Chapter 18 Spring Break, 2003

Preparation


Weather permitting, we want to take a big trip for spring break. Last year, we went to Jackson Mississippi, but we are going to Pontotoc Mississippi in June this year for a family reunion. We went north to Missouri for Fall break last year, so that leaves west and south. How about Carlsbad Caverns? Sounds good. Then, how about we go visit Jeff and Kitten on the way back? Why not.

From Feb 11, the weather has gone completely sour. Rain, wind, cold, sleet, rain, wind, no sun to be seen. The plane needs an oil change before a long trip, but I will need a reasonably warm day for that. By Wednesday, Mar 5, the weather looks like it will break enough to begin the detailed planning. Thursday should be into the 60s so I will do the oil change then, leaving Friday for final planning and packing.

At noon on Thursday, it is clearing, but the temp is still 42. Finish my planning today and change the oil tomorrow, that'll work. Friday is clear and warming nicely by 10, so I head to the airport. I had gone to Tex-Air last week and bought a case of oil and filters, so I had everything I needed. Drove on down to Dave's and made sure that it was OK with him. Dropped off the oil and filter and drove back to the hangar. Poor bird had been cooped up in the hangar for 3 1/2 weeks. Did a thorough preflight and added some air to the tires and took off. Out over Celina for a few minutes and back to Aero Country for a few touch and gos then over to Dave's.

This time the oil change goes by the book. Dave is pulling out with a student as I arrive and I am adding the last quart of oil when he returns. Pressure check and leak check are good, so I put the bird back in it's nest for the night and go home.

Getting there is half the fun?


The morning looks a little hazy, but Flight Service says the flight should be good VFR all the way. We are airborne before 9:00 and head west. Our first stop is Bridgeport for fuel. My first solo XC was to Bridgeport, but Sandra had never been there. The FBO is a portable building, so you have an idea how much of a place that is, but the fuel is cheap.

There is a Cessna 172 and several people at the pumps. The Cessna is preparing to leave. It is a couple from Houston who have brought their child to stay with the grandparents for a week while they vacation. With full fuel, we taxi back out. I hadn't noticed, but there is a ridge across the south end of the airport. Very disconcerting when you are near gross weight on a warming day.

We clear it easily and turn west. Our planned route is west to Graham and just past Graham, we pick up the Bowie - Abilene VORs. Tracking towards Abilene, we will pass over Albany, Texas and US180. We will then follow 180 straight west for 80 miles to Snyder for lunch and fuel. The path takes us just south of downtown Anson. And we notice that the county courthouse there is literally the center of town. In fact, US 277 splits around it on the east and west sides. This is just too interesting, so I do a looping 360 to come back by and take pictures.


Pressing on, we have no problem finding the airport at Snyder. I call Flight Service and close the flight plan just before entering the pattern.
"Winston traffic, Musketeer Five Niner Four Lima Bravo. We will be entering the pattern on a right crosswind for 17"
"Winston traffic, Four Lima Bravo is on right downwind for 17."
"Winston traffic, Four Lima Bravo is right base for 17, full stop."
"Uh, Four Lima Bravo, you are still transmitting on the Flight Service frequency."
"Oops!"

The headwind we have been flying into all day shortens up our base leg so badly that I am way high turning final. Even after pulling the throttle all the way out, we are still going to be high. This is my first go-around in a long time, but the second try is pretty good. I order fuel and make the picture while Sandra goes inside. After the potty break, we get the managers truck and directions and head into town. His recommendation proves to be an excellent choice, and with all of us now fully fueled, we saddle up for the leg into Carlsbad.

The plan is to climb to 6500' on the way to the Big Springs VOR and track it outbound due west and at some point pick up the Carlsbad VOR. The distance is 140 miles and at that altitude (3500' AGL), there will be 40-60 miles in the middle where we will be on our own.

My first clue that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park came as we were climbing thru 6000'. We went from a 400FPM climb to a 100FPM descent with no change in engine sound or climb angle. This was one heck of a downdraft! By the time I had checked that everything about the plane was normal, we were back to a 300FPM climb. We leveled off at 6500, but before I could get trimmed, we were going down again. Then we were going up. This pattern continued all the way to Carlsbad. There was no way to maintain a semblance of altitude. Full power and a Vx deck angle would sometimes yield a 200FPM descent. At other times, idle power and approach angle would be required to keep the airspeed stable while we climbed 300FPM. Turning the yoke to compensate for routine bumps is easy compared to constantly hauling back or pushing forward on the yoke.
But we went on, passing just north of Andrews Texas and Eunice, New Mexico. By now, we have the Carlsbad VOR and can soon see the Salt Lake just east of it. On the traffic frequency approaching the lake, there is a helicopter, another plane taking off on 26 and departing to the east from the downwind. As we get close enough to begin planning our approach, a Mesa Air announces for runway 8. ASOS is reporting wind 220 at 3, but I elect to follow the Mesa. I fly straight into the downwind as he pulls onto the ramp. I make a good approach, but as we are landing (slightly) downwind, we float about 1000' before touching down. No problem, the runway is 5333' and we easily make the turnoff to the FBO.

