My excuse for the trip was to attend the annual meeting of ICUFR, International Computer Users Fellowship of Rotarians. The real reason of course was to fly to Council Bluffs, IA. It would be a longer cross country than my previous record of 800 miles in June 2007, when I flew to the Rotary International Convention in Salt Lake City, UT.
I flew the entire trip under Instrument Flight Rules, filing an IFR flight plan for each leg of the trip. This was to allow friends and family to follow my flight online at www.flightaware.com, by entering Victor's tail#, N8571V. It was also good practice for me in filing and flying instrument flight plans, since I had done very little actual instrument flying since obtaining my instrument rating in 2005. I now feel like a pro after some 36 total hours of IFR flying on this trip. Each day's flights were filed online the evening before using flight planning software at www.aeroplanner.com.
Earlier this summer I had upgraded Victor's instrument panel to include a Garmin 430 GPS, and an Aspen PFD (Primary Flight Display). This would be my first opportunity to use these new instruments in actual IFR flying, where they really shine.
Each leg of the flight was selected, based upon three sets of criteria. First, it needed to be as close to two hours flying time as possible, and not over three hours. The actual legs varied from 100 miles to 330 miles, and took from 1.2 hours to 3.2 hours. And, there needed to be fuel available at each stop. Not all airports have fuel available. The technical reason was that Victor holds a maximum of just over 4 hours worth of fuel. More importantly though, Sky King has trouble making it longer than two hours in the air before needing a potty stop. Some of these "airports" are barely more than an asphalt strip long enough and wide enough to land a small plane; devoid of fuel, food or a rest room.
Second, the stop nearest the middle of the day needed to have some sort of restaurant on the field. I knew I needed to actually sit down at a meal in the middle of the day, for an hour's rest as much as the nourishment. A five minute pause to eat a granola bar from a vending machine just wouldn't cut it.
Third, the last stop of the day needed to have a nearby motel or hotel where I could spend the night. The last thing I wanted to do is sleep on the ground under Victor's wing, even in the best of weather. Baggage room in Victor is limited and I didn't need the extra burden of carrying a tent or sleeping bag.
The first leg of the trip was from Watsonville (KWVI) to Fox Field (KWJF) in Lancaster, CA. Fox Field is a Class D airport with self-service fuel pumps and a restaurant. It's a nice airport, very similar to Watsonville, and it also has a tower. I fueled my plane here and had lunch.
The next stop was Needles, CA (KEED), a non-towered airport with self-service fuel pumps and toilet facilities. It was somewhere out in the middle of the desert (BFE?), and I had no idea which direction it was, or how far, to the town of Needles. Fortunately, it didn't matter. Before I had time to fuel up Victor, a small middle-aged black man came out to give me instructions on the use of the fuel pump. I already knew how to use it, but I appreciated his assistance and the chance to talk to someone. He was very friendly and hung around until I left in case I needed anything.
From Needles I flew to Winslow-Lindbergh Field (KINW) in Winslow, AZ. I arrived there after 6pm, so there was no one around to fuel up my plane (no self-service pumps) and the restaurant was closed. I called one of the motels in town, which sent a shuttle to pick me up. This shuttle was actually a taxi service, i.e. I had to pay for the ride. I got his card so I could call in the morning for a ride back to the airport. I had chosen the motel from an airport directory and called for a reservation a few days before leaving Watsonville. That was a big mistake. It was a real dump, whose heyday was 40 or 50 years ago when Route 66 still went through town. More than one person there told me the Chinese restaurant across the street from the motel had good food. They were wrong. It was edible, but definitely not good.
It was a pleasant evening and as I crossed the street on the way back to my hotel, some song lyrics came to mind: "Standing on the corner, in Winslow, Arizona..." So I called both Claire and Ellen to see if they remembered the song I was thinking of. Neither one was home, but I did talk to Kenny, who couldn't remember the name of the song, but he knew it was by The Eagles. I got a text message later from Claire, who said it was, "Take It Easy" by The Eagles. I got a decent night's sleep, regardless of the facilities, and got my ride back to the airport in the morning.
