August 2019 - Maybe My Last Airplane

Last month's saga continues:

A most welcome note from the northern reaches of Indiana ... an airplane once thought sold was available once more and was I still interested? The capital letters flew from my keyboard: Y E S !! And with that I was on an airliner to Indiana. 

There was a blizzard the first time I talked to someone about the airplane; this time it was heat and thunderstorms that all but washed out the county fair that was going on but the rides were ridden, the 4H ribbons were won and the Queen was crowned. The Queen also raises champion turkeys. There's nothing like rural Indiana. Solid people, honest people, in a place where old fashioned craftsmanship is the measure of a man.

The airplane is one I fell in love with about 15 years ago at a little fly-in in Florida. The owner/builder spent winters there and showed it to me with well-justified pride. He was a tool and die maker, had his own good sized company after starting out with a pencil and an easel in his living room. He was a hard worker and judging by the quality of workmanship in this airplane, likely the most meticulous airplane builder whose work I have had the privilege to admire.

Stoddard Hamilton Glastar

Sadly, the owner/builder passed on but I will thank him every time I have a chance to fly and work on this airplane. The  paperwork hurdles from the inner workings of the FAA were something else again; conflicting information abounded.  In the end I decided if I could wait all this time for what I believe could be my last airplane, I could surely wait a little longer.

Here it is, the end of August and I've been tracking the progress of the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch online. Every day they post their progress by the date paperwork was filed and finally my day arrived! I was joyous. Triumphantly, I searched my N-number only to be confronted by a notice that my airplane's status was questionable. Phone call to FAA: what's going on? I had copies of all the paperwork on the computer screen in front of me - it was all there and correct. The lady I spoke to was very nice and after digging further said the problem lay in a missing Bill of Sale from the executor to a person whose name rang no bells at all - there was no such person in the chain of ownership. A call to the title company with this news caught them completely by surprise but after a lot of back and forth the problem was rooted out and fixed. A simple clerical mistake could have thrown me back to the end of that 4-6 week line but for a persistent title company representative and a service oriented FAA examiner. I finally have clear authority in writing on an FAA form to operate the airplane until my hard copy registration comes or 120 days and that's ok by me.

Now: It's time to FLY! But . . . . .

Wouldn't you know it? It looks the same for the whole week. Thank heaven for little things that can be played with in the interim.

At the end of July 2019

July 2019 was quite a month . . . a week or more of ferocious heat (shared with our neighbors in the northern tier of states), then very pleasant days and cool nights. Oh, it did rain some ... washed away half of Louisiana to hear tell of it, but that was nothing until it reached the network news centers in New York and Washington. Oh the humanity! You'd think the world was coming to an end.


Back in January there was a spate of cold - blizzards in the northern tier. Someone, somewhere must have done something really, really wrong to deserve this kind of a swing in weather.

As it happened, an airplane I fell in love with some 15 years ago came on the market. The owner had passed away and the airplane was in the hands of his executor. This was back in January and the aforementioned blizzard was in full swing in northern Indiana where the airplane was hangared. I couldn't get there in the teeth of that awful weather but I reached a deal over the phone to send a deposit to hold the airplane until I could make the trip. Their lawyer was supposed to contact me with wiring instructions to an escrow account. That was a Thursday. I didn't hear from the supposed executor's lawyer on Friday so after breakfast with the airport crew on Saturday morning - photos of the new airplane shared and appreciated - I placed a call to Indiana only to learn the airplane had been sold to someone else! I was crushed.  In a few days I sent a nice note - no hard feelings but if the deal did not go through for some reason to please let me know.

Fast forward to July. I received an email note from Indiana that the airplane was still for sale - was I still interested? I wrote back immediately in all capital letters: Y E S !! There had been a mixup and this time I was put in touch with the real executor of the estate. Needless to write, I was on an airline flight the next morning. 

During the six months between January and July, the FAA Aircraft Registration had expired and cancellation was right around the corner. Those are significant words. Expired certificates have about 90 days of grace during which the airplane cannot be flown while the application for registration renewal goes to the back of a 4-6 week line for processing. Cancellation, on the other hand, means I own a paperweight. This is a big deal. 

