Walter J - Reporting

  If I listed NBD under comments, that refers to the fact that it was a routine flight No Big Deal other than all the fun we had. SB (see below) refers to the fact that I have something to mention, hopefully something interesting or of importance. In general we probably get VFR flight following for two out of three of our flights and for some of the others sort of monitor the appropriate frequencies. Sometimes it is interesting to just listen to the chatter.

We always, mostly, do some research on picking places to go to. The primary objective, other than being “in the area” is a convenient means of getting from the airport to a lunch place. We use the AOPA airport directory or a web site such as the one hundred dollar hamburger, to check on transportation, walking or motorized. In some cases when I look at the sectionals and notice an “airport of interest”, that may be all it takes to pick a place.

Date Aircraft Designation Location Comments
06/10/09 136LM 41A Tallassee AL Lunch with Alex Harwick SB
06/24/09 136LM SCD Sylacauga AL NBD
07/08/09 136LM FFC Falcon Field GA SB
07/22/09 136LM 3J7 Greensbourgh GA SB
08/12/09 136LM 65J Wrens Memorial GA SB
08/26/09 136LM APT Marion/Jasper TN NBD
09/09/09 136LM WDR Winder GA SB
10/21/09 2739C 06A Moton/Tuskegee AL SB
10/22/09 136LM GVL Gainesville GA NBD
11/04/09 136LM 22W Transylvania Co SC SB
11/20/09 136LM 4A6 Scottsbourgh AL SB
12/11/09 658LM EET Alabaster AL SB
12/21/09 658LM 6A1 Butler GA NBD
01/13/10 6LM/8LM EUF Eufaula AL SB

OK, before I get started on the lunch flights, let me take a few literary sidesteps and digress a little, since I am the one doing the “reportering”. I frequently use the club aircraft for travel, and for fun, it is “probably” my only “vice”. I am fortunate that the wife likes the utility of the aircraft and that the children allow us to take the grandchildren on their yearly “cool trips” by plane. Marietta to Sarasota Florida in 39C is a 3-½ hour flight instead of a days drive. We have family there. The reason I am mentioning this is to point out the “utility” of our aircraft. I normally use 39C for our long flights but the 172’s will work just as well with a fuel stop and a little extra time.

This past year, one of our trips was to Williamsburg VA with the oldest granddaughter to do an “educational” revolutionary war trip. We wound up doing Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown; they are within a very short distance of each other. Now when I talk about my “vice” I have to be honest with everyone. It cost a few bucks to fly, rent a car (some places that we go do not require a car or even a taxi ride), and get lodging for a few days to a week. We hope that we are building “character” in the children, hopefully with out spoiling them. The reason I am mentioning this is, once again, to point out the utility or our aircraft. Although I am instrument rated I have not been legal for decades and do all of my flying VFR. I am not sure that the wife would actually like IFR in a small aircraft. Anyway here is what a am leading up to, flying long distances in a safe manner with in the system-ATC, VFR flight following. It is the way to go for us “little guys” that are not instrument rated, take advantage of the system and work with in it. I cannot remember the last I was turned down on a long cross-country VFR flight. The system needs the business. When I contacted ATL approach and told them that I was VFR to JGG and they came back with a four-digit transponder code 6032 (that did not begin with a 0) I knew that I was almost 100% assured of being in the system for the entire three hour (3.0 tach hours- start to shut down) 500 nm flight. Not to bore you with too much information, but here are the details.

Atlanta 121.0
Atlanta 126.97
Atlanta 134.8
Greer 118.8
Atlanta 125.15
Charlotte 134.75
Charlotte 125.35
Charlotte 126.15
Greensboro 124.35
Greensboro 118.5
Washington 124.05
Washington 118.75
Potomac 134.7
Norfolk 119.45

Some of these areas include “other” class B areas that ATC was helpful in navigating. The return trip was for the most part was a reversal on the trip up. The JGG airport was seven minutes from our B & B, the wife likes the B & Bs. According to my notes I started the engine at 9:05 AM, landed three hours later, were in the B & B at 1:00 PM and were having lunch in colonial Williamsburg at 2:05 PM with seven hours of daylight left. Did it all go according to schedule, no? We had to stay an extra day because of a frontal system that was headed to the eastern portion of the country. Luckily no one had the plane scheduled so I went out an additional day. We went to the local Bush Gardens that day. The system passed through the Atlanta area that morning and in the afternoon at “Bush Gardens”. We had a great morning and took shelter at one of the venues while the system went through. They closed the park rides because of the storm, but having intimate weather knowledge from the weather channel we waited out the storm while the vast majority of the people left. When the storm passed and the park “reopened”, the three of us and about 300 other diehards had the run of the park, no lines at all. We stayed till the park closed that night. We departed about 1:00 PM the next day after the residual weather from the front dissipated and moved out. 3.1 tach hours back.

