In our last episode . . .

. . . we arrived Phoenix on the 19th, just in time to make it to a family pre-wedding gathering.  Our daughter Meredith arrives tomorrow.  For the next few days we are visiting with friends and family leading up to the wedding on the 21st. 

The Valley Ho in Scottsdale AZ is where the wedding is to take place and where all the out of town guests are staying.  It is a restored luxury hotel from the 50s consisting of 6 separate buildings, and an historical landmark.  It was made popular by movie stars and the like.  The updating for the current version had to work around its historic background.  It has great restaurant, a large pool with poolside bar and snacks, a live band or DJ by the pool most days, a hot tub, and the list goes on.  Oh, and the rooms are very nice as well.

The wedding in the late afternoon of Saturday, May 21th, was among the best we've seen.  The ceremony was about 30 minutes long and set in a grassy courtyard in the afternoon.  They used 2 - 3 rows of chairs to do a wedding in the round.  Very nice.

The ceremony was followed by about 45 minutes of open bar on the roof top of an 8 story tower in the complex.  This affords a spectacular view of the surrounding area and an opportunity to chat with a pretty diverse group of people.

 

After moving down to the dining room, the bar is opened again while the final preparations are put in place.  Deb and Jared hand made paper airplane center pieces for each table instead of flowers.  Pretty unique, consisting of a range of aircraft. 

One plane was a CJ like the one Jared flies for Mesa Airlines.  In addition, Deb made an L-19 like the one flown by her father, Glenn, in Korea.  It has the tail number of his original plane, and her mother's name, Diamond, on the side as nose art.  Very cool.

Well, I am certain they did not intend for whole tables of guests to spring into song as the DJ started off with a bunch of Motown hits.  I suppose after an hour or so of open bar it might have been forecast.  Then a few couples start dancing, and the singing continues.  This was all before dinner, but everyone took it in stride.  Dinner was great, followed by a few toasts, and then the party kicked into gear.

Yes, that is the happy couple after a very busy day's events.  A comfortable ending for an outstanding evening, and what I would consider a good sign for a long and happy marriage.

More on the weekend later.

. . . and they're off and running . . .

So morning is not so hot right off the bat, but it shows promising signs.  Mike says the low overcast we see from their kitchen window usually burns off after a few hours, and the land slopes downward toward Pueblo CO.  A cold front moved down over most of north and central Colorado, so heading for Phoenix by way of Alamosa CO is out.  We'll need to go further south in the vicinity of Las Vegas NM before making the big turn to the west.

Sure enough, by 0900 we've said goodbye to Deb and are headed for Meadow Lake and a relatively uneventful departure.  Mike's advice was good as the overcast rose consistently the farther south we go and we eventually get as high as 12,500 -- a chance to break out the new Oxygen system.

Everything is going well until shortly after passing Las Vegas NM.  As we cross a ridge south of Santa Fe and not far from Albuquerque, the ceiling drops as we lose sight of the terrain ahead and snow starts running past the wind screen.  This particular picture was off our right wing in the vicinity, but you can see how the valleys are clouding up.

After a few moments of looking for a way through, I finally turn around and head back to Las Vegas NM.  This is, like many small airports, very nice, but way out away from towns.  Flight Service says there is a bit of a ceiling right where we found it, but they were not showing any significant weather anywhere else.

So we launch again with a bit more fuel and do an end run to the south around the ceiling, then back up toward Albuquerque headed toward St Johns AZ at around 10,500.  I'm pretty sure that's I25 right ahead in the photo above.  There is some spectacular territory which is not done justice by the camera in many cases.

Of course, some of that spectacular scenery is only 18 holes long.

 Most, though, is simply beautiful.

As we get closer to St John's we're watching the radar ahead.  There seem to be a few thunder storms closing in from the north.

 

The radar picture confirms there are only scattered storms, but they need to be avoided even if small, and even if Ann wants to try to wash the bugs off the leading edges before we get to Phoenix.  We deviate to the south a bit more to miss the worst of it, and eventually cross into the last bit of mountain range before Chandler Airport, our final destination for this day's flying.

