Our first flight
As I had taken only enough fuel for the "flight" from McKinney to Guthrie, the first order of business was to make a fuel run. I had paid 2.59 self serve for fuel the night before at Denton. I knew it was more expensive at McKinney. The runway at Sherman was closed while they drilled a new well off the north end of it, cutting off the only known cheap source. The next alternative was Gainesville, where rumor had it that gas was cheap. I had never been there, but it was only 40 miles, so we loaded up and headed out.
Airborne, we high fived and giggled a little after I leveled off and set what I figured to be the approximate course. I got out the sectional and although we didn't have a line drawn on it, I could eyeball one on it and see that we were about right. We crossed 2 arms of Lake Ray Roberts about where I thought we should and I started looking through the haze for the airport. Funny thing about haze. It's worse looking into the sun than it is with the sun behind you. As I was crossing I35, I began to lose my nerve. I began to turn to follow I35 north to the town when I realized I was staring down the length of runway 30 about 5 miles out. (Remember what I said earlier about features that line up with your line of vision?) I leveled back out and announced my presence inbound for landing. As I got closer, I could see the wind tee pointing back up 30, so I announced downwind for 12. I flew a nice pattern and approach and made a good enough landing that the Redhead said she hoped I could do all of them like that.
We taxied up to the fuel pumps. $1.84 self serve beats the heck out of what I paid for the same privilege the night before. We filled it 'til it burped. Well, not quite, about 25 gallons per side. Remember what I said earlier about balance? Unless we have more than 40 lbs. in the baggage compartment, 50 gallons puts us at the maximum forward CG.
Then we went into the office and looked around. It was the first time Sandra had been in the "terminal" building of a small airport. We went to the bathroom, read the bulletin boards and walked over to an open hangar with people hanging around. We introduced all around and blushed about our "sharp looking Musketeer". Chatted for a while and of course, we made sure they knew that I had only had my license for 2 hours.
We walked back to our plane and fired up. It was now after 6:30 and the shadows were getting long. We took off and turned for home. The cows in the pastures below were dots gathering towards the barns, and trees cast long shadows across the pastures. With the sun now behind us, the haze was nearly unnoticeable. Simply beautiful!
All too soon we were entering the pattern at Aero Country. I made a nice approach and realized too late that I was lower than I thought and we were going to land on the nose wheel. This is a no-no, big time. I hauled the nose up, but too late. The nose wheel hit and bounced up before the mains even got close. As soon as the nose cleared the horizon, I gave it full throttle. The engine responded and we aborted the landing. As we climbed out, Sandra said, "I don't like it when the stall horn is going off and we are still flying."
I explained that I had been landing on wide (75 feet or greater) strips all day and the narrow 40 ft shoestring almost fooled me into flying into the ground. She accepted that with the admonition to be more careful in the future. We went around and landed nicely the second time. On the turnoff, I got too close to the left side and that wheel ran into the broken part of the turnoff over the culvert. Not quite the same as what had happened to Dave's Cherokee the year before. He ran off the taxiway before the turnoff and struck the edge of the concrete. We were still on the concrete, but the in the broken area, the left wheel was about 4 inches lower than the right one. I gently applied power until it finally pulled out of the hole and quickly got off the throttle before we took off into the hangars across the taxiway. No harm, no foul. I had done so good all day until that last five minutes.
Back to the hangar, put the bird away and go eat a celebratory dinner.
Sulphur Springs and Mineola Weisner
Where do we go first? We didn't want to make a big trip for our first one and the weather forecast at midweek was not promising. We decided on Sulphur Springs (SLR) and Mineola (3F9). My son lived in Sulphur Springs and Sandra's old friends Kerry and Retha live in Lindale, about 10 miles from Mineola. On Thursday, we called both of them and warned them that weather permitting, we would be there Sunday. Sandra had other plans for Saturday.
The weather briefing Sunday morning had broken clouds at 3000, but nothing that would scare me off. We headed for the airport, preflighted and called my son. We were about ready for takeoff and should arrive in about 45 minutes. We launched and turned east, cleared through the McKinney airspace while climbing. Our intended altitude was 3500, but as we were going through 3000, we were running through the scattered clouds. Back down to 2500 for the rest of the trip.
We taxied in right on time. The approaches to SLR are interesting as the left base and final to 18 are over a lake with the north end of the runway jutting into it. No trouble finding a parking place, we were the only plane on the ramp. My son, his girlfriend and her preschool son met us and oohed and ahed over the plane and having a real pilot in the family. I took the Eagle an a 30 minute joyride over Sulphur Springs and the surrounding country side. Then we hit the buffet at Pizza Inn. Back at the airport, I took Issa and Conner for a shorter ride and then off for Mineola Weisner. Cell phones are wonderful. We called Kerry and Retha just before we fired up to let them know we were on the way and the expected flight time would be 25 minutes.
This is now my third trip across Lake Fork. On the XC to Wood County, I had turned southeast over the east shore. From Corsicana to Paris took me over the middle of it going north. As SLR to 3F9 is only 30nm, we only climbed to 2500 and crossed the lake near the east end. I had no trouble finding 3F9 and set up for landing.
Dave had warned me about that place and he was right! Dave had warned of the trees on each end and the current NOTAMs said the taxiways were closed due to potholes from the heavy rains we had had. Scanning on downwind, I could tell the place was run down. But there were 3 planes on the ramp at the far south end. The strip is quoted as 3225X40, but ...
We could see a silver minivan coming down the taxiway and knew it was our friends. As it neared, we realized that it was a Plymouth, and Kerry and Retha had a GMC. These people pulled up by the table and started piling out. As I was cleaning up the cockpit and getting out, I could hear the man saying "That is a nice looking Musketeer. Where y'all from?".