The FBO (Fixed Base Operator, or airport business) was open and the fellow there fueled up Victor for me. But he didn't know how to do a credit card sale for the fuel and the lady at the desk was late for work. I tried to tell him to just take the cash and the lady could work out the details when she got there, but he wouldn't do it. He was obviously so intimidated by any bookkeeping procedures, no matter how simple, that he didn't even feel safe taking cash from me. Fortunately, the lady got to work a few minutes later, processed my fuel purchase, and I was on my way for day 2.
The next leg was to Double Eagle II airport (KAEG), just a few miles outside of Albuquerque, NM. This airport had a physical tower on the field, but it was not yet operational. There was a lot of activity from both single- and twin-engine airplanes. It has very nice facilities, including a restaurant, so I had an early lunch there.
From there I flew to Raton Municipal Airport (KRTN) in Northeast New Mexico. This leg was flown at 13,000', the highest altitude flown on the trip. It was also the first time on the trip I ran into real weather. There were a few rain clouds ahead of me that I had to steer around, with permission from ATC (Air Traffic Control) of course. It created no particular problem and even added a little excitement to the day! I soon landed at Raton Muni, which had two very long and well maintained runways. It was a small airport as far as buildings and facilities, but there were at least six good-sized business jets parked on the tarmac. These jets were obviously in the multi-million dollar price range and looked brand new, or least very well maintained. I asked the airport manager why all those big jets were at this little municipal airport. He told me that Ted Turner owned a spread nearby, about 600,000 acres, and Mr. Turner let some people come in for elk hunting, at $13,000 per elk. It was obvious by the size of the jets parked outside on the tarmac that the cost of the elk would have been the least expensive part of any hunting trip.
Before leaving, a woman asked me to sign their guest book and pose in front of my plane for a snapshot. They had an entire book with photos of pilots who had stopped by, along with their name, plane tail# and home airport location. That particular day I was wearing my "9-11" red, white and blue patriotic shirt. She told me she liked my shirt and added, "I'll bet you're not voting for Obama." I agreed that I was voting for McCain, but thought to myself that was an interesting comment. She then went on to tell me she didn't want the government meddling in her affairs. She wanted to keep her guns and keep them loaded! That was a very different attitude than I would ever see back home in Santa Cruz County. So we went outside, I posed in front of Victor for a couple of snapshots and I was on my way.
My next stop was in Lamar, CO (KLAA). I landed right behind a Cessna and we both pulled up and parked in front of the FBO. A man ran out to see how he could help us. I was beginning to notice that the farther east I traveled, the smaller the towns and the friendlier people were. Small town America really is a nice change from larger cities and most towns in California. When I said needed a ride to town, the guy told me to use the white Chevy in the parking lot, "The keys are in it." I guess I stood there with my mouth open for a moment or two. He gave me directions to town and off I went to find a motel.
As I was getting ready to leave the next morning, I mentioned how flat the country side was around here. The lady behind the counter said, "Yeah, there aren't any mountains to spoil the view." She was absolutely right. None at all.
My next leg was to Hill City Muni (KHLC) in Hill City, Kansas, a small paved strip with a locked fuel pump. The Airport Facilities Directory (AFD) had a number to call for fuel assistance. A city employee was there within 5 minutes after I called. As he was getting ready to fuel Victor, he told me that I had to pay in either cash or check, because they didn't have their credit card system set up yet. I already expected to pay cash, since this had been explained in the AFD. Earlier I had read a review from someone who said they were allowed to leave without paying and mail in a check after they returned home. Don't you just love small towns?
After paying for my fuel, I started my final leg, from Hill City to the municipal airport in Council Bluffs, IA (KCBF). Council Bluffs is just across the Missouri River from Omaha, NE, so I had a good view of Omaha as I flew into Council Bluffs. Major cities in the Midwest are not as big as major cities on either coast. It looked smaller to me than Fresno. I haven't verified that fact, but I'm sure it's true. (I was right. For 2008, Omaha is estimated to be 432,921 and Fresno is estimated to be 486,171.)