Sandra gets the car while I button up the bird. After 2 hours of sitting up straight, not being able to relax and lean back against the seat, I feel like someone has hit me between the shoulder blades with a 2X4. Our motel has a Jacuzzi, but we had not been able to find my suit while we were packing.


On virtually every overnight trip, there is something that we have forgotten or didn't have that will be needed. The joke is that while I am flying the landing pattern, Sandra looks for the Wal-Mart. Cavern City Airport is about 5 miles south of Carlsbad proper, so she didn't get a good look on landing. Our motel is between the airport and town, so we go check in first. The room has a refrigerator/microwave, but no coffee pot. A "continental" breakfast is advertised, but our experience tells us that the elaborateness of these is widely varied. So we add some more items to the Wal-Mart list.

The Wal-Mart is just past the first major intersection on the way into town. We get me a swim suit and buy bananas, milk and bagels. And an 8 pack of water (tap water here has a unique taste). Back to the room and check the yellow pages for eateries. We are still on Central time and to us it is going up to 7. The FBO had recommended Stevens Grill and Cortez Restaurant. We decide that Mexican it will be tonight and Stevens on Sunday night. After dinner, we hit the spa for almost 2 hours. It feels sooooooo goood!

One big hole in the ground


Sunday Morning, we learn that the Continental breakfast at the Great Western Motel consists of coffee, Juice and Wal-Mart doughnuts. I take a doughnut and some coffee back to the room while the Redhead hits the stuff from last evening's trip to Wal-Mart. We then check cameras, get 2 water bottles and head for the Caverns. Our plan is to "do" the Natural Entrance tour, take a break and then "do" the Big Room.

The Natural Entrance tour entails walking down all 770 feet over a distance of 1.4 miles. This will give your "downhill" muscles a terrific workout. Once your eyes adjust to the dimness, the sights are spectacular. The major problem was a group behind us having 2 children with flashlights. We finally paused to let them pass us. The entire trip took us a little more than a hour and the restrooms at the bottom were a welcome relief.
After a break, we start through the Big Room. The sights here are even more spectacular than before. Stalactites and stalagmites, flowstone. Collectively, these features are called speleothems, and they are everywhere. As we discover later, most small cameras (film or digital) cannot take good pictures in this environment. There are dim floodlights on many prominent features, but they are little help when the feature is more than a few feet away.

The "storyboards" and the audio wand give much information on cave formation and features in general and this cave in particular. We took one of the audio wands and shared it as needed, and everyone should do so. It is cool inside the cave, but not cold. The walk down left me almost perspiring in my light windbreaker, but not quite. However, the cool does seem to sink into you.

We finally emerged into daylight after nearly 4 hours. The view out over the plain below is magnificent and we sat for a few minutes in the sunlight to rest and bake some of the chill out. The food in the snack bar at the bottom was not appealing to us and the restaurant at the top wasn't either. So we headed back to White's City where there appeared to be numerous facilities. There was only one apparent eatery, and it wasn't open, so back to town.

We ate at a sandwich shop in town and headed for several other sites of note. The town lake is down about 15 feet from the level of the paddle boat docks. The Living Desert museum had many items of interest, but the main attraction was an interpretive trail nearly 2 miles long that was up and down hill across an arroyo. We didn't think our legs needed that, so we passed. We drove out to Brantley Reservoir to find it almost empty also. The reported drought in New Mexico is real folks.

Back to the room and clean up a little for dinner. The Stevens grill is very good food at a reasonable price for the atmosphere. Then another hour in the spa and off to bed.

Miles and miles


Monday dawns clear, but by the time we eat, pack and check out, there is a line of low clouds to the east. They look like typical morning haze, so we head for the airport. Flight Service says that they extend in a line along the TX/NM border and should be gone by 1600Z. Fort Stockton is clear and Junction is clear. By this time, we can see what appears to be clear to the southeast even though the last report from Wink says 700' ceiling. Wink is nearly 45 minutes away and it is 1430Z now, so we cross fingers, file flight plans to Fredericksburg for lunch with a fuel stop in Monahans.

