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Plan B… No, Make it Plan C
Plan A… Yesterday we had signed up for the civilian fly-in at the Columbus Air Force Base. We had our standard government paperwork filed to land at CAFB and we were excited about spending the day around the jets on base and spending some time in the simulators. The weather was looking good until we arrived at the Raymond Airport to depart… heavy fog. We waited as long as we could for it to clear, but no luck and our time ran out. In order to land at CAFB, we had a designated slot time for arrivals and if we were not “wheels up” by 0715 from Raymond, we would not make the slot. At this point we threw up our hands and drove to Starbucks for coffee and a muffin and to come up with Plan B.
Plan B… One of the things you learn as a pilot is to always have an alternate plan. Our Plan B, was to go to the fly-in and camp out down at Pineville, LA (2L0) and check out the planes and eat lunch. We have been to Pineville for their monthly breakfast several times, but not to the fall fly-in. I started looking at the weather south of here only to see that it was still socked in near Pineville. 1/2 mile visability and 200 foot ceilings still plagued south Louisiana, so we decided to rub on the plane for a while until the weather broke at our destination. 2 hours later and a call to the automated weather system at Alexandria confirmed the poor computer reports… It’s still low IFR. Now we are getting stir crazy and ready to go somewhere.
Plan C… We had been invited to fly to Starkville with some friends to watch Mississippi State play Tennessee, but had decided that flying home after an 8:00 game was not for me. But, this is the south and 90% of the fun of college football is the pre-game campus environment. So, Plan C turned out to be flying to Starkville, MS (KSTF), eat lunch at our old favorite place, Oby’s, and walk campus before the game. This was perfect, after a great lunch, we spent some time shopping in the book store, visiting the Student Union, watching other college games on various TV’s and tailgating with friends. After walking miles and covering the beautiful MSU campus we flew home to just in time to catch our Bulldogs on ESPN.
#HAILSTATE… After waking up at 0500, this had been a long day… We were tired, but wide awake in front of the TV until 2330 when our beloved MSU Bulldogs defeated The Tennessee Volunteers 41 to 31. Our now 15th ranked Bulldogs are 6 & 0 for the first time in many years and should be 7 & 0 when they roll into Tuscaloosa on the 27th of October to play the #1 ranked Crimson Tide of Alabama – GO DAWGS!
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ROAD TRIP WEEKEND! (Well, SKY TRIP, really)
By Beth Hardy Duff
HUMAN MAILING TUBE.. After having returned from a wonderful trip to Washington, DC on Tuesday, we were chomping at the bit to get in Caddie and go somewhere – ANYWHERE! Caddie came into existence for a number of reasons, one of which being my (our) dislike of traveling via commercial airlines. Human Mailing Tube, as it is lovingly referred to by the aviation community, is far from my favorite means of transportation – right on up there with bareback bronco riding – in summer – with hemorrhoids! Anyhow, I digress, once again, our experience with the commercial airline wasn’t exactly grand, but I can’t really blame them this time (much). It was weather related – ugly weather. We had already boarded the plane in DC headed to Atlanta and even pushed back from the gate at which point the captain came on the intercom and stated, “Bad news, folks, we’re going back to the gate. Atlanta has closed due to bad weather and they are not accepting any incoming flights. We expect the delay to be about an hour.” The transmission ended with the abrupt click of his microphone. Now we know the REAL reason the cockpit crew stays behind locked doors! He did tell people that they could disembark and go get something to eat, that they had about an hour. It seemed the minute everyone left that wanted to leave, he then came back on and announced, “Well, it might not be quite an hour, looks like the weather is clearing up and Atlanta will open shortly.” Thankfully, Paul & I didn’t fall for the “get off the plane if you want to“ trick and stayed put. Think this was a dirty trick to cure an overbooking problem? Hmmm…Surely enough, not 35 minutes later, we were cleared to once again leave the gate. A few calls were made for “missing passengers” for those who had decided to disembark, then we pushed back from the gate. I can’t imagine who we left and how ticked they were when the passengers (former passengers) returned from standing in a very long line at McDonald’s for a delicious McRib to find their plane had “left home without them”. Heh heh, it’s funny if it doesn’t happen to you.