Long story short, I checked the airplane out thoroughly and a trusted mechanic who had been tending it for several years did a condition inspection (it's an experimental category airplane). Paperwork and electronic dollars flew all over the place, and we closed the deal through a title company.

Not the end of the story.

A phone call with the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch on Monday reassured me about the paperwork process and I would have my registration in 4-6 weeks. Then the lady on the other end of the line explained that the airplane couldn't be flown on a copy of the application for a registration when the registration had expired. This was counter to what another FAA Registration Branch representative and the title company had told me before we closed the deal. Quick scramble and the airplane took up residence in the back of the hangar.

More next month .. stay tuned.

July 2019

This is not my usual post.

It has been a year for surprises, not all of them good. Our journeys around the sun are jolted from time to time. We go on but in a slightly different orbit. We do not "get past" the shock; things are different, our frame of reference re-framed.

The most recent jolt was the loss of two of our local pilots in the crash of a light airplane; who could have foreseen this? Two Flight Instructors, high time pilots, one of whom was conducting a Flight Review for the other. The preliminary report reads clinically, as it should. Just the facts. The experimental aircraft's airframe was built according to spec; no construction anomalies noted. A condition inspection was recently performed. The lab in Tennessee that inspected the airframe is very thorough. The final report may or may not find a cause. That last bit troubles a lot of people; our nature is we want to find a cause, a reason two pilots were lost, and that leads to conjecture. The only answer is to wait and see what the investigators find.

Closer to home, two families, friends of mine, are grieving the unexpected loss of daughters, bright, vibrant young women. The world stands still when the news comes, never quite the same again. A parent does not "get past" something like that, no matter how well-meaning friends may express it. I cannot imagine the oxygen being pulled from my life like that. I hope by just being there for them I can shore up their foundations in some small way.

On a much brighter note, because I am searching for one just now, I flew this morning into a beautiful sky. The low, morning clouds were thin and fast disappearing; the air still and smooth, a perfect morning for flying through the valleys that surround my mountain home. 

I hang my hat on the memory of flights like that to remind me of all that is right with the world, and I put that ragged old hat back on my head to a symphony of gratitude for the privilege and the gift of flying.

June 2019 - June, sweet June, is FLYING by

Around here, June is for turning the page on another year of life and for long, warm, summer days filled with the smell of new-mown grass and FLYING, neighbor, FLYING !

The CallAir Cadet comes to life with a flick of the prop and goes exploring, usually in search of savory breakfasts or lunches but sometimes just for the love of going up and looking down. We live on a plateau at a little over 2000' above sea level that is ringed with some of the world's oldest mountains. A dodge through the mountain gaps south and east brings me over flatlands a thousand feet lower in elevation that slope gently to the sea, a little over 230 miles to  somewhere around Georgetown SC, the closest Atlantic coast. If you measure to the extent of North Carolina, Kitty Hawk, where all this flying stuff started, is just under 400 miles. There's plenty to do between here and there, whichever there you want to count as your destination.

Fortunately, there's lots to look down on. The folds of these mountains present an endless variety of views. That's the northwest arm of Lake Lure below, where part of the movie, Dirty Dancing, was filmed. My father was born in the bottom of where Lake Lure is now, well before the dam was built across Broad River. His first job was at the Lake Lure Inn. You could say my connection to this area runs deep.

More doings: 

A FIRST FLIGHT!

A long time project reaches the test phase - Dennis and his prized RV-8 took to the air on June 15! A former Air Force pilot (7 years) followed by a 30-ish year airline career with Northwest and Delta, Capt Dennis is running his test flights like the pro he is, chasing the gremlins that always seem to come out of hiding. Paint will follow, as will many hours of pure fun. CONGRATULATIONS. DENNIS!

Then there is the Great East-West-East RV Adventure!

Four of our intrepid aeronauts launched an optimistic round-trip flight to dip their toes in the Pacific Ocean and succeeded beyond anyone's wild imagining ... nobody makes a VFR trip like that on schedule, but they did!