As we get closer, there are some great views which get progressively more difficult to snap because of late afternoon sun creating glare.  There must be some good pictures of the Theodore Roosevelt Lake somewhere out there on the net.  The lake was our final fix arriving at the Phoenix Class B airspace.  The Outlaw Military Operations Area was hot that day, so we followed the water until we could turn the corner, descend to 4,000 to remain clear of both Class B and C airspace, and eventually get to the airport.

After a long day of flying we were grateful to head off to Dave and Deb Boehm's home for a cookout before checking into our hotel for the weekend.

The Springs, The Rocks, The Zoo, oh my!!

They say one inevitably returns to the scene of the crime.  Well I'm not sure what crime got committed, but for some reason that has to do with seeing the alma mater and friends in the area who share the same affliction, every few years we come to Colorado Springs.  Probably not unlike my propensity to drive past the old house in Southgate MI any time we're in the area.

At any rate, I truly did not have any notion of going up to the cadet area, but as we left the Lackey's that morning, well the road goes right down to the North Gate, and its only a few miles to drive up, and Ann wanted to stop in the base exchange, and . . .

I

 

I suppose its at least partially a function of wanting to better understand something significant that happened to you, who's significance you only later begin to realize and want to better understand.  I was pretty naive when I got to the Zoo.  Lackey would just solemnly nod and agree way to easily, while asking if anything had changed.  Nonetheless, its the guys you meet and learn to respect that is the most important thing, regardless how beautiful the surroundings. 

So we got the mandatory visit to the exchange out of the way and headed for Garden of the Gods further down I25.  This is one of the places in the Springs I had never been before, and was looking forward to sharing with Ann.  It turned out to be quite an amazing place.  Ann got us some brochures and maps and off we went.

There are amazing photos of the place you can get elsewhere, so I'll limit the number we post here.  Besides, the sun only snuck in once or twice the whole day, so the rock formations never really lit up.  Even without much sun, though, this is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place.  

Even with the scenery, I kept an eye on the weather, wondering if it would let us get out of the Springs tomorrow and stay on schedule for the wedding. 

This is not a promising sight, so we head back to Lackey's to warm up, get some weather reports, and maybe pick Mike's brain about routes and techniques to use flying through the mountains.

Mike and Deb are both home by the time we get there.  Mike had to do a deposition in the morning concerning their business, or perhaps I should say their former business as they've sold it to their son.  UFlyMike is a very interesting company.  Ann had a conference in Denver a few years ago and I managed to make a trip to Centennial Airport to join her.  That was another occasion when we had a chance to visit Lackeys and Gebhardts.  While visiting Lackey's on that occasion, Mike gave me a sample set of headsets that are incredibly light and have noise cancelling.  Actually, you have to give credit for the sound quality and noise cancelling to Boze.

Seems Mike never knew he had sensitive ears.  In the Air Force you get custom fitted headsets, helmets, etc.  After retiring and joining Southwest he found that having headsets on for many hours each day caused painful sore spots around his ear cartilage.  Apparently, this was not a problem if one used Boze Quiet Comfort 2 portable headsets, and an idea was born.  He talked to some friends, and came up with a jack and boom microphone that plugs right into the socket on the QC2 and presto, you have a very light weight, noise cancelling aviation headset.

I tried that headset on the way home to Frederick and was amazed at its comfort and sound quality.  Then I made a fatal mistake.  We stopped in Iowa for gas and I asked Ann to give it a try.  Never got it back.  So as soon as we got home, I wrote Mike that we would need a second headset.

Later in the afternoon we headed off to Mike and Lynn Gebhardt's place not more than 10 miles away.  MIke and I first met in an auto mechanics course in school, and later worked together at Hickam Air Force Base.  Their family is doing well though they've had their share of challenges.  Amazingly, like most of the folks I meet doing Angel Flight missions, people with problems are almost universally upbeat and positive in their outlook and approach.  Mike seems to be mostly retired, and they both take care of their son David. 

We stayed late chatting, and finally drove back to Lackey's in a miserable cold rain with low ceilings around 2300, hoping the forecasts for improving weather would actually clear things up by morning.  Hopefully it will be better in the morning.

