Allen's Cross Country: Expanding the Fleet

On December 13th, 2016, Allen and our friend Pete boarded a plane with one way tickets and headed out to Livermore, CA (LVK) for another cross country.

The flight west - the most boring leg of the trip

The objective: bring home a new addition to the fleet - a 1958 Bellanca 14-19-2 Cruisemaster. After five years of searching and convincing, we had finally found a good one. Allen and Pete landed in San Francisco and were picked up by John who was assisting the owner in the sale of the plane. Upon arriving in Livermore, they headed straight to the hangar, which was packed not only with this plane, but two additional Cruisemasters and parts. After checking into the hotel, it was back to the airport to do a ground orientation on the airplane, thoroughly going over the checklists.

The Bellanca at Livermore

The next morning, upon checking the weather, Allen and Pete were hopeful that they would be able to fly the Bellanca out of Livermore that day. They were picked up at the hotel by John at 8 AM and headed back to the airport early where John walked Allen and Pete through a thorough pre-flight. After waiting around for the weather to clear up, it was time for an orientation flight. Pete flew right seat to orient himself to the airplane and the flight went very well.

After landing, John topped off the plane and Allen and Pete swapped places for another orientation flight before heading to Walmart for some supplies for the trip. Then it was back to the airport for a 2 PM departure to Fox Field in Lancaster, CA (WJF), where Rudolph is from. They decided to spend the night there.

Clouds on the flight to Lancaster

View down the valley on the flight to Lancaster

Parked on ramp at Lancaster

Saying "Hi" to the museum Rudolph came from in Lancaster

The next morning, the weather was beautiful, but windy when Allen and Pete headed back to the airport with plans to go to Tucumcari, NM (TCC). Due to the winds, and the favorable runway at Tucumcari being out of service, plans changed and they headed to Flagstaff, AZ (FLG) instead with an awesome tailwind. After fueling and checking the weather, they headed to Amarillo, TX (AMA) and landed at dusk. Amarillo was COLD with high winds.

On the way to Flagstaff

Aerial view of Meteor Crater seen on the way to Flagstaff

Ground speed on the way to Flagstaff!

In the morning, a check of the weather revealed that the high temperature at Amarillo was planned to be in the 70s, with a low of -2 degrees. They headed back to the airport only to discover that it was far too windy with a front blocking their progress, so they decided to spend some time in town. First stop: the air museum on the airport. They tried out a restaurant on the field popular with the fighter jocks called the English Field House and watched the Ospreys flying around.

Air museum at Amarillo

On the ramp at Amarillo

The next day was a wash. High winds and snow prevented Allen and Pete from making any progress and they had some time to relax in Amarillo.

Amarillo's courtesy car

The morning of day three in Amarillo, Allen and Pete headed back to the airplane and found it covered with a layer of snow and ice. After cleaning it off, they found that the plane wouldn't start. The airport lent them the courtesy car (a really nice one) to go to the store for a battery charger, which did the trick. The plane started right up and they were finally able to leave Amarillo around 2 PM. After takeoff, they noticed that the generator wasn't charging the battery. They made it to Branson, MO (BBG) where they rented a car and got the plane stored in a pillbug-looking hangar overnight hooked to the battery charger. The FBO at the airport was made to look like a log cabin and was very comfortable and homey-feeling. Town was 18 miles away, and looked like a mini Las Vegas with lights and billboards everywhere. After an awesome dinner, Allen and Pete settled in for the night.

Pete and Allen on the way to Branson

On the ramp at Branson

The pillbug hangar at Branson

The next morning, on takeoff, the engine started running very rough. Allen immediately pushed the mixture in, which only seemed to make the problem worse. They turned back to the airport, and the engine smoothed out. They discovered that in this plane, it is very important to watch the carburetor temperature, as the roughness seemed to have been caused by some carb ice. The carb temp gauge quickly became one of the frequently-scanned instruments. The rest of the flight to Madison Municipal Airport (IMS) in Indiana was uneventful.

Scenery on the flight to Indiana

After a quick fuel stop at Madison, where the Bellanca drew some attention and compliments, Allen and Pete decided to forgo lunch and hit the road. As they headed east over the mountains the weather deteriorated. About an hour from home in Warrenton, VA (HWY), they had to divert north to avoid terrain, but were able to make it home without an additional stop. They landed at Warrenton at dusk and tucked the Bellanca into its new hangar.