So I landed in Council Bluffs, tied down Victor, asked the maintenance guy to fill up my two O2 tanks and checked in at the FBO. This is a larger airport with big runways and full fuel and maintenance facilities, but doesn't have a tower. That is probably because it is so close to Omaha, whose controllers take care of Council Bluffs air traffic.
So I landed in Council Bluffs, tied down Victor, asked the maintenance guy to fill up my two O2 tanks and checked in at the FBO. This is a larger airport with big runways and full fuel and maintenance facilities, but doesn't have a tower. That is probably because it is so close to Omaha, whose controllers take care of Council Bluffs air traffic.
During this trip, I became very familiar with both the Garmin 430 and the Aspen PFD, and learned a lot about how to get the most out of them. The Garmin has two primary navigation pages that are more commonly used; the CDI page and the moving map page. I started out using the moving map page, since it gives you a Birdseye view of your route, including nearby waypoints, airports, etc. But flying IFR routes I soon learned that I could fly more accurate routes using the CDI page. I also got very adept at using several other useful features; including finding the nearest airport or ATC frequency, finding the critical frequencies and other details of the destination airport; and adding, skipping or deleting waypoints in the flight plan. I was also able to change the desired heading from which to approach the next waypoint. One the controllers told me to "join V16 and proceed to..." I was flying to that waypoint on the 255 radial, but needed to fly it on the 25o radial. So I pushed the OBS button on the Garmin, entered the radial and waypoint information, and it directed me to the proper route to join V16. To a pilot that is very cool.
The Aspen also has some nice features, many coordinated with the flight plan entered into the Garmin. The compass radial on the HSI of the lower portion is very flexible. It has three different needles, each one of which is available to point to the GPS route, or one of two different VORs (radio beacons). It also has a small blue diamond at the top of the compass indicating the actual route, or track across the ground as affected by the wind speed and direction. The CDI page of the Garmin gives you the same information, but it's nice to have a backup for wind corrections to help you to be able to stay on course; and to have one unit to check the accuracy of another.
Another big help was the weather service, XM-WX, on the portable GPS (Garmin 496) also wired into Victor's panel. I was able to use Eric's weather subscription for the entire trip. I could already see the rainstorms between Double Eagle II and Raton Muni, but only in two dimensions. The weather service on the 496 gave me a Birdseye view, so I could see how far they extended along my route. Additionally, it gave me metars, winds aloft and many other helpful weather bits of weather information. I can see this being even more helpful with even more practice.
Once I landed at Council Bluffs, I called Bob Collins, the local Rotarian hosting the ICUFR conference. I had exchanged several emails and phone calls with Bob, but had not met him in person until he picked me up at the airport that day. Bob was the first of many really nice folks I met in Council Bluffs, and only one of many I met on my trip.
Bob and his wife Karen had all the visiting Rotarians over to their home for a wonderful dinner on Thursday night. Guests included: Robert Steinberg, Gord Hankin, Stella Russell, Stella's daughter Heather, Dave and Mary Flinn, Carl Cardey and yours truly. Bob barbecued a turkey, which I had never eaten before, and of course Karen had prepared several side dishes to go with the turkey. But first we had to taste the trays of cheese, crackers and nuts before dinner; to be washed down with some special single malt scotch the Gord had brought with him, or wine, beer, etc. All in all, it was a wonderful evening for fellowship and great conversation. I can't thank Bob and Karen enough for such a wonderful introduction to Midwestern hospitality.
