I finally got to give someone a ride Tuesday evening. My cousin Spencer had the honor. While we were taxiing out to the end of the runway I asked him how much he had flown and he told me that he had NEVER been in the air before. Although, he let me know he had spent a lot of time flying Microsoft Flight Simulator. I told him that did not count because his ass had never left the ground. Here he is with his hand on the controls while I try to take a picture of him He did a pretty good job once he got the hang of it.

Since I had a copilot I was able to open my door and take some pictures. The water in the background is the Chesapeake Bay. The island is all marsh with no dry land at all. A great place for fishing and crabbing I am sure. We were flying over the eastern side of the Nanticoke River when I took this picture of the sun setting in the west. Did not come out as nice as it looked when we were there. Was much more dramatic.

This was taken after we landed. We flew for just over an hour and Spencer seemed to enjoy the entire flight except perhaps for the steep turn demonstration. He became a little unsettled which is not unusual for his first experience with increased “g” forces. Two g’s in this case. This gives an idea of the view when the door is open. The black strap in the upper left is used to pull it closed. Sometimes I fly with my door open for the entire flight. The airplane handles the same but I keep the speeds down. Believe it or not, it is not that windy at all with the door open but it can get chilly.

I got back in the air yesterday morning for a couple of hours and spent much of the time with the door open. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries is home to dozens and dozens of small settlements clinging to small patches of dry land far out in the marsh but closer to the bay. Some are on islands and only accessible by boat. This one is connected to the mainland by a long narrow road over the marsh. Only a few feet above sea level, these roads flood often. Being out at here puts them closer to their livelihood, the Bay.

This is the same settlement and you can see the road stretching across the marsh. I think the structure that can be seen in the water just off shore is a “Shed House”. They enclose floating pens that contain hard shell blue crabs that are close to being ready to shed. This is how they grow and when they shed the new shell is soft for a few hours. They are collected at this point and become the “soft crabs” that are part of the local cuisine. We had smaller pens of this sort that we kept tied to our pier when I was growing up. A smaller version of the same operation seen here.

I took this picture as I was heading back to Bennett Field.  An old farmhouse by a creek that meanders towards a river and then the bay on the horizon. Driving up to a farm like this you might not even realize how close the water is. It never seems to be far away.

The weather was flyable yesterday. Finally. I flew the seven miles up to Laurel Airport. I instructed there back in the 1980’s. The airport is still there but is now home to a Skydiving operation.

The part of the field where the flying school was located is pretty much abandoned. Our fuel pump used to be located in the center of this circle and the still visible yellow paint was the hold short line when taxiing to the pump. To the left of Niner-Zero, one of the small tie down pads is still visible. They are all empty now. Back in the day we had the school airplanes here, two Cessna 152’s and a Piper Archer. Several others were rented by airplane owners so there were about half a dozen airplanes tied down here. Beyond my plane is the grass runway. Still there and still in use.

Our pilot lounge is still there but is now used by skydivers in need of a place to crash, so to speak, for the night. We had the perfunctory propeller over the fireplace and actually heated the room with the wood stove in the winter. The rest of the building is much the same, falling apart. Held up mostly by termites. Most of the hangars have been turned into training and repacking areas for the skydivers.

This is where the action is now. The skydiving operation. Very organized and high volume. They can take about a dozen jumpers up at a time. Here they are getting loaded up for a flight to about 11,000 feet. That was the base of a high overcast layer. Takes them about 20 minutes to get to that altitude.

The drop zone is just across the runway from the old flight school. After landing they gather up their ‘chutes and head back to the hangars to repack them and while that is going on another group of jumpers is climbing into the airplane for their turn. And so it goes, weather permitting, from about April to November.

They have turned part of the airport property into a trailer park for the jumpers. This is just behind the hangars and there is another area further down. I was told that some people keep their trailers here so they have a place to stay when they spend the weekend jumping.

One operation that was present back in the 80’s is still using the field. Crop dusting. There were a couple of planes coming and going, spraying the local fields. I often see these guys, both here and in Texas on the way to and from the fields. I am always looking down on them because I don’t think they often fly much over 1000 feet. An old ag pilot I asked about that back at Laurel Airport about 30 years ago told me if he flies much higher he gets nose bleeds. I THINK he was joking.

