John & Anne Wiley

2010/07/26

No Time!

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Has Photos,NxNW Adventure,Tripp — John @ 01:57

I have 20 minutes to post something before this building closes, so tonite I’ll focus on some photos. Here’s a shot I like of the capitol in Pierre:

8511 Pierre SD

8511 Pierre SD

Ellendale, ND next to the runup area:

8538 Ellendale ND

8538 Ellendale ND

Minneapolis from 2 miles up:

8554 Minneapolis

8554 Minneapolis

A slice of Wisconsin life, approaching Fond du Lac:

8571 Wisconsin Farm

8571 Wisconsin Farm

An idea:

1304 Tail Brace

1304 Tail Brace

I brought an old heavy duty (but lightweight) camcorder tripod on a hunch, and it worked. Sort of. I set it up under the tail tiedown, pushed up on the tail to load it, pulled down on the tail to set it into the soft grass, and repeated that until it would hold perhaps 10# of down pressure. My theory is that it would help keep the tail from dropping if the winds persisted. Since we had to park on a fairly steep slope beside the runway, I was afraid a strong gust would rock the plane back and increase the wings’ angle of attack to possibly pull out our tiedown stakes. It could also help prevent the elevator digging into the ground, since the gust lock was of course in place.

OK, they’re flashing the lights so that’s it for today…

Oshkosh sure was fun today, and it hasn’t even officially opened!

2010/07/25

Pierre & Dry Oshkosh

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Has Photos,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,Random,Tripp — John @ 02:00

We’re tied down and the tent is set up at Oshkosh. Sort of, as I’ll describe. But first let me tell you about Pierre. The capital of South Dakota seemed like a good choice when weather indicated that the prudent pilot would let go of flying to Minnesota last evening. This was after an absolutely magnificent flight along the Grand Tetons and over some of Yellowstone. I didn’t bring my camera chip to this wifi hotspot, nor did Anne bring her camera, so the photos will have to wait. Too bad, because we really like some of them and would love to share. What I can do is show you our route from Jackson Hole.

07/23-24 map

07/23-24 map

Gasping our way along the breathtaking Tetons we toured part of Yellowstone on our way to the lake. After leaving Yellowstone Lake, we crossed the high plaindotted with RVs and tents, for a stretch and some fuel in Sheridan. We decided to head up into MT, but realizing how far we hoped to go in the day we made a jaunt up to the closest airport (Red Lodge) to have a look. It was of course the doorway to entirely new vistas, so we decided to go back on another trip. We headed direct to Mt. Rushmore not knowing exact location, so it was fascinating to see detailed human faces appear on the rock face above a large parking area with tourist facilities. I’ve wanted to see it for years, and am glad we finally did – without the driving. 🙂

We hoped to reach or at least get close to Oshkosh, so we headed direct. When we realized I’d forgotten about crossing a time zone and figured out the local time and sunset, it became clear we’d stop at the Eastern border of SD. The weather had other ideas, as thunderstorms had recently moved across our path. Again we decided to err on the side of caution and diverted to the state capital of SD: Pierre. After finding out how quickly we could get the tent set up (3 hours), we slept. At the crack of dawn we were up, and decided to accept the kind offer of a loaner car to tour the lovely little city. Back at the airport we got the gear all sorted back into Tripp (whom Anne said in the morning looked “confused”), checked weather and got an early start on the long flight to Oshkosh. Well, early in that we took off at 10am! We started encountering other pilots going to Oshkosh, and that did a lot to enhance our excitement.

After some discussion we decided to go take a peek at ND, having already diverted a bit North due to the storms. We found it looked quite a bit like SD, so after a stretch in the small Ellendale airport plunk in the middle of glorious wildflowers we at last headed direct for Oshkosh. This route took us directly over Minneapolis, which had been a factor in our choice of glimpsing ND. We’d both been there by car years ago, so we already knew that more vistas await our return on another trip. The tops of the broken clouds kept inching up until we were at 11,500 for half an hour keeping clear of them (thank you Tripp!), and even then it involved some detours among the tallest towers of fluff. At least it was a welcome change from bouncing along in the turbulence lower, and we booked along at 150mph or so getting about 20mpg. So after a beautiful view of Minneapolis we stayed high until about 40 miles from Oshkosh.

Now, approaching the mother of all fly-in aviation events involves a 30-something page set of procedures, and the controllers are (to put it mildly) stressed so you want to have a clue. At the 30 mile mark you check the ATIS (weather and info), and that’s when we found out Oshkosh is closed. What?! Well, you may have seen the news about airport flooding in WI, and the grass areas of Oshkosh are especially muddy today. So before we got there, they’d closed the airport to all off-pavement activity (parking airplanes and camping). We heard stories of people sinking up to their ankles, so the thought of parking Tripp in that has zero appeal anyway. So we again diverted – this time to a friendly airport named Fond du Lac. One of the airport volunteers said they’re calling this the “Dry Oshkosh.” Tripp is tied down, the tent is filled up with stuff we probably don’t need, and we’re off to sleep. Tomorrow we’re sharing a cab with some other aviators, for a fun drive over to look at the Fly Market (flea market for aviators). The actual show starts Monday, and our current plan is to leave Tuesday or Wednesday before the next set of storms approaches. Busy times ahead, and some say it’s as much fun as pilots can have without flying 🙂

2010/07/23

Jackson to Jackson

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,Random,Tripp — John @ 05:09

First some catch-up: Tripp’s cover didn’t last. I tore it this evening trying to pull it tightly closed. The faulty instrument turned out to be the auxiliary fuel pump (working fine, but noisy and seldom used so I didn’t think to check if the switch was on!). The fog didn’t lift until 10am, and we heard on the radio it was clearing at SBA then too (oh well). We didn’t actually take off until 11am.