Abilene (cue the music), Abilene (sing along) . . .

Yes, I am fairly certain the song was not talking about exactly the same town, but its a nice town anyway and it was a beautiful day on the 16th.  The flight up was uneventful.  Its been a busy few days so I need to catch up.

When we arrived at the airport, Jim Curtis came out with a curious look on his face.  Jim owns the agricultural spraying, flight instruction, aircraft rental and maintenance service at Abilene Airport.  I don't think he knew what to make of us hauling a certain amount of tonnage out 21T, but he was sympathetic enough.  I asked him about getting over to Green Ford to rent a car for a day, and he was kind enough to suggest just taking their crew car instead.

That's it by the tail.  Apparently when the city get's new police cars they place the old cars at the airport and elsewhere in the area.  Ours still has the searchlight mounted in the driver's window post.  This draws interesting looks as we make our way around town, but does not have quite the impact as the Crown Victoria we were given at Grosse Ile MI a few years ago, but that's another story.  This one got us around just fine for what we wanted to do. 

We checked into our motel and in a short while got together with Dave and Karen Jerabek.  These are great folks we met at Walter Reed a while back when our daughters were receiving the same treatment for exactly the same kind of cancer in exactly the same place.  They subsequently retired.  Dave is a physical therapist at Ft Riley KS (just up the road from Abilene in Manhattan KS), Karen does volunteer work, and their daughters are both doing fine.  They took us for a great Italian dinner in Salina KS while we caught up.  By the way, you'll have to take my word for it that there are few trees in downtown Salina.  Its not completely barren, but close -- as if they either started killing trees and relented, or got rid of them all and thought better of it later.  Either way, I don't think I can count them as an exception to the "no trees downtown" theory" merely because I did not take pictures.
  

The next morning found us off to Eisenhower's boyhood home, museum and library, all conveniently located in Abilene.  The home is actually right where it was when Eisenhower was growing up, original foundation and all.  Its a small place to be raising seven boys, but they apparently knew something everyone else missed about raising sons because so many of them went on to prominent careers. 

The museum has a little Mamie Eisenhower, then a lot of WWII, followed by some President Eisenhower material.  All in all a very nice museum that tells the story of a very capable man without the more recent style of deifying the guy. 

There is a line of reporting that suggests the only reason Eisenhower advanced so rapidly was because of personal relations with some Brits while a Lt Col.  The truth is more like he was shaped over a lifetime.  West Point, duty training tank crews in WWI, then a series of assignments as executive officers or aides to the likes of Pershing and McArthur where one typically learns how senior leadership actually makes things happen.  By the time WWII arrived, he was already pretty well known.  Gen Marshall knew who he was getting when he brought him up to run the Army Operations division before we got directly involved.  One thing led to another at that point and the rest is the familiar story. 

Inevitably, the trip through downtown Abilene leads one to the usual conclusions about cities and trees.  Just for the record, there are trees just outside the downtown area (see Eisenhower's home).

And so, after a bit of lunch, we retreat to the airport, thanked JIm for his hospitality, and we're off to Colorado Springs.  The actual route is to Limon CO where they have relatively cheap gas, then to Meadow Lakes, CO, just NE of the Springs.  It has gotten cloudy in Abilene as

the day went on, and got progressively colder with lowering ceilings as we headed west.  When we finally got to Meadow Lakes, Mike Lackey was there to put 21T in the hangar of a friend of his for the next few days.  Mike and Deb took pity on us an put us up at their place in the Black Forest area just east of the Air Force Academy grounds.  Dinner and a lot catching up with good friends. 

After retiring from the AF, Mike flew for Southwest for a time, and in his spare time he and Deb started a small company called "UFlyMIke".  You can find them online at www.uflymike.com.  This is an interesting story, but one I'll save for next time. 

Cessna Factory Tour

Look at that sky.  Morning at the airport shared by Cessna's Independence KS factory (in the left background).  We got the bag drag out of the way early and headed for the main entrance.  Aleen Swart was kind enough to haul us around the factory, and bravely brought only a cattle prod and a whip to keep us in line.