Friday was a free day, so I toured three railroad museums with two of the other Rotarians, Dave and Carl. All the railroad museums in Council Bluffs are world class; and Dave and Carl were both long-time railroad buffs. They had all the historical knowledge and technical jargon down and were very helpful to have along for the tours. I had a great day touring with them. There were about 10 other Rotarians attending the conference, but the rest of them went to the local botanical gardens rather than the railroad museums. Friday night we all met for dinner at a very nice local restaurant. We were joined, in addition to the aforementioned attendees by Steve and Susan Leonard, a lady whose name I can't remember, but he is the president of Bob's Rotary Club, and Gary and Gretchen Bren, ICUFR members and speakers at our conference for the weekend.
Saturday was our conference day. A meeting room of geeks, each of whom had a laptop out and connected to the hotel wireless network, was a sight to see. Most interesting was the fact that we were all old geeks. No one was under age 50 for sure, and I'm not sure any of us were under 60. Gary Bren gave a presentation on the history of computers, with samples of early CPU's, RAM, circuit boards, laptops, etc. to pass around the room. It was quite interesting. The afternoon session included a presentation by Chris Russell, the manager of the local Google Datacenter, telling us all about Google's products and services. Later we had a long discussion with Chris, and a RI (Rotary International) IT manager in Chicago via video-phone, discussing the possibility of mapping all 32,000 Rotary Clubs on Google Maps. In the end, we decided to do a test case with the districts represented by our Board of Directors, which we will submit to RI and Google, once all the data has been collected.
We finished up with a short board meeting Sunday morning, before Bob took me to the airport to begin my trip home. By leaving around noon on Sunday, I thought I would be home Tuesday evening. It was not to be.
I took off around 11:00am from Council Bluffs with some fairly strong headwinds. I knew this would slow me down. My flight planner indicated that it would take 1:45 to fly to my first stop in Mankato, NE. I spent most of that leg with 60 knot headwinds, reducing my 125kt airspeed to 65kt groundspeed. I was barely keeping up with the cars below me! It took me 2.6 hours to get to Mankato, which was pretty much deserted. Landing at Mankato was a real challenge in the strong winds blowing from the right a 45 degree angle. They must have been in the neighborhood of 30 knots, a challenge for even the most experienced tailwheel pilot! After taxiing over the to the fuel pump, I had to set the brakes on Victor, which I rarely do, because of the strong winds trying to lift his wings off the ground again. Finding the fuel pump inoperable, I checked out the restroom, which was non-functional as well. I relieved myself behind the outhouse, and called the nearest airport in Smith Center, KS to make sure they had fuel. I didn't want to attempt another cross-wind landing like the last one if there wasn't fuel available and waiting for me. The city dispatcher answered the phone and said she would send an officer to the airport to meet me and unlock the fuel pump. It was only 26 miles, but took me another 1/2 hour to get to Smith Center airport.
After another challenging cross-wind landing at Smith Center, I taxied up to the fuel pump to find a police officer (Jamey) waiting for me as promised. The winds were blowing extremely hard on the ground, requiring me to set Victor's brakes again. As the officer unlocked the fuel pump, I noticed there was no static line to attach to Victor's exhaust pipe, and I mentioned it him. He responded, "Yeah, we don't have one of those." That was very disconcerting. A static line is meant to prevent static electricity from building up and causing an explosion. Oh, my God, what do I do? Against my better judgment I decided to go ahead and fill up the plane. Fortunately, because my fuel tanks are relatively small, nothing happened as a result of not using a static line. Whew!
Saturday was our conference day. A meeting room of geeks, each of whom had a laptop out and connected to the hotel wireless network, was a sight to see. Most interesting was the fact that we were all old geeks. No one was under age 50 for sure, and I'm not sure any of us were under 60. Gary Bren gave a presentation on the history of computers, with samples of early CPU's, RAM, circuit boards, laptops, etc. to pass around the room. It was quite interesting. The afternoon session included a presentation by Chris Russell, the manager of the local Google Datacenter, telling us all about Google's products and services. Later we had a long discussion with Chris, and a RI (Rotary International) IT manager in Chicago via video-phone, discussing the possibility of mapping all 32,000 Rotary Clubs on Google Maps. In the end, we decided to do a test case with the districts represented by our Board of Directors, which we will submit to RI and Google, once all the data has been collected.