I’m glad the airport is still in operation and the staff of the skydiving operation were very welcoming. I landed, parked, took pictures and watched the skydivers for awhile. Then I climbed back in and took off.

I flew out to the end of the Wicomico River and followed it back up towards Salisbury at about 1000 feet. With the door open so I could take pictures. The Eastern Shore of Maryland is quite beautiful from the ground but being flat the views are pretty uniform regardless of where you are. But, from the air the view is breathtaking. The same flat terrain allows the rivers, creeks and marshes to reach deep into forests, farmland, towns and villages. From the ground you often don’t realize that one is never vary far from the tidewater. This picture is of a random creek along the Wicomico River. The river is at the bottom and the creek reaches up into some trees edging up to farmland.

This is the village of Whitehaven Maryland. In a different life I spent a lot of time here. I had a sailboat tied up to “T” shaped pier in the center. The rain from Tropical Storm Andrea has flooded some of the fields in the background. The village was settled in the 19th century but the ferry, visible in this picture, has been in continuous operation since 1688. Pretty amazing. There is a car on the south side of the river waiting for the ferry which runs on a cable and is free. Near the ferry dock on the north side is a beautifully restored hotel that originally opened in 1899. A very peaceful place to stay in a very secluded village of historic homes.

As I write this more rain is falling and there will be no flying or site seeing today. I have yet to give a single ride to anyone! I must do something about that, soon I hope.

I didn’t get to fly yesterday but I did get out to see how my airplane was holding up to all of the rain. A little bit of water had leaked but not much at all and the tape job was holding up fine. I went out this morning to fly but first I wanted to pull all of the cowlings off and see how everything looked. Make sure nothing was leaking or rubbing or just didn’t look right. It took about 10 minutes to get her to this point, with all of the cowlings and the turtle deck behind the cockpit removed. I removed the turtle deck to mop up a leak and to take a close look at the control system. Everything looked fine.

This is what the engine compartment looks like with all of the cowlings off. I looked at everything very carefully. As I was starting to put everything back on I saw Mr. Bennett heading over in his golf cart and since I was sure he would be interested in seeing my Rotax engine I took the cowling I had back on off again. The Rotax 912 is a rather new aircraft engine and is very different the Continentals and Lycomings that are in most small general aviation airplanes. For one thing, the heads are water cooled which is a departure from tradition. It is also a high rpm engine that is geared down to drive the prop instead of a low rpm engine that directly drives the prop.

After I got everything put back together and the aircraft preflighted I went flying. I was relly looking forward to doing some takeoffs and landings on the grass runway. The wind was calm and I took of on runway 35 since it involved less taxiing. Then after landing I just rolled to the end and took off in the other direction on runway 17. No wind, no traffic, no problem. The I saw some rain showers approaching from the southwest. So I landed, taxied to my tie down and shut down thinking it would pass quickly. It didn’t and before long it was pouring down rain. I stayed in the airplane because I did not want to get wet getting to the car. In about 45 minutes it let up a little and I tied her down, taped her up and went to Mr. Bennett’s hangar.

This is what lives in his hangar, a T-6 Texan. Actually two of them. This one is fully restored and in flying condition. He has owned it for 43 years. He is restoring another one. The Texan is a military trainer that first flew in the late 1930’s and was used extensively during World War II. The airplane is metal but the control surfaces are fabric. The same fabric that covers almost all of my airplane.

Here is the Texan that he is restoring. Some covering fabric is draped over the horizontal stabilizer of the flying Texan. It is visible in the foreground of this picture. Mr. Bennett bought this airplane as a wreck and most of what you see here is new. The wing pass through is brand new old stock and all of the sheet metal is new. The wings have had all of their sheet metal replaced and are stored in another hangar. He has the cowlings off the flying Texan to allow him to use its hoses, cables and fittings as patterns for the one he is restoring. I often wished I had a flying version of my airplane available when I was building it so I could have done the same. I often scoured the web for pictures posted by other builders when I could not figure out how to install some part.

Today he was working on the Pratt & Whitney 1340 Wasp Radial Engine. This engine weighs about half a ton (way more than my entire airplane!) and will be mounted on the aircraft under restoration. It puts out 600 horsepower. I find it inspiring that people like Mr. Bennett not only restore these aircraft to pristine condition but also fly them.  Especially considering the risk associated with taking them into the air. These airplanes are over 70 years old and are antiques by any measure but also fully functional and, of course, beautiful. Living history.