Mike, Mike, Jon and Simon at Carlsbad CA

For a rundown of their trip, take a look at https://eaa1016.org/

Fairweather Flyers, indeed!

May 2019 - All Glory is Fleeting

The trip to Sun n Fun last month was a real necessity for me and for the CallAir Cadet. We've spent the better part of the last two years tweaking and tightening and fixing all the little things that are discovered after a complete rebuild of an airplane. I've gotten used to its nuances and needs and it was time to strut its stuff. 

And so it was we launched forth from the Western North Carolina Air Museum and worked our way South (always capitalized) to Lakeland FL, home of a terrific aviation event since way back in the 1970s. The original Kissimmee Air Fair evolved into Sun n Fun; John and I went to Kissimmee with the family in 1973 or 1974 when he was just a little tyke and returned in 1979 in our Cessna 170, Daisy ..

You might gather that we like yellow airplanes - we do.

Of course we still have our patches, followed by more from Lakeland and Oshkosh.

It was a homecoming of sorts when John, now Captain John of NetJets, and I met up for three days of wandering around airplanes and airplane stuff and meeting some really great airplane people. 

The CallAir was parked first by the porta potties, way in the back of the antique and classic area but with some asking around, we were invited to bring the one of a kind airplane to the front row, literally, in front of the antique and classic headquarters building where it could be seen and appreciated. I can't write enough nice things about these people - they were just wonderful to us.

To our surprise, a gentleman stopped by the CallAir to let us know an award had been given to the airplane; I didn't know what but it came a few days later in the mail (we had to leave before the award ceremony). 

Much appreciated, but around the table at the Mustang Cafe on the Saturday morning after it came in, it was opined that the award could be either for the airplane or the pilot. I'm still not quite sure about that.

April 2019 - Sun n Fun, or "The Best Laid Plans...etc"

Lemme see now .. I'll be gone for maybe 5 days. Aside from the usual basics (things to wear, toiletries, enough cash to get by and a half roll of toilet paper [you never know]), there are the accouterments of modern life: flight bag with handheld radio, charging cables, spare battery and booster battery, iPad Mini with current charts, paper charts of a certain vintage (they haven't moved Lakeland lately), more battery packs for reserve juice, more charging cables, 110v plug adapters, iPhone for backup of the iPad with current charts, SPOT flight tracking gizmo, more spare batteries, more charging stuff (why don't they make all these charging cables one kind?), etc etc etc. When the weight of all the stuff is added up it doesn't really amount to much but it does take up some room, which is in short supply in the CallAir Cadet.

The route down was pretty simple: point South and go. Lakeland lies 179 degrees from Hendersonville which means, were I to fly high enough off the ground to use the hemispheric rule, my midair collision would occur at a relative angle of less than 180 degrees. A nod to Richard Bach for that observation. The shot of my route as actually flown is on the left, above. I had a choice: play with Shaw AFB's F-16s down to 500AGL or take a bypass to the west. I decided to skip that particular midair collision and took the western route.

The day was getting to be a bit long after taking a couple of weather delays enroute so I stopped at one of my several former cities of residence, Ocala FL. The FBO there is really nice and they were able to get me a hotel room at a great rate at the last minute. Rewarded with a steak dinner and a good night's rest I was off at first light to beat the rush into Lakeland. Sandwiched between two Stinsons on the Lake Parker arrival, I felt right at home.

Once at Lakeland and tied down in possibly the most remote spot among the Antique and Classic Airplane crowd, I hopped over to a well-kept secret: the 9/27 Club tent. A full breakfast awaited and the nicest crowd of people you'd want to meet, among them Captain John, my son. The 9/27 is a great option if you're tired of slogging around among the vendors or airplanes all day, in the sun and with every fried food imaginable. Give me comforts with my fly-ins, thank you. It's worth every cent of the premium to be able to sit down in conditioned air on a soft seat with good food, concierge service and a chilled glass at your elbow. The airshow jets aren't quite as loud, either. We watched the air shows outside in shade and, again, with great service until the loud stuff showed off their loudness. I sent the CEO a snapshot and She observed that not only did we have a tent with chandeliers, we had tablecloths, too.

