Chapter 48 Yucky Weather!

The Big BAC Bust
 
The annual BAC meeting was scheduled for Oct 17-20 at Myrtle Beach, SC. We have made serious plans to go since the date was finalized in March. I had spent countless hours planning various routes there and back, All the current sectionals were on hand and the long range weather forecasts looked good enough the week before.
 
In the meantime, the right brake pedal on the pilot’s side had slowly gone soft over the last couple of months. After several attempts to find a way to check it out, Mark Artizone agreed to have a look at it on Monday.
The weather forecast on Sunday told of a front arriving Tuesday afternoon, but clear until it got here. Monday, we finished the planning, marked the sectionals and packed the bags. Mark had called and said the brake was fixed after adding fluid and a severe bleeding. We went to bed after the weather said there would be patchy fog in the morning, clearing by 10.
 
Up at 6:30, I had to file IFR just to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway. TAFs said clearing by midmorning and the weather briefing at 8:00 said that all the airmets for IFR conditions were set to expire at 10:00. But the clouds and rain were due by 2:00. Small window, but hopeful.
 
We are ready to load the car by 8:30, but cannot see the far side of the street. Sit and wait. By 10:00, we can see down the block, but looking up shows no sign of sky. The satellite photos confirm the forecast rain across southern MS, AL and GA, moving slowly north. When it begins drizzling rain here before noon, we reluctantly start cancelling reservations.
 
Hope of still making part of the festivities died Wednesday night with the satellite maps and forecast. Along with a note on the message board from a member who left Houston Tuesday afternoon and was still stuck in Baton Rouge, unable to go further or return home.  Consolation prize time. Friday, the weather here was fine. Not good elsewhere, but good here. We go out to the hangar about 4:00 and preflight. The bird is exceedingly thirsty after Sandra’s cross country, and we get a chance to try out the new fuel farm down on the south end of the field. We not only have fuel available (at a reduced price to the residents) now, there is also a bathroom available. Uptown!
 
Back to the north end for takeoff. The right brake is just fine. So is everything else, so off we go. Even with full tanks, the mouse leaps off the runway, climbing at better than 700fpm in the 65 degree air. Out over the practice area and mess around some. Then back in for a couple of landings. My approaches aren’t that pretty, but the landings are decent. Put the bird in its nest and go to dinner. Not a bad afternoon.
 
Sandra is now planning her solo XCs. She has decided that she will eschew all Navaids and do them strictly on pilotage. I cannot seriously criticize this decision. Her sense of direction is better than mine and she has several hundred hours in the air, practicing matching what she sees on the ground against the sectional. She also has Young Dave’s agreement that, like I did, she can take along a digital camera and use the pictures as proof of her accomplishments. This means that she won’t have to taxi in, shut down and look for someone to sign her logbook at an unattended airport, much less restart the hot engine.
 
So, on the 26th, she sets out for Wood County. I wait and wait and within minutes of the estimated time of return, I hear her announce “5 miles south east, inbound for landing.”. She makes a respectable landing and taxis up to the hangar. After shutdown and paperwork, she floats out of the cockpit. She is so high that she has trouble getting enough traction to help me put the plane away.
 
Back home, we download the camera. The pictures show her crossing I35 and passing south of Lake Fork, exactly on course. Along with a picture of the “FBO” building made from the runway. We print off 3 of the pictures to show Young Dave as proof.
 
I had promised that as soon as she was signed off for unsupervised solo, I would get checked out to fly from the right seat. How hard can this be? Set up a time with Young Dave for Sunday afternoon.
 
I get out there and have the plane preflighted, positioned, the hangar closed up and am sitting in the right seat checking out the view when Young Dave drives up. I get out and we exchange pleasantries while he gets in. This will be the last pleasant thing for the next hour.
 
I do the pre-start checks, he starts the engine and I do the post-start stuff. Then I attempt to taxi out. I spend most of the time way to the left of the centerlines, but eventually get to the run-up area. Dave has to do the run-up as I can’t reach the mag switch. He proclaims us ready to fly and I wiggle us onto the runway. His contribution to the takeoff is to tell me that the rpm is in the green and we stagger into the air. Out to the practice area and I level out at 3500’. I try some steep turns and slow flight to get the feel of this perspective. They are completed successfully, but not to the PTS. Things not only look different from this side, they even feel different. This may not be as easy as I wanted it to be.
 