We take off from 14L and climb straight out. At 1000' AGL, we can see that the cloud line to the east extends southward as far as we can see. We are higher than the tops at 2000' and they look like a big fuzzy blanket. As we have no real nav aids on our proposed route, I don't want to fly above them. We go back down to see if we can get under them. The bottoms are less than 1000' AGL which is just too low, so I climb back up on top while setting the VOR for Fort Stockton. On top and heading south, they extend as far as we can see and we are still too far out to pick up FST. Return to CNM.

Pace around, check the radar, call FSS, pace, check radar. Wink finally reports marginal VFR and improving, so we add 20 gallons of gas, re-file for Junction for fuel and lunch and Junction to Karnes City. We take off a little after 11:00 CST and head for Wink. I climb to 5500 and encounter the same up/down from Saturday. Back down to 4500 which puts us even with the top of the cloud/haze layer to the east. The cloud tops poking above the haze layer are to our left, and should generally burn off right to left. At 4500, the air is smooth, but we have a slight headwind.

We pass Wink and Monahans and head out into the big nothing. The only landmarks of note are a couple of dry lakes until we get to King Mountain and McKamey. King Mountain and all the surrounding hills are dotted with wind turbines and that was one of the reasons for this route selection. We miss King Mountain completely. The haze to our left is lowering and we are about 3 miles south. We see McKamey with no problem, using Soda Lake as a checkpoint and there are many windmills between McKamey and Iraan.

Just south of Iraan, we turn to a direct easterly course and tune to the Junction VOR. We won't be able to pick it up for nearly 50 miles, but I10 is just a few miles south of us for reference. We can occasionally see it, even. We make Ozona and then near Sonora pick up JCT. Junction is a pretty place, nestled in the hills of Hill Country Texas. There are hills all around the airport and I stay high on base to clear one of them. This means landing long, but the airport has no taxiway and the only exit from the runway is near the south end anyway. We make the turnoff with no problem.

Fill the left tank and bring the right tank to 15 gallons. Make acquaintance with Shasta the airport cat. We pushed the bird away from the gas pump and the airport manager gave us a ride to the cafe. We ate good hamburgers and rode back to the airport. I called Jeff and told him we were about to take off from Junction and should be in Karnes City around five. We took off and turned east to pick up the Stonewall VOR at Fredricksburg. It then dawned on me that we no longer planned to stop at Fredricksburg, so we could just tune in the San Antonio VOR and fly direct.

We contacted San Antonio Approach over Boerne and were given a squawk code and asked to climb to 5500. We were turned east for traffic avoidance and then told to turn on course. We turned south and went directly between San Antonio International and Randolph Field. In spite of the late afternoon haze, we found the lakes and power plant south of town and picked up US181 to go the 33 more miles to Karnes City. Once clear of San Antonio, we descended to 3000' so we had better visibility. Over Floresville, Poth and Falls City. I called Karnes County Unicom and got the airport information. Active runway was 16 and it was right traffic. Over Karnes City, we could see the airport and began our descent.

Now, Jeff is an ex-navy pilot and we were going to get there about 5:10. My fear was that he would be in the FBO listening on the Unicom, so I tried to sound professional in all my approach calls and make an exemplary landing. On downwind, I didn't see his suburban in the parking lot (there were only 3 pickups there), so some of the pressure was relieved. We taxied to the parking area and shut down just as they arrived.


Good friends, Good fun


Jeff and I had met on an internet forum several years ago. Discovering several mutual interests and opinions, he had extended an invitation to come visit when we got the plane back in the air Christmas '01. It had worked down to a decision around Christmas '02 that if we could, it would be spring break '03. Now here we are.

One is always somewhat nervous meeting someone for the first time, my son married a girl he met on the internet and after several good years, it went south in a hurry. But, I knew that Jeff and I had a great deal of respect for each other and shared many views. Sandra gets along with everyone and a lady in her 70s who goes by Kitten must be a lot of fun.

Sandra began schlepping our stuff to the Suburban while I buttoned up, tied down and chocked the Mouse. When Jeff and I got to the car, Sandra and Kitten were already talking 90 to nothing. Their spread (you should no more ask a rancher the size of his spread nor the number of cattle than you would ask his bank balance) is 15-20 miles or so north of Kenedy and by the time we got there, we were all old friends. The girls inspected the house while Jeff and I inspected the swimming hole and fed his crop of catfish. Then we all sat out on the verandah and talked with Kitten periodically going in to check on dinner.

