Phantoms from Fox Valley Invade Michigan
Article by
Rickey Anderson and Kevin Bertorelli
Pictures by Kevin Bertorelli and
Brian Gilomen
Afterward by Brian Gilomen
Many weeks of talking during
club meetings sparked great interest in a flight to the Phantom Aeronautics
factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The club hadn't made an organized trip to
Michigan since the planned Around-The-Lake-Flight to Oshkosh in the late 90s,
which flight was tragically cut short after the crash and death of Leon
Stratton, the patriarch who supported our club during its lean times.
After earlier planting the idea of a flight to the Phantom factory in the mind of Eric Peterson, the owner of Phantom Aeronautics L.L.C., several conversations with him over a 2-3 week time-frame got us settled on a flight during the weekend of either Sept. 18th or 25th. It turned out that many other flight opportunities were planned during that first weekend, so the 25th was decided upon. Saturday and Sunday would be ideal for the planned overnight trip. However, only three members expressed any real interest in the adventure, and it turned out that all could leave on Friday. So, the trip was changed to a Friday departure and a Saturday return. The excitement was mounting and Rickey's stomach was getting nervous. The possibility that he might have missed some important flight details that would come back to bite him was constantly on his mine.
Could it be? Was there to be a 4th pilot? Not too long before the trip, Brian Gilomen contacted us saying he was very much interested in flying to Michigan, but that he could not join the group for the 8 am wheels up. He was planning instead to fly direct to our camp site at the Taylor Flight Park NON-STOP, approximately 140 miles, to meet us. WOW!! So, the final pilot tally is four, with one non-Phantom flyer.
After Rickey sent out all the flight details via email, the true preparatory work began. On Thursday, 9/24, Barry Ward, Rickey and Kevin each spent about 1-2 hrs. at their respective hangars packing camping gear and doing final plane checks to guarantee a Friday wheels-up time of 8 am.
It is now Friday Morning. Kevin arrived the earliest, then Barry, with Rickey pulling in at 7:45 am but otherwise ready to go. Unfortunately the trip got off to a bad start; we’re talking BAD here! First off, while Kevin was doing his preflight he noticed what looked like stress cracks in the right stabilizer tubes on his plane where they plug into the main boom tube. To get a better look he decided to remove that side. After examination he confirmed that the marks were indeed stress cracks, but he also confirmed that the insert tubes inside the stressed area were intact. Just to be on the safe side Kevin installed a fiberglass rod inside each end about 14 inches in to help prevent further cracking. All of this took about 1 ½ hrs, and delayed the planned 8:00 am departure. At about 9:30-ish we all taxied down to the North end of the runway for take off on 18. Rickey took off, then Barry, but while Kevin was maneuvering for take-off he felt something strange in his plane’s handling. Looking down, he noticed that he had a flat tire! The tire wasn’t flat when he left the hangar; it wasn’t flat when he did his preflight; NO, it had to happen all the way down at the North end of the runway! By the time the team got the tire patched another hour or so had passed. Kevin was finally ready and everything was a go. But the gremlins continued their assault: this time on Rickey‘s engine. IT WOULD NOT START! After another 30 minutes, and many pulls on the starter rope (by all three of us) we were finally on our way.
The three Phantoms headed SE past Lewis Airport, and then headed over Chicago Heights on the way to Valparaiso. While passing about three miles south of Lansing Airport, we admired its extremely long North-South runway. We enjoyed a nice 10 mph tailwind which made the 60 mile trip an easy shot.
While downwind at Valpo, getting ready to make a fuel stop, we heard Brad Wolf on the radio! He was taking off from Valpo after flying in earlier to visit with his son who goes to school nearby. He came back in for a landing to talk with us, and expressed surprise that we had only made it that far after our supposed 8 am start. He estimated that, at our current rate, we would make it to our destination at around 2-3 am on Saturday morning. We all laughed, and filled him in on the details of our late start. Being more than a little hungry, Kevin asked Valpo’s FBO if they had a courtesy car. They did, so we all decided to head off to lunch. Brad couldn’t fly with us but he joined us for a delicious feast at the local Bob Evans. Once we were back, Brad headed for home and we departed with the intention of going to Dowagiac, about 55 miles away.
After we got airborne we climbed to 3500 feet and found that our ground speed was over 80 mph. In order to avoid South Bend’s controlled airspace, Kevin climbed up to 5000 ft and found that his ground speed increased to around 95! Rickey and Barry decided to stay at around 4,000 to avoid the rough air between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. With the top of South Bend airspace being 4,800 feet, Rickey called and informed the tower of his and Barry's intent and to ask for permission to continue transitioning through its airspace. The tower thanked him for calling, and all the while peppered him with questions designed to get his true location. Either they don’t have radar, or it doesn't pick up Ultralights!
With the great speeds we were showing, we decided to shoot directly to our final destination: Taylor’s Flight Park near Niles, Michigan, where we were to spend the night camping. It was only about another 15 miles. We reached Taylor's after passing beautiful lake after beautiful lake and admiring the landscape. Kevin noticed the hint of fall in the color of the trees, and commented that they trees would be transforming fully in a couple of weeks.