Back in to try landings. The wind isn’t bad and favors 35, so this shouldn’t be too hard, right? All the carefully learned reflexes of 600 hours in the left seat work backwards. I pull the throttle when I should pull the yoke. I push the yoke when I should increase the throttle. To make matters worse, I realize after the second arrival that I am looking over the nose too long after flare, making directional control at touchdown nearly non-existent. Finally, the fourth approach results in a landing that I would have accepted 5 years ago, so we call it a day. What a confidence shaker! I’ll probably have to do this at least two more times before I can feel capable, let alone confident from this side.
 
The weather finally allows Sandra to fly her second cross country on November 8th. Her destination this time is Hugo, OK, a place we haven’t been to before. In fact, we have only been within sight of it a few times. Again, her plan is straight pilotage. Everything set up and blessed, she does the preflight and taxis down to the fuel farm for gas. I’m no chauvinist, but I make her do the entire task. She will have to do it on her long cross country, so she needs to practice.
 
Back to 17 for departure and I wish her luck as she leaves the pattern then go over and sit at Dave’s waiting for her return. Again, I am waiting in the gallery and hear her announce inbound right on schedule. She’s not quite as high this time, and we debrief at Old Dave’s before going home to down load the pictures.
 
Again, the pictures show her passing over the airport at Bonham and crossing the Red River only slightly to the right of the line drawn on the chart. Another good job!
 
By this time, the Mouse needs a bath, big time. Even it seems a little embarrassed at the mess it has become. The oil from the “oil change from hell” and the subsequent drips has covered the belly and picked up lots of dirt. There is a thin coat of oil on the bottom of the stabilator, making preflight a hand dirtying chore. Lots of low altitude flight and late afternoon flight has covered all the leading edges with bugs. Condensation and drips in the hangar from the damp and rainy weather has made mud splotches of the dust on the top surfaces. Our proud little bird hunkers behind the closed hangar doors, hoping no one sees it like this.
 
Normally, sunny, 65-75 degree days are common this time of year. What is normal this year is 85+ or 60-, winds over 20 or rain and fog. Thanksgiving comes and goes and the 80+ days are gone for the year, but the wind, rain and cold continue. Finally, the 27th is pretty. Sunshine, light winds and a temperature expected to be in the upper 60s. Off to the birdbath.
 
Arrive at the hangar about 1:30, pull plane out, unroll and hook up hose, get rags, soap, brush and bucket out and start in. We have done this together enough that we have a routine established and the task moves right along. John the landlord drives up about 2:30 and we have the topside done and are working underneath. By shortly after 3:00, we are wrapping up and the Mouse is proudly shaking its tail feathers in anticipation of getting some exercise. Clean up all the stuff, re-grease all the lube points and do a careful preflight. Pile in and taxi down to the fuel farm. Fill up the tanks and talk to the owner of “Wild Thang”, a gorgeous Cessna 140, then fire up and head out. Over the practice area, do some steep turns, hitting my wake at least once. Then some slow flight and a stall series. Sandra now has no problem sitting there while I hold the nose up until she can see daylight between the airspeed needle and the white arc on the indicator. (Parallax from her side says that it was probably right on the bottom of the arc.)
 
Then back in for some landing practice. I need it after my right seat experience. What follows is two of the most perfect approaches I have ever flown, The touchdowns were both good, but the approaches were the amazing thing. On neither of them did I change the power setting from abeam the numbers until flare. The runway appeared in exactly the right spot both times when I rolled out on final. It is going to be hard to top that, so put the bird back in the nest, wax the leading edges and go eat dinner.
 
Then the weather got really bad.
 