Stuffed to the gills with homemade lasagna, we talked and talked. It was like people who had known each other forever but had some time of absence to catch up on. Homemade cannolies with the 10:00 news and some more talk and then off to bed.

Kitten and I were the early risers and had plenty of time and coffee to talk over before Sandra wandered out. Jeff appeared shortly thereafter. Kitten prepared a superb quiche for breakfast and I checked the weather for our planned 3:00 departure. Not a chance! Nowhere on the entire route was showing or predicting VFR weather until possibly late evening.

Our gracious hosts assured us that they would be honored to have us for another 24 hours or longer if necessary. We quickly took stock and put on a load of laundry so we could have clean underwear for the next day and settled in to enjoy more conversation. We settled most of the world's major problems over a long afternoon poker game (Sandra was the big winner)

After another sumptuous supper, Jeff and I checked the internet weather and Wednesday was looking possible. Although it was cloudy and drizzling on Wednesday morning, that was what I had been forecast on the net. By late morning, the ceiling was up and the drizzle had stopped. I called Flight Service at noon and they were forecasting marginal VFR beginning after 1600Z (noon local). We filed for a 3:00 departure and began packing up.

We left the ranch about 1:30 so we could see some of the sights of Karnes City and arrived at the airport shortly after two. We loaded up the plane and did the preflight. Then I taxied it over to the pumps for some gas. After the long and repetitive good-byes, we took off for home.

Never in our travels have we been treated to such gracious hosts and good company.

Flying in weather.


The weather forecast told of a front building on a line from Mineral Wells to Del Rio. That is a line nearly parallel to our proposed course and about 100 miles west of it. There was variable cloudiness in front of it and it was beginning to sweep easterly. At takeoff, San Antonio was IFR only and Austin was deteriorating.

Our course was up TX80 until we could receive the Centex VOR (just NE of Austin) we would then turn NE until we were directly south of the VOR. Going inbound to the VOR from there would keep us well clear of the Austin Bergstrom traffic. From Centex, to Waco VOR and across Dallas to home.

At Kenedy, the scattered clouds started a little over 2000' with a broken layer reported at 6000'. Since we needed to see TX80, we stayed under the scattered layer. We easily made it to Luling and were now receiving Centex. I turned to a heading of 030 and set the VOR to the 350 radial. Soon, it centered and we turned north after checking in with Austin approach and getting a squawk code. We passed just west of Bastrop in lowering skies. AUS was now reporting ceiling at 600' and we were down under 1500. Knowing we were east of our intended path, I turned inbound to Centex taking us further west.

Big mistake! Too suddenly, I realize that we are below 1000' (500' AGL) and in scattered ground visibility and there is rain on the windscreen. I start a 180 and can see no light behind us. I cannot be more than 10 miles from Bergstrom, so I don't want to climb. I can't go any lower.

I call Austin approach and confess that I am in IMC and not rated, can they help me? They give me a vector to Bird's Nest airport which should be about 5 miles away. I turn on course and the ground goes away almost completely. I tell them that I have only intermittent ground contact and am turning back south. I spot the racetrack that is 2 miles south of Bird's nest in a hole in the rain. I tell Austin that I see the race track, but there is no ground visibility where I have just been (I must have been right over Bird's Nest at 800', but could not see it).

After a short discussion of options, I say that I will turn SE and try to get back to VFR. With their OK, I do and as visibility improves, I slowly climb back above 1000' and then start turning towards the north. Within 3 minutes, I am back to solid VFR, at 1500' and headed NE. I tell Austin that I will go in to Rockdale to gather my wits and re-check the weather.

Austin stays with me until I report the Rockdale runway in sight. We land (quite well, considering) and taxi back to the small ramp. There are 2 hangars with an "FBO" occupying a walled off section in one of them. It has a table, 4 chairs, a pay phone and 2 rest rooms.

After a long discussion with Flight Service, the plan is formed. Corsicana, Terrell and McKinney are all VFR, but Waco and points west are not. We will head for the Mexia VOR and then turn north passing just west of Corsicana and up the east side of Dallas. We only encounter a line of clouds extending almost to Mexia and another extending to Corsicana. Other than that, it is mostly clear with 8 miles visibility in haze.
Arriving at Aero Country, we unpack and put the plane to bed. The sun is setting in a purple blaze as we drive out of the airport.