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Lynn Matteson
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 2778
Location: Grass Lake, Michigan
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 Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:39 pm Post subject: Oshkosh Skiplane trip...coming home...OFF TOPIC |
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Part II of my recent trip to Oshkosh for the Annual Skiplane Fly-in:
I got up Sunday morning to the view of a little more snow on the
ground at Oshkosh, and enough mist or blowing snow to keep the tower
obscured for a couple hours. I opened the hangar, fueled up, got a
new Airport Directory and a Green Bay sectional, clearance to taxi,
and took off on 31 to the north. The directory says that 31 is full
of cracks and vegetation, but the Kitfox must have picked a good
section (snow covered) and the wind helped get it up quick. I flew
northward, missing all the towered airports, and set my sights for
the edge of Lake Michigan all the way around to the Bridge. About the
time I had got as far as Menominee (MNM), Michigan and was flying at
5,500' altitude, I had finally seen the "elusive" zero F. reading on
my OAT (outside air temperature) gauge. I say elusive, because in
previous attempts to climb up high enough to witness 0° or lower, I'd
always run into a temperature inversion, and the higher I climbed,
the warmer it got. This was several days, to weeks, before this trip
to Oshkosh. I wasn't going to be disappointed on this flight. The
clouds were becoming thicker, and I was climbing to get over them and
have clear skies in which to fly. I still had the required (for my
Sport Pilot license) view of the earth below me, but down there was
snow and who knows what, so I stayed up high, and enjoyed the sun. As
I flew further north, the OAT finally hit the minus sign, and another
goal was mine. I don't know why this was a particular goal of mine, I
just wanted to see it. Like when you are home and the weather says
it's going to zero, I like to watch my digital temp gauge and see it
happen...exciting life I lead, eh? Anyway, I got the below-zero
reading, even got a shot with my camera at -4. I eventually hit -6,
but by then it was more a pain in the ass and cold in the feet, than
anything I wanted to see more of. I was getting chilly all over by
then, and started to think of getting down and getting warm in a nice
airport somewhere. The next stopping place was Delta Co (ESC) at
Escanaba, Michigan. I made a radio call and flew the pattern and
landed there. I went into the pilot's lounge and warmed up a bit and
some guy came in and was checking out the weather for me, and we got
to talking about Kitfox's and he said there was one on the grounds.
He drove me to where it was, we met the owner, and shot the breeze,
then it was time to head out. Driving back to my plane, we saw a
turboprop plane being towed out of a hangar, and passengers lining up
to board. I got back in my plane and departed. During the climbout, I
noticed low clouds and what looked like snow in the direction that I
wanted to go, which was right over a bay with freighters seemingly
frozen in port...I took a picture, and diverted north, aiming for
large openings in the clouds. To do this, I had to head slightly
west, and climb, and finally I was over the clouds, and I could head
back to my east heading. I knew that I was now in line with the
runway that I had just left, and possibly in the path of that
passenger jet that was boarding at Escanaba. I made a report of my
position, just in case he was coming. I kept glancing over my
shoulder, and thinking of the opening sequence of the 1980 movie
"Airplane!". That opening shot shows a view above the clouds, plays
the music from the movie "Jaws", and you see a fin zig-zagging just
above the clouds, when finally the fin and attached airplane emerges
from the clouds. This is what I was thinking was going to happen any
second now..that this jet was going to emerge with me in its jaws,
and I wasn't going to make much of a meal for him...enough to annoy
his day and ruin mine.
That moment passed, and I was flying over pretty sparsely populated
area now, with nothing but trees under me. As I later told my flight
instructor, I wasn't too worried, because I couldn't see all the
trees because of the clouds. I could see enough to keep within the
letter of the laws of the FAA, but not enough to make me worry about
the stupidity of taking this direction home, with not much of a
chance for a great landing area should I need that...hindsight is a
great educator. I got some great shots of the beautiful patterns of
frozen lake, and drifting snow, and ice floes. I passed the last
airport for the next 40-50 miles and set my sights on the Mackinac/
Mackinaw Bridge. When the bridge came into view I took several
pictures, got up some courage, and cut across the Lake and headed for
the Lower Peninsula. At the point that I crossed the Lake, I had to
cover about 20 miles of open water. This was also a less-than-
brilliant move on my part, because I misjudged how far it really was.