LONGING FOR LULU’S… Friday afternoon, Paul began making some calls to see if we could scrounge up some friends to make a “Lulu Run” down to Gulf Shores, AL on Saturday. This is one of our “most fa-vor-ri-tist things” in the world to do. Getting a bunch of pilots and (normal people too) together and all flying down to KJKA (Jack Edwards) in Gulf Shores, hopping in their courtesy car (which is always a very nice vehicle) and heading off to Lulu’s for lunch and non-alcoholic beverages – BUUURRPP!! The weather was going to be beautiful and we were about to DIE to go somewhere! Call after call came up empty, one of our friends even told us that they had made a Lulu run while we were gone to DC and that they just couldn’t go again right then. WHAT? I can’t BELIEVE they went without us! Well, I can, actually. We’ve been gone a lot lately. Anyhow, Saturday morning rolled around and we did scrounge up a couple of takers, but by time to depart, we were once again down to 3 of us, Paul, myself, and Mike Dalton. It would have been fun to fly our own plane, but it just didn’t make sense to take two separate planes when Mike’s Bonanza E-33 could easily carry the 3 of us — in a cushy ride I might add, and our plane could only take the two of us. So, a deal was struck between Mike and Paul and we headed southeast for Lulu’s in Gulf Shores. Nice trip down, and in about an hour, we were getting out of Mike’s plane when he recognized the Baron belonging to Bob, a friend of his. Next thing we knew, Mike was on the phone with his friend, Bob, and we changed our Lulu plans to meet up with Bob and his fiancee at Shipp’s Harbor Grill in Orange Beach.
WHAT A RIDE!… Now KJKA is known to have pretty snazzy courtesy cars as Paul and I had found out in the past when we were handed the keys to a very new, bright and shiny yellow Camaro! We were expecting something pretty great this time as well, when we were handed the keys to the courtesy vehicle. Paul and I went to get the car while Mike was finishing up some business inside. While we were indeed happy to have a courtesy car at our disposal for about an hour, we were a little disappointed that this was not the usual “status quo” courtesy car we had come to expect from Jack Edwards. Although it was parked right next to a bright, shiny red Corvette, that’s as close as it came to being “snazzy”. A bright white van decorated with the words, “Shrimp Basket”, “Mikee’s – A Place for Seafood” and “the Steamer” proudly awaited us! The look on Mike’s face was priceless as he walked out of the FBO and saw us waiting for him in the van. Immediately, he yanked out his phone & snapped a picture of “Driver Paul” in the Van, while not even trying to conceal his fits of laughter. Regardless, we found our way to the Harbor Grill and enjoyed a fantastic meal while making new friends to boot on our day trip to the LA Riviera. Paul and Mike had the grouper sandwich, (I think) and Angel, Bob’s fiancee convinced me that if I really loved a wedge salad, that this was the best one to be found anywhere in the US. I have to admit I wholeheartedly agree and that this might also be the LARGEST one also, as I boxed up half of it. You gotta admit, that was some “well traveled lettuce” that accompanied me on the flight back home that day.
WELL, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?… The next day was Sunday. Paul and I got up and went to church as usual, got back home and noticed once again, it was a perfect 10 out of 10 day. “Well, where do we fly today?” was the question. The real question was, “Why didn’t we start giving this a little more thought earlier in the week?” We thought and thought, surfed the web, dug through the logbook and did nearly everything we could think of to come up with a good idea on where to go. Didn’t want to go too far, that just gets into too much expense. Couldn’t just sit on the ground on a beautiful day like today. We had already finished painting the deck (that only took 3 weeks) and so, we were due a reward! We were already hungry so wherever we decided to go, had to have food within reach. Well, after a great deal of thought, we decided to go back over to Monroe, LA. We had taken 4AE, our former, shared ownership Cessna 172 there to have the transponder repaired at their radio shop and while there, had eaten at the restaurant inside the airport terminal. It was good food and decently priced, so we decided we would just do that again. Deal? Deal! Hmmm…note to self, things change, call next time before you go.
MONROE BOUND… So we took off from Raymond in our plane, since it was just the two of us this time and headed on over to Monroe for food, since by this time it was about 1:00pm and we were about ready to eat the seats out of the 9A. Paul took off and then handed the controls over to me. He’s been doing this a lot lately and I’ve been loving it! In fact, so has Paul. It gives him a chance to look around and enjoy the ride, while still keeping an eye on me and allowing me to have a little fun too. I’m still not proficient at taking off or landing, but that will come with practice and more practice. For now, I can definitely get us there while being pointed in the right direction and staying at the right altitude while following a route and that makes me very happy.
FIVE GUYS… Landing at Monroe, we taxied to our appointed spot and parked. As we were getting out we were assisted by 5, yep, count em’ 5, linemen – obviously a slow day at the airport and a tad bit of curiosity. I can truly say we NEVER get tired of questions and compliments on our airplane. “WOW, nice plane, is that a 7A?” “No, it’s a 9A” “Cool, did you build it yourself?” Paul’s reply is always, “Yep, WE built it OURSELVES.” “Cool, how long did it take you?” Our reply in unison is, “3 years and 3000 hours.” By that time, it has usually sunk into someone’s head that Paul meant me and not some invisible “man” standing in front of me, that I am the other half of this project. “Oh, YOU helped him build this plane?” To which, Paul usually replies, “Yes, she shot all the rivets in it – 18,000 of them.” Now, to tell you the truth, I have not counted (well recently anyhow) the exact number of rivets in our airplane. Back when we were building, I could have given you an exact count of how many were in the piece that we worked on that day. Not that I wanted to count them, but it’s just one of those things. ANYHOW, after all the oohing and aahing is said and done, Paul asked, “So, the restaurant over at the terminal, is it still open?” To which, the reply was, “No sir, they aren’t open on Sunday. In fact, the restaurant you’re talking about is gone. The lady that owned it, died and it closed and was replaced by a more or less snack shop.” Paul’s reply was, “Oh….well, do you have a courtesy car?” and Thank Goodness, the reply was , “Yes sir, we sure do.” This was another nice courtesy car, not a Camaro or Mercedes and certainly not a Jeep Wagoneer with the blown out back window, but a very decent blue Ford Edge SUV. The deal was, you could take it for two hours (hmm…very VERY nice), but after two hours, its $10 for every 30 minutes over that. Fair enough, 2 hours is ample time to go somewhere and eat. We were lucky enough to find one of our favorite restaurants still alive and doing quite well in Monroe and that was Copeland’s. It was in the Pecanland Mall and virtually no distance from the airport – I think it was 3 miles, but don’t quote me on that one. Fantastic food once again and great service. Paul had the Shrimp Ducky and I had the Apple Almond Bleu salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette. At 510 calories, it’s probably the lowest caloric content of anything on their menu and absolutely divine!
The flight back home was fun as always, Paul let me fly again and we arrived safely back home at KJVW after another fun filled day of experiencing the $100 Hamburger. Only now the $100 part doesn’t include fuel! Ah well, that’s why we do make sacrifices to continue with our guilty pleasure of “flying for food”. You give up here and you give up there and then you get to enjoy for a while. Not so very different from anything else in life, really, is it?
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Oshkosh Fun Part 2, Dark & Stormy…
By Beth Hardy Duff
AFTER A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP… Thursday morning came and we had the day planned to sit in on more forums than we could possibly squeeze in a day, but that was the fun of it – plan way too much to possibly get done in one day, so you are never NEVER bored! That afternoon, we found a fantastic forum called, “Flying with your iPad”. Since we both own iPads and we fly a “paperless cockpit” with them, we thought this might be the perfect opportunity to learn more about using them. We got settled into the forum and it was a packed house!
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT…. Well, it wasn’t night, but the sky was looking like it. That might also have been another reason that this popular forum was so popular. People were beginning to crowd in and it was standing room only. The speaker began his discussion of the virtues of the iPad and the wind began to huff and puff, then blow, then just downright howl. The sides of these forum buildings (which are open on 3 sides) have heavy-duty curtains that can be let down to keep out wind, rain, dust or whatever else is blowing that day. The curtains were let down and quickly, there was quite a commotion going on. Some people began to stand up and well, of course, so did I. The speaker asked, “How many of you folks are worried about your airplanes parked out there?” knowing full well that he had indeed lost the immediate attention of his audience. About that time, I decided it was a good time to video whatever I could with my phone since I always seem to be about 10 seconds late in cutting it on and missing out on anything I’m trying to video. I had my phone well over my head (since I’m short) and I thought that maybe it could see what I could not see. It did record the impact of the storm and the howling of the wind, but neither it nor I could see what caused the entire back part of the audience to gasp and shout, “Oh My God!”