Now back to business.

41A A great find. It was my turn to pick a place to go, so I looked at the sectional and found a little airport sort of in the middle of nowhere that looked like a cool place. There are no services listed for 41A, but that did not deter me. Bobby and I had a great time, a real find. When we landed the place was deserted, looked like border line nothing with just one building on the “ramp”. We almost did not shut down but decided to look around. After a few minutes of looking around, we see a vehicle coming down the road and actually turns into the airport. Well Alex Harwick pulls up and asks us a few questions and we gave him a few answers and he said that if we buy he would take us to lunch and show us around.

We hopped in his car and off we went. Our first stop was to pick up his friend Rosemary and then off to the local Mexican restaurant. We had a nice lunch. We took Rosemary back to work and then Alex gave us a tour of the town. We headed back to the airport where Alex gave us a tour of 41A and a little history of Alex. It has been awhile since we were there, but I do recall giving Alex assurances that I would not give out some of the information that he gave me. Here is the bottom line. You will not be disappointed in flying down to 41A and having Alex give you a tour. After Bobby and I returned, Bobby did a little Goggle search on Alex. Since that information is sort of public, here is the web site that Bobby found: http://www.parisamericanhighschool.com/class_profile.cfm?member_id=199915. Upon digesting that information, if any club member wants to fly there for a visit give me a call and I will provide you with Alex’s phone number so you can make a date to meet him. You will not be disappointed. Just tell him that you are from the Lockheed Flying Club and that Bobby and Walt gave you the heads up.

This trip is not over. We headed back to RYY, but we made a planned stop at ALX Alexander City AL for fuel and a weather check. I forgot if we departed RYY with less than full tanks. I would say that one out of four of our lunch flights, we find the aircraft not fueled even though the log sheet says requested- really. Anyway we knew that “weather” would pass through the southeast that afternoon. We could see the approaching storms so ALX was the plan. We landed and fueled up, secured the aircraft and took shelter in the neat little FBO. We could see both on radar and out the windows that we were at the southern boundary of the storms, with the Atlanta area getting the worst of it. We called the wives to let them know that we were fine and that we would be late. After I talked with my wife Bobby informed me that he was claiming the couch and that I was left with the recliner if it wound up that we were spending the night at ALX. About two hours after landing we departed back to RYY in rather clear skies with great views of the thunderstorms off to the east of our route. Neat trip.

FFC Not that much of interest. The primary reason for going to Falcon Field was to do an Aircraft Spruce run for the club. Agent by the name of Van from the FBO drove us to Wendys to pick up some lunch and dropped us off at AS where we consumed our lunch outside on one of the picnic tables. We picked up our order and one of the employees took us back to the FBO. We waited there for a short bit to let some rain showers pass by. This was more of a business flight than a lunch flight.

3J7 What was interesting about this “lunch flight” was the courtesy car. It was practically a brand new dual rear wheel bright red pristine truck, still had the new “car” smell. We asked the guy if he was for real or was this some kind of airport joke or what not. He explained that the Greens county law enforcement dudes confiscated the vehicle in a drug bust and that the county took ownership. After some consulting it was deemed that the airport needed a courtesy car.

65J This was my choice of a place to fly to. This airport and place is in the middle of now where, no services, nothing more than a runway in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t even anyone to ask a question. We could see a road intersection and some buildings about a mile away. Off we went. We found a little chicken place but it was inside the gas station with no place to sit. I presume one ate in their vehicle. There was a Huddle house next door, so that was it, the Huddle house. It was OK. We could see 6LM from the window, so the return walk was straight through the fields in lieu of the roads. Interesting.

WDR When we wind up at Winder it is usually for the fact that it is a fall back position. We have been to Winder numerous times; it is a recommended stop. The little restaurant is on the field in the same building as the FBO. Any way it was my turn to choose and I had picked out a place in North Carolina. The weather forecast for the flight was not promising for NC. To make a short story of it the primary destination was out and my second choice was also to the northeast but not as far, was also not attainable. So WDR was the fall back position. The weather was fine in our area but starting about 50 miles to the north basically IFR.

06A Another recommended stop. If I recall there was an issue with 6LM so 2739C was available so off we went. There is a small museum run by the Parks department that is open most of the time- call ahead. It is a neat little stop. Allow a couple of hours. What will be great in the future is the restoration of the field and new museum that is being added. I think that the new stuff is only open on the weekends. Call ahead. We have not been to the new stuff yet. We checked out 658LM but it was so wrapped in paper at that time, you could not see much. I did not write down the gentlemen’s name that helped us out, screwed up again. He lent us his car and sent us off to Coops. The décor leaves a lot to be desired, both inside and out. The food was great, and a popular place. This is one of those places where we wonder how can they make a go of it, so much good food for such a small price. If you go there just suck it up and go in, you will not be disappointed.