The man was a pilot and his wife had just gotten her license. They had started looking for a good cross country airplane. She is an accountant, so she had analyzed all the available types and decided that the Musketeer line was the best buy on the market. It is just that they are hard to find. Seeing ours and how it is equipped just reinforced their opinion. They both climbed in and around the Mouse and asked things even I didn't know.
Then we fell to talking about flying. Sherryl (the husband) said I had done quite well. They see many planes make two or three attempts at a landing, then give up and fly away. I felt pretty good about making it on the second try. He is the Chief of Police in Lindale and of course they knew Coach Stanley and the Librarian. As they were getting ready to leave, Kerry and Retha drove up in their new Ford Taurus. So much for looking for a silver GMC Safari!
They admired the plane and Retha wanted to ride so bad she could taste it, but I was leery of making another landing at that short field. We talked for a couple of hours sitting at the table under the big pine trees. About four, I noticed that clouds were building up east of us, so I suggested that we best get on the way home. We said our good byes and saddled up. With no taxiway, we had to back taxi on the runway to the north end. There was a turnout that was serviceable for the runup and we took off.
Again, the scattered clouds were just under 3000, so we flew again at 2500. Back across Lake Tawakoni and Lake Lavon. We cleared across the south part of the McKinney airspace at 2500 and entered the pattern at Aero Country. The Redhead said that this had been one of the most perfect days in her life.
We put the plane away and discussed where to go eat dinner. She wanted to go to Mimi's in Allen. That is a pretty nice place and we were tousled and sweaty. Dave Clark hairdo and all, she wanted to go to Mimi's, so we went. As we were finishing, she said, "darn, what a waste!" "What?" "I never eat here without running into someone I know. I just wanted to tell someone what we did today and watch them turn green." Now I knew why she insisted on Mimi's.
Joyriding
The morning after my check ride, the place on the back of my neck began flaring up again. I ignored it for 2 weeks and then went back to Dr Terrill. He immediately scheduled another try at getting the root of the problem. On May 28, he made a new incision and this time, extracted the seed of the cyst. It had not reached near the point it had in February, so we had continued our flying.
On the 23rd, we had planned to "go out to eat" but Sandra was tied up in a meeting and got out too late. We instead went for a joyride. In one hour of flying time, we went over our house in Plano, out over Frisco, up to Whitesboro and over my daughter's home.
Sandra was in the annual Special Olympics tournament that weekend, so I put out the word at work that I would be available for joyrides for any one who wanted one over the weekend. I only had one taker. Perhaps it is because I said the rides would not be free, there was gas to buy, planes to wash and pilots to feed.
The one ride I made, was to be fuel run to Gainesville. Mick (the passenger) followed me closely through the entire preflight. The people who had rented the T Hangar across from ours were moving out. They had a big Ryder truck parked in front of it and I did not see the hangar occupant. The only people I saw was a woman I did not know and a group of Latinos loading things in the truck and through the 20 minutes of hangar door opening, preflight, and preparations for flight, no one volunteered to move the truck. Mick and I tried to maneuver the bird past the truck and came up about 1 inch short. The wingtip is fiberglass and the scrunch cracked it as well as skinning a strip of paint off. One of the Latinos immediately offered to move the truck while Mick and I inspected the damage.
No serious damage had been done. I hopped in my van and ran down to Dave's. I found his roll of "200MPH duct tape" and went back to the hangar. Two strips of it to bind the T shaped crack and we were ready to go. We had wondered about flying that afternoon as a line of storms had moved across early, but although the clouds were broken above us, it was clear to the northwest. That is usually a sign of clearing in this part of the world.
We took off and turning out of the downwind towards Gainesville, we ran through some virga. Virga is that curtain of rain you see under a cloud which is not reaching the ground. As it was clear and sunny right ahead of us, I continued my climbout. When I had the plane at altitude and trimmed out, I looked over at Mick. The look on his face was that of a ten year old at Christmas. I explained everything I was doing and the instruments we were using and he hung on every word. By now I could see the field at Gainesville some 15 miles off, even in the steamy haze from the earlier showers. I could find it because I knew where to look and what to look for. I handed him the sectional and pointed out the major landmarks and our current position. By the time we crossed I35, he had located it.
We landed well, gassed up and visited the facilities. We walked over to the open hangar and visited with the people there for a few minutes then took off for home. I flew straight out to the south and in a few minutes could easily see the runway at Denton. After a minute, Mick could see it also. Learning to see things from the air is quick to learn. I turned southeast and went over east Denton and Lake Lewisville. Then back across Frisco to Aero Country.
There was a slight easterly component to the breeze on landing. When the wind is from the east, the line of tall trees off the east side of the runway cause the breeze to swirl over the runway. This creates an unpredictable turbulence which can spoil an otherwise good landing. It did. The approach and flare were good, but a swirl got us just at touchdown. It caused a bounce and yaw that I caught quickly and straightened out. Mick's only comment was "that wasn't as good as the landing at Gainesville."
There is a nationally known paint shop at Aero Country, so after we got the bird hangared and Mick left, I went over there. I caught Billy eating his supper. We chatted about planes, paint and flying and he agreed to try to fix the wingtip during the next week. We had a musical to go to on Sunday, so couldn't go very far that weekend. Billy didn't get to the wingtip, and we spent all Saturday washing the mouse thoroughly. This included Sandra lying on her back under the plane, washing the belly. She didn't get it all, but did get back past the cabin before we were both too tired and hot to continue.
Billy didn't get to the wingtip the next week either, but we had both days off and the weather forecast was good, so....