Three days at Sun n Fun was all the Sun and Fun we needed. Son John escorted me to the CallAir Cadet (which had been moved in front of the Antique and Classic registration building on Day 2) and gave the prop a spin before he had to leave for home and laundry in preparation for his return to his jet job.

Then came the trip home. 

My first leg was back to Ocala for fuel and breakfast at their popular restaurant in the terminal building, then to Waycross GA. The folks at KAYS laid out a table full of barbecue and fixings for the pilots heading home. There were maybe 20 of us on the patio, all looking at a blob of weather that was drifting across the northerly flight paths, and more blobs in trail. Some of us went east of it (they probably made it home that day); some of us followed traditional thinking and went west, behind the first blob, and ran into  deteriorating conditions: Broken, then layered, then solid cloud all the way to the ground. 

My first escape was McRae GA where I found a Cub and its young pilot nosed up to the self-service pump.

 Don't let the picture fool you. The straight line wasn't straight between Waycross and McRae - there were numerous diversions as clouds opened and closed. Take a look at the picture on the right .. after the next leg to Dublin we were less than 40 miles to VFR .. so near and yet so far.

Nobody else around but a deputy Sheriff who was probably wondering what the heck anybody would be doing flying in weather like that. Young Pilot turned out to be a great guy named Michael - on his way home in a Cub that had been owned by his grandfather and his father. We took turns looking up and out and knitting our brows before the weather teased us into flying another leg that ended in Dublin GA, where we found a brand new FBO building, nice people, coffee, a courtesy car and a couple of training rooms with couches that suited us just fine for an overnight stay. 

Not long after we arrived, one of those airport memorable moments: A young family came into the terminal with their little boy who was excited to have seen airplanes flying over. Michael took them out to the ramp to show them his plane and I marveled that this kid's first exposure to airplanes was to a Piper Cub. Not only that, it happened that my first airplane ride that I can remember took place at this very airport, many, many years ago. Michael is 21, working toward his A&P license, and a terrific ambassador for our community. We need to bring along more like him.

 The next morning dawned with more cloud cover all the way to the ground. The ASOS called it a 500 foot ceiling, but Michael ventured that a bug must be sitting on the transmissiometer. Eventually the bug flew off and we had a pretty nice scattered to broken clouds kind of a day. The overall track home was a little ziggety-zaggety with all the weather avoidance, but still pretty close to the straight-line route.

The next morning, Michael and I availed ourselves of the airport courtesy car to catch breakfast and pick up a dozen donuts for anyone who might wander in for a flying lesson with Jeff, the flight instructor who arrived early. Michael in his Cub and I in the Cadet left Dublin within minutes of each other, he on his way north and me on my way northeast to an insurance fuel stop at Anderson SC and then home. Once at my home field I was elated to have flown the trip and very glad to be on the ground. Flight time for the trip down was 5.6 hours; for the trip home was 6.2 hours. Not bad at all.

Give me a few days to mow the lawn, attend to that pesky plumbing problem and wind down a little and I'll be ready to go again.

March 2019: Carpe Diem! or Catch as Catch Can!

Blessed as we are in the Southern Appalachians, March can get a little spotty when it comes to flying weather. If the runway is soaking wet, it has rained buckets for days; if the runway is dry it is about to rain buckets for days. Throw in some wind and that sizes up March pretty well.

Having spent many days looking out the window for a patch of blue, it came to pass that Thursday was dry enough and calm enough to hop across the ridge to Spartanburg SC in the company of other intrepid aviators for a bite to eat and a splash of less costly South Carolina AVGAS.

Let's see, there's the rather hungry fellow on the left, busy chewing, then there's Steve (Subaru powered RV) and his nephew, Emmett, then hangar partner Mark (RV-8) and Owen (RV-10). John (Lancair 235) took the picture. I am flying the lone factory built airplane among all these builders and they let me sit at the same table. What an honor.

Any excuse will suffice. Let's go Flying!