22W One of my choices, an airport that looks “cool”. They do not have a courtesy car or a place to eat near by so I told Bobby to pack a lunch, which he did. There is a little note in the AFD that mentions to call for additional information. It seems that one of the local residents that lives almost right off the end of the runway is in legal lawsuits with the “airport” and there are strict flight rules/patterns for landing and departing. Not only that but the airport is tucked up against a mountain with a good hill at one end. The rules of the game are that you “need” permission to fly into this public use airport; they want you to be a where of the “special use” traffic patterns. We were told that at the present time it is a public use airport but may revert to private in the near future but that status will not curtail anyone from landing there provided that they call ahead for “permission” to use the airport by abiding by the good neighbor program/noise abatement procedures. The procedures are listed on the web site: Transylvania Community Airport.com. It is a nice quiet little airport with friendly folks. While we were eating our box lunch we had our picture take by the local airport reporter to be included in their “news letter” on what’s happening- two out of towner’s stop by for lunch.

4A6 This is one of our more unusual lunch flights, for reasons to be explained and for reasons that you would not think of. It was time for my yearly club check flight. I called Truitt to make an appointment for the flight check and after several iterations of scheduling it was hit upon to do my check ride on the up coming lunch flight. I called Bobby and advised him of the situation and that he had to be prepared to be on his best flight behavior. Bobby and I decided to take Truitt to one of our favorite places, Scottsboro AL where the Pikemill store is located for the best cheeseburgers in the southeast. I will not get into details, check out a long ago lunch flight write up for a neat place to fly to. We all arrived at the airport at the appointed time. I lucked out by having some of the greatest weather one could ask for, calm winds, clear skies, and unlimited visibility, especially for a late November day. The plan was for Bobby to fly us there and for me to obtain my check ride on the return flight. Needless to say, Bobby did an admirable job of getting us there. The biggest aspect of this flight was that Truitt indicated that that was the first time he had been in the back seat of a Cessna 172; we have a picture to prove it. Hopefully I will be able to obtain the picture for this report.

Well we had a great lunch except that I had the notion of “anxiety” due to the impending check flight. We wanted to take Truitt to the world famous down town drug store for the world famous real ice cream soda but there was absolutely no room left in anyone’s system after the lunch, so back to the airport we went. I will jump ahead and inform every one that my check flight went well, but it is worth mentioning the trials and tribulations of that task. Here was my plan, set up my GPS, depart on the return heading or any thing close, and no matter happens I could not get us lost. The visibility was such that you could see the Cartersville power plant 70 miles away. I reached for the GPS; Truitt nixed that. He said that I would not need that, which was true, one could see forever. I paid attention to our heading that got us to 4A6, so after departing the traffic pattern I picked up the reciprocal heading and felt that I had everything under control. Well Truitt put me under the hood, actually the foggles and gave me this challenge; he wanted me to fly us to the “new” airport at Center AL, PYP. Here is the “catch”. Using only the sectional and my “knowledge” of the aeronautical experience, look at the map roughly knowing where we were (we just departed 4A6), determine the heading, determine “guess” the distance and give him the time that we will arrive over the airport, while under the hood. Now here is the “kicker”, the destination/target airport is on the other side of the sectional than our current location is currently located. To be honest with everyone, I thought the last requirement was almost a little unfair, making me flip the map over, determine the heading and distance by “experience” alone. What a bummer. Truitt always seems to have some “trick” up his sleeve. Well to my credit I got us to the airport within 15 seconds of the “calibrated time” and only missed the center of the airport by about 400 feet- to the best of my recollection. After that we proceeded to do all of the other requirements deemed necessary for a club check. Final outcome: passed/satisfactory.

EET I do not have anything in my notes on this flight other than it was our first flight in 8LM after the refurbish job, in fact I believe that it was the first flight that 8LM made after it’s return to RYY, other than a check flight. It ran smooth, started right up even thought it was a little on the cold side and both Bobby and I will attest to the fact that it is “faster” than 6LM. On some subsequent flights we did a little calculating and we believe that 8LM is faster by at least 5 knots.

EUF We have been here before and it is a recommended stop. It is always an enjoyable flight with the airport located adjacent to Lake Eufaula which provides some nice scenery. The best thing is that the restaurant is on the field (call ahead for times) and the food is good and the prices more than reasonable. It’s a great day trip

Walter J
Reportering