I could see the bridge, and knew that it was about 5 miles long, and
just misjudged how far I would have to glide if engine problems
occurred at that point...I think "get-there-itis" was clouding my
thinking at that point. But I made it, and was glad to finally be
heading straight south toward home. It was 3:08 PM when I was finally
over the Lower, and I set my sights on one more hour of flying and
then about one hour of find a suitable stayover spot for the night. I
had of course been watching my fuel supply and all looked well at
that point, with only an hour left to fly, and about two hours worth
of fuel in which to do it. I set my sights on Clare Co. (80D)
airport, mainly because it showed in the Airport Facility Directory
that lodging was "adjacent" to the field. I was to find out that this
was wrong. As I made my descent from about 5000' I witnessed the
first of two low fuel warnings that I encountered during this trip. I
leveled off during the descent with the runway in sight, and the
light did not go off, so I continued my descent, knowing that I had
about 15 minutes of fuel remaining in my header tank. When I reached
pattern altitude, and leveled off, the light went out and I landed on
the snow-covered runway. I taxied to a small restaurant and got some
coffee, and inquired about the possibility of lodging, got the bad
news, and decided to head for Mt Pleasant, 30 miles down the road. My
thoughts were that the fuel would equalize in both tanks by the time
I departed, and that if I didn't dawdle, I would have enough light to
depart and get into Mt Pleasant (MOP) before the "civil evening
twilight" rule made me stop for the night. When I checked the plane,
I could see no fuel in the sight gauges at all. In retrospect, I
think the plane was at a slight angle up or down, and that this was
causing me to not see any on the sight gauges. I asked at the
restaurant about getting some auto gas (the Jabiru engine can run on
it, but I prefer avgas) and one kindly (but slow-moving) gentleman
offered to drive me to get his can and some fuel. Let me tell you,
when this pilot gets into "we better get moving along" mode (some
would say that's putting it mildly), it seems like everything goes
into slow-motion. Well, that's where we were that late, sun going
down, times-a-wasting Sunday afternoon/early evening. This guy seemed
to poke along without a care, getting the can from his shed, putting
it in the car, brooming the snow off his boots, and the sun was going
down. We got going again, down a long road, slowly coming up on a
hill with a stop sign, him telling me "ya gotta watch out for
snowmobiles here", then over the hill down the road and finally at
the gas station with the sun going down. Back at the field, he told
me to just put the can in the back of his car when I was done, would
accept no money for his troubles...just "help somebody else out
sometime"...I woulda loved the guy if I wasn't trying to get to
someplace to stay for the night...and the sun was going down. I
borrowed a step-stool from the restaurant, and hoisted the can above
the wing. That's when I discovered how well the guy maintained his
gas can. There apparently was no gasket on the filler spout, as the
gas was going into the tank, and all over the wing at about a 3:2
ratio...maybe 3 parts into the tank and 2 parts all over and under
the wing, and all over the flaperon, and onto the fuselage...and the
sun was going down.
Well, I got the fuel carefully wiped up with some snow, and then a
rag slowly dragged over the surface so as to not cause a spark, and
proceeded to get on my way. I tucked the rag under one of the braces
of my skis, not wanting to bring it into the plane, and knowing that
it wouldn't stay there long enough to cause any problems for me, at
least. I left Clare Co. airport without incident, and headed for Mt
Pleasant and got there just as the sun blinked out. I had made my
first solo cross-country flight to this airport, and was glad to see
Bob, an airport worker who remembered me and who had taken shots of
my plane on that first visit. He recalled the Dale Earnhardt theme of
my plane's paint job. He called the Holiday Inn to get a shuttle ride
for me and we set out to tie the plane down. He couldn't find the tie-
down locations in the snow, so he motioned me...I was taxiing behind
him in the plane...to follow him to a 120 x 120 hangar for the second
night in a row of hangar living for the plane. This time the cost was
much more reasonable...$15 for the night as opposed to $50 the night
before at Oshkosh.
The next morning I checked the tanks and both showed over 5
gallons...more than enough for the 1-hour, 15 minute flight home. As
I descended to my home strip from about 4000', the low-fuel light
came on again, and went out as soon as I leveled off at pattern
altitude. The next time I go to the hangar I'll fill the tanks and
see just how low I was.
From what I could tell from the limited fill-ups of fuel, either
putting on the skis, taking off the wheel pants, flying into the wind
for the most part, or just plain flying faster, the fuel economy has
fallen from several readings of about 3.4 gph, to about 4.5 gph.
Granted, this trip is a small cross section of information from which
to get any real data, but it just might point out what drag can do to
fuel economy. And of course, the last leg (south) I was into about a
45 degree head wind, so most of the trip was Bob Seger in
nature....against the wind.
Lynn
do not archive
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_________________
Lynn
Kitfox IV-Jabiru 2200
N369LM |
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smokey_bear_40220(at)yaho
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| Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:12 am Post subject: Oshkosh Skiplane trip...coming home...OFF TOPIC |
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Gosh Lynn,
All you missed was having the "You-Pers" (U-Pers?)
blairing in your headset!
Great story!
Kurt S.
Do not archive
Get your own web address.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL
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Lynn Matteson
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 2778
Location: Grass Lake, Michigan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:50 pm Post subject: Oshkosh Skiplane trip...coming home...OFF TOPIC |
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For a minute there I thought I had much to learn about flying...I
couldn't figure out what flying term a U-Per was...then I recalled.
The U-Pers call us trolls, 'cause we live "under" the
Bridge...thanks, Kurt.
Lynn
p.s. I filled the tanks this morning, and the amount should boost my
GPH by about a good amount..I'll post later, but I'm going to a
coffee fly-in in our 5° F weather right now.
do not archive
On Feb 3, 2007, at 6:11 AM, kurt schrader wrote:
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_________________
Lynn
Kitfox IV-Jabiru 2200
N369LM |
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smokey_bear_40220(at)yaho
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:35 pm Post subject: Oshkosh Skiplane trip...coming home...OFF TOPIC |
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U-Pers are also a "musical" band from up there. On a
music to humor scale, they lean more towards humor,
from what I heard. Would keep you awake while flying,
but probable better after landing with a beer to
improve the sound.
Didnīt know about the "trolls" name..... but excellent
country to fly over or drive thru. Somehow warm even
when cold.
KURT S.
--- Lynn Matteson <lynnmatt(at)jps.net> wrote:
| Quote: | For a minute there I thought I had much to learn
about flying...I
couldn't figure out what flying term a U-Per
was...then I recalled.
The U-Pers call us trolls, 'cause we live "under"
the Bridge...thanks, Kurt.
Lynn
p.s. I filled the tanks this morning, and the amount
should boost my
GPH by about a good amount..I'll post later, but I'm
going to a
coffee fly-in in our 5° F weather right now.
do not archive
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Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels
in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
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