This has been the absolute worst weather year I can remember. We had the normal years accumulation of rainfall by the end of June and it didn’t stop there. We had 2 long trips to fly-ins cancelled for weather. We could not find a 3 day window at any time in December for a trip to Corpus Christi. Cold, clouds, and/or wind is the norm. We could neither find a day for Sandra to do her long cross country, or a hamburger run. I couldn’t even find a time to get night current so we could go up and see the Christmas lights if we could find an evening when we could go.
 
The “100mph blow dry” flight on Nov 27 proved to be the last time the Mouse gets to play for the year. We had reached 90 hours for the year by the end of October, but only got 3 in November and none in December. What a bummer!!
 
Starting the new year
 
Finally, Jan 11 is a pretty day without too much wind. We gotta go somewhere. Sandra had looked at Vernon, TX as a potential destination for her long XC before deciding on Henderson. Why not go there?
 
 
We are off the ground shortly after 10:30 and headed northwest. Since we will pass directly over Wichita Falls and Shepard AFB, we pick up flight following from Dallas approach just after leaving the pattern at Aero Country. Level at 4500, the air is very smooth and the visibility is nearly excellent.

This is a weekday and the weather is excellent, so we expect the traffic at Sheppard to be busy. We are not wrong. When we are handed off to Sheppard approach, they are working a whole flock of fast movers. We have one pass off our left wing, several cross under us and a pair pass in front of us. We plod on over the VOR and on towards Vernon. Sheppard releases us when we report Vernon in sight and we begin a descent to pattern altitude. Enter the left downwind for 20 and in spite of the 6 week layoff, pull off a decent landing.
 
 
Check out the courtesy car and head for town. The FBO recommendation turned out to be easy to find and the food was good, but not memorable. After a filling lunch, back to the airport to feed the Mouse and saddle up.
There is a stationary low pressure system over the panhandle. The altimeter setting at McKinney was 30.01 when we took off. At every handoff along the way, we had set it lower. The AWOS here for takeoff reported 29.86. Take off and head east. We check in with Sheppard and set up to 29.90. At 5500, we are above the traffic, and serenely sail along towards home. McKinney is now reporting 30.00 as we enter the pattern at Aero Country.
 
Sandra’s Very Bad day.
 
After not flying since Nov 8, Sandra gets another chance on Jan 15th. She is feeling a little insecure about the long layoff, saying that she thinks she has forgotten everything she has learned. We pile into the Eggplant, trepidation and all and head for the airport, mid afternoon.
 
Pull the mouse out and she does the preflight. Right tank has about 10 gallons and the left tank close to 15. Her “plan” is to go to the practice area for a while then over to McKinney for T&Gs. She says she will take off on the left tank then switch to the right for the practice, switching back to the left at McKinney.
 
John and Mike are both at the hangar, working on their planes, so after watching her takeoff, I hang around with them. After about 20 minutes, I switch the handheld back to TKI and hear the tower giving her landing instructions. I hear her acknowledge “clear to land” and then she is too low for me to hear anymore. Now all I can hear is McKinney Tower.
 
“Uh Four Lima Bravo, That taxiway is closed.” “Understood, Do you need a tow?”
“Understood, let us know. If you can’t get it started, we’ll send you a tow.”
“Roger, Four Lima Bravo, re-enter the runway and taxi to parking.”
 
What happened? What went wrong? Apparently, the engine quit for some reason. She got it started, but she is going to parking instead of coming home. I hate hearing only one side of a conversation. After an eternity (probably 5 minutes), my cell rings.
 
The engine quit on short final, right over the threshold. She was still on the right tank, intending to switch tanks on the T&G. It was an awful landing, she is pretty shaken up, could I come get the plane and she will drive home?
 
I drive over to TKI in the 5:00PM traffic, not knowing what to expect. I am rehearsing all the things to check after a hard landing and wondering what this is going to do to her confidence. I can see the Mouse sitting proud as normal on the ramp as I park the car, and she is sitting in the FBO reading a magazine. She says she doesn’t think the plane is hurt as she hands me the keys.
 