February 2019 - A Warm Spell Means the Patterns Are Full

What a beautiful weekend - the first one in February was incredible ... temps in the 50s and clear skies. The chatter was all about flying!

This picture was titled "On Nancy's Wing"

Photo by Debbie Bolser

I really like that picture - Friends Jerry and Nancy are real aviation people and a wonderful couple.

Jerry's view of Nancy!

From a video by Dave Bolser

...and Gary and Antony on approach to 0A7

Leo was up on Saturday, too, enjoying some together time with his  Corby Starlet ... Mark flew his RV-8 with a youngster ... 

To be fair and honest, or fairly honest, this pic of the CallAir was taken last July 4th by Darwin and Mark, but in the news media it's ok because it's a "representative picture". Ahem.

Gene and I took the valley tour in the CallAir Cadet ... Michael and Darwin flew Michael's 150, then Darwin launched his RV ... Simon flew to Pickens County for fuel ... all in all a great day. After the rain, snow and cold, the chains were loosed!

Friend YogiBear cranked up his Boredom Fighter to add to his rapidly mounting hour total for 2019. Yogi met me at Marion NC to inspect the CallAir before I bought it in 2012. The Fighter was designed by Donald Wolf and first flew in 1979. Here's a link to Yogi's YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djcwkZYEIFM

On a beautiful day in February there is nothing half so much worth doing as messing around with airplanes.

January 2019 - And All Is New Again

So here we are ... a new year and a chance to look afresh at all things worldly and aeronautical. Aero. Nautical. It's no coincidence that seagoing and airgoing were seen as similar voyages from the beginning of our forays into the ether. 

Just as seaworthy boats have long been reliably considered safe as long as there was nothing else around but navigable water, airworthy airplanes are similarly safe as long as they don't run out of avigable air. It comes down to how the human behind the stick, wheel, yoke or tiller makes the boat/airplane go.

Showing off is pretty rare these days, but it happens

An early discovery as a younger teenager hanging around the Silver Springs Air Park was the revelation - Shock and Surprise! - that some pilots exaggerate when telling stories.  A few helped me calibrate my BS meter so I recognize the onset pretty early.

One of the plaques in my collection of pilotly admonitions says something to the effect that I should try to use my superior judgement to avoid having to use my superior skills.

Last week I was listening to a new-ish pilot talking to a group about a cross country flight with its attendant thrills and had to use my superior judgement to keep from asking why he had boxed himself into one or two of the corners he found himself in. A private conversation will take place soon. He's no showoff, just new at it, and a pretty smart fellow. I think we can communicate.


Meanwhile, the CallAir is getting a new access panel for the control cables and an early annual to boot - I decided to align the cycle with the winter months to keep from interrupting the spring fly-ins with downtime.


Snow and freezing rain are on tap for the weekend just begun. There's no flying to be done. I'm toasty and comfy in my barn hideaway, snuggling up with a good dog and a glass of Oh Be Joyful. 

The Day the Snow Came Down

 Don't ask me why. I don't understand.

12-14 inches of snow in 36 hours is enough.

The picture was taken 5 days afterward and even today, a week after, the runway is still covered. 

I don't ski. My airplane doesn't ski. In weather like this we also don't fly because we can't takeoff or land.

People in Wisconsin are prepared for this sort of thing. We aren't.

Spring will come. It always does. Granny said so.

The Day the Rains Came Down

We're famous around here for changeable weather. The mountains, they say, make their own and we take what the mountains give us. In the case of 8NC9, Johnson Field, the home of the Western North Carolina Air Museum, the mountains and their friends, the beavers, endow us with enough rain at times to make for a perfect venue for seaplanes. Here are some pictures from last month's showers:

  

Looking northwest at runway 32. The beavers, cute little buggers that they are, build dams along the natural drainage creeks and cause havoc for airport people.

More pics:

Fortunately, the mountains also protect us - these were pictures of the aftermath of unusual rains courtesy of Hurricane Michael that devastated the panhandle of Florida and raised havoc all the way to New England. The floods recede and eventually everything gets back to normal.