The route

The fleet at Warrenton

Back to Virginia

After almost two months of having fun flying all around South Carolina, it was time to head back to Virginia. I was worried about being able to leave as a few flights I had been planning to go on the previous weekend were cancelled due to heavy smoke from forest fires in North Carolina and Georgia, which was lingering. I actually did one loop around the pattern at Aiken with a CFI on one of those days. The visibility was reported as 5 miles, but the runway had already disappeared into the smoke on the base to final turn. We landed immediately and decided to go another time.

Fortunately, when it came time for me to head back to Virginia, it ended up being a perfect day. It was sunny with fairly light winds (though of course it was a headwind). Knowing that the smoke was worse to the west, I elected for a route that would take me east around Charlotte's Class B airspace. The only area of smoke I encountered was an area with thick haze between Charlotte and Greensboro, NC. Visibility went down to somewhere between 5 and 10 NM. It cleared up by the time I got to my fuel stop at Shiloh Airport in Reidsville, NC (KSIF). The rest of the flight was uneventful. I landed and put the plane away shortly before sunset. It was a great ending to a wonderful time in South Carolina!

Entering the smoke

Watch out for towers!

Shiloh Airport - Rockingham County, NC (KSIF)

Meeting back up with the Blue Ridge Mountains

Home sweet home - the lineup on the ramp back at KHWY

All the airports I visited during my time in South Carolina

Giving Rides in Aiken

While I was in South Carolina, I took the opportunity to give rides to coworkers as often as possible. I told of one who went to a couple of fly-ins with me and is now beginning his flight training. Well, another showed an interest in flying so I arranged for him and his family (wife and two children) to meet me at the Aiken airport one day to go flying.

Aiken Municipal Airport

It was a great day for giving rides. Not windy. Not bumpy. I couldn't have hoped for a better day. The family met me at the FBO, excited and ready to go. As the kids were a bit small to go by themselves, the idea is that the older one (a boy) would go with mom and the younger one (a girl) would go with dad. I took mom up first with the boy and he was extremely enthusiastic. He had a grand time talking (and singing) into the headset. He spent a large amount of time with his face pressed up against the windows watching the world go by below. I think we have a future pilot here!

After I landed, dad got in but the little girl didn't want to go. In all honesty, she is probably a bit on the young side anyway (2ish). I promised to take her for a flight when she gets a little older. As mom was pulling his crying sister out of the airplane, the boy was already climbing back in, ready to go again. I told dad that was fine, and off we went. He had a grand time. We flew over his house and his dad was pointing out all the landmarks to him. Now his dad just has to get a plane to learn to fly in and then when he is old enough (in about 10 years) he can start learning too!

There are a lot of pine trees in the area (that are farmed).
Aiken is also famous for horses, and there are many nice farms such as this one.

There are also lots of peach orchards such as these behind a school. I was told
by a local guy that South Carolina now produces more peaches than Georgia.

As for the Aiken airport, the people that work there are fantastic! It doesn't matter if you are flying an Aeronca or a business jet. They are extremely courteous to everyone. Every time I landed they ran out there to usher me into a spot (even though I had just been there) and chock the plane for me. The FBO is beautiful with a very nice sitting area inside, and rocking chairs on a porch overlooking the airport. There is a pilot lounge, flight planning area, and another large area with couches and a TV. It is really a great place to hang out! If you're in the area, stop by for a visit!

Rocking chairs on the porch - a great place to hangout

Gilbert International Airport

The following weekend I invited a different coworker to go to the Gilbert International Airport's (SC45) fly-in with me. He fits squarely in the "rusty pilot" category: licensed private pilot who used to own a Cessna until family, etc. got in the way so it has now been years since he has flown. He lives closest to the Barnwell, SC airport (KBNL) so I offered to pick him up there as it would be a nice flight down. Combined with me meeting someone at Aiken (KAIK) in the morning to go flying, this gave me a nice long, multi-leg flight from Trenton to Aiken to Barnwell to Gilbert back to Barnwell and finally to my temporary base in Trenton.

All six minutes of the flight to Aiken were uneventful. The flight down to Barnwell was nice as well. It skirts the edge of the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy site built in the 1950s to process material for nuclear weapons.

Barnwell is a rather large but quiet airport. My coworker met me on the ramp with a friend he had run into there who works at the airport. He showed us around the community hangar with some very nice airplanes that were just about abandoned. At least they weren't rotting on the ramp, but they definitely needed some TLC and hadn't flown in years.