I tell her to sit tight while I check it out. Nothing is visibly different, no evidence of an excessively hard landing. There is still about 15 gallons in the left tank. I go back in and tell her to stay until I start to taxi and give her the keys to the van. Saddle up, fire up and all seems normal. Contact tower and get clearance. Taxi out, do run-up and wait while two aircraft land then take off from the Charlie intersection (last open taxiway). All goes well, and I even make a decent landing at Aero Country. Taxi back in and put it away. Close up the hangar just as she drives up.
 
She says she doesn’t remember anything from the time the propeller stopped until she got it restarted. She is mad at herself for letting the tank run dry and it doesn’t help that I have done the same thing many times. The only difference was that it happened to her at a place where she couldn’t restart it. Being over the threshold, she was slow enough that the prop would no longer windmill, so that even if she had time to switch tanks, it would not start. I tell her and tell her that regardless of what she remembers, she apparently did everything absolutely right. She got it on the runway safely and even used the momentum to get onto the taxiway (Even if it was closed, she got off the runway so she wouldn’t block other traffic.). That was either good thinking or good reflexes or both.
 
Saturday, Feb 2, is the next pretty day that one of us doesn’t have commitments for, so we decide to go somewhere. We are running low on jams and jellies, and there is a place in Palestine which sells locally grown and made stuff, so let’s go get some. Uneventful flight down in not so good visibility. Drive into town and make our purchases, eat lunch at a downtown sandwich shop then fly back. Nothing spectacular, but at least, the Mouse got some exercise.
 
On Feb 24, she manages to schedule a lesson with Dave. She is nervous as all get out, but goes anyway. After the flight, Dave says that she has done well, but she still has confidence issues.
 
The Annual
 
It is Annual time again. The only things on the to-do list this year are to fix a couple of bad nut plates. One on the cowling and one on the tail cone. Oh, and we are getting an increasing amount of nose wheel shimmy. Sandra is going to be gone twice during mid March to early April. Once with siblings and once with friends, so that will be a good time to “git er done”.
 
The plan is for me to prep the plane in our hangar and Dave will come down there for the inspections and sprinkling of holy water. I start in on Tuesday the 11th. Pull all the inspection plates, remove the interior and fix the 2 bad nut plates. John and I swap places with the Mouse and Cessna so Mike can get it out whenever he wants to.
 
I jack up the nose wheel and check the wheel and bearings. No abnormal play, but there are 2 flat spots on the tire. Call it done for the day. Wednesday, I go back out and hook up a drill with a wheel on it and spin the nose wheel. No wobbles and no shakes. Get out the big jacks and jack up the nose. Both the knee joint and the steering collar have a lot of play. Rebuild nose gear time. Remove prop and cowling and discover that the spring on the air intake relief door has broken. Add that to the list.
 
I spend the rest of the day making arrangements with Mike Rellihan for the rebuild and AECI for a new set of donuts while we are at it. Mike promises that he will do his best to get it back to us in time for us to get to the BAC Fly-in at Tullahoma on April 18. Thursday morning, I go back to the hangar and in an hour have the gear off and in a box. Take it down to the auto shop that works on our cars and use their degreaser to clean it up and then to the local Mail Boxes to get it shipped.
 
April 7th, it is on the way back. It arrived at Dave’s late Thursday afternoon. Friday morning, I go to Tex-Air for air filter, oil and sectionals for the trip to Tullahoma, then to the airport. At the hangar, I unpack what appears like a brand new nose gear. By three, it is back on, the air induction door is fixed and back on and I am ready to re-cowl. So I call it a day.
 
Saturday, I go out and finish up. Get the cowling back on, hang and torque the prop and put the spinner on. It looks like an airplane again.
 
Monday, Dave and I go back to the hangar and he looks at what he needs to look at and pronounces everything acceptable. I get John’s grease gun and pack the steering collar and begin buttoning up and re-assembling. John and I swap places again with the Mouse and the Cessna and I crank it up. The object is that since it hasn’t run since Feb 24, I wanted to run it before the compression check. Ran just fine. Warmed it up, did mag checks and tested the mag switch. Tuesday morning, I pulled the plugs and Dave ran the compression checks. Everything was just fine. Pull it out and give it a test flight. It was very windy, but I pull off a couple of acceptable landings with not a quiver out of the nose wheel. Taxi over to the pumps and fill it up for the trip east on Friday.
 