Time and tide eventually win the day and we are back in business. The field stays a bit soggy in places for about four days after one of these downpours but at that point the crown of the runway is dry enough for a little soft field practice.

Here it is, November, and the weather has been absolutely perfect for flying all this first week ... which, of course changes tomorrow. Warm gives way to cold, calm gives way to wind, fall gives way toward winter - though we've been very fortunate so far to have had a gentle introduction. 

The CallAir Cadet is flying beautifully and graced me with one of those "are we down yet?" landings. Can it get any better?

Why I Love Little Airports

There's no doubt, I am a little airport kind of guy. My first boss out of the Navy once asked me where I wanted to be a few years hence and I told him I'd like to be in a chair at a little airport with a grass runway, watching little airplanes takeoff and land. He thought I was nuts.

 

A few years back here in the NC mountains, we had a little get together for Cubs and classic airplanes. The weather didn't cooperate but we went ahead and had a great time anyway.

Click on the pics to make them bigger ... these past couple of weeks we've had some great local fly-ins in the nearby flatlands. Laney's barbecue and fixins - always a big hit - and the Miller residential AirPark fly-in are both popular.

 

From way down South in Florida, Connell's Wahoo Ranch and Dr. Pete's "Back Achers" (he's a retired chiropractor) haul in the traffic from all over Central Florida.

 

It's as American as you can get. This picture is from the Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York  collection of pictures on Facebook.

So who's nuts? Pull up a chair.

 

September Hurricanes, Tailwheel Follies, Looks Back, Looks Ahead

Just when we thought we'd escaped hurricane season ...

Florence bore down on the coastal Carolinas and taught us Mother Nature can be ... instructive ... As in, who's Boss.

Naturally, being fond of machines that harness moving air to generate lift, I was concerned for people and airplanes that lived in the path of this storm. It was a Category 4 hurricane, no trifling late summer breeze. Once ashore and westbound along North Carolina, *poof* it was just breezy rain. Our mountains did their job.

Fun stuff ... working to re-do some of the tailwheel steering and rudder/brake pedal components on the CallAir. Nothing really serious, just detail work that takes friends from across the country to help with photos and advice. 

Our local airfield at the Western North Carolina Air Museum will be out of service for a few days until the accumulated rain water has a chance to drain away, giving me time to assess the work that needs to be done and arrange for someone to do it.

I've learned a lot about restoring a one-of-a-kind airplane.

Today is battle of Britain Day. September 15, 1940:

Prime Minister: "All up?"
Dowding:  "All up, sir."
Prime Minister: "Reserves?" 
Dowding:  "None, sir."

Their finest hour.

When August Comes

The view up Runway 32 at Johnson Field (8NC9)

Not much happening today, which is a pretty  good excuse for doing the things we do well around here, namely sit in the rocking chairs and talk about everything under the sun, including airplanes. Spontaneous lethargy should be a college major Down South.

Mark was a yankee but he went to NC State so that makes him OK. We've bemoaned the lighting in our hangar for some time (not that we're there at night but those hours in the chairs have to produce something to discuss). Last week we took the bull by the horns and finished installing the LED overhead lights ... the result is that we will have a place to go when we are looking for stuff to do in the dark winter months. Now, for heat ...

Last Tuesday's EAA Chapter meeting was another successful cookout and jawboning session. The RV builders/flyers dominated the outdoor displays but there were other fly-bys and plenty of good food and conversation. One young fella who was here from California to finish his instrument rating with Greg at Smokey Mountain Aero got his first ride in a Subaru-powered RV-8. Nice guy and seems to be in line to make a good career start in the aviation field. 

The little airports are the future of our aviation discipline - no matter if someone has an eye set on a professional career or just wants to fly for the pure fun of it. We can't just stand by and watch them disappear, which is why EAA chapters and local organizations make the effort to bring in new blood. It's working in a lot of places, including here.

I can't let the opportunity pass to wish my friends at the Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York good weather for this weekend's annual fly-in at Bayport Aerodrome, the last municipally owned grass runway on Long Island. It was great to be with you while I was a Confederate spy, repatriating yankee money, and I miss your company.