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At 12:53 PM 9/9/01 -0700, George Frebert wrote: >SUGGESTION: Remove the wings, load the plane on a trailer and drive to >Delaware. It has been SEVERE CLEAR here for the last 10 days with no end in >sight! That's because George and his boys have had a big fan turned on, sending all the Chesapeake Bay scud NORTH into New Jersey. Was supposed to go to Wings field on Saturday for the airshow there. Got to Sky Manor, and found the home field was 300 feet and 1/4 mile. We lingered over coffee in the restaurant while having the usual 'I think it's getting better... No it's not, you're fulla sh**!' conversation that grounded buzzards usually have. Finally someone raised the matter of a planned hangar party/potluck that evening. I went off to Shop-Rite to load up on supplies to cover me and a couple other people's contributions, then returned for lunch. 'Bout that time it WAS clearing, so I had lunch and two glasses of iced tea. It still looked bumpy, but I cranked up '387 and went to see. It wasn't so I did some 'low and slow' over the PA hills. About the time I was circling Lake Nockamixon the view of the water and the iced tea came together, and it was definitely time to land. Flew back at max cruise, made a real tight pattern, short-field landing, turned off parked it, hopped out and AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Boy, it's the mundane things in life that sometimes mean the most. About that time up rolls Roman. He's got his tax rebate and is going to go fly the Duke? Who wants to go. Okay, he owes me a ride anyhow, so I took the right seat. What an airliner! You don't need no stinking headset. You can talk in normal tones with those engines at full chat. Biggest annoyance is when the pressurization cuts out at 2000 AGL on the way down. With vortex generators, it can come down final at about 80 knots, which saves a lot of runway. After a pass at 200MPH, pull up and see 5500 FPM rate of climb! The plane even feels good on the controls. Tight and precise. Okay, that was fun but I think I still like the kind of flying the Ercoupes give me better. At 1/8th the fuel use. Pre-beer, pre-hangar party arriving guests got rides in Ercoupe, Archer, and Stearman while the sun went down. We made some inspection runs of the mass balloon ascent over Riegel ridge (two dozen or so). Most of the pilots and chase crews arrived at the party 90 minutes later. >I had breakfast with Gregg Bullock at Millville, NJ this morning and he said >he climbed out above some scattered cumulous to meet me. More like around the fog, through the broken layer (promise of better south according to FSS). I watched the stratus end at TTN (PIREP of same as thank you to FSS). Smooth as silk though. Just a pretty morning. Perhaps some of the fog was leftover from the hangar party. Insanity in the pattern at MIV. Some Cessna driver doing TGs for an hour had a burr under his blanket and got into arguments on the CTAF (FSS) frequency with about a half dozen other planes in just an hour. Why can't we just all get along? Furthermore, why is this guy out at all if he finds it so aggravating. Cripes, he should go to church instead. Good to see George 'Free Bird' who is too senior to appreciate Lynyrd Skynyrd properly. Harvey-with-the-RV's teenage grandson said 'this is what I'll be like in 50 years.' 'How old do you think I AM, kid?' Geez. The ride home kinda sucked. The stratus had turned to cumulus, scattered at 3500, tops at 5000. KABE reports 1700 overcast. That's nearest station to home. Uh oh. Better hustle, hope I'm there before it is, if it's going that way. If not, there's always Solberg or Somerset. Now moderate turbulence. Bang, rattle, rattle, yaw, up, down and I wanna go home. Trenton was nice, and let me slip through their control zone at 2000 feet over the VOR. It was that or 7500, and even '387 takes a while to get there. Love those guys at TTN. When they hear a little plane scooting along under the clouds, jammed between the MOA and the Philly Class Bravo, it's always the same. 'Ident... transition approved.' I think they know how it feels. Once you're through Trenton, you can slide right up the pretty Delaware River home. The bumps were least at 1500' and that's pattern altitude, so I hung there and was glad to see N40 loom up. Well, you don't really see it from 1500'. The terrain is just wrong. But when the GPS says it's there and the bearing and distance says you're five out on the 45 for 25, you take it on faith. It was as well to hangar '387 and to call it a day. Went home, had a beer, and pressure-washed the deck. > It was nice to have >breakfast with a fellow "Couper" for a change. I was a bit late on arrival >and he already had someone drooling all over his coupe while waiting. Of >course we all know that this drooling and the endless questions feeds our >egos. As usual, everyone has their Ercoupe stories. You should have seen the 7AC that was there when I arrived. Just a perfect, original restoration of a plane that only had 400 TTAE anyway. Complete with Armstrong starter. The starter was the only part that hadn't been restored :-) Greg ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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