A Very Good Trip! (sort of)
 
Many years ago, a group set up a fund to preserve and display Beech Staggerwing aircraft at Tullahoma, TN. In the late 90s, they added a couple of Beech Travelairs and several type B18 Twin Beeches. When we visited in 2004, it was still called the Staggerwing Museum even though they were already building the hangar space for the Bonanza display. Sometime after that, the name changed to The Beechcraft Heritage Museum. On April 19, they were going to dedicate and open the display for the Beech Aero Club types; Musketeer, Sport, Sundowner, Sierra, Skipper and Duchess. All BAC members were encouraged to attend and we intended to.
By Tuesday night, the weather forecast looked grim. A nasty front was to move through here Thursday night and arrive in Tullahoma Friday afternoon. We tentatively planned to cancel our plans Thursday and leave then instead of Friday, but it was never VFR weather here all day Thursday. So Tullahoma on Friday was out. The front did not move east fast enough for us to go as far east as we could on Friday and still make any of the events on Saturday.
 
We had originally planned to leave Tullahoma on Sunday and fly to Cleveland to visit my niece and some other friends who live there. Then come back to Dayton on Tuesday to visit my sister. The friends were going to be in Texas for the week, so Cleveland became a bust. On to plan B.
 
We will leave Saturday morning, visit Vicksburg, MS for the afternoon. Fly on on Sunday to Fort Payne, AL so the Redhead can get her Alabama (the singing group) fix. On to Dayton on Monday for a couple of days with Julie and Larry. Then on Thursday to Saint Genevieve, MO and home on Friday.
 
Day 1, Vicksburg, MS

Off the ground shortly before 9:00 in clear skies and good visibility. Check in with Dallas Approach on the crosswind and pick up flight following. A little stair step at 4000’ and then up to 5500 just east of Ray Hubbard. The air is incredibly smooth and we drone along with Sandra reading a book and me sitting with my hands in my lap. Across the Belcher VOR and the Monroe VOR. Just east of Delhi, we begin the descent into Vicksburg-Tallulah. Enter a left crosswind for 18 and plonk it on. I ran out of airspeed before I ran out of altitude. No bounce, just PLONK! Check fillings as we taxi in with 2.6 hours on the clock for a 293nm flight.
 
 
Sandra picks up our chariot as I button up and check fuel status. Load bags into the Ford F150 behemoth, order fuel for tomorrow and head for town. Eat a good lunch at McAllister’s and head for the battlefield park.
 
 
Spend the usual time in the visitor center and then make the drive around the park. Like most sites on the east bank of the Mississippi, this is very rugged terrain. From the location of the Confederate fortifications, it is obvious why the only way the Yankees could take the city was by siege.
 
At the north end of the park is the gunboat USS Cairo which was sunk in the Yazoo river by a Confederate mine. This was an extremely interesting display showing what the boat was like and the way the sailors lived.
We finish up the drive around the park, stopping to make pictures at several locations then drive around the city. There is a large arts & crafts fair going on which blocked off access to the waterfront downtown, but we do get to the Tourist Center and South Fort and Navy Circle.
 
Check into the Motel and rest up for dinner. We wanted to check out Rusty’s Riverfront Grill, but the fair had access to it blocked. We opted instead for Beechwood, just up the street from the motel. Good food, but not nearly as memorable as in Natchez.
 
Day 2, Fort Payne, AL
 

Up before 7:00, shower, dress and pack. Hit the motel breakfast, check out and head for the airport. Off the ground before 9:00 and headed east. Over the Jackson VOR and towards the Bigbee VOR at Columbus, MS. The haze is a little more than yesterday, but the air is still very smooth. Over Bigbee, we jog around the restricted space above Columbus AFB and pick up the outbound radial towards Fort Payne. This leg is 125 miles and after Bigbee fades out, we are on our own.
 
We go over Albertville, AL, right on course, as the air roughens some with the rising terrain. Soon Fort Payne is dead ahead and we negotiate landing order with a Citation inbound from the north. Downwind is along a several hundred foot high ridge parallel to the runway, but the landing is decent in spite of a gusty crosswind. The Hobbs shows 2.8 hours for the 267 mile flight.
 