Pictures are not allowed inside the facilities during our visit, but Aleen gave us a great overview of their production.  The factory assembles virtually all their piston driven aircraft (the new C-162 Sky Catcher, the C-400 Corvallis, C-172s, C-182s, C-206s, and C208s - I think that's all we saw today) plus the Mustang very light jet.  Very impressive production facilities.

As you might expect, production has fallen off with the economy, though they apparently see some opportunities.  The high end of the Mustang line, which appeals to buyers interested in high end appointments, found a few.  There is a steady level of activity among all the aircraft lines.  Cessna, like others, shops around for deals to hold down costs.  There are examples everywhere.  Apple has a lot of foreign made components and several years ago went through some growing pains.  It seems Cessna has some of the same teething problems.  

One of my "lust for" aircraft" (defined as one of a very few whose prices I whimsically follow in Trade A Plane) is the Corvallis 400.  It is Cessna's first all composite aircraft.  For those who do not know its history, it was originally a kit plane constructed by Lancair in Bend, Oregon.  As time passed a Columbia factory version was produced and I think that part of the business was spun off.  In the last decade, the Columbia 400 got into a "fastest production single piston engine prop" race with Mooney and Cirrus.  My last recollection is it still holds this record, but you should verify.

Cessna bought Columbia a few years ago.  Although there was talk of keeping production in Bend, the economy seems to have settled the issue and production moved to Independence.  Now, composites have some unique production requirements.  One cannot simply pull out the Elmer's glue and have at it in any conditions.  Aleen says about 50 Bend people made the move to the plains with their families and their knowledge of production, but many missed the mountains and returned home.  Like many other companies trying to remain competitive, Cessna restructured to take advantage of global capabilities, moving some Columbia, now renamed "Corvallis", component production to facilities at Tam, Mexico.

Well, factories were certified by the FAA, production began, and lo and behold, delamination became a problem.  This is not the first time delamination issues have arisen.  I recall the Air Force had delamination in some fighter aircraft a while back, so running into such a problem is neither unheard of nor a major sin in the world of high tech construction techniques where everyone is still learning.  You just need deep enough pockets to last long enough to take advantage of the experience.  In Cessna's case, it was costly.  The FAA had to recertify the Tam facility, and there were delays in Independence production. 

To their credit, there is also a lot of learning and relearning going on in Cessna.  There were what appeared to be four complete Corvallis fuselage and wing sets on the floor in Independence.  They were being used to take core samples to understand what had happened and how to avoid it in the future.  In the end, these components will either become aircraft on sticks or ground up and disposed of, having served a purpose very different from the design intent.  In the end its pretty sad to see all that effort come to this conclusion.

Its interesting to speculate why some of these things happened.  It seems clear that judgements concerning the constant balancing act between people, technology and finance got a little skewed somewhere along this path.  You can't claim the production move to Tam was a bad decision economically or technically.  Apple does just fine with the quality of its products and gets good marks for reliability.  One might be able to claim the learning curve establishes limits to the movement of high tech production techniques even where the technology is well known and understood.  Where it is still evolving, that speed sign might be a little blurry, and a sudden burst of economic motivation might push you past the limit.  That could plausibly have happened here.  Maybe someday someone will publish the insider story of why Jack Pelton made such a sudden career change.  Maybe the Corvallis story has a part.  Maybe its only a small part, or completely unrelated.  Interesting.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  Ann made it clear from outset that I couldn't have one (actually, all she said was "no", but I read many other things into it).  I may not get an opportunity to drool over so many new aircraft in the near future so one must take advantage of one's opportunities.  Aleen offered a bib, but I declined - the guys on the floor did not seem to mind ;-). 

After thanking Aleen for all her help, in a matter of minutes we departed the factory, got back to the FBO, fired up 21T, and launched visual flight rules (VFR) for Abilene KS and an evening with our friends Dave and Karen Jerabek.  Look at that sky.

More on Abilene tomorrow.