Man, Taylor's Flight Park is perfect! Brian Taylor has about 30 acres nestled in the trees with a lake at one end and a beautiful custom log house off to the side. This guy has got the hot setup!
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After we landed and met Brian T., we hopped back in our planes and headed North to the Phantom Factory about 40 miles away. There we met up with Eric, the new Phantom Aeronautical owner. Although Eric is young, he has a PhD in aircraft design. He has big plans for the Phantom and is in the process of moving his operation to Three Rivers. His new factory is under construction. Eric gave us a tour of his current facility:
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We were impressed with some of his new designs, such as a redesigned flap kit and a folding wing kit. While we were at the factory, Eric confirmed Kevin's suspicions about the stress cracks that he found on his stabilizer. Kevin therefore took the opportunity to purchase all new stabilizer tubing, which he stored in his wing for the flight home. (Eric did indicate that it was safe for Kevin to fly with the limited cracking that he saw). After about 1 ½ hours at the factory Eric flew back with us to Brian Taylor’s airstrip to join us for dinner and a movie.
On the way we heard Brian Gilomen on the radio calling from his Challenger. He had flown non-stop from Clow and was in the vicinity of Brian T.’s place when we were leaving the Phantom factory. Eric likes to fly a slow, meandering path, so it took us about 45 minutes to make it back to Taylor's field, where we met the loitering Challenger and where we all landed together and prepared to camp out for the night.
During a casual dinner of hot dogs and chips, graciously provided by Brian Taylor and his wife, we talked with Eric about the technical aspects of designing and improving on a plane like the Phantom. He was very impressive! After dinner Brian T. invited us downstairs to his private cinema room to watch a movie. This facility was huge and had a ceiling mounted projector with a 10ft X 8ft screen! We watched the movie from the comfort of our respective choices of a large leather couch or recliners while eating popcorn from a full-size professional popcorn machine like the kind you see at the local cinemaplex. After the movie Brian T. asked if we needed him to make coffee and donuts for us in the morning, and told us that Dowagiac airport had a fly-in breakfast. We elected to go to Dowagiac rather than abuse his hospitality. We said good night to Brian and his wife, and goodbye to Eric and his wife.
After spending the night in tents set up next to our planes, we departed Saturday morning for Dowagiac airport. They were having an EAA pancake breakfast which worked out perfectly for us! Dowagiac was less than 20 miles away from Brian T’s place. Several pilots asked us if we were the group that flew from Illinois; Eric had informed them to expect us on Friday. We saw a Phantom equipped with a ½ Volkswagen Engine; amazing! From Dowagiac we flew to Michigan City Airport for refueling. It’s a real nice airport right near Lake Michigan. From there we decided that we could make a direct flight back to Clow since our airspeed was in the mid 60’s. We arrived at Clow at around 1:30pm. Altogether we had traveled 360 miles, round trip. It was definitely a flight worth remembering!
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Afterward by Brian Gilomen: Although I was annoyed that I wouldn't be able to meet up with the Phantom Fliers early enough to join them on their proposed 8 am departure (ha!), I was excited at the prospect of making what might be my longest-ever nonstop leg in this particular aircraft. Noting that the winds were from the West, and anticipating a nice tailwind, I didn't worry about departing much before 4:30 pm. My goal was to rendezvous with the other guys at the campsite.
I was wheels-up promptly at 4:30, and -- after getting comfortable for the long haul -- I decided to stay as close to the Southern shore of Lake Michigan as I could without running afoul of controlled airspace. I generally kept my altitude around 1800 MSL in that area while tracking towards the few green spaces that I could find. I kept just to the North of both Lansing and Griffith, and just outside the Gary 5-mile ring. Once past Griffith I climbed slightly to about 2000 MSL and turned my heading slightly North, clipping the Southern edges of both Hobart and Michigan City with an eye towards clearing the South Bend 5-mile ring before swinging back Southeast towards my final destination. Given the spanking tailwind my groundspeed was a typically 90-95 and often over 100, and I wasn't pushing it at all! By the time my GPS delivered me accurately to Taylor Flight Park (it was conveniently in my database as a private strip), only 1 hour and 15 minutes had elapsed! In that time, due to my relatively direct flight path, I had covered 126 miles.
Although I had found my destination, I had not found my wingmen! A quick call out over 122.875 revealed that they had just left the Phantom factory, about 40 miles to the Northeast. Although we all tried to vector towards each other for a mid-flight meet, Eric's "non linear" flight path made that impossible. So, we finally all joined up at Taylor Flight Park at 7:30 (local time). I landed after having been in the air for 2 hours nonstop and covering 167 miles. I was showing about 9 1/2 gallons of fuel remaining out of an initial 16, in keeping with my typical fuel burn of 3.25 gph.
The next morning I joined my team to Dowagiac for breakfast, and from then on to Michigan City for gas. This was my first fuel stop for the trip. By then I had covered 226 air miles, and had burned a measly 10 gallons. With the fuel I can carry, I figure I can get over 5 hours endurance and over 325 miles, non-stop. Sweet!
Where To Now?
Hartenbower's September Fly-In