The rain had not let up so I headed back to my mom’s house hoping the weather will improve tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to visiting some of the airports I flew in an out of in the 80’s.

This morning it became apparent that we are in for some really wet weather. When I went camping a few weeks ago I found out that my airplane leaks in the rain, but because of that experience I know where she leaks. I have a cover on order that will solve this problem but it won’t be ready until next week. So with Tropical Storm Andrea headed our way I decided to see what I could do about the leaks. First I went for a quick flight back to the “big” airport to fuel her up and then I flew back and tied her down again. Too nice a day to not go for at least a short flight.

Then I got a roll of removable painters tape and covered the areas that I know leak and then for good measure covered a few other areas that may leak if we get a lot of wind. Mr Bennett came out with some new ropes and we tied her down really good.  I’m sure some water will leak in but it won’t hurt anything. the worst weather will be late tomorrow afternoon through tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is Friday and I’ll try to check on her at some point.

There was no reason to get up real early for my second day out as I needed fuel and the airport would not open until 8:00 AM. Even so it was very foggy and even with fuel I would not be able to leave. But I’m not on a schedule so I just hung out at the airport in the pilot’s lounge and worked on the blog and did some flight planning. I got a ride into town for lunch and by the time I got back the weather had cleared enough for me to depart. Although flyable, the weather was not great. Also I was in an unfamiliar mountainous area. The good news was that the weather improved to the east so it should improve as I progressed.

I departed at about 12:00 and headed east. The ceilings were low but none of the mountain tops were obscured. Even so I followed a highway towards Roanoke and contacted their air traffic control about 20 miles out as I wanted to fly through their controlled airspace. To avoid it I would have to fly further south and over higher terrain. When they had me on radar they asked if I planned to just follow the interstate to the east. I guess they are used to having airplanes headed into their area over the highway as roads usually follow the lowest path possible. I told them that I  would soon be turning away from the highway and would be passing well south of their airport before continuing east. That was pretty much how it went. The ceilings were low but the visibility was excellent. I was always in a position where I had places in site I could glide to and land if the engine quit and the views were incredible. Before long I passed out of their airspace and they told me that at my altitude they would lose radar contact in about 10 more miles. Shortly after that they told me that radar service was terminated, squawk VFR, have a good day. Basically they were done with me and I was on my own. Now I could listen to some music!

The ceilings kept rising and I climbed along with them. After about an hour I could see that both fuel tanks were just below full so it appeared that there would be no repeat of yesterday’s excitement. I passed north of Lynchburg and Richmond Virginia and then things got a bit more complicated. There is a lot of restricted and prohibited airspace in the Washington DC area and even more around the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. I had programmed my GPS with a series of waypoints that would allow me to thread my way through all of this without having to talk to anyone. I just had to be careful to stay on my planned course and at my planned altitudes. By this time I was at 7,500 feet and wanted to stay at that altitude until I had flown across the Chesapeake Bay. I wanted to be able to glide to dry land if anything went wrong. That was fine but a restricted area required me to descend to below 3,500 shortly after crossing the bay. So after crossing the bay I made a quick ear popping descent to 3,200 feet and continued across the wetlands of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

About 20 minutes later I landed at the Salisbury – Wicomico County Airport. The main airport serving the town where I grew up and an airport I actually instructed at almost 30 years ago. The flight school was still there although no one I would remember is still around. I found out they wanted $10.00 a night to tie my airplane down with no monthly rate available. I called my mom and told her I had arrived but would be leaving shortly and flying over to Bennett Field. A small grass strip about five miles away.

Bennett Field has two wide grass runways that intersect at a 90 degree angle. That intersection is visible just right of center in this picture. I landed on runway 17, passing right between the opening between the trees that border the right side of the shorter runway. When I landed two family friends, Alan and Paula were already there. My mom had put out the word of my arrival apparently.

She showed up shortly after and posed for a picture with me beside Niner-Zero. She had seen the airplane slowly progress over the years with each visit. She approved of the finished product. Mr. Bennett helped me tie her down and I paid his wife $50.00 for a month’s tie down. They live in a house just out of view on the left side of this picture and I’m sure they’ll keep an eye on her for me. Plus, this kind of airport is so much more fun to fly out of, no control tower and no paved runways.