Tie down and unload and head for town. Stop at the visitor center and then lunch. First stop is the Alabama Fan Club and Museum. Very interesting, but Sandra spent twice as long inside as I did. Purchased some items in the gift shop and then started on the rest of the area.
 
The Santa Fe Museum has some good items on display and shows the local history quite well. We then drove up onto Lookout Mountain and over to DeSoto State Park. From there to DeSoto Falls and on to the town of Mentone where we stopped for an ice cream cone. Then down the mountain into Hammondville and back down US11 into Fort Payne.
 
The motel was actually in Rainsville, 5 miles west of Fort Payne, but a scenic drive anyway. The recommended dinner place was a catfish house. Sandra doesn’t do catfish, so her meal wasn’t as satisfactory, but for me, the fish was fresh, never frozen and the hushpuppies were delicious.
 
Day 3-5, Dayton, OH

Up around 7, check out and head back to the airport. The weather briefing shows fog and IFR conditions from north of Somerset, well into Ohio. The forecast is for clearing by 10:00, so we will head north with Somerset as a fallback destination.
 
We are off the ground by 9:00, headed for Georgetown, KY. We try to pick up Flight Following from Atlanta, but are passed off immediately to Chattanooga Approach. Our 5500’ altitude puts us less that 3000’ AGL, so the air isn’t that smooth today, but other than a few real jolts over the Hinch Mountain VOR, it isn’t bad.
 
 
North of Crossville, TN, the ground begins to drop away again and we plod on over rugged forest land with little sign of human habitation. Approaching Somerset, KY, Indianapolis Center tells us that the morning fog at Lexington and Cincinnati has now cleared, so we are good to go the rest of the way.
 
Around Madison-Richmond, Lexington Approach drops us down to 3500 and it is a little bumpy there. Over the east side of Lexington, the engine stumbles. With the descent and traffic advisories, I forgot to change tanks 10 minutes ago. No harm, no foul, it comes back to life immediately.
 
Enter the pattern, decent landing, taxi up to the ramp and shut down. 2.8 hours for 23
6 miles this time. The NOTAMS said that Springfield-Beckley has no 100LL, so I order 35 gallons for the 1 hour flight after lunch. Sandra checks out the courtesy car and gets directions for lunch and we head for town.
Main street has some beautiful homes on it as we get into downtown. We eat at a downtown diner called Fava’s. The food is excellent and while I am standing in line to pay, a man behind me asks about the Musketeer logo on my shirt.
 
Weather now shows scattered clouds from 3500 to 5000 and we will pass across part of the Cincinnati class B, so I figure that this will be a low altitude rough air leg. I call Julie as we are walking back out to the plane to let her know that we will be there in about an hour fifteen.

We take off and Lexington hands us off to Cincinnati almost immediately. We make all the landmarks, but it is rough with scattered to broken clouds just above and misty patches making ground visibility occasionally very poor. For the first time in a long time, I cannot see the airport. Sandra sees it and is trying to point it out to me. Dayton approach is telling me where it is, But I just cannot see it. Finally, almost lined up with the crosswind runway and 5 miles out at ten o’clock, I see it. Contact the tower and am told to report on downwind.
 
“Springfield Tower, Four Lima Bravo, left downwind for two four.”
“Roger Four Lima Bravo.”
Hmmm, not cleared to land, just “roger”. As I am turning final, “Springfield, is Four Lima Bravo cleared to land?”.
“Four Lima Bravo, check gear down, clear to land.”
“Four Lima Bravo has three down and welded. Cleared to land.”
 
We land nicely, but a little long to get us past the ANG ramp and facilities on the north end. Sitting on Delta, I ask the tower for directions to Sunbird Air and while he is telling me to taxi straight ahead to the building with the overhanging roof, Sandra spots Julie waiting by the fence.
 
Taxi onto the ramp, locate the parking space markings, decide on one, swing into it and shut down. Sandra gets out and hugs Julie while I write down times; 1.2 hours for 101nm. Then I get out and embrace my little sister. The girls go for the car while I make the picture and unload the baggage.
 
