Brodhead a Bust
By the FVFC Email Committee
(Special Guest Appearance by Ken Swasas)
Well I started the day with good intentions. I saw the soup coming up
from
the South on my way to Peotone. It was moving fast and by the time I
left
for Clow the vis was down to about 5 miles. The ceiling fell to about
1500
over Lockport and the river. After that the skies started turning blue.
I
landed at Clow thinking it was going to be a good day. But by the time
we
departed the clouds had moved north and the vis was back down to 5 miles.
I
went all the way past the Fox Valley mall and the sky did not improve much.
It didn't look good out to the West either. The radio frequencies were
quite. Not a good day for my little plane. About that time Mick
called in
and said he was going back. That was a good choice. About a minute
later I
did a 180 and ended up over at Lewis. They had a nice fly-in breakfast
over there. Not a big turnout but there were some nice planes on the
ramp.
Not what I was looking for but it would have to do today. I then figured
I
would see just how bad it was down South just for the record. Kankakee
was
5 miles, Lowell Indiana was 5-7 miles and back home. Plane in the hangar
at
about 11:30. Bad day to go far. I thought a lot about Bill today.
Hope he
made it OK.
I don't have Bills email handy. Anybody hear from him today?
Ken Swasas
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Gilomen
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: Mt. Morris and Brodhead
So, was the trip to Brodhead a bust? I read Ken's email; what about the
rest of you?
For my part, flying on Saturday was a bust as well. I got to Clow at
about
8:30 and left at 9:00 to head to Cushing to maybe pick up Brad. When I
got
there I could see Bill's Kitfox at the North end, and there seemed to be
something going on at the South end. I taxied to the South to watch John
Matula try to break in the motor on his new Avenger. He was having some
problems with higher RPMs and needed to adjust the prop pitch. After
watching for a while, and hoping for the crosswind to die down (it never
happened), Bill came trundling down the runway. I thought he was coming
for
a visit, but he promptly turned around to depart. I caught him on the
radio
before he left; he was so preoccupied with leaving that he never even saw my
plane 50 feet in front of him! He said that nobody was going to fly;
Brad
was installing a BRS chute and Tom was working on something. So, I
decided
to leave with Bill and head back to Clow. I left a few minutes after he
did
and caught up with him for the trip back.
We chatted the whole while during the long journey home (between the 20 MPH
headwind and Bill's putt-putt speed, it took us a while. Vis was poor,
and
we had one near and than one even nearer miss close to the Joliet VOR:
at
one point a GA single came from our left barely 75 feet above us. I
wonder
if he ever saw us; his course never deviated.
More of the same at Clow! Two T-6's were working the pattern, doing
flybys.
We were in radio contact; they saw me and said "no worries."
But I was
certainly uncomfortable with how close they came to me as they zipped over
me on downwind while I was on a long base (I was compelled to hit the deck
over the houses to the South of Clow, making for a much lower approach than
I would have preferred). And then, because they were so fast, they did
it
again while I was on final! I had radioed that I was landing on the
grass,
and I think they figured that it was OK if they tore right by me over the
asphalt 100 feet to my right. Pucker factor: 6.7.
Brian
Bill Mills departed Clow (1C5) @ 6:10am. I left Cushing (0C8) at
6:40am.
We planned to meet at Poplar Grove (C77).
The sky was dark south to the south and light toward the north. Good.
I
flew unexpectedly into a low cloud about 6 miles north of Cushing. The
funny part of it was that I could not see it coming. It wasn't really a
cloud. As Bill said, "the sky was milky". It was kind of a
haze and I was
watching the ground 5 - 10 miles out and then it was there. I never lost
site of the ground, but it does play with your head when you can't see very
far. I dropped rpm and altitude and fell out of the bottom of the cloud.
Several minutes later it all cleared away. We both flew in sunshine on the
last 1/2 of the trip to Poplar Grove.
I checked the NOTAMS prior to takeoff. I had to divert around the Stadium
at DeKalb, but that was no problem. They have a Temporary Flight
Restriction (TFR) around the University stadium.
At Poplar Grove, we discussed life, refueled, reevaluated the weather, time
etc. for Broadhead and decided it was too far because I needed to be back at
Cushing by 11am. We diverted to Mt. Morris. (C55) However, we
plotted our
course around Rockford and stayed below the 2000 ft. MSL airspace. This
allowed us to hug closer to the straight path to Mt. Morris. Bill led us
around the airspace because his GPS shows the Rockford airspaces.
Enroute, we could clearly see the Nuclear Power plant. Very impressive.
Since we had checked the NOTAMs before take-off, we knew that we could fly
by the Nuclear plant as long as we did not fly over it and did not circle.
Mt. Morris - It was fun. Many aircraft. Some T-6's were there.
I thought
that I saw a Quicksilver GT500 take off in the distance but I could not tell
for sure. I've never landed anyplace with that much traffic. But the
GA
guys were real nice and gave us space to land and covered our tails.
We had a quick breakfast, refueled, took pictures (to be included on the
"Group Page" soon) and prepared for take-off.
We figured we that we had 1 hour to Cushing. NOT. We took and flew
20
minutes and we still had 1 hours to Cushing. We flew 10 more minutes and
we
still had 1 hours to Cushing! (I'm only joking a little bit)
After more
discussion of life and navigation calculations, we diverted to Hinckley
(0C2) for a fuel stop. It only cut 10 miles off the trip, but we were
playing it safe. (Note: Bill dedicated 1/3 of the trip to changing
batteries in his radio while flying w/ his knees and teeth. I know this
wasn't helping our ground speed). FINALLY, we reached Hinckley.
After taking off from Hinckley, I was following and talking "at" Bill
on the
radio when he made a 180 and was returning to Hinckley. I suspect
mechanical problems. In fact, I forgot to plug my radio into my
headset
and I was talking to myself. Since Bill could not hear me or see me, he
assumed I never took off. I discovered my error before he landed.
Another
180 and we were off to Cushing.
I was all set to enter the pattern for runway 36 @ Cushing when I saw Larry
Gehrig stop taxiing at mid-field and reverse the airport. So......... Bill
and I announced our new intentions to land on runway 18. Although we had a
solid crosswind, we both executed good landings. I have learned a secret
about landing at Cushing w/ winds from the east.
Secret!!!!!!! When landing at Cushing with a good crosswind from 90,
always land long pass the buildings. (at the very least, fly pass the
house
& trees) The wind coming around those buildings will mess with your
mind
and aircraft. Just keep in mind that you've lost some runway length.
We landed 45 minutes pass my target time, but hey........... better 45
minutes late than walking out of a bean field from an unscheduled
landing!!!!!!!!
And now you know................ the rest of the story............
Where To Now?
Bill's Excellent AirVenture, Part 2
Hartenbower: "Can't Get There from Here"