I plan to keep her here for about a month but to take a few trips around the eastern seaboard to visit friends. But for the next few days I am going to visit with family and friends here and hopefully make good on a lot of promises I have made over the years to give some plane rides.

To be exact, I flew 1000.74 statute miles in three hops. I arrived at the airport at about 5:30 in the morning and opened the hangar doors for the last time. The airplane was fueled up and ready to go.

I had to load up my backpack and strap it in the passenger seat. I also have a few other items tied in with it and my water bottle fits nicely between the two. I pulled her out and by the time I was done with the preflight the sky was just starting to lighten up in the east. I usually instruct in the early morning and I would often fly with students as the sun was just coming up and always wished that I was heading out on an adventure in my own airplane. Not that I don’t enjoy instructing but so much of my flying has been for purposes other than my own.

I took off a few minutes after 6:00 AM and realized my dream. The sun rising through distant clouds on a beautiful east Texas morning. A short time later I was flying into blinding sunlight but, if only for a few minutes, it was magical. The weather was forecast to be excellent along the entire route and I was cruising at about 120 MPH in smooth air. In about an hour N90HS was further from home than she had ever been before. Everything was functioning perfectly. That was not to be the case for the entire day but at least it was starting well.

As usual when flying, after reaching cruise altitude and everything has settled down it was time for the inflight meal. Todays selection was peanut butter on 12 grain bread and a granola bar. Washed down with water. I was glad the air was smooth so the inflight service was not canceled. There is really not a lot to do and I wanted to listen to music but I have misplaced my iPod and the cable to hook up my tablet was not easily reachable so the audio program was canceled for this leg of the journey. I promised myself that I would correct this situation at the next stop.

After a three hour flight I landed at Kelly Airport in Oak Grove Louisiana for fuel and to stretch my legs. I was welcomed by Airport Commissioner Eddie Russell. I don’t think that would happen at O’hare or Hartsfield. If I stumbled into one of those airports unannounced I would most likely be met by some other sort of official, if you know what I mean. He was most hospitable and thanked me for stopping at their airport and gave me a rundown of the restaurants and services in Oak Grove.  Eddie then helped me fuel up, I used the facilities and was back in the air in about 45 minutes.

Not long after departing Oak Grove I crossed the Mississippi river. You can’t do that without taking a picture, so here it is. I was at about 3,500 feet and a short while later it was getting bumpy as the day grew warmer so I climbed up to 5,500 feet and stayed there for awhile until some clouds that were forming below me started to build up to my altitude and bring the bumps back with them. So, what to do? I climbed up to 7,500 feet which put me back in smooth air well above the cloud tops. The temperature was about 60 degrees and I was getting a little chilly so I turned on the heat and it was quite comfortable. I had solved the audio problem on the ground in Oak Grove so I was able to listen to some music as I cruised over Mississippi and Alabama.

When I was about 20 minutes from my destination I descended down between the clouds and back into the bumpy air. Although I liked the smooth air at 7,500 feet, the view of the ground from that height and through the clouds was not great. This was taken just as I was descending through the cloud layer somewhere over northern Alabama.

A short time later we were on the ground in Winchester Tennessee. Carolyn was on duty and she came out in her golf cart to help me refuel and tie Niner-Zero down. I went into their pilot’s lounge, poured some coffee and started planning my next leg. Carolyn got on her computer and made some suggestions and I decided that I could make it to Blacksburg Virginia and stop there for the evening. I took a loaner car into town to get some lunch and when I got back to the airport I napped in the pilot’s lounge for about an hour. I had plenty of time and the air would be smoother as the sun got lower.

On the next leg all was going pretty well at first but after an hour I noticed that although the fuel level in the left wing tank was dropping the right tank was still full. There is a 13 gallon tank in each wing and a small  “header” tank behind the seat that they both flow into. I have a fuel gauge for each wing tank. The header tank has a sensor at the top that lets me know if it is not full because if that happens I only have enough fuel for about 30 minutes at reduced power. When that happens a “low fuel” warning light illuminates on the panel. As I flew on, the left tank kept getting lower and lower and the right tank stayed full. I tried flying in a “slip” with the left wing low for several minutes to see if the fuel would flow from the right tank to the left tank. When I leveled off the left tank was still at about the same level and the right tank was still full.