Okay, by this time, we were well beyond being able to pay attention to the very interesting speaker and his subject and were near panic with worry over our sweet Caddie and Big Broken Tall Agnes, so we picked up and left the forum.
UH OH… As we quickly trudged back toward the plane, we noticed what everyone had been gasping over. A beautiful, little yellow experimental bi-wing had been flipped over on top of a mini replica mustang. Oh, what a terrible sight, but we couldn’t stop, we had to head on and find out the status of Caddie & Agnes.
As we got closer, Paul turned around to me and with a big frown said, “I don’t see our tent — again.” We got closer and there lay Agnes again in a heap, but with Taylor’s sweet helping hand attempting to hold the tent up and keep the water off what he knew were some of our precious electronic toys inside. I was so shocked that I never even thought to take a picture of the tent or Taylor holding her up this time. As we began to pull the tent off our belongings, it became evident this time that the storm had felled the giant – Agnes would stand tall no more. In fact, one of the things that we had thought was an asset, was in fact, not. Agnes had rested on an incline and we had thought at first that would be great to divert water away from her and that was right, but we didn’t figure straightline winds into the scenario and that probably did us less favors by actually forcing the wind over and through Agnes at an accelerated rate – sorta damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Our clothes, our iPads, our “juice box” which was our essential recharging unit for all things needing a charge at night, our iPhones, EVERYTHING was soaking wet! Paul actually poured water out of his iPad! Taylor had done all humanly possible and had stood out there in the midst of the storm to save our stuff! Tell me – WHERE do you find people like Taylor? If they exist, most times you will find them affiliated with aviation in some way. Thankfully, the Claw System had held Caddie steadfast to the ground and she had not moved an inch. She was just fine and our new waterproof cover we had just bought for her had kept the cockpit dry as a bone. This is the time when your airplane does double duty as the world’s largest clothesline. We spread out the sleeping bags, pillows and other assorted amenities on the wings and hung towels off the prop
World’s Largest Clothesline
to dry. As wet and wild as that storm had been, it was incredibly hot now and things were beginning to dry out very quickly.
HAD ENOUGH YET?… Well, reality set in when Taylor actually offered to let us sleep in their tent stating he would sleep in the plane to make room for us. And know what?? I absolutely believe that he would have! But this blow we’d been dealt finally broke us this time. Taylor walked with me to the dumpster as I carried Agnes’ remains and he lugged along the remainder of her tent stakes and rain fly. We gave her a very quick funeral aka – open the dumpster and toss her in (I did finally remember to return later & snap her picture). After we left there, we walked back over to the sight of the flipped planes and once again, Taylor jumped into action asking if there was any way he could help. He began carrying parts of the destroyed bi-wing over to another section of the field where the loose parts were being stowed. Once again, what a kind hearted soul.
Big Agnes… RIP’d
IT’S ONLY MONEY… Paul began to call around as we no longer had a tent and now needed a place to rest our heads for the night. While he was on the phone, Tom Poberezny, former EAA Chairman of EAA Fly-in & Convention, came by and actually asked us if we were okay and if we needed help. If you have any idea who Tom Poberezny is, it’s very much like God himself asking you if you could use a little help. We thanked him and said we were okay and had located a place to stay for the night. We had indeed found a place to stay – Paul had been on the phone calling area hotels to see if they had any vacancies. This is very much like calling around at night during the Olympics just to see if hotels had any vacancies. Yep, somebody’s going to have a vacancy, but somebody’s gonna pay! So, in no time at all, we loaded up everything we could carry, wet and not, and walked a mere 2.5 miles to the cheapest $250 a night hotel one could ever have! It frankly was worth every penny – I think I took 2 showers that night, but we slept in air conditioning in a dry bed and we were thankful for it too. Oh yeah, we did manage to find a little wine to soothe our pain while we poured more water out of our electronic toys. Thankfully, only the juice box bit the dust.
BACK FOR MORE!… One might think with all that went on, that we would pack up and abandon any further idea of ever returning to AirVenture – Oshkosh! In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Where on earth would you ever find such helping hands and 500,000 people with at least ONE thing in common? The aviation community is quite a giving, generous and loving community in it’s own right. Granted, like with any other large group of people, you do have some that don’t quite fit the bill, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. Frankly, I cannot wait until next year to return to Oshkosh, with our new tent in tow, and a chance to meet new fresh faces and catch up with lots of old ones. It’s something that makes precious memories even more precious, year after year.
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