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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Clouds on the flight to Lancaster |
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| View down the valley on the flight to Lancaster |
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| Parked on ramp at Lancaster |
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| 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.
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| On the way to Flagstaff |
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| Aerial view of Meteor Crater seen on the way to Flagstaff |
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| 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.
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| Air museum at Amarillo |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Pete and Allen on the way to Branson |
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| On the ramp at Branson |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The route |
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| The fleet at Warrenton |