About three hours into the flight the left tank was dry and I decided to land at New River Valley Airport in Dublin Virginia. Not quite as far as I had planned but I was confused as to what was going on. Then the low fuel warning light came on. THAT got my attention. I was at 7,500 feet and about 7 miles from the airport so I brought the power back to idle to conserve the fuel I had in the header tank. There was a Cessna 172 in the pattern and I was able to easily glide to the airport, enter the pattern and land uneventfully behind the Cessna without ever advancing the throttle above idle. After I landed the low fuel warning light went out and by the time I was tied down the left tank had some fuel and the fuel level in the right tank was decreasing. I got out and looked everything over and found a very large blue stain from the right fuel cap to the trailing edge of the wing. What was going on here?

I was not sure what had happened but my morning I had it figured out, or at least I had a theory. At Winchester I had fueled on a ramp that was not level and the right wing was lower than the left. I fueled the right tank, but not to the very top. The caps leak slightly so I do not fill all the way to the top. I then did the same with the left tank. I tied her down on the ramp, ate lunch and took a nap. When I did a preflight inspection I took a peak in each tank and the right tank was full to the top and a small amount of fuel had leaked out. It had flowed downhill through the header tank from the left tank. I did not think much of it and I took off for Blacksburg.

An airplane can fly because a low pressure area forms above the wing and a high pressure area forms below the wing. This is what creates “lift”. I think that this low pressure sucked fuel out of the right wing as there was no airspace and as a result is also pulled some fuel from the left tank along with the fuel that was going to the engine. The fuel that was sucked out of the tank stained the wing. 100 octane aviation fuel is blue and blue stains are often indicative of fuel leaks. After the left tank ran dry, some fuel was sucked out of the header tank and the low fuel warning light came on. Both tanks feed into the top of the header tank so only a small amount of fuel could be sucked out it but is was enough to activate the warning system. After I landed, the wing was no longer creating lift, the low pressure area was gone and fuel was able to flow back through the system to the header tank and then into the left tank. I think this is what happened but what does not make sense is that both fuel caps have steel tubes that exit the top of the caps and are bent into the airstream to alleviate just such a problem. The next morning I checked both of them and neither were clogged.

I researched the problem on the web and found that leaking caps are a common problem and that there is a cap seal gasket made by Mercedes that will cure the leaking cap problem. I ordered them and decided to make sure the tanks are not filled to the top for the next flight. Also, the next morning when I fueled, based on my expected fuel burn, it appeared that about 3 to 4 gallons of fuel had gone missing. Out over the wing perhaps?

I was safely on the ground in Dublin Virginia. I had flown over 1000 miles! I had flown into the Eastern Time Zone and had lost an hour and the airport office was closed. I started walking towards the Cessna 172 that had landed before me. It was getting dark and the pilot was gone but I saw some people and an open hangar a little further along. They were standing around messing with an old Cessna 150. I introduced myself and asked if there was anyway to get into the airport building after it closed or get someplace to eat.  One of them, Rob, was the pilot of the Cessna. He runs the flight school and there was Scott, who runs the aircraft maintenance operation. Rob was flying the Cessna to warm up the oil so they could do a 100 hour inspection. I helped Rob push the Cessna back in the hangar and remove the cowlings. They had sent out for food and made a call to add a burger and salad for me. I gave what help I could and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process.

So, what to do for the night? I told them that I had a tent and would just set it up in the grass somewhere. They told me to just sleep in the hangar. They have a sofa, widescreen TV and a bathroom with a shower. Good deal. Here is a picture of the setup. I got my sleeping bag from the airplane and I was very comfortable. They also had some great entertainment on the widescreen, as you can see. It looks really cozy but . . .

To put it into context, it is really just the corner of a huge hangar. This was the end of my first day and I have already met some of the nicest people. Tomorrow I hope to make it to my hometown, Salisbury Maryland.

Sorry about that!