We finished up with a short board meeting Sunday morning, before Bob took me to the airport to begin my trip home. By leaving around noon on Sunday, I thought I would be home Tuesday evening. It was not to be.
I took off around 11:00am from Council Bluffs with some fairly strong headwinds. I knew this would slow me down. My flight planner indicated that it would take 1:45 to fly to my first stop in Mankato, NE. I spent most of that leg with 60 knot headwinds, reducing my 125kt airspeed to 65kt groundspeed. I was barely keeping up with the cars below me! It took me 2.6 hours to get to Mankato, which was pretty much deserted. Landing at Mankato was a real challenge in the strong winds blowing from the right a 45 degree angle. They must have been in the neighborhood of 30 knots, a challenge for even the most experienced tailwheel pilot! After taxiing over the to the fuel pump, I had to set the brakes on Victor, which I rarely do, because of the strong winds trying to lift his wings off the ground again. Finding the fuel pump inoperable, I checked out the restroom, which was non-functional as well. I relieved myself behind the outhouse, and called the nearest airport in Smith Center, KS to make sure they had fuel. I didn't want to attempt another cross-wind landing like the last one if there wasn't fuel available and waiting for me. The city dispatcher answered the phone and said she would send an officer to the airport to meet me and unlock the fuel pump. It was only 26 miles, but took me another 1/2 hour to get to Smith Center airport.
After another challenging cross-wind landing at Smith Center, I taxied up to the fuel pump to find a police officer (Jamey) waiting for me as promised. The winds were blowing extremely hard on the ground, requiring me to set Victor's brakes again. As the officer unlocked the fuel pump, I noticed there was no static line to attach to Victor's exhaust pipe, and I mentioned it him. He responded, "Yeah, we don't have one of those." That was very disconcerting. A static line is meant to prevent static electricity from building up and causing an explosion. Oh, my God, what do I do? Against my better judgment I decided to go ahead and fill up the plane. Fortunately, because my fuel tanks are relatively small, nothing happened as a result of not using a static line. Whew!
Being tired and discouraged from fighting the winds for the last three hours, I decided to tie down Victor for the night and wait out the impending storm. Jamey gave me a ride into town to the Buckshot Inn, where I spent the next two nights waiting for the weather to clear. I had just happened to leave for home at the beginning of a "Perfect Storm" covering the entire Midwest US, from South Dakota to Texas. All the weather reports that first night indicated that it would be clearing up by Monday afternoon (tomorrow), but it didn't.
After getting settled in the motel Sunday afternoon, I went across the street to a local cafe for dinner. Entering the front door, I walked into a cloud of cigarette smoke. Apparently, these nice folks weren't as forward thinking as California. They still had smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants. And a large part of the population in this area still smoked also. I found a table in the back "non-smoking" area, which was relatively smoke-free, and had a nice relaxing dinner. I also came back to this same cafe for breakfast the next morning.
When not checking weather reports on Monday, I visited with Monte, the owner of the Buckshot Inn Motel. He and his wife were very friendly and accommodating. It didn't seem like there was much else for them to do anyway. Monte even gave me a ride to the local steakhouse (8 blocks away) for dinner Tuesday night. He took me up on my offer to buy him a beer before he returned to his motel, but he refused my offer to buy him dinner. After a welcome steak dinner, I called Monte to come pick me up.
It started clearing up late Monday, and was finally clear again by Tuesday morning. Monte took me to the airport about 7:30 Tuesday, and I was finally off again, anxious to get home.
My next stop was in Lamar, CO for fuel, and then on to Las Vegas, NM (KLVS) and finally to Double Eagle II again; this time to spend the night. The weather was beautifully clear for the entire day, and for the rest of the way home. Unlike the folksy Lamar, CO, I had to rent a car at Double Eagle to drive into Albuquerque to my motel room. This time I had happened to time my stop at Double Eagle right in the middle of the Balloon Fiesta. I awoke Wednesday morning to find the skies over Albuquerque filled with beautiful hot air balloons! What a marvelous sight. I wished I could have spent more time enjoying the festival before flying home.
