSouthEast-List message posted by: Lenleg@aol.com
Dean:
What frequency do you want us to use for entering the field on Sunday?
Len Leggette, RV-8A
Greensboro, N.C. N910LL
264 hrs
Message 2
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--> RVSouthEast-List message posted by: Lenleg@aol.com
SERV:
Everyone be sure to monitor Button One 122.825 on your trip to Meylor Field
... we can talk with each other on the way to and from. I sent a note to Dean
asking for what frequency he wants us to use for the pattern ... he may come
back with Button One ????
Len
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--> RVSouthEast-List message posted by: SportAV8R@aol.com
"Stormy" weighs-in (late) on the recent trek to OSH...
Sorry to be tardy with this; I arrived home Sunday morning to a wife-less house
and a long list of things to do getting back into the daily routine. My gal
is halfway 'round the world for another week, and I'm trying my best to be a good
single parent. Since I have some free time at work, I'll compose a brief
travelogue to supplement what Leggs wrote.
Andrew and I were fogged in at Hop-Along for a short while Wednesday morning, but
seized an opening and launched into a patch of blue sky to the west, climbing
on top of a solid layer over WV. Our coordinated arrival over LWB with Leggs
and his back-seater, Chris, was botched by our launching at the same time they
did; we were about 70 miles closer to the rendezvous point. Radio contact
was easily made, we throttled back to 18" manifold, and tooled along at 109 mph
ground speed, but it still took Leggs forever to close the distance. Finally
our two-ship heard Popeye on Button Five, and learned that his own wx delays
in Pennsylvania had put him just barely ahead of us into Plymouth, C65.
We took a sandwich break and fueled up in Plymouth, then briefed for the flight
into OSH via Ripon & Fisk. The flight was smooth as glass, and the OSH approach
was actually fun and easy, even with me (a first-timer) in the lead. The
Fisk controllers surmised we were a flight of three, and worked us accordingly.
The RV didn't want to fly below about 115 mph given where I wanted to keep
the nose in order to see traffic, but the planes ahead seemed to be moving that
fast anyhow. We assumed position behind a Ford Trimotor on base leg (he was
hopping rides all day long) and followed him to an easy landing on 27. What
followed was the longest taxi of my life; they flagged us all the way down the
grass beside 27 to the end, then a U-turn around the cones and all the way back
to "RV country." There were two consolations to this: first, nobody redlined
any temps, and second, we got to taxi the final leg immediately behind the
beautiful yellow and blue RV-10 prorotype / demonstrator from Van's.
We set up camp in a field that was wall-to-wall RV's and tents; there was no mistaking
we were in RV country! Part of the fun was seeing new neighbors every
time we returned to camp in the evening or awoke in the morning, as there was
constant turnover in the camping area. I didn't experience the concession gouge-pricing
that Len wrote about, as we had packed our food for the entire trip,
but did have the fun of lugging bagged ice from the warbird concession back
to camp. The showers were warm and there was never a wait; the porta-johns were
kept so clean and odor-free that I even saw evidence that people were reading
magazines in there, quite a change from the breath-holding excercise that
a trip to the portable potty used to be! Dishes were washed on the gravel beside
the water fountain array, using a short hose they provided. All-in-all, not
a bad camping experience for someone who hadn't been in a tent in over a decade.
My Airventure experince itself is a blur of exhibitors, vendors, pavilions, airshow
performances, row upon row of beautiful airplanes, the drone of helicopters
overhead (which got real old after awhile) and the sorest, tiredest feet I
can remember. The recliner and foot massager exhibitors did a brisk business,
preying upon us poor pedestrians. I was able to speak at some length with a
few exhibitors and get some technical avionics questions answered, but right now
I'm just window-shopping anyway. Later on, there's a glass cockpit and maybe
a diesel powerplant in my future :-)
Getting home was an air-venture in itself. Word to the wise: never let your buddies
go to the briefing tent for you, return with a "looks good... let's go!"
but not an actual, factual weather briefing, and then assign you to be flight
lead. Warning bells should sound in your head if they try this on you; maybe
it's a hazing thing they do to the newbies. We launched into a scattered layer
that looked good to the west, but we were to set course south to Chicago and
out over Lake Michigan. Soon we found ourselves flying lower than the overlying
Class B airspace required us to, being forcibly stepped-down by ever-lower
layers of fog. Out over the lake, Popeye and Leggs clearly weren't comfortable
with the view ahead (I had the lead and knew what the forward visibility was,
but it wasn't that great) and the fact that the tops of all the Chicago skyscrapers
were shrouded by clouds. Our GPS's sounded the alarm that we were about
to bust airspace at Meigs (isn't anyone in this flight using an up-to-date
GPS database?!) but we finally figured out that with no runway anymore, the
airspace was probably no longer an issue. Our radio chatter grew increasingly
tense as we motored on into the IMC trap. "Slow down, Stormy. I don't like
the looks of this. Should we turn back?" We were looking up frequencies and
formulating alternate plans on-the-fly, and ended up calling Gary, IN. Gary reproted
VFR with inbound IFR traffic, and had us extend downwind until the airport
was lost in the haze. I told the tower we really really wanted to turn base
NOW and she said, Oh, sure, didn't you see the traffic on final pass you?
Flight of 3 RV's, cleared to land." None of us had seen anything; we could barely
keep sight of each other. VFR my foot! This made for one of the worst arrivals
I have ever flown; 30 degrees off runway heading, too fast for flaps,
the landing checklist not even on my mind, and two guys hot on my tail in the
same predicament. We used the tower's frequency to stay out of each other's way
on the touchdown
and roll-out, but she didn't seem to care. We were glad to be on the ground,
even in scenic, smelly Gary, Indiana!
After cooling our heels in Gary for about 4 hours, we parted company with Popeye,
who wouldn't get all the way home that night either, took off with fresh weather
info and got as far as Dayton Wright Brothers Airport, where we figured
we had gone as far as sky conditions would allow. It was frustrating to tie down
under a blue, nearly cloudless sky early in the afternoon, but we knew bad
weather awaited just 30 miles ahead if we kept going. In an RV, it doesn't make
sense to push a trip 30 extra miles when you're being well-treated right where
you are. As Leggs wrote, we received the red carpet treatment at Commander
Aero FBO, and so enjoyed our night on the town in Dayton.
Sunday dawned hazy but with good visibility straight up, so we climbed to 9500
and crossed Ohio and West Virginia, with only occasional glimpses of the ground.
After the previous day's misadventures, we were on the horn every few minutes
with Flight Watch, making sure the holes over our destination airports were
still reported open. Leggs peeled of to INT somewhere over Charleston, WV.
Andrew and I made it home from Dayton in 1:35 flying time, concluding a great
father-son adventure we will both cherish for a long time. His only regret was
not being able to make the anticipated side-trip to Cleveland to see his girlfriends;
he pouted awhile, about like Leggs when his LightSpeed Ignition was
on the fritz last month ;-) I think I see a rain-check coming on... maybe a
day-trip to Cleveland / Elyria this Saturday if the weather will stay good all
day. If anyone knows of anything for a bored Dad to do while his son fraternizes
with the ladies in Cleveland, I'm all ears.
-Bill Boyd / "Stormy"
Message 4
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--> RVSouthEast-List message posted by: Demeylor@aol.com
Looking forward ti seeing everyone Sunday. I'll monitor 122.825. I recommend
landing up hill to the west. The runway is in good shape wide and smooth and
1500 feet long. Dean
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