I did get to go camping at Critter’s Lodge. It was a great weekend and there were around 75 airplanes there. Lots of classics and homebuilts. The food was good and I met a lot of great people. I parked my airplane in a cleared area just off the runway and set up my tent. I did not have to do any cooking this time around as all of the meals were provided. Just over my right wing you can see the wings of another Kitfox. The only other one in attendance flown in Pete.

Here is a better picture of Pete’s plane. This is on Sunday and he is just getting ready to leave. The aircraft next to his is a two seat biplane. Also a homebuilt. What is unusual about it is that the two seats are side by side and the cockpit is open.

The weather was pretty awful right up until Friday morning. The event was almost canceled. Since the weather cleared later in the day further east, some people arrived pretty late. The runway has lights and this Cessna 150 landed at dusk. That night some more storms formed and it poured. I was high and dry in my tent and I was able to accurately determine where my airplane will leak when parked in the rain. Good to know.

Here I am just before leaving on Sunday morning. Everything is packed and ready to go. All of my camping gear functioned well and I was able to carry all of it easily. Most of it fit in the baggage compartment and a few items, along with my clothes and personal item fit in a medium sized pack that I belted into the passenger seat beside me. When I head off later in the summer to camp I will probably attach the cargo pod and use it for the camping equipment. That will give me space for food and water and more than a weekend worth of clothes and I might even need some warmer clothes up north.

The next weekend I flew to Scot’s ranch for his fish fry and by the end of the next week I almost had my 40 hours complete. For the last few flights I loaded lead shot back into a backpack strapped into the passenger seat and increased the weight up to the maximum in increments. After each increase I flew the airplane to determine takeoff, landing and stall characteristics. There were no issues but she really is more fun to fly at lighter weights. After all of that was done I had flown 42 hours and I signed her out of “Phase I” testing.

I could now carry passengers and leave the 50 mile radius test area. I could also fly into Class Delta airspace so my first flight was over to CLL to show her off to one of the air traffic controllers who works the tower there. He was on duty alone so he could not come down to take a close look but I went up and talked to him. The it was back to Coulter where I gave my first ride. I took Dave up which I think was really appropriate as he and Stephen gave me so much help in the final push to get Niner-Zero complete. Stephen has already informed me that he’ll consider a ride after I have about 200 hours on her!

The next weekend I flew up to Denton, TX to have my transponder certified and I also had my prop and engine dynamically balanced. Much smoother running now. I spent the night with my younger daughter and the next day I flew her back to Coulter with me. The two hour flight was much more fun than the five hour drive on the interstate. We both really enjoyed the trip together. I have been working on N90HS since she was in second grade (I think that’s right). Now she is a grade school teacher!

So, now I’m ready. Tomorrow is the day. I am heading out on my first big trip. I am heading to the east coast, a distance of about 1200 miles, to visit family. Yesterday I changed the oil, completed a few minor maintenance items and then took a short post maintenance test flight. Then I gave her a well deserved bath, she is going home to meet the family after all. I filled the fuel tanks and put her away. All ready to go!

The weather looks perfect and I hope to get airborne before the sun rises. I should have a slight tailwind and cool smooth air at five to seven thousand feet. It doesn’t get much better than that. I am planning on taking two days to complete the trip. Finally, after all these years! Stay tuned!

Yesterday was the first day of my retirement, not counting the weekend since I would have had those two days off anyway. The morning weather was looking good and I was in the air by shortly after 8:00 AM. I decided to head up to Critter’s Lodge again. The big fly in starts Friday evening. It was a beautiful smooth flight but when I arrived the mower was STILL parked in the middle of the runway. This time I knew the frequency they plan to use during the fly in so I dialed that in and set up for a low approach just like before except I made radio calls. As I turned base leg I heard a familiar voice in the radio, “Hank, is that you?”. “Yeah Wendell, it’s me.”. He asked me how I was and I told him fine but I’d be doing a lot better if he could move the mower. He told me to just circle for a bit and he would.

He did and I was able to land on runway 24. Here you can see the runway and Niner-Zero parked off to the left side. It’s a beautiful site and it is really fun to land on a strip in the forest like this one where you descend below the trees on final approach. Wendell told me that they have not gotten any rain in a few weeks so they have been irrigating the runway and when the sprinklers are on they park the mower on the runway. Well, now I know!