The tower became operational the day I left Double Eagle II. At least, that was the idea. They didn't know how to open my flight plan and told me to open it with Albuquerque Approach, once I was airborne. When I contacted Albuquerque Approach to open my flight plan, they asked why the tower didn't open it for me. I explained the confusion at the tower; he thanked me and said he would follow up with the tower. Oops. I think someone at the tower was going to get chewed out. Approach then opened my flight plan and everything worked smoothly the rest of the day.
Wednesday's stops included Winslow and Prescott, AZ, and Lancaster, CA. The last leg to Lancaster added an additional 3.2 hour flight to an already long day, but I decided it would be worthwhile to leave only one 2.5 hour leg to Watsonville on Thursday.
An interesting thing happened with Wednesday's fight plan I filed Tuesday evening. I had previously omitted an optional "alternative airport" with all other flight plans filed on the trip. But this time I decided to put in Hollister as an alternative airport, in case Watsonville was socked in. I guessed at the identifier being CHV, without verifying. After submitting the plan, then next screen said something to the effect that the alternate airport identifier was invalid, but the flight plan was still filed. In retrospect, it probably said "not filed', but I was so tired by Wednesday night that I misread it. Anyway, I went to bed thinking it was filed.
Thursday morning at the airport when I tried to open my flight plan with the tower controller, he said, "Let's wait until you get in the air, and then we'll open it." That seemed strange, but I agreed and took off as I normally do. After I was in the air a few minutes and nothing was said regarding my flight plan, I asked the tower to open it. He told me it had already been activated. I asked him if I needed to check with "Approach" or "Center". He said, "You can call them or Flight Watch if you want more information, but your plan is already activated." I accepted his explanation and continued my climb to planned altitude of 10,000'.
When I reached 10,000' I could still hear the tower controller on frequency talking to other traffic, landing and departing the airport, but he hadn't talked to me for awhile and he hadn't switched me to Approach or Center. So I said, "71V level at 10,000", just to get his attention. He seemed surprised to hear from me and said I could call Approach now. I was starting to get concerned about my "activated" flight plan. So I called Joshua Approach and checked in, "N8571V, level at 10,000." After a few moments he said, "We don't have any record of you or your flight plan in our system." It finally struck me; the tower had never given me a clearance of any sort: No altitude, no course and no transponder code. That should have been a clue for me. Another lesson learned on this trip! Always make sure you have CRAFT: Clearance, route, altitude, frequency and transponder code. Verify any part you think is missing.
So I just got flight following from Joshua (they track you on radar and provide separation, but I fly pretty much my own course and altitude) and continued home. As I approached the Bakersfield area, I sent an SMS text message to Claire, and told her to call Mom that I was VFR (i.e. not IFR) and would be home in two hours. I knew Leslie would be worried if I didn't show up on Flightaware.com as a filed flight plan.
The headwinds were still fairly strong and still slowing me down, although only half as strong as when I first left Council Bluffs on Sunday. I dropped to 8,500', then 6,500' and finally to 4,500' trying to find more favorable winds. Headwinds at the lower altitudes weren't quite as strong, but they were still slowing me down. Oh, well. I just put the "pedal to the metal" and relaxed as much as I could, flying a stick and rudder into the wind.
As I approached the Paso Robles airport I started getting excited. It was familiar territory and I knew I was only an hour from home. Flying up the Salinas Valley, I kept checking the mileage to Salinas and Watsonville. It reminded me of being a young child on a road trip with my parents and asking every two minutes, "Are we there yet?"
What a great feeling when I finally touched down on the runway in Watsonville. I had been gone a long time, living out of a suitcase and I was really glad to be home. Tonight I would sleep in my own bed!
Sky King