Windy Harry

Its May 15th and no, Harry Truman was no more windy than any other president.  Somewhat less, as a matter of fact.  It was windy and pretty chilly in Independence MO, though; that kind of wet, windy cold that chills even though its not that cold by the thermometer.

Early up and off to see the Truman exhibits in the area.  I guess the main thing to say about Truman is the same thing that forms a part of the park service narrative -- an uncommon common man.  We started at the Truman Visitor's Center on the square in Independence.  It appears to be an old fire station renovated into a small ticket, slide show and tourist sales center.  Very nice folks running the place.

If they had high tech anything, it was pretty well hidden -- maybe the register and the slide show, but that was all that was obvious. 

Next stop was the Truman's home which turned out not to have belonged to Harry and Bess until very late in their lives.  The house became theirs when her mother died while they were in the White House.  Ann commented that living in his mother in law's home may have polished his diplomatic skills, and there may be something to that.  Whomever owned it, the family always returned here.

The downtown area is straight out of a Back to the Future movie set.  Its beautiful in its own sparse way and led to an hypothesis:  that for some reason city government has an adverse effect on greenery.  Many small towns we've come to are surrounded by housing with a lot of trees and shrubs, but the center is paved over with at best small trees.  We'll keep looking as we go along, but look around your own area and let us know how true it might be.

We also drove by the Truman boyhood home just a few blocks from the family home.  If you hurry you can buy it.

The Truman Library had quite a few informative exhibits, this one a replica of the Oval Office as it was in the 50s.

The main impression I took from the stop was that of a very complex and capable man chosen to take the Presidency when it was apparently clear to some that President Roosevelt, a shoo in for a fourth term, would not live long.  If it was a selection, then it says a lot about those not chosen, Vice President Wallace in particular. There were a lot of details leading to this observation, but true or not, its a great plot for a novel. 

And with that it was time to make for Independence KS.  The weather seemed to be following us with ceilings at about 2200 ft and the freezing level not much above that.  We filed for 4000 ft, . . .  

 

. . . and yes, that is much the same view as yesterday, and equally boring.  We eventually outran the weather and made it to Independence KS.  

For the record, here is a picture of an area of downtown Independence which is also surrounded by tree-lined residential areas.  In fact, if you drive around the town a bit, you'll find some beautiful homes, a very nice park, immaculately maintained ball field, a zoo . . . and I can't actually say we saw it all.  A very nice town.  

Tomorrow is the Cessna factory tour.

Day 1 of the Epic Saga . . .

Well, perhaps not so epic as first days go.  Basically everything from Waynesboro PA to about 100 nm east of Kansas City was socked in with clouds.  Even the drive to the airport had pretty sad visibility.

There were at least two lines of storms which obligingly decided to part like the Red Sea and let us through.  Fortunately, the ride was smooth throughout.  The new Control Vision Duo worked like a charm, clearly showing the way through the mess.  This thing is as close to a no brainer as you can get.  Get the prop spinning, turn on the Duo, and touch the Anywhere Map app.  Wait 5 minutes for the XM downloads and you have weather.  I should say you have your first weather.  I never saw it get older than 5 minutes.   

Our initial fuel and leg stretch stop was in Sullivan IN (KSIV) where the main attraction was cheap fuel.  Sullivan turned out to be a nice stop.  Lisa at the FBO was kind enough help us with their newly installed self serve pump, and to loan us their top of the line crew car so we could hit the local McDonald's.

The car was actually pretty nice as crew cars go -- clean an ran well.  The worst crew car ever was in Iowa a few year ago on a business trip with badly misaligned tires, leaking exhaust, and you had to roll down the window to get the driver's door open (but the heater worked and it was Iowa winter). 

Best was in Roanoke where we were headed for another wedding.  When we asked about a crew car just for the afternoon, they said "Sure, we'll give you the Jag."  So, OK, hoho, we flew down and on arrival asked after the car.  Sure enough, it was a Brittish racing green Jaguar with a very nice tan leather interior, and it ran like a . . . well it ran well.

We did finally break out into what we hope (and is forecast) to be a few nice days all the way to Colorado Springs.  

