Pilot-N-Paws Flight Number 4!

As I mentioned in the last post, I joined a new flying club.  I did my checkout flight on saturday the 30th and I did a pilot-n-paws rescue flight.  I took a lot of photos, so I'll cut the text short.
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Summary:
KHFY -> 4I7 -> KDKB -> KCLI -> KLAF -> KHFY
I left from Greenwood to go to pick up the puppies from the rescuer.
From there I flew to Dekalb to get fuel.
Then to Clintonville to drop of the puppies with the new owners.
I flew home from there and I wanted to try to make it the whole way, but I wasn't getting the groundspeed I needed in order to make it.  I stopped in Lafayette because I haven't before.
The hour flight home from Lafayette was easy and short.
Now to the photos:

An early morning start.  On the way to 4I7

Somewhere boring in Indiana.

The Rescuers.  Getting ready to pack the puppies up for the trip.

Trees!!!!

They are in there sleeping.

At least until I woke them up.

Yep, they are wearing puppy sweaters.

Some college in southern Wisconsin

Wisconsin has prettier lakes than Indiana.

"scenery"

It was 1:00 pm and I was starving.  There was no crew car and no one else around.  I ordered a pizza.  Great decision.

I think that is Lake Geneva, WI.

Some neat shallow lake.

Cruising along at 7500'.  The Garmin Aera is an amazing tool. Hooray Central Indiana Aero Club.

Northern Illinois.  You can see a lot of wind turbines if you look closely.

Rockin' the Suburbs!

mmmm, wind power!

01 Lima on the ramp in KLAF after getting fuel.

On the way home between Lafayette and Indianapolis.

My old home airport is over there.  KEYE

IND International.  I'm getting to fly over the top at 4000'

A better look at international.

Almost Home!

Failure to Start

Well, It has been awhile (again) since I’ve blogged, and it is for good reason.  I haven’t been flying a lot.  With that said, last Monday I planned a great trip.  The idea was to do the following:

KEYE -> 40I with a short stop at I80.

40I -> KHAO

KHAO -> KLUK

KLUK -> KHAO

KHAO -> KEYE

I promise the redundancies are intentional.

Here are the details of the plan:

I would depart Eagle Creek (KEYE) for Noblesville in the club C172 (N146K).  I would do a landing at Noblesville.  I am familiar with that airport and I wanted to do a grass strip landing where no one was watching before landing at Stewart Field (40I) where there would likely be a few observers.  At Stewart Field (40I), I was going to take a tail wheel lesson in the J3 Cub.  Then I would meet up with fellow blogger Steve.  I would depart Stewart field for Butler Co (KHAO) and meet my two friends Caleb and Sarah.  We would then go to Lunken (KLUK) for dinner at the Sky Galley Restaurant.  After dinner I would drop them off back at Butler Co. and return home to KEYE.  Sounds like a day right?  I thought so too…

Before I even left for the airport I realized my plans would have to change.  I got a call from someone who was flying N146K earlier in the day.  He said the radios weren’t working properly and they could not transmit.  This would be a problem if I wanted to get into Lunken, since it was a controlled field.  At 12:30, with my planned departure between 1 and 2, I checked out the scheduler.  The other options were: C182 at Eagle Creek, C182 at Indy Metro (KUMP) and C172RG at Indy Metro.  I wish I could have taken the C172RG, but I don’t have my complex aircraft signoff.  The C182 at Indy Metro would be my preference but it was checked out that evening.  That left me wit the C182 at Eagle Creek.  This airplane is a beast, but in a good way.  It is a 2004 C182T.  It offers the G1000 cockpit, a 230 HP Lycoming IO-260-L2A and a constant speed prop.  N721ZA is a great airplane, and I love flying C182s, but I haven’t landed one on grass before.  I check the performance numbers and added some conservatism and determined that I would have no issue.  Especially with the wicked winds experienced that day...

