My camera arrived at 5:15 on Monday afternoon (thanks Rick!) and I was airborne by 6:00 PM. The weather was just about perfect. My plan was to make it to Goshen Indiana before dark. A distance of about 175 nautical miles.

I took this while flying across the the last few miles of Ohio. Just after I took it the sun went behind some clouds on the western horizon and the light was lost. I made it to Goshen about an hour before sunset. Everything was closed down. A Long EZ landed just before me and a couple of local pilots landed just after me. I know they were local because they taxied to the hangars and were never seen again. The Long EZ pilot had flown in from Maine and was also heading to Oshkosh. He decided to stay and called a taxi to take him to a hotel. Hotels and taxis are not really in my budget and the airport did not look like a place I wanted to pitch a tent so I climbed back in Niner-Zero and headed west. I flew about 50 more miles and landed in Laporte Indiana. The sun had set and it was getting dark and cold. I wasn’t going any further so I taxied onto the grass and started hammering my tie downs into the grass as there were none available.

I was parked outside the Laporte Flying Club building and before long a woman came by to see what was going on. She was waiting for her husband to land and she let me into the building so I could use the facilities. Then she called a friend of hers who only lived a quarter mile from the airport and is also a pilot.

Robert was there in no time. Super nice guy. A retired art teacher who keeps his plane at the airport and has an apartment built into his hangar that he made available for my use. That was after he took me out to a chinese takeout restaurant. We took the food back to his apartment and he provided some wine and we spent some time talking about flying and Oshkosh. He has been several times. He went home and I spent the night in his hangar apartment and got a great night’s sleep. It was very comfortable as you can see. In the morning I took a shower and he came by to have coffee with me.

Niner-Zero spent the night tied down next to a corn field and was covered with dew. It was about 50 degrees so I put on my sweat shirt, stowed my stuff, fueled her up and got into the air by about 8:30 . . . headed for Oshkosh!

I arrived at Columbia Station Airport near Cleveland Ohio just after 4:00 PM on Wednesday. I talked to my friend Ernie earlier and he had made arrangements for a hangar for me to keep Niner-Zero in while I was visiting.

Ernie arrived shortly after I landed and had the key to the hangar and I parked the aircraft. This is the first time she has seen the inside of a hangar since leaving Texas in early June. There have been some bad storms in the area and Ernie was worried about the weather. It turned out for the best. Niner-Zero now has 100 hours on her and it is time for a really thorough inspection and that sort of thing is much easier in a hangar.

I took Ernie for a short flight the next day and the day after we headed out for lunch and fuel. Our first stop was the airport in Sandusky Ohio. I used to fly there over 30 years ago for lunch and we were planning to eat there. But, despite what the airport guide led us to believe, the restaurant is closed and has been for about seven years. We bought fuel and headed to Port Clinton Airport. The have a great diner and a nice aviation museum. Most of the displays are related to the Ford Tri-Motor that they are in the process of restoring. We were able to walk through the hangar that is attached to the museum and get a close look at the reconstruction. They are basically using an existing but unflyable Tri-Motor as a pattern for building an new one. An incredible amount of work.

When I lived in the area there was actually a Ford Tri-Motor providing regular service from Port Clinton Airport to Put In Bay Airport on South Bass Island. The island is only a few miles away in Lake Erie and Island Airlines billed itself as the shortest airline in the world. The Tri-Motor service ceased sometime in the mid 80’s. Right after I moved out of the area. I now wish I had taken the time to make that flight while it was still possible.

We had a great time and Ernie actually did most of the flying and did a really nice job of it. Gave me more time to look around and enjoy the view. We forgot to take Ernie’s camera along for our trip and with mine in transit I regret that we have no pictures.

After we got back to Columbia Station we drove  into Cleveland to shop at the West Side Market. A beautiful and vibrant market built in the art deco style in the early part of the 20th century. The first several months that I lived in Cleveland I had an apartment that was not far from the market and I shopped here almost every Saturday morning. I did not have a car so I took the bus and a couple of large sacks and bought most of my food for the week. Visiting again really brought back some fond memories. Back then, Ernie was my boss. Now we are both just a couple of retired guys enjoying some of the finer things in life, flying and good food.

