Pietenpol-List: Flying adventure
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:00 pm
Original Posted By: Rcaprd(at)aol.com
I hope you don't mind my letting off a little "steam" after my littleadventure of the past two days. I am still revved up and need to tell it tosomeone and you are the only ones who would understand.I may not be getting much done on my Piet project, but I am trying to havefun. I just helped ferry a Stearman (with a wooden stick) from Nashua NH toLakeland FL. We really battled self doubts last Wednesday and Thursdaymorning before getting on a plane to fly north. We had the remnants ofFrances still affecting the NE and Ivan aiming at us on Sunday PM inFlorida. I looked like getting all the way from there to here might not bepossible. We finally said, let's go for it.We landed in Boston Thursday evening and it wasn't raining - that isn't whatthe weather people had said. We got up Friday morning and the sun wasout - that isn't what the weather people had said was supposed to happen.We lifted of at 10 AM and headed west to fly over the Ole Rhinebeck Airdromeand then on to Poukeepsie. From there we flew down the Hudson at 1000'. Wecould see the city outline from 40 miles out. We dropped down to 500' inthe VFR corridor. We were the only aircraft in it. The Hudson river wasours for the entire length of NY City. After circling the Statute ofLiberty we headedWSW and threaded between Camp David and Washington ADIZ to Front Royal. Wethenheaded south down the Shenandoah Valley, landing at dusk at Roanoke VA.Woke up to sunshine and were airborne at 8 AM and headed south. Things wentfine until we got to Georgia and their typical summer VFR that is similar toflying through milk. We kept a close lookout for towers and made itthrough. Florida was typical scattered afternoon convection. Just flyaround (and behind) it and keep moving on. The weather gods were good. Wemade over 100 kts ground speed most of the second day. I had flight plannedfor 85 MPH with a flying time of 16 hours.We set down at Lakeland at 5:30 PM after 7 gas stops and 14:45 flying time.I didn't keep track of the fuel usage or cost. Don't want to know. I wantto savor this flight until I do my next one like it in my Piet. For a tripwe didn't think would happen because of adverse weather, it turned out to bethe most pleasant flying X/C we either have flown. The Stearman was beingdonatedto Sun n Fun. When we pushed it into the hangar I saw Allen Wise's Piet(see there is some Piet connection to this story) stashed in there forprotection from the hurricane. It is in fine shape.And Ivan hasn't shown up yet either. Spent a beautiful afternoon shootinglandings in my Cessna 140A helping a fellow tail dragger pilot knock off alittle rust.Thanks for giving me a chance to share this experience.Ted BrousseauNaples, FLGoing to start building like crazy so that I can fly with Bert, Corky, John,Randy, Don and any one else in a formation of "Southern Wooden Overcast" toBrodhead nextyear.________________________________________________________________________________
I hope you don't mind my letting off a little "steam" after my littleadventure of the past two days. I am still revved up and need to tell it tosomeone and you are the only ones who would understand.I may not be getting much done on my Piet project, but I am trying to havefun. I just helped ferry a Stearman (with a wooden stick) from Nashua NH toLakeland FL. We really battled self doubts last Wednesday and Thursdaymorning before getting on a plane to fly north. We had the remnants ofFrances still affecting the NE and Ivan aiming at us on Sunday PM inFlorida. I looked like getting all the way from there to here might not bepossible. We finally said, let's go for it.We landed in Boston Thursday evening and it wasn't raining - that isn't whatthe weather people had said. We got up Friday morning and the sun wasout - that isn't what the weather people had said was supposed to happen.We lifted of at 10 AM and headed west to fly over the Ole Rhinebeck Airdromeand then on to Poukeepsie. From there we flew down the Hudson at 1000'. Wecould see the city outline from 40 miles out. We dropped down to 500' inthe VFR corridor. We were the only aircraft in it. The Hudson river wasours for the entire length of NY City. After circling the Statute ofLiberty we headedWSW and threaded between Camp David and Washington ADIZ to Front Royal. Wethenheaded south down the Shenandoah Valley, landing at dusk at Roanoke VA.Woke up to sunshine and were airborne at 8 AM and headed south. Things wentfine until we got to Georgia and their typical summer VFR that is similar toflying through milk. We kept a close lookout for towers and made itthrough. Florida was typical scattered afternoon convection. Just flyaround (and behind) it and keep moving on. The weather gods were good. Wemade over 100 kts ground speed most of the second day. I had flight plannedfor 85 MPH with a flying time of 16 hours.We set down at Lakeland at 5:30 PM after 7 gas stops and 14:45 flying time.I didn't keep track of the fuel usage or cost. Don't want to know. I wantto savor this flight until I do my next one like it in my Piet. For a tripwe didn't think would happen because of adverse weather, it turned out to bethe most pleasant flying X/C we either have flown. The Stearman was beingdonatedto Sun n Fun. When we pushed it into the hangar I saw Allen Wise's Piet(see there is some Piet connection to this story) stashed in there forprotection from the hurricane. It is in fine shape.And Ivan hasn't shown up yet either. Spent a beautiful afternoon shootinglandings in my Cessna 140A helping a fellow tail dragger pilot knock off alittle rust.Thanks for giving me a chance to share this experience.Ted BrousseauNaples, FLGoing to start building like crazy so that I can fly with Bert, Corky, John,Randy, Don and any one else in a formation of "Southern Wooden Overcast" toBrodhead nextyear.________________________________________________________________________________