KEYE 131653Z AUTO 26010G19KT 10SM CLR 29/09

KHAO 131953Z AUTO 25015G22KT 10SM FEW110 32/09

KLUK 131953Z 25014G19KT 10SM CLR 32/10   

I departed Eagle Creek straight north over I465 in order to avoid some transmission towers and to get out from under the Class Charlie as quickly as possible.  I reached the edge of the airspace and climbed up to 3500’ and turned east toward I80.  I’ve not ever landed at the Noblesville Airport, but it was easy to pick out.  I entered the downwind straight in (not a good practice) and performed a pretty tight pattern without much of a base leg.  I had to drop a little bit more altitude on final than normal

After my landing, I turned the plane around and back taxied to the end of the runway and took off again.  You can’t really tell on this because the track is right on top of itself.  I turned the plane back to the east, climbed to 5000’ and set the autopilot (KAP 140) for NAV mode.  I tried to relax and keep my eyes outside the plane looking for traffic.  The C182 has some traffic warning systems and it would periodically alert me, but it was usually for RJs that were 3000’ above me.  When I was arriving at Red Stewart Field, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but then I stopped the golf course and found the runway.  I saw there was a J3 cub taking off.  Granted, a C182 is quite a bit faster than a J3, but I entered the pattern and tried to get the airplane down on the ground and off the runway without hesitation.  The landing was successful and the trip to 40I was great.

After landing, I went in to the “FBO” and told the front desk girl that I was there for a flight lesson.  She pointed to Joe, my instructor and we did some pre-flight briefing before walking out to the airplane.  Joe said that today was not the best day to be flying, but it would be good to get used to the airplane.  We walked out to the airplane and he showed me all of the “features”, including how the airplane doesn’t have a starter, how the altimeter reads 2000’ low (it said we were underground) and the fuel gage was a bouncing stick.  It felt like I was going back in time.  He took the controls of the airplane and we went out to the runway and headed north.  We spent about 45 minutes in the airplane and did everything from slow flight to steep turns.  Even some Dutch rolls, which sound way more fun than they actually are.  We only did one landing and then taxied back to the hanger.  I chatted with Joe a little bit more than sat outside to wait for Steve.

Photo I took while waiting.  This is the C182 I flew.

Steve showed up after work, we swapped flying stories and places we have been in the plane.  We had a nice chat and then I showed him the C182 I flew over.  Next started a painful couple hours of irony…

Steve went to go fly the C152 and I walked back to my airplane.  I did my preflight, set up my GPS for the flight and then started my engine…or at least I attempted too.  All that happened was a high pitched whine from under the cowl.  I tried a few more times, then called the club maintenance officer.  He told me a few tips, including popping off the cowl and spraying some WD-40 on the starter gear.  As the sun was setting we decided to take the starter off and replace it.  There wasn’t a starter available for a C182T at the field, but one would be ordered and overnighted.  I had to cancel my plans for the rest of the day and I called my friend Caleb and told him I couldn’t make it.  He was bummed, but had no big problems.  I eventually got a ride to his place that evening and he took me to rent a car in the morning so I could make it back to Indianapolis in time for my flight to Wichita to meet with Cessna.

There were a couple of cool things that happened during this evening.

1)      When we were working on the airplane, one of guys at the airport looked at my shirt and said “did you got to Rose-Hulman?”  He was also a Rose Grad and it was really cool to meet someone else at a tiny airport in Ohio that went to your school.

2)      When we were taking the starter off, Cub Stewart pulled his Stearman out of the garage hanger and went out for a flight.  The really cool part was that Jenny Forsythe, a wing walker, was hanging around and she did a whole performance for us.  It was her birthday, yet I feel like I received the gift.

3)      After we had the starter off, realized I wasn’t flying home, we packed up the airport and went over to Cub’s garage hanger. It’s not every day you get to hang around a Stearman, in a garage hanger, while being served dinner, and drinking beers, with Cub Stewart, and Jenny Forsythe, and a fellow Rose-Hulman grad.  I am definitely going to have to come back to the air show next year!

Anyway, The Rose-Hulman grad Tom, gave be a ride back to Cinci where my friend lived. He gave me a ride to the enterprise rental place and I rented a Kia Rio for the drive home.  What a car! Hahaha. I made it back to Indy on time to stop and get my clothes from home and my work cell phone from my car at Eagle Creek.  I returned the rental car on Wednesday after I returned from Wichita.  I would like to go out and stay at Stewart Field again, but hopefully not under the same circumstances.