The Barnwell Airport (KBNL)

Cemetery near Barnwell Airport with relocated graves

Barnwell is a small town, but while taking off from the airport there, I saw a very large, well-kept cemetery. My coworker solved the mystery for me. He said that was a cemetery that was created when the Savannah River Site was built. Some towns needed to be relocated and the cemeteries from some of those towns (on the Barnwell side) were relocated to here.

We were a bit late to the party at Gilbert due to a late start because of my earlier commitments and the distractions at Barnwell, but there was still quite the crowd there. Everyone was friendly and remembered me (or at least the plane) from a visit I had made to the same fly-in two years ago! Gilbert is a nice grass strip airpark. The only thing to watch out for is the tower off one end of the runway!

The flight line and departing traffic at Gilbert International. Note the tower.

The hangar that hosted the event at Gilbert

This is a great little fly-in to go to if you are in the area, it is a potluck with tons of tasty food (the people here are good cooks) and is hosted in a pilot's dream hangar/home. The hangar area is huge with a large and immaculate attached shop area. The living quarters are built into the hangar as well. The living room has french doors opening into the hangar area, and he is working on finishing the second floor, which also overlooks the hangar area.

After the fly-in, we went up to fly around Lake Murray, northwest of Columbia, SC and just a short flight north from Gilbert. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by weekend homes. It was a perfect day for flying around the lake. There were no clouds, no turbulence and beautiful blue waters. It made me wish I had floats!

Lake Murray

Vacation homes line the shores of Lake Murray

After our flight around the lake, I brought my coworker back to Barnwell and then headed for Trenton after a long but wonderful day of flying!

Smoke showing some interesting winds on the flight from Barnwell back to Trenton.

South Carolina Breakfast Club in Orangeburg

The day after the Trenton Flyers candy drop I got to attend my first South Carolina Breakfast Club (http://www.flyscbc.com/) "meeting". This is a great group that is very active. Weather permitting (and last year it doesn't look like there were many they had to cancel) they hold a breakfast and short meeting at a different airport in the state every other Sunday. Attendance is typically very good, with there commonly being over 100 attendees.

The morning of the breakfast, I awoke early to be there and tied down for the 9 AM start. It was a beautiful morning, but with patches of fog in the low-lying areas. The Trenton airfield was clear and I elected to go. Apparently, attendance at this breakfast was hurt by a report of Orangeburg being IFR due to fog. Supposedly, they got about half of the attendees they were expecting (I heard there were around 70 attendees). The SCBC president drove in too due to the reports. I guess now they know which half of the attendees call for weather briefings before leaving!

The flight to Orangeburg was beautiful, and I experienced one of those aviation rarities - a good tailwind! I averaged about 115 mph in my champ for the flight there! It was clear and quiet with the sun rising directly in front of me and the hollows filled in with patches of fog. It was definitely worth getting out of bed early for!

Fog was covering the low-lying areas

My only complaint about the flight there is that it was directly into the sun

I arrived around 8:30 and there was already a good crowd there. They were another welcoming group of aviators. Breakfast was in a large hangar and had quite the variety. Afterwards, there was a brief meeting. Prizes were given to the people who flew the farthest to be there. One of the themes of the breakfast club meeting was to keep people flying. The president talked about how you need to keep practicing to stay proficient. In order to motivate people to do this, they used to have a tradition where the person who made the worst landing at the breakfast had to take a ball with them at the end and bring it back next meeting - a promise to come back and keep practicing. Supposedly, they lost too many balls that way, so now they just have people sign them. When they started talking about bad landings I got a bit worried, but nobody had a truly bad landing that day, so instead they recognized the guy who had the best landing. They didn't announce they were doing this though, so when they called out the N number, the room fell silent and everybody just started looking around. When he announced that he wanted to recognize a truly nice landing, the culprit fessed up to it being his.

Part of the aircraft line-up

Nice Sonex that attended

Another pretty attendee - a Swift

A very sparkly trike

If you couldn't tell before, the SCBC is mainly about friendship and camaraderie. People were greeting others as good friends that see each other weekly at these meetings. They really formed a supportive aviation community with the breakfast club.

After breakfast, I got Rudolph fueled and ready to go (they gave me a good discount, I guess for coming in for the Breakfast Club). While I was in the FBO paying, a government helicopter flew in with a surprised pilot. He thought he was going to a quiet little country airport and was greeted by a large crowd of GA planes. He flies VIP transport for government officials, and had dropped one off and was stopping briefly at Orangeburg to see his kids. It was a nice family moment.