Because we had full fuel, Tripp flew more like Flash used to with a lighter load. Well, not that sluggish. But we did need to divert North a bit to climb over the Sierra Madre before turning direct to Kernville. On that detour we passed close to the Jackson estate so I snapped this.

8034 Michael Jackson's Neverland

8034 Michael Jackson's Neverland

So just after takeoff, our trip began with a Jackson moment.

Since things were going well,  just past Bakersfield we turned slightly more North heading toward Tonopah and crossed the Sierras not far South of Mt. Whitney. Tripp faithfully hauled us up to 10,000′ or so, and Flash couldn’t have done that even without the baggage and 64 gallons of fuel aboard. Go Tripp!

8047 High Sierras

8047 High Sierras

I think one of the peaks is Mt. Whitney, but I haven’t figured it out and of course it looks different on every flight due to the different angles we see.

The valley presented the unusual as usual. This time the colors, textures and shapes were different not just due to our different route further North and flying higher, but also the rainy spring. I like this snap on its side, because my eye is less trapped by knowing what it is so I can more fully enjoy the Art of it.

8056 Geo Art

8056 Geo Art

I love so many of the photos from today, but I’ll skip ahead so this doesn’t get too long. Wish you could fly along with us and see how much more magnificent our planet is, than words or photos can begin to describe.

8074 Tonopah

8074 Tonopah

We stopped at Tonopah to check weather and stretch our legs. There are some fascinating decrepit old WWII hangars there, and this new building at the other end. Turned out it was too hot for a real walk and their internet wasn’t working. So back aboard our magic for more enchanted memories.

After a full day of glorious flying and geographic art, we arrived at today’s other Jackson: Jackson Hole, WY. We’d only been here once, as part of a long driving trip decades ago. So fun to see it from the air coming in, and tomorrow we’ll probably go for a closer look before continuing on toward WI. For now, we sleep, and dream about this unbelievable day.

8163 Jackson Hole WY

8163 Jackson Hole WY

Smoke clinging to the peaks appears to be from a wildfire. Hope it’s clear tomorrow.

2010/07/18

Lists & Panic

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,Random,Tripp — John @ 19:16

Today’s themes seem to be lists and panic. Our lists, that we had been making some progress with crossing items off of, are starting to explode. So many things we’d forgotten, spring back to mind and find their way onto our lists. That could feel overwhelming, but a bigger inner stress is trying to build in us: what about all those things we’ve thought of and not added to the lists?! Something comes to mind, and before we can add it to the list there’s some distraction. What if one of those items is something crucial? Then we breathe deeply and remember that we’re not flying out into the tundra wilderness, but across thousands of miles dotted with big cities, airports and lots of resources. Just this morning we admitted to ourselves that some of our preparations for the trip will probably happen on the trip.

So the panic subsides a bit. Then we look at the maps (and increasingly charts), and the magnificence of what lies ahead moderates the magnitude of it. As a July AOPA pilot magazine article noted, long flying trips are just a collection of short flights. Each is a mini-adventure punctuated by discoveries of people and places at landings along the way.

Each day, as more is made ready and yet more arises to do, we bump along between moments of accomplishment and overwhelm. What will today’s preparations reveal?

2010/07/15

Bingeing & Fish Hooks

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 02:27

We finally got some of the stuff on the “To Buy” part of our list for the trip, and we might have gone just a tad overboard. Did we really need mosquito hat covers?

Something we enjoy on “altered” State Street, is overhearing snippets of conversation. Sometimes we notice ours too. Like as we passed a guy sitting on a bench waiting outside some apparel store for his wife. I said, “It’s comfy, but I can’t take it off!” Now that snippet in itself is entertaining for us, but the context was our jocular discussion of what it would be like to wear a velcro jacket. By now maybe you’re wondering how this relates to shopping for the trip.

In the sporting goods store, we talked for probably ten minutes about whether to buy fishing hooks and line. In retrospect, the dialog must have been riddled with snippets we’d enjoy hearing from others as we passed them in the aisles. “We’d need a license.” “Not if we’re fishing for survival.” Now you might get a hint that there was a darker side to this particular dialog.

The route we plan to fly will always be within gliding distance of roads and settled areas, as was our plan for the Big Adventure. Even on that flight in generally more developed areas than we contemplate in this one, there were a few times we wandered off to look at stuff. One region that comes to mind is Big Bend in TX, where we got into some fairly remote areas. As pilots might guess, I climbed to increase our options but am glad they weren’t needed. So since we don’t fish for sport, as Anne contemplated a scenario where fish hooks would be useful, her mood darkened. Fortunately we worked through it, and since the minimalist fishing gear was small, light and cheap we went for it. More options.

So tonight we begin piling stuff to sort, weigh, and then try to pack into Tripp. For the Big Adventure flight we had our small car packed to the roof with stuff, and were surprised when it all fit comfortably into Flash. This time we might fly without the back seat, which would produce even more space – and probably more ease in loading. It would be nice if we can also load it in such a way that we don’t need to unload lots of stuff to get at something we need. We also need to decide whether to bring a tarp, because one of the cool things about a C-172 like Tripp is how easy it is to create a cozy place beneath a wing just by adding a tarp. Soon we’ll visit a few other stores on our List Quest, but maybe we’ll dial back the binge factor after looking at the pile from today’s craze. As always, comments, suggestions and warnings are welcome. 🙂

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