A Boring Monday

This past Monday was one of the most beautiful days I've seen around Indianapolis.  The forecast called for "abundant sunshine" and the meteorologists were correct.  I started my Rolls-Royce AE 3007 Line Maintenance course on Monday (I am the technical point of contact between Rolls-Royce and Cessna for the Cessna Citation X, which utilizes this engine).  This fact is only important because we get released from training at about 3:30 in the afternoon and that the customer training center is right next to KIND.  I got to see all of the Southwest B737s take off and land all day.  Of course there was a healthy representation from AA, UAL and DL.  And the inevitable Airtran...  Anyway, this inspired me to find somewhere to fly.  I texted my friend Beef, actually his name is Jeremy, but he got that nickname back in college at Rose-Hulman.  He said he would be waiting for me at the airport upon my arrival.  Beef lived in South Bend, so I got to fly to a new destination, KSNB.

The start of the flight was uneventful.  I flew up there via the OKK VOR and the GSH VOR.  The 172 doesn't have a GPS, but I did have a little handheld one I used for Hiking and Geo-Trecking back in the day.  I bring it along and program my route as a second source of information outside of my directional equipment.  It's a nice piece of equipment to have along.  I flew right by Grissom AFB and I got to see some of the neat planes they have on the ramp and at the museum from 7500'.  I called in to KSNB when I was about 23 miles out.  The vectored me in for a straight in to runway 36.  I made a great landing, and I remembered to enrich the mixture before my decent.

I stopped at Atlantic to find out that I didn't write down the unicom frequency and I had just pitched the Green Book in the back.  I idled out front for about 20 second and then decided to call the tower to ask.  Just as I did that the line guy hopped out from around the corner and parked me.  I had a nice experience at SBN, except that the "facility fee" was $40.  Ouch... Too bad it is the only FBO.

Beef picked me up and we went to the Heston Supper Club for dinner.  I saw something here I have never seen before.  There was a section of "combinations" that you could get for dinner.  The were the usual "surf and turf" type things.  But, under that item, it didn't list what the surf was.  Instead it was in the heading for the section.  It said "All combinations are served with choice of potato or vegetable, a soup or salad and an 8 ounce prime rib".  Now wait a second, are you telling me that this comes with a SIDE of Prime Rib?  I'm in.   I got the barnyard, which is a half slab of ribs, a 8 ounce prime rib and steak fries.  It was delicious, as you can see here:

Beef dropped me back at the airport and I preflighted, called Clearance Delivery and told them I was at the FBO, departing South Bend and heading toward Indianapolis via OKK.  I didn't bother going through GSH because it was only about 7 miles from KSBN. CD gave me a squawk code.  Just as I had they had finished the sentence, I was ready to roll, but remembered I hadn't removed the chalks.  I shut down the engine, hopped out, grabbed the chalks and then got back in and started her back up again.

I got my taxi clearance from tower and headed to runway 8R.  I took off without any issue but at about 500' agl, I looked at my transponder to make sure it was in ALT mode.  It was, but but it was also displaying 1200, which is NOT the squawk code assigned to me.  I called tower to ask what my code was again and then apologized for me being amateur.  He said something like "it happens to all of us".  I didn't really laugh because he just agreed I was being an idiot.

I flew on to OKK and watched  some large carrier type airplane to a couple of laps in the pattern at Grissom AFB.  It was really cool to see.  Granted, I could only see the lights and the call sign was non-descriptive.  But it was still neat to see.  When I was about 4 miles due east of KGUS, the carrier asked for a departure to Shelbyville, about 70 miles south.  I saw the carrier take off, turn north (presumably for the departure procedure) and then about 5 minutes later, I saw the same plane in front of me heading south.  I guess he was faster than my little C172.

I was soon passed off to Indianapolis Approach, and the following transfer took place:
Me - Indy Approach, Skyhawk 146K level at 6500'
ATC - November 146K, turn to heading 210, and uh... expect runway 14
(at this point in time, I became very confused but quickly realized what happened)
Me - Indy Approach,  my destination is Eagle Creek, I must not have been clear enough when talking to CD in South Bend
ATC - No problem, continue on current heading, altitude your discretion, maintain VFR
Me - blah blah blah.

This had not happened to me before, but it serves me right for not being clear to Clearance Delivery.  I was used to the controllers at Evansville (EVV) who just want to know what the direction of flight is because they don't offer flight following very far out.  It was a great trip, and I wish I had the funding to do that more often.  My next trip might be to fly down to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.  It will be me, Annie and Coby.  I'm excited.