Our second stop was also for fuel, Excelsior Springs (3EX) northeast of Kansas City and due north of our final destination for the day, Lee's Summit MO (KLXT).  We got a little fuel at Sullivan, but saved the big gulp of the day for Excelsior where $4.39 is nearly as good as it gets.  Excelsior is a tiny little 2000 ft strip located on or beside what appears to be the 9th or 18th hole of a golf course.  No one anywhere close except for a few foursomes. Quick VFR flight to Lee's Summit MO (KLXT) for an overnight and we tied her down for the night.

Today's flights were among the longest of the trip.  Much of the rest of the trip will be shorter flights until we start home again.  Tomorrow we visit some Harry Truman historical sights in Independence MO.

Planning Ahead

Planning for our trip to our niece's wedding in Phoenix is coming along.  The approximate route is shown below, taken from the AOPA Flight Planner.  Hopefully those storms will clear up before we arrive ;-).

The outbound route takes us to Independence MO, Independence KS, Abilene KS, Colorado Springs CO, and finally two legs through the mountains to Phoenix AZ.  After the wedding we'll fly to see the Grand Canyon and Sedona AZ before returning to Phoenix one last time.  The return trip goes to Tucson AZ, Carlsbad NM, Dallas TX, Memphis TN and one final stop to get home. 15 legs in all (so far).

The plane is a 1984 Cessna R182, tail # N6321T, which finished an annual inspection last month with Frederick Flight Center (FFC).  Its part of a 4-man partnership.  We have a conventional panel with a Garmin 430 (WAAS).  We just upgraded the tablet which provides XM weather in the cockpit to a Control Vision Duo for a very reasonable price.  A solid state drive means we can go above 10,000 ft without shutting it down (interesting story there about how conventional hard drive heads "fly" over the disk surface aerodynamically).  That will likely be pretty useful for this trip when we pick our way through the Rockies.

We also got a four place Aeromedix Oxygen system for the mountain flying.  I've heard a lot on both sides of the O2 question, but it seemed like a fairly small investment to give us some additional room to maneuver.  The plane will go to 18,000 ft, but the FAA says a pilot needs to start thinking about O2 at 12.5K, and pax need help when they need help, but O2 must be provided at 15K.  I haven't figured what it would cost in gas and flying hours to fly from the Springs south to I40 and then to Phoenix if weather forced us out of the taller mountains.  We may actually end up going that way if weather is too bad.  Still, it would only take avoiding just one major deviation like that to start paying off the O2, so I can't see this as a bad decision.

I've converted to electronic maps and charts with a new iPad 2, the Foreflight app, and a $75 / yr chart subscription.  So far this has been great.  I tested the iPad in the DA40 managed by FFC a week back,
 

flying approaches to both Gettysburg PA and Frederick MD.  Foreflight makes it easy to get to airports and their charts.  Just bring up a map, touch the airport, select approaches and there you are.  I found it sat nicely on the left leg without any special holder or straps, but there was only light turbulence on that flight.  The partnership is talking about putting a Baron wifi in 21T when it comes out.  This will make it possible to take the XM weather signal we already have and put it on an iPad so both the tablet and iPad will have current weather available on different screens and formats.  Not sure if this particular setup will offer an internet connection as well, but we'll see.

It took quite a while to make all the travel arrangements.  Hotels are pretty easy.  We made reservations early for anyplace that looked like it might be in demand (Grand Canyon and Sedona), and deferred to local airport advertising where they frequently have pilot discounts for most others.  Memphis presented a peculiar problem with the Mississippi rising in the area.  We're praying for folks at Gen Dewitt Spain airport located right by the river north of Memphis who suggested waiting to make plans. 

Rental cars are more problematic, especially when arriving on a weekend in some locations.  Enterprise is listed at a lot of locations, and is frequently the only choice at smaller airports.  Our experience with them has been "spotty" on multiple trips to Grosse Ile MI south of Detroit.  Still, ever hopeful.  Smaller fields away from big cities tend to be much friendlier and helpful.

Where we are not just going to visit with friends, Ann has been getting information on places to see.  More on that as the trip unfolds.