Two Pilots & an LSW: Go West

Thankfully the day went safely and according to plan. I had to get out there really early to be fueled up and ready to go asap, and fortunately the fuel truck ran, everything got done in a timely manner, and we launched a few minutes early even.

The flight over was smooth and uneventful. The airport I was going into had a 3700' runway, which actually would have been shorter in the 340 than the Cheyenne, which is kind of funny. The clouds were supposed to be around 800-1000', but of course came down to 400' by the time I got there. Their lowest approach came down to 300', so it wasn't too far from ceiling minimums. It was raining a bit, nothing terrible, and it was windy. It was also, truly, in the middle of nowhere. There was a runway, and a building, and the building was open (thank you Lord!) and inside you could turn the heat up off of 55 degrees (whew!), and a restroom, and wifi, and it was clean and empty as can be. I was just fine with that, even though there was no vending machine. Their site said no courtesy car, but when I got there, there was a book with two keys in it sitting out, and the keys went to two old cars sitting in the parking lot. Now we're talking! I grab the Ford because it looks newer--until you get inside. The battery light is on, but it starts, so that's good, right? It's an old police car, as you can see the stenciled letters "POL" faded on the one side. The seat belt didn't work, the windshield wipers didn't work, and the inside was covered in years of Nebraska dust, dirt and grit. I pulled up my phone to see where the nearest restaurants were. It came up with one place to eat. I drove to it. It was closed. And it was a bar and grill. That was it, in the whole town, other than chips and candy bars at the gas station. It's great. Albion, Nebraska, truly in the middle of God's rolling earth and not much else! We were only there for about an hour though, and then it was time to head to Yankton, South Dakota. Took off into the murk, climbed up to 17,000', leveled off for a whole 60 seconds or so, and started the descent back into Yankton. Another RNAV approach there, but the ceilings were higher. As I'm on short final of this approach, with decent winds, having just broken out of the clouds, a guy comes on the radio and says "Cheyenne on final, Yankton Unicom" I'm like "Yeeees??" I'm trying to land here, man. He said "Be advised there is a huge flock of seagulls off to your left." I thought "okay", I didn't see them, but thanks. I roll out, and poof, the sky is filled with large white birds. I mean FILLED. He wasn't kidding about the huge flock! He drove his truck down there before I landed to chase them to the other end, and it's a darned good thing. Those weren't little sparrows and it wasn't just a couple of them. When I left there, he'd chased most of them away again, but still about 2 dozen of them flew at and in front of me on takeoff before I was heading into the clouds, and I actually leveled off at one point to go under some and then climbed up like crazy to go over others. Not super cool, there. I don't know how many seagulls it would take, but I don't want to know, either, thank you.

These airports were so remote I had to call on my cell phone and get my clearance that way. It took them forever in Nebraska. In S. Dakota it went a little faster, but still. Man that took awhile!

The trip home I went up high, got down to 500 lbs per hour of fuel burn, had an okay tailwind, and was on top of the weather and turbulence. I still get a giggle out of listening to the airline pilots below me. I'd filed for 39,000', and when I got up to 35,000', the controller said "Um, how long is it going to take you to get to 390?" I told her, and she said "Oh! Well, okay, you're cleared on up to 390." Thank you very much. :p A Southwest jet flew over the top of me by 1000', so I took a couple pictures of him going by. I got asked about 4 times for ride reports at my altitude for other airliners. I noticed at one point I'd started getting a bit of the wah-wahs. My props were out of sync. So I pulled one back a bit, and nothing happened. The props were "frozen". I could pull them all the way to idle and they wouldn't move. Not a problem as long as everything kept running appropriately, but not great in general. So when I started my descent, I checked them every 1000' down. They finally started moving again around 27,000'. I noted that the temps at 39,000' were -50F, so it was plenty cold up there. I wish I'd thought to videotape that, as the prop people don't believe it is happening, but I didn't...

Back at Kokomo the winds were gusting to 35 knots, but they weren't that far off the runway, and you know, after a couple of those other landings recently, nothing else has felt much like a challenge. Maybe it will be again after I get all rusty, but for now, buddy, that plane handles winds just fine.

On my descent through Grissom's airspace, there were two A-10s that passed right by me too. I couldn't get a photo of them, but that was pretty awesome. :)

When I got home, we left shortly thereafter to have dinner at Grindstone's with Cathy and Lon and Ann to celebrate her birthday. Afterwards we went back to Ann's and had a cookie cake and sat around and visited for awhile until we all became so tired we had to hang it up.

Right now Kaylee is texting me about a movie she is watching in which planes are stalling and falling for two minutes straight to the ground. She's like "Mom, it doesn't take that long to recover from a stall. These guys suck." Hahahaha!

Climbing up through the clouds.

On the ground in Nebraska

There was an empty room with a metal table and chairs, and this Mustang hanging from the ceiling diving down. Mustang and Cheyenne in one shot seemed appropriate.