"Plan B": Tommy's is Out; Rochelle is In
Prologue by
Brian Gilomen;
Epilogue by Roger Kellogg
Pictures by Mick Pahnke, Kevin
Bertorelli and Brian Gilomen
Prologue:
The inopportune weather on Saturday may have prevented the FVFC overnight
fly-in to Tommy George's, but it opened up other possibilities. One of
them was attendance at the Rochelle fly-in on Sunday, August 28.
Elements of the FVFC-E (me; Vance; Bill) departed Clow at a little after 8:30, destined for Cushing to rally with some members of FVFC-W for the next leg to Rochelle, and to check out (1) Paul Syverson's new Quicksilver Sport II (see separate article), and (2) the FVFC's new gas grill. (Yeah!) Jim and Mick were also on hand at Clow, and we thought they were coming with us, but that didn't happen.
Paul's new plane was tucked snuggly in its hangar. Next time you see him you might ask why it leans slightly to the starboard side:
Our new gas grill was tucked snuggly in Paul's van. It, too, was leaning on its starboard side:
Ignoring leaning Quicksilvers and gas grills, a whole bunch of us departed Cushing for Rochelle, enjoying a very nice flight there!
Because I had a "make-it-back-on-time-or-else" edict from my wife, Regina, regarding attending a church and family function in Chicago that afternoon, I no sooner landed at Rochelle than I had to leap into the air and head back to Clow. It was a little bumpy, with scattered clouds at about 3500 feet, so I decided to climb through those scattered clouds to 5000 to see if it was any smoother. Indeed it was; it was like glass at that altitude! Flying that high I also decided to go over the top of the Aurora airspace, rather than swing around it to the South as I normally would. It was so clear that I could easily see the Aurora tower well before I came within 5 miles -- the tower and the smoke-streaming aerobatic planes that were apparently doing a routine that looked like it might carry them up to my flight level. Caution being my watchword, and although not required, I contacted the tower and gave them an advisory as to my position, altitude speed and heading. I called in again when on the other side of the five mile ring, and they bid me a cheery good day, telling me to watch out for some nearby high speed traffic.
Leaving Rochelle so early, I guess I missed Brad Wolf's motor meltdown:
----- Original Message -----
From: Wolf, W Brad
To: FVFC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: Thanks
Bill,
I will not be able attend this month's FVFC meeting because I will be on company business.
In my absence, please thank everyone who flew to Rochelle with us for their help during my engine problem today. I feel so bad that everyone spend their time working on my plane and no one took any time to enjoy the airplanes and other events. Even the people who had to leave were "apologizing" for having to leave before the problem was fixed. What a great group of men and women.
I can't tell you how comforting it was to know that many people were working so hard on my plane. Seriously, it is stressful to have engine trouble away from your home base, but everyone did their best to fix it.
Thanks to every!! I really appreciate your assistance.
I am sorry if you missed the events of Rochelle.
Brad Wolf
Air Boss - Rochelle '04
Having left so early I didn't know what was going on, but it turns out that Brad apparently had trouble keeping is engine running below 2500 RPM. His whole throttle set up changed somehow and he suspected that there was some type of clog in some internal port in the carb, affecting the idle jet. Brad he flew home without dropping his RPMs below 4000. He later wrote to me that he "spent almost the entire time at Rochelle either behind my plane cursing it or inside the cockpit trying keep it running and cursing it."
Having arrived at Clow so early, I also didn't get to enjoy the impromptu post fly-in gathering in front of Kevin's hangar:
Epilogue: Rochelle Fly-In,
Father and Son Style, by Roger
Kellogg
Rochelle’s fly-in was Sunday, August 28. The week-old gray ceiling finally broke mid-day and Andrew and I decided to make the 35 nautical mile flight.
Andrew, my 16 year old son, has been flying since his birthday four months ago.
After some discussion, it was determined that Andrew would fly the Cessna 152 and I would pilot the Aerolite 103. We plotted a course, and noted landmarks on the sectional chart.
As the 152 flies considerably faster than the 103, Andrew flew along side, making better progress, and then looped back to give me time to catch up. This worked well, but may have been somewhat tiresome for the 152 pilot. We had flown in the pattern together before, but this was the first trip that father and son had flown together.
We communicated in-flight status and actions on the club frequency while en route. Mid-day thermals were active, so we climbed to 5500 MSL to get smoother air. From that altitude you can see quite a ways, and it felt like I could have glided in, even when we were 18 miles out.
As we passed the halfway point, we switched to Rochelle’s Common Traffic Advisory Frequency and monitored other traffic arriving and departing the Rochelle field. I listened as pilot after pilot announced their position and intentions, wondering how we were going to fit into the traffic mix. Andrew pulled out in front, and I listened as he announced his position and worked his way through the pattern and landed. I felt a proud grin creep across my face as he announced that he had cleared the active runway. “Nice job, Andrew!” My landing felt like a potato chip in the August breeze.
There was quite a show on the ground, and good attendance. Dad bought lunch; Andrew bought Ice cream cones for desert. We chatted with friends and studied various planes, including an Avenger TBM and a beautiful Ercoupe. We twisted our necks to watch an aerobatic demonstration overhead.
When it was time for the return flight, we planned a tandem departure. However, as I took off, the Lima Lima team cut in line in front of Andrew, and delayed his departure. I took advantage of the head start and headed back toward 0C8. Andrew passed me at about the halfway point, this time he didn’t circle back. Guess he knows his way home okay.
We had a great time! The weather was wonderful; it was fun to fly together, to grow into the new role of friends. It was a joy to see Andrew face challenges and successfully overcome obstacles. It is great to have friends that make it all possible! Thanks!
Where To Now?
... So, we go to Rochelle Instead
Paul Sy Invests in Another Seat
Vance Invests in Modern Technology
The Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook
(386 Kilobyte ".pdf" file: be forewarned)