The last time I flew out here and could not land on runway 6-24 I also made an attempt to land on the other runway. It looked pretty nice from the air except for some trees at the approach end. But, as I got closer on final approach I could see that there was a hill, a rather large one, at the other end so I broke off the landing and decided to head elsewhere. Looked a little dicey to me. Well,  I was telling Wendell about this after I landed and he said it was a good decision and he took me over to show me the other runway. They are only connected by a dirt path through the forest. Here is a view from the top of the “little” hill. Wendell uses the three white pipes as an alignment aid when landing since the runway has a “dog leg”. He really discourages use of this runway as some planes would not be able to out climb the hill if they have to do a go around. Such could easily be the case since the runway is short and there are trees on the approach end that have to be cleared. By the time a pilot figures out they won’t be down and stopped by the end of the runway they are still going to have to clear the hill if they abort the landing. I was just over the trees at the far end when I added power and aborted to avoid just such a situation.

After taking a look at the other runway we took the ATV back through the woods to the “far” end of runway 6-24 and here is a great view of the entire length. Really nice. There are camping sites in several clearings along both sides. Also some small ponds, toilets, showers and trails between the campsites so the runway can be kept clear of campers. There is even a small tower set up to handle “Air Traffic Control” duties this weekend. If the weather cooperates I hope to meet lots of nice people this weekend. Thanks for the tour Wendell!

After visiting with Wendell for a couple of hours I took off and headed for home but stopped at Scot’s ranch. It is directly on the route back to Coulter so how could I not stop? I taxied back to the end of the strip behind his house and took this picture while walking back to my airplane. By the time I got back to Coulter I had flown over two hours, all before noon.

I went back up again in the evening and flew low up the Brazos River valley to Hearne to shoot some landings. This is the view about a hour before sunset. The river has meandered across the valley for eons and left behind this flat fertile bottom land. A bit of the river is visible in the distance and the land is hilly beyond. It does not seem like much of a valley when you are on the ground but it is quite obvious from the air.

I then headed to Caldwell for a couple of landings and on the way back to Coulter I took this picture out of the overhead windshield. Just a few minutes before the sun set. The air was smooth as I descended into Coulter and I made a pretty decent landing. In total I flew over four hours on Monday. Not a bad way to start my retirement.

I was able to fly several times last week. Both before and after work. One evening I even flew with my door open. The view was incredible and the wind was not bad at all. The temperature was 80 so it was very comfortable although a little unnerving to have nothing between me and the ground. The ground was very far away. This was my last week of work by the way. I officially retired on Friday and am looking forward to not having to sit in front of a computer screen while the weather is perfect for flying. I headed out to the airport early on Saturday morning and got in a quick flight before the winds kicked in. I was at my hangar working on my airplane when Margaret stopped by. She was hoping to fly to Huntsville, TX for a fly in. So was I but the winds were already stronger than forecast and they were forecast to be 15-22 knots of direct crosswind at Coulter’s only runway. Something was said regarding the more than occasional occurrence of unlimited ceilings and visibilities and sucky winds. I won’t repeat exactly what was said but you get my drift.

The next day, Sunday, was more promising and I was in the air by 8:00 in the morning. I headed over to my practice area and worked some more on ground reference maneuvers. Not sure what to do next, I headed over to Caldwell, TX to do some landings. Being only about a half hour drive from my home, Caldwell is not the sort of place you need an airplane to visit. But what the heck. I made an excellent landing. I was really pleased. I have been told that I’ll make 100 landings in my new airplane before I make a good one. What a surprise as this was only about my 70th landing and it was just what I am hoping to be able to do regularly, I would mention that I have made a couple other nice landings but that would be bragging.

I taxied up to the ramp to see what sort of service Caldwell airport provides for the itinerant aviator. Caldwell airport is fairly typical of hundreds of small town airports across the country. They provide tie downs for visiting aircraft and as I taxied by I realized that N90HS had never been tied down before so this was a first. There are steel loops at the top of the wing struts for just this purpose and there are ropes at the tie downs.

There is a terminal building complete with bathrooms, a sofa, computer, wireless internet and a desk.

There are even refreshments for the thirsty pilot and crew. All nice an cold.

A courtesy car if you want to go into town to eat or check into a hotel. I have seen some pretty dilapidated courtesy cars in my travels and this one is fairly nice. Looks like a good use for a ready to retire police cruiser.