Ernie lives in the country only a couple of miles from the airport where Niner-Zero is parked. I fixed dinner that evening for his family and we ate it on the back porch and this was the view while we were enjoying dinner and the sun was setting. Like I said, enjoying the finer things in life.

The next day, Saturday, was rainy and I started tearing Niner-Zero apart. I basically took off all of the inspection panels and cowlings and went over everything very carefully. I found some corrosion that needed attention, a broken exhaust spring and a few other anamolies. I checked the torque of the prop hub bolts, lubricated several items and checked for leaks. A couple of days before, Ernie and I found a small oil leak that we fixed and there was no further leakage. We also make a nice modification to the flap handle that makes it much easier for me to reach.

By today, Sunday, everything was ready to go back together and I took the time to clean her up some. I had picked up a lot of bugs and also dirt from flying off of wet grass strips. I went through everything in the baggage compartment and repacked the plane for departure. Ernie realized that there were no pictures of him with the airplane so we fixed that also. Tomorrow, after my camera arrives, I plan to leave for Airventure in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

I departed Van Sant Airport on Wednesday morning after giving my friends rides. My first stop was Punxsutawney Pennsylvania. I bought fuel, ate lunch and spent about an hour relaxing and talking to a local pilot about the area. I also took some pictures and then left my camera in the pilot’s lounge. So, I have  no pictures to post right now. I was able to contact a local pilot and he has retrieved my camera and shipped it to me. I hope to have it tomorrow and will be able to update this post with some pictures.

So this is the promised update. My camera arrived from Pennsylvania thanks to Rick in Punxsutawney. This is really the only picture I took in Punxsutawney but there were several nice ones from Van Sant airport from the same day, in the morning, so I updated the post prior to this one also.

I was able to depart Bennett Field yesterday at 8:45 AM. Pretty much as planned. The weather was good up into southern New Jersey but low ceilings were forming over the northern part of my route. I was flying up through Delaware, making a turn to the northeast after passing west of Dover AFB. Then across the northern portion of the Delaware Bay into southern New Jersey. From there, north along the eastern edge of Philadelphia’s Class Bravo airspace then a jog to the northwest for the final leg to Van Sant airport (9N1).

But, it was not to be. As I was crossing the Delaware Bay I called up flight service on the radio to get a weather update.  Trenton, NJ had 700 foot ceilings with similar conditions nearby. So I diverted to the Millville New Jersey airport. Taxied to the ramp and parked beside a Piper Cub replica.

The Millville airport is a former Army Air Field that was built during the early stages of World War II. It still looks like an old military airfield. Lots of old buildings in various stages of repair. Many have been kept up and are in use by businesses of all sorts.

They even have a museum on the field although it was closed when I arrived. I was able to take a look at the aircraft and vehicles on display outside the museum building. That had an A-4 and a Shorts 330, neither World War II vintage, along with several vehicles.

There are several new building housing aviation oriented businesses. Boeing has a facility that outfits brand new Chinooks for various military missions before delivery to the army.

Best of all, one of the buildings houses a great little restaurant that was still serving breakfast. The FBO had a golf cart available for pilots to use so I did not even have to walk across the field when I went to eat. Great service, great food and wireless internet so I was able to keep an eye on the new weather that was posted just before 11:00 AM. It looked good so I drove back to the FBO, preflighted and was in the air by about 11:30.

The ceilings were all in the 1600 foot range as I headed northeast out of Millville. I was able to fly at about 1000 feet and intersect my previously planned route. The clouds were scattered to broken at some points and through the holes I could see that they were starting to build up already indicating a stormy afternoon might be a possibility.

The terrain was pretty flat until the final 10 miles or so. Van Sant airport was easily visible from ten miles out despite the haze and the fact that I had never seen it from the air. It sits on a hill just west of the Delaware River valley. In fact, the center of runway 7-25 is the top  of the hill. Here is the approach end of runway 7 and the uphill portion starts just a few hundred feet from the threshold. I touched down at a point near the center of this photograph.

