For years, my friend Andy Millin, and I had talked about getting together at his home airport near Kalamazoo, Michigan. I wanted to see his plane. I also wanted to get together with Carlos Fernandez of Grand Rapids Technologies. I have been making use of maybe 10 per cent of the capabilities of my GRT EFIS and Trutrak autopilot. Carlos offered to coach me up on the systems if I came up to his neck of the woods.
Life and weather conspired to get in the way several times, but last weekend the stars finally aligned. I planned a weekend trip up to visit Andy and his wife Theresa. Things got better from there. Jerry and Linda Brainard decided to fly up in the Ferrell's XL, N44VF. Andy arranged for an RV friend to be the photo ship for some air to air pictures and several Long EZ's were to come as well. It would be a regular mini fly in.
I was again weathered out on Friday afternoon as a very powerful line of thunderstorms crept from Andy's house toward the East, finally passing over Pennsylvania on Friday night. On Saturday morning I pulled the plane out early for a 6:30 departure and a planned 3 hour flight to Michigan.
________________________________________________________________
I take off with the rising sun and the recent weather behind me. There is supposedly one more band of weather to deal with 100 miles to the West.
_________________________________________________________________
Sure enough, there it is ahead. I decide to climb and simply go over it. I am on flight following, so I call Harrisburg Approach, which clears me to 10,500.
__________________________________________________________________
As I pass over the front, it looks nice and clear on the far side. I am FREEZING cold, then remember I have a perfectly good heater. I turn it on and am soon toasty warm again. I hadn't even thought of the heater, given how hot the weather is.
_________________________________________________________________
Passing over the ridges into central Pennsylvania.
___________________________________________________________________
Fog flowing down the Susquehanna River valley in the dawn light.
__________________________________________________________________
Cruising along in the still air at 10,500.
________________________________________________________________
The landscape flattens out into a patchwork of farm fields.
__________________________________________________________________
Pilot's eye view of the GRT screens. Flight instruments, map, engine monitoring all available at a glance. What a great system.
__________________________________________________________________
Almost there! If you look in the upper left of the screen, you will see "35D :028" then 79 NMi/ 318, meaning I'm only 28 minutes and 79 miles from Andy's airport on a heading of 318 degrees.
____________________________________________________________________
Landing at Alleghan, exactly 3 hours stop to stop as planned.
________________________________________________________________
No one is there when I arrive. Andy and Jerry had been watching my trip on Flightaware, which still showed me 30 minutes out. I pulled up to the pumps, called and fueled up.
Carlos arrived and we decided to get the long awaited instruction in while we waited for the others to arrive. Andy's friend Ron comes along for a ride in the back seat.
I fly while Carlos adjusts settings on the screens. After some exciting dives while turning, Carlos gets the autopilot and screens to play nicely together. I take copious notes and try it myself. It is extremely capable and I'm thrilled to finally have it working in other than heading mode. We head back to see who has arrived at the airport.
________________________________________________________________
I can now engage the autopilot right after takeoff and it will then fly at a preselected speed to a preselected altitude and proceed on course, waypoint by waypoint to my destination. Thanks again Carlos!
The gang's all here by now, so we line up all three planes for a photo op. That's the Ferrell's plane on the left, Andy's new plane on the right and me in the middle. Again, we had daydreamed about this shot for years during the construction of the planes.
_________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Andy helps Theresa get some nice shots of the planes. In the background is Chris Gearheart's yellow Long EZ. Wait till you see their departure.
_________________________________________________________________
We check out each of the planes. Only airplane geeks could get this excited about wheel pants.
________________________________________________________________
Jerry puts the socks on the Fox to protect the winglet paint.
_________________________________________________________________
The Long EZ loads up for departure.
________________________________________________________________
....and really gets one.
__________________________________________________
Andy checks out N929X. He and Theresa have already ridden in it to the Bahamas.
We decide that, while it is fun looking at the planes, it is time to get them in the air.
__________________________________________________________________
I load up Andy's friend Paul Dunn, the painter who did the phenomenal job on Andy's plane. Although I kind of hate him for one upping me, an artist like this earned a ride.
__________________________________________________________________
We wave to the guys in the hangar and taxi out.
___________________________________________________________________
Linda gets a couple of nice shots of the takeoff.