Self service fuel at a fairly decent price.

And finally, this warning message. Which, by the way, was not at the fuel pumps but over the toilet in the men’s room. So, basically everything a pilot needs for a quick fuel stop or even a longer stay.  After checking out the airport and seeing not another soul the entire time, I climbed back into N90HS and took off. I headed back to Coulter and practiced some take offs and landings. We won’t talk about that but I am sure looking forward to getting past my first 100 landings.  The sun was getting higher and heating the earth and the resulting thermals were making the ride bumpy so I called it a morning and put her away.

I came back out in the evening and went flying again. Just flying around and enjoying the freedom it affords. I stayed up until just after the sun set and it was a beautiful evening. The  thermals of mid day were gone and the ride was smooth as silk.

I was able to fly last Monday in the morning and Friday both before and after work. Over the weekend I flew Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I went back up to Hearne in the morning to practice takeoffs and landings and then in the afternoon I flew to Madisonville. A distance of 23 nautical miles. I practiced takeoffs and landings on the narrow 50 foot wide runway and then headed back to Coulter.

On Sunday morning I slept in as there was fog forecast for much of the area. When I looked out shortly after sunrise I saw blue sky and realized that the forecast was wrong and headed for the airport. I was in the air by about 8:30 and here you can see the view as I headed for an uncharted private airstrip just east of Normangee. I know the owner and have permission to land there. This will be my first landing on grass. A much easier surface to land an airplane of this sort on. Providing the surface is in good shape

This is a view of Scot’s airstrip from pattern altitude of 1000 feet agl. Although there was not enough moisture in the air for the predicted fog there was a scattered layer of clouds at about 700 feet and you can see them here. The runway runs parallel to the long white gravel driveway and just below it in this picture.  Final approach is over the pond on the far right and Scot’s hangar and house are at the other end.

The view on final was beautiful. The sun was still low and some mist was rising off the pond into the sunlight that was coming through the trees. I wish I could have taken a picture but I had to fly the plane. After landing I took these pictures  of N90HS sitting on the grass strip in the morning sun. She looks like she belongs there.

While walking around to take pictures I looked back down the runway and saw the tracks I made in the dew. The first part of the runway, just past the pond, is uphill and then the portion shown here is slightly downhill. The top of the hill is by the orange windsock that can be seen behind the fence. I taxied back to the top of the hill and took off and went around a few more times. On the last one I saw that Scot had come out to watch so I shutdown the engine after landing so we could visit. He commented on how fast my airplane gets off the ground and how well she climbs. I hear that a lot. Scot invited me to a fly in fish fry in few weeks that will be held here at his ranch. I took off and flew back to Coulter and my plane was back in its hanger by 10:00

After lunch I headed up to another grass strip. This one is also private but it is charted so all I had to do was touch it on my gps screen and then select “Fly Direct to Here” from the menu. The distance is 45 nautical miles. Close to the 50 mile limit I am restricted to during my 40 hour test period. I know the owner and have permission to land there. He has built a fly in campground among the pine trees. He calls it “Critter’s Lodge”. The annual fly-in is in two weeks and I plan to have my first taste of fly in camping at the event.

As I flew over the runway I saw a large mower sitting right in middle. So I set up to land but made a low approach over the runway. I was hoping they would see me an move the mower so I could come back around and land. On the next approach the mower was sill there and no one was in sight so I applied power and climbed out and headed off to Hilltop Lakes.

Hilltop Lakes is a rural community that has a paved runway connected to grass taxiways that run behind the homesites. So, you have street in front of your house and a grass taxiway behind your house. This is  view looking down one of those taxiways. The paved ramp is in front of a homeowners hangar and there are several other hangars down the length of the taxiway. At the very end, over the left wing is the runway which runs perpendicular to the taxiways. It’s a nice development with several lakes, a large pool, campground and a 18 hole golf course. I know several of the residents and was able to show off my new plane.

I then headed back to Coulter and put her away for the day. I took off some inspection plates just to see how everything is holding up and made an adjustment to the trim system. I don’t have enough nose up trim for approach speed but more nose down trim than I’ll ever need so I made a small change and I’ll test it on my next flight. Total time to date, 16.5 hours.