This is looking in the other direction and my landing roll was fairly short due to the hill. The top of the runway is on the horizon of this picture and then it heads downhill for a ways before ending at the forest and sharp decline down to the river.

The winds were calm and the sky was darkening. I called my friends so they could pick me up and took care of tying down my airplane. I want to give rides but today was not the day. It started raining pretty hard right after I got picked up and rained on and off all afternoon and during the night. My plan is to visit for a couple of days and leave on Wednesday. A front is supposed to push through on Tuesday night which will leave behind blue skies and clear air but, sorry to report, winds from the northwest. The direction I will be flying on my next leg. Oh well, I like to fly and I’ll just have to do a little more of it in order to make it to Cleveland.

Before cell phones, every airport had a pay phone in  an accessible location so pilots could call flight service for weather, file flight plans and close them after landing. It looks like this pay phone at the Van Sant airport has not had much use lately.  I’m just glad that small grass strips like Van Sant are still in operation. It is beautiful airport and if you have a chance to visit you can take a glider of biplane ride on weekends during the summer.

I took this picture a few days later when I departed Van Sant. The airport was really hopping and lots of great old airplanes were out on the ramp and up in the air. This place is a real haven for classic airplanes.

I took my friends Michael and Paula flying in Niner-zero. Paula and I circled their property several times with her door open so she could take a series of aerial photographs. Michael wanted to fly over a house he used to live in many years ago. It wasn’t quite where he remembered it but we found it quickly. When you are used to navigating on the ground it is not unusual to be a little disoriented when airborne.

Paula had my camera while Michael and I were flying and here we are on “short final” for runway 7 at Van Sant.

Paula took this photograph of me fueling the airplane. I often don’t fuel the aircraft after landing if I think I may be giving some rides. Keeps it lighter and then I fuel it before I leave. I got out around noon and headed for Ohio.

I had to head back to Texas to attend to some matters and I left Niner-Zero in Maryland tied down at Bennett Field. My daughters were already in Maryland visiting my mom when I returned and since then we have been joined by my son and my older daughter’s boyfriend.  My younger daughter got a ride a couple of months ago when I picked her up and brought her “home” for a visit. But none of the others have had rides yet. My older daughter, Meghan, is a photographer so there are lots of pictures with this post so the entire ritual that has developed around flying Niner-Zero has now been recorded.

One of the first things I do after taking the cover off is to “burp” the engine. The oil cap is removed and the prop is pulled through to force oil from the crankcase into the oil tank. After the last of the oil has transferred, some air is forced into the tank and makes a burping sound as it bubbles up through the oil. Then I can check the oil level. It takes between 4 and 25 “blades” before the process is complete. I’m not sure what Meghan’s boyfriend, DJ, is doing here but I am pulling the prop through.

The ropes holding the airplane down have to be removed along with the pitot tube and fuel vent covers. I like to get all of the stuff done that requires anything to be removed done before the preflight  walk around so I don’t have anything in my hands.

At this point I often have to push the aircraft forward to lock the tailwheel in position. This allows the tailwheel steering to function properly. If not done the initial taxiing may be a bit erratic which is not appreciated in tight quarters near building and other aircraft.

Then I basically start at my door and walk completely around Niner-Zero checking just about everything in sight.

Then it is time to load up my passenger, DJ, in this case and get rolling. Which we are doing here as you can see by the way my mighty engine is blowing the grass. We usually leave the doors open when taxiing in warm weather to keep things cool.

Meg got this shot of us taking off on runway 35. After we reached about 1000 feet we opened both doors and flew out over the river to do some site seeing and then back to Bennett Field so Meghan could have her turn.

Meghan took this of the two of us shortly after takeoff. That is the look she has when she is seriously working on something. Ever since she was little, the wrinkled forehead. We opened her door for the entire flight and she took a couple of thousand pictures. She really enjoyed the view and I took her down the river almost to the bay and then back up the river all the way to Salisbury then back to Bennett field.

So here are a few of her pictures from the flight.

DJ took this picture of us coming in for a landing on runway 35. Meghan commented on how close we got to the trees on final approach. You can’t even land on the first portion of the runway because of those trees. But we don’t need much runway to land Niner-Zero and we were turned around before the mid point of the runway. Got her all tied down and put away.

My son, Erik, did not arrive until the next day and this morning he and I went flying. We did a little site seeing and then headed to the “big” airport so I could fuel Niner-Zero. Erik decided to take on a little fuel also, a Dr. Pepper and some cookies. Then we headed back to Bennett Field and he took the controls for most of the flight back. Did a really good job too. My plans when I started building Niner-Zero back in ’97 was to teach my children to fly. By the time it was done, they were gone. But today Erik and I made plans for a future trip and maybe then he can do some more flying.

My next trip will be tomorrow as I will be heading back out on the “road” again. I plan to leave tomorrow morning for Van Sant Airport in Pennsylvania. I have some friends nearby that I want to visit then it will be off to Cleveland, Ohio. Back to where I first started learning to fly. You never really stop learning. I am going to visit a friend who, upon learning of my desire to be a pilot, took me out to a nearby airport to sign up for lessons. Every adventure has a beginning and this adventure really began on that evening back in 1979. Within about four months I was a private pilot. Hopefully, in few days, he’ll get a ride in my airplane. After that, it is off to Oshkosh for the annual EAA fly in. Stay tuned.

I finally did it. I was able to depart Chatham Airport on Cape Cod on Wednesday. The fog was supposed to burn off by 11:00 but I was able to take off at 9:30 with just a few low wisps of cloud remaining. The winds were similar to my arrival over a week earlier but stronger. So, I had a strong headwind for the early part of my return flight followed by a light head wind towards the end. Flying to Cape Cod I had a nice tailwind the entire trip. It took me about 3:40 to fly to Cape Cod and 5:30 to return to Maryland. So it goes in a slow airplane. The winds can be a large percentage of the aircraft’s cruising speed and therefore be a great help or hindrance. I saw both situations on this trip. Both trips were made in two hops with a stop at Central New Jersey Regional Airport (47N). They had the cheapest fuel west of the Cape and that was my primary reason for stopping there. I flew through a couple of light rain showers on the way back and as a result Niner-Zero is much cleaner than when I left Maryland for Cape Cod. At 100 mph the bug smears on the windshield disappeared quickly once we encountered the rain. The picture of Providence, Rhode Island was taken Wednesday morning.

I did not fly on the fourth but I went out this morning and gave a high school buddy of mine, Andy, a ride. That was sufficient to warm up the oil and then Andy assisted me in doing an oil and filter change. I had shipped oil ahead to my mom’s house and I carry the tools needed in Niner-Zero. I also took all of the cowls off and gave everything a really good inspection. Everything looked fine, I have almost 90 hours on her now. On the trip back from Cape Cod the exhaust gas temperature gauge was reading really low. It is not something I really need so flying without it is not an issue. During my fuel stop I made a quick visual inspection and nothing looked astray. This morning I disconnected and reconnected the leads from the thermocouple to the gauge and now it works. The airplane was bathed in moist foggy air for most of a week and it must have led to some corrosion on the connections which added some resistance and led to the low indication.  Other than that everything is working fine. I did replace the fuel cap gaskets a couple of weeks ago and there have been no more fuel leak issues since the one on my first day out.

It’s Tuesday and I am still on Cape Cod. The weather has improved. The view here was taken a short while ago in Provincetown. The sun is out and there is blue sky. But my airplane is in Chatham, about 30 miles to the south. Sort of in the direction that this picutre was taken and there are clouds on the horizon. Chatham is currently reporting a 400 foot overcast. The fog and low clouds are supposed to burn off by late tomorrow morning. I plan to be at the airport in Chatham waiting for the big event, take off and fly south back to Maryland.

After having excellent weather flying here last Tuesday and then again on Wednesday when I gave my friends rides, the weather has not been so good.

It rained on Thursday and here is a screenshot of the weather at the local airports and along my route back to Maryland. This is from Friday and the “LIFR” is a reference translated means “low instrument flight rules”. The worst category this program will display. It has not improved much since then.