There is only one guy in the FBO, but he gives me tie down straps and says they should have gas on Wednesday. With the Mouse secured, we head for Enon where Julie and Larry live. Then follows two days of catching up. We haven’t gotten together since Julie’s daughter Heather got married in ’99. We talk on the phone semi-regularly, but that just ain’t the same.
 
On Monday night, we all meet with their son Jon in Kettering for dinner. The girls sleep late on Tuesday and talk the rest of the day. We grill hunks of cow for dinner and talk all evening. Same pattern on Wednesday, except that it is shrimp for dinner and Jon joins us.
 
Day 6, Ste. Genevieve, MO
 

We have been monitoring the weather patterns and it looks like we must head west on Thursday or be in Ohio for the next week. The clouds and rain in advance of a front will reach the Mississippi valley on Thursday afternoon. The fast moving front behind them should clear Missouri and Texas on Friday, allowing us to continue home then.
 
We get to the airport about 9:00, take care of preflight, topping off the tanks and getting briefed while a couple of F16s play. The reason there was no fuel on Monday was that the FBO was changing hands. The new crew is super nice and we were their first customer. They were real proud of the big note on the price board saying “No landing, ramp or tie-down fees.”, which was a drastic change from the previous state of affairs. And the fuel price was very good for full service.
 
By 9:30, we are ready to go. Pictures made and goodbyes said, we saddle up and taxi to the end of 06. The wind is 15G25, but pretty close to right down the runway. The good news is that this will mean a tailwind component for us. Take off, waving to Julie and Larry as we pass by the ramp. Pick up Dayton approach and after some minor vectoring, pass over the north end of Wright Patterson and just south of Dayton International. Soon, we are on course at 4500’ in smooth air with good visibility.
 
Pass over Richmond, IN, to the Shelbyville VOR, just south of Indianapolis, then south of Terre Haute. On across the Bible Grove VOR, then 30 degrees left to the Centralia VOR. Over Coulterville, IL, we begin our descent into Sparta in worsening visibility. The airport appears right over the nose about 5 miles out. We land and taxi in, 297 miles in 3.3 hours. The tailwind had been replaced by a headwind as we approached the oncoming front.
 
Sandra gets the car and we find a nice café in Sparta for lunch. Then to Chester, across the river and upriver to Ste. Genevieve, MO. We run through a serious thundershower, but it is over by the time we reach town and find the Visitor Center.
 
Sainte Genevieve was established in the early 1700s on the west bank of the Mississippi and by 1750 had a population of 600. The original site was subject to flooding and after a disastrous flood in 1785, the residents began rebuilding on higher ground about 2 miles upriver. Many of its buildings from that period remain and are excellent examples of French Colonial architecture and construction.
 
The Visitor Center has a nice exhibit and around the corner (Actually about 3 blocks) is a fairly well stocked museum. By the time we finish this, the last sprinkles are gone and we walk over to admire the Catholic church. Drive up to the cemetery, then come back and tour the Jean Baptiste Valle house and grounds.
 
 
Look around town from the car and drive out to the ferry landing. The river is high and swift, with the ferry sign almost underwater. We assess our options for the evening. It is Thursday, so finding a place to stay in Ste Gen should be simple. But the weather is a big question. There was a second front forming up that should move across Arkansas and east Texas during the day tomorrow. It will be a matter of getting off the ground early and going as far west as we can get then waiting it out or waiting until it had passed completely. If the first option is more likely, we would be better off staying in IL than having to make the 30 miles back to Sparta in the morning.
 
We hang around the area until 6:30, then go to the Hotel Ste Genevieve Café for dinner. It is an upscale restaurant by any measure, although we are the only people there. Sandra orders stuffed flounder and I order frog legs. She raves over the flounder as being nearly (but not quite) as good as that dish in Natchez. My frog legs were the best I have ever eaten. Definitely not “fishy tasting chicken”.
 
After the fine dinner, we head back across the river and find lodging at the Holiday Inn in Sparta. The 10:00 weather indicates that option one is our only option.
 