Incoming helicopter!

On the way back, the tailwind had turned into a headwind. Since I didn't have any place to be and wasn't getting anywhere fast anyways, I used the time to practice some slow flight and ground reference maneuvers. Also, it was fun!

Orangeburg after the breakfast crowd left

The South Carolina Breakfast Club is a wonderful, welcoming organization. If you live within comfortable flying range of one of their events, GO! You'll be glad you did. 

Trenton Flyers Candy Drop

The Saturday before Halloween, the Trenton Flyers held their annual candy drop. This is a chance to get local kids out to the airport for some Halloween fun! An Acey Deucy, specially outfitted with a candy chute controlled from inside the cockpit made several low passes down the wide taxiway at Trenton, dropping candy each time. To ensure that no kids got left out, each drop alternated between the older kids and the younger kids. All appeared to have a great time, with many excited children and parents.

The Acey Deucy with candy chute

On the aircraft side, the Trenton Flyers have this well coordinated. They have a nice loop set up where the pilot can take off from the main runway, turn and drop candy over the taxiway and then land back on the main runway in a very efficient pattern. Volunteers on the ground keep the kids off the taxiway until the plane has cleared the drop zone, and then it becomes a race for them to go grab candy. While this is happening, the plane lands, taxis to a truck with candy laid out in bags in the right amounts to fit in the chute, and reloads for another run.

Candy drop!

A couple of my coworkers actually brought families to the event and were thrilled! They had a great time and said they would definitely be coming back next year!

After the event, all the kids and parents had a chance to meet the pilot and see the plane. He was mobbed!

Meeting the plane and pilot after the candy drop

Once all the excitement had died down, I decided to fly over to Twin Lakes Airpark (S17) with a Stearman. This was a neat little airpark with a vibrant and active flying community. Everyone rides golf carts around to go visit each other. If my dream of having a private airstrip on a ranch doesn't work out for me, this might not be a bad alternative!

Twin Lakes Airpark

Parked at Twin Lakes

Trenton Flyers Lunch in Sandersville, GA

The following Friday was a beautiful cloudless day and I had an invite to go to lunch in Sandersville, GA with the Trenton Flyers. For part of the flight, most of the group was in the air together and I listened to the radio chatter. Aviation is neat in that you can be alone in your aircraft and yet still enjoy the company of your friends who aren't even within your visual range.

Crossing the Savannah River

The scenery on the way to Sandersville was much more interesting than going to Greenville. The route crosses the Savannah River, which divides South Carolina and Georgia. Then it skirts Augusta, GA before getting into quarry country. The airport near Sandersville is called Kaolin Field (KOKZ). This name comes from the  Kaolin clay and the company there that processes it. This clay is very white and is used in many products from cosmetics and bath products to paper. The old quarries have the same square corners and bright water as the stone quarries I am used to seeing, but the water isn't clear.

Kaolin clay quarries

Kaolin airport with the factory in the back

When I arrived, there was already a decent crowd there. Turns out that in this crowd I am definitely not the fast one! The Trenton Flyers group has an interesting line up of airplanes, which includes another Aeronca (TAC)! The line-up also included an RV-12, Stearman, Tecnam and the newest addition to the Trenton Flyers fleet, a Socata Tampico.

Aircraft line-up (prior to Stearman arrival)

Aeronca 65-TAC

Billy, the Trenton Flyers' Social Director had arranged in advance with the FBO for crew cars to take all of us to the restaurant in town. It is a nice little town. The restaurant was right in the town square which seemed like it had quite a bit of parking, yet everything seemed to be full. The restaurant was a buffet and it was bustling. We managed to snag two tables together though and enjoy a nice meal. The Trenton Flyers are extremely friendly and welcoming. They also have tons of interesting stories to tell!

The restaurant in Sandersville

After lunch, one flyer had an issue with the key for the airplane. It had broken during shut down and he had gone to the local hardware store to get a new one made. Unfortunately, upon his return to the airport, it was discovered that the new key didn't work. Several of us waited around, ready to offer seats home should they be needed. Fortunately, one more trip to the hardware store and he had a working copy. After that, the flight back was uneventful, but the weather was still nice and it was quite pleasant. It was another wonderful fall flying adventure!

Arriving back at Trenton