I just checked on Niner-Zero. She is tied down at Chatham Airport. If you look closely you can see that even the seagulls are not flying. They are all parked on the runway. the visibility is about 3/4 of a mile and the ceiling is at 200 feet. The weather is not supposed to improve today (Sunday), perhaps some tomorrow. I am hoping to be able to get out of here on Tuesday. The forecast is for the fog to burn off by 9:00 AM on Tuesday and that will allow me to get on my way. The weather off the Cape is not great but flyable. I only need to be inland about 15-20 miles to escape the fog but that is not possible on Cape Cod. So, I wait.

It took me just under four hours in two hops to make it to Chatham Airport on Cape Cod. The last portion of the flight was incredibly beautiful. This is a picture of the south shore of Cape Cod with the airport visible at the top of the picture. I flew here on Tuesday and the weather was great. It was also good the next morning when this was taken but has gone down hill since then.

This was taken yesterday when I took all four members of the family I am visiting for a ride in Niner-Zero. This is Noah taking a picture of us while we fly over the ocean just south of Chatham. He took the controls for a while so I could open my door and take some pictures. Like the one above and the one below. He was a quick study and  was able to fly the aircraft pretty well so I was able to take lots of pictures.

Here is another one taken south of Chatham. The weather is lousy today and it looks like a front is going to stall along the coast almost exactly on my route of flight back to Maryland so I may be here for a few more days. The visibility is pretty good right now but the ceilings are forecast to be low for the next several days. There is a really nice low altitude route back to Maryland along the coast. Too bad all of the controlled airspace around New York makes it nearly impossible to fly safely and legally!

When I was planning this adventure I figured that after about three weeks I’d need a vacation. So several months ago I bought a ticket from Baltimore to a small town in Colombia where I could visit with a friend and her family and relax in the country.

The ticket was on Spirit Airlines and although the fare was reasonable I was restricted to carrying one small carry on bag. This is the bag I took and anything much larger would entail a $100.00 fee, each way! Also, I was told that they don’t even serve water for free. But cheap is cheap and I took the bait. I arrived at BWI at 5:00 AM for a 7:00 AM flight, checked in and went through security. At about 6:15 they announced the flight would be an hour late, about the length of my lay over in Ft. Lauderdale. I went to the counter and they told me I would not make my connection and gave me two choices, go the next week or have my money refunded. Yikes! the next week was not an option so I had to take the money. I figured I would not be going to Colombia but decided to see if there was any other options that I could afford. I sat down, logged onto the free internet and started searching.

I found a flight on Avianca for not much more than my discount fare on Spirt! It departed from Dulles that afternoon, required an overnight in Bogata and a return through El Salvador. But I jumped on it and headed to Dulles. I had several hours to kill so after arriving I took the shuttle to the Air & Space Museum and spent a couple of hours there. On my return I checked in for the flight. Here you see the amount of baggage that can be taken on Avianca at NO extra charge. When the greeter saw my small bag she thought it was odd but sent me to the front of the business class line to check in even though I was not flying business class. I think she was relieved that she did not have to wrestle my bags onto the scale to be weighed. The flight was great, the food was good, the wine was good, the airplane was new and comfortable and nothing cost extra.

So, by the next afternoon I was here. This is the view from the porch of the house we stayed in. Behind the house were the Andes Mountains and although they were visible, the peaks were always shrouded in clouds.

The place was beautiful and we all had the best time. Swimming, walking, eating, relaxing and  . . .

Riding. Yeah, that’s me, on a horse! Something I had never done before but was able to do almost every afternoon while I was there. We rode through the orchards and picked tangerines and ate them while we rode. We went down to and crossed rivers and would stop in small towns for a few beers before riding back to the farm. The place was stunningly beautiful and I had a wonderful time.

But, all good things come to an end and I am back in Maryland now. I took Niner-Zero for a flight this morning. My niece, Joanna, wanted a ride so we flew out along the Wicomico river for  about 30 miles and then headed to the Salisbury airport where I topped off my fuel tanks. Then it was back to Bennett Field were I tied her down. Tomorrow it is time to get back to work. I plan to leave around 7:00 in the morning and fly to Cape Cod. It should take about three and a half hours. I am staying a few days with some friends who spend their summers there. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.