Day 7, Walnut Ridge, AR
 

The morning weather reinforces the plan to get as far as we can and hope the front will pass quickly enough to allow us to continue towards home in the late afternoon. The weather briefing concurs, so we launch before 9:00 into a stiff headwind. Just as we get rolling, the door pops open. Abort the takeoff and after we turn off the runway, Sandra re-closes it. Back to the north end and try again.
 
The headwind will be worse the higher we go, so we settle in at 4500’. The stiff wind also makes it very bumpy and we find that 47-4800 is notably smoother. Not smooth, just better than 300’ lower.
 
Passing over the Farmington VOR, Kansas City tells us that the Lindberg MOAs are “hot”, and we elect to go towards the Walnut Ridge VOR until we can turn west towards Flippin or Harrison. We beat slowly southward, seeing clouds forming and becoming more numerous at 5000’. Passing Doniphan, MO, we bend westward and almost immediately have to start getting lower to stay clear of the thickening clouds.
 
Visibility is steadily worsening, the ground is getting rougher and when we are down to 3000’, I tell Memphis that we are turning back and will put down at Walnut Ridge. At this time, we are between Sharp County and Walnut Ridge, closer to Sharp county, but I don’t feel comfortable trying to go any further west into worsening visibility.
 
We quickly make the 20 miles to Walnut Ridge enter the pattern and land nicely on 22. We have been in the air 2.7 hours and as near as we can tell have covered only about 160 very rough miles.
 
We eat a fine lunch in N86SW, a retired Southwest Airlines 737, now converted to a diner. After lunch, we visit the on field museum, which tells the story of this airfield from its beginning as an Army training base during WWII and use as a salvage and destruction depot for thousands of surplus aircraft afterwards.
 
A serious weather check around 3, begins to dash any hope of our continuing today. The expected line now lies from Dallas to Fort Smith to nearly Chicago. It is thin and fast moving, but cannot clear here before dark. There is also a heavier line from Memphis to Little Rock that is moving north and will be here in the next hour.
 
 
Securely tie down the Mouse just as it arrives. It is noisy, windy and very wet for a while. When it has passed, we get the courtesy car and directions and head for Pocahontas for the night. The only chain motel has only smoking doubles available, but a local inn has a king available.
 
This town is definitely not a tourist Mecca. Nothing downtown to see or do and the best restaurant we can find might barely earn 2 stars. But the food was good. The thin line of storms comes through about 10:00 leaving hope for good weather tomorrow.
 
Day 8, Home at last!
 
Beautiful morning, cloud bank laying off to the east, but bright blue to the south and west. Bring up the tanks on the Mouse to just under 50 gallons in hopes of making the 342nm non-stop. Off the ground at 9:05 and turn southwest. The plan is Walnut Ridge VOR to Hot Springs VOR to Paris VOR to home. If the winds do not assist us, we will stop for gas at either De Queen, AR or Idabel, OK.
 
Except for the extensive cloud bank to the east, the visibility is excellent and the air is incredibly smooth. By the time we reach Searcy, we know that thus far, the wind gods are with us. The usual unpleasantness of Little Rock approach, and we see Hot Springs over the nose. We made the 145nm from Walnut Ridge to Hot Springs with just 1:05 on the clock.
 
“Memphis, Four Lima Bravo.”
“Go Ahead.”
“Uh, we are updating our fuel calculations. Could you give us our ground speed?”
“Roger, we show you at 143knots.”
“Thank you.”
 
Zing, what a feeling! We have 200nm to go and over 3 hours of gas left, with reserve. No fuel stop necessary. Slight turn to the right and Lake Greeson is directly ahead. De Queen passes to our right and then Idabel and we are back over Texas. Back onto the DFW sectional for the first time in a week.
 
Pass just to the south of Paris and the Redhead folds up and stows the sectionals. Cross US75, close flight following and maneuver to the downwind for 17 with the McKinney winds 090@10. One heck of a bounce in the crosswind, but a goose of the throttle and the Mouse settles gently back onto the asphalt. We are home, 342nm with exactly 3 hours on the Hobbs.