_________________________________________________________________
Andy fires up his plane to go up with us. He sure looks happy.
___________________________________________________________________
Some low passes for the cameras were up next.
________________________________________________________________________
Andy joins in the fun with a nice photo pass.
_________________________________________________________________________
The guys at the hangar take in the show.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
We taxi back to the hangar for a quick break.
______________________________________________________________
It's time for the main event - the air to air photo shoot. Andy's friend, RV driver Dave Hull has offered his expertise and use of his gorgeous plane as the photo ship. Linda, our photographer extraordinaire, will go up with him to take the pictures.
______________________________________________________________
We pull out the planes and load up for takeoff after a thorough briefing.
_________________________________________________________________
Andy's wife, Theresa, will ride with him and take pictures of my plane. Jerry draws the short straw and rides with me.
_________________________________________________________________
All ready to go. This is the view of Andy's plane from mine. Andy is 1, I am 2 and our photo ship is 3.
________________________________________________________________
We are off and I pull up along side Andy to start getting pictures. The photo ship is behind and to my right. The plan is to go to the shore of Lake Michigan (lower right), turn left and use the calm air and nice backdrop for a photo run.
_________________________________________________________________
In position off Andy's wing.
___________________________________________________________________
There are too many nice shots to post. Here are a few of the really good ones.
_______________________________________________________________________
After the photo flight, we land and taxi back to the hangar, eager to check out the photos.
__________________________________________________________________
The consensus is that we did pretty well for a first try.
__________________________________________________________________
Time for some relaxed hangar flying. Here Ron demonstrates the extreme smoothness of his flight with me while Andy looks on with admiration.
________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Bill Mulrooney, whose famous "Chevelocity" is down for repairs, flew in for a quick visit in his Long EZ with daughter Brittany.
__________________________________________________________________
We put the planes away for the night and headed back to the Millin's for dinner. Everyone was pretty tired. The next morning, we will get up early to go to an EAA fly in pancake breakfast in Niles, Michigan. Three Velocities should make quite an appearance.
_____________________________________________________________
As demonstrated, I am actually bigger than Andy's car. It needs one of those "Actual Size!" stickers.
______________________________________________________________
Sunday morning Andy and I head out to the airport first to pull out the planes and fuel up. Here's my plane at the pump in Alleghan.
The plan is to have a quick breakfast and head back to Pennsylvania, then on to Ocean City, New Jersey to pick up my daughter.
_________________________________________________________________
Andy and Theresa pull up and are ready to go.
__________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
In the run up area behind Andy, with Jerry and Linda right behind me in N44VF. We are ready to go.
_________________________________________________________________
Flying next to Andy and Theresa on the way to Niles at 3,500 and 20 minutes out.
____________________________________________________________________
I couldn't get a shot of Jerry behind me, but here he comes up the ramp after we all land at Niles.
________________________________________________________________
All three Velocities on the ramp at the Niles fly in.
______________________________________________________________
Cool rotary pancake maker. Leave it to EAA ingenuity.
____________________________________________________________
A momentous moment- the Millin's first fly in attendance in their own plane. Congratulations!
___________________________________________________________
After a quick breakfast, I'm back in the air and headed East. The ceiling is low and I am doing an uncomfortable shake and bake at 3,500 and 180 knots for almost 3 hours. My stomach is not happy.
________________________________________________________________
A view of the haze as I pass over Penn State.
_____________________________________________________________
You can see the football stadium in the center above the left canard.
_______________________________________________________________________
Three o'clock and I pick up Katie in Ocean City. Here she is on the left, with her cousin Alex and Alex's grandfather, Jim Derrah. Thanks for hosting Katie this week!
_________________________________________________________________
The Delaware River, with Pennsylvania and home on the far side. The ride back home is hot, muggy and bumpy. Katie is not enjoying it.
___________________________________________________________________
Back on the ground at home at 4:00. How's that for the face of someone who just avoided a 3 hour drive? Ahhh, the teenage years.
__________________________________________________________________
Thanks again to my hosts Andy and Theresa Millin. This was a great weekend, with lots of flying, great food and hanging out with flying buddies. I look forward to hosting them here on the East coast.
I hope everyone enjoys these pictures and I look forward to seeing you at Oshkosh in a few weeks.
_________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment