Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: earl1937 on April 25, 2015, 11:32:06 PM
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:airplane: In my younger days, when I would fly anything to make a buck, a opportunity came along to ferry a Cessna 170, "Rag wing" from "Charlie Brown" in Atlanta to a private strip just north of Tampa, Fla. The 170 was in good shape, fresh annual, about 300 hours since TOH as I recall.
It had some decent radio's for that time period, a Narco something or other, with a tuning crank for tuning in VOR stations and etc. So the trip down was no problem and the old guy who had traded for the 170 gave me two radials by which I could find his private airstrip.
After a few minutes of searching, I finally spotted the "orange" wind sock, with an American Flag standing a few feet away, figured out the lay of the grass runway, lined up and landed.
Turns out, the old gentleman, and I can't remember his whole name, but was Roy something, flew C-46's and 47' over the "hump" in china during the big war. He was an interesting man to say the least, and I could have sat and listened to him for days, but I had to get him checked out in his "new" airplane, so off we went. The usual check out stuff, walk around, talk about how it flew, what to watch for and etc. He was a good stick and rudder man so I didn't have to worry about him. One of the things which he really liked about the 170, was the flaps, now he could really make a steep decent into his field.
Anyway, spent the night with the guy and his wife, very nice people, got a home cooked dinner and breakfast next morning before I took off at 7 AM.
A "weak" and pretty much dry cold front came through that night as expected and I knew I would be bucking a head wind all the way back to Atlanta, Ga.
The "Champ" is an easy aircraft to fly, a 65 HP continal engine, with a wooden prop, fixed pitch, so I knew I was in for a looooooong ride home. I taxi it out, line it up and in maybe 300 feet into a 20 knot wind, was airborne.
With no radio and decided I didn't want to fly DR all the way, I flew Westbound about 25 miles and picked up I-75, which I knew would take me into Atlanta and wouldn't be to far off from flying direct.
I climbed on up to 3,000 feet and turned North over I-75 and whoa, the first thing I noticed was traffic on the inter state passing me, so I figured I was doing maybe 50 to 55 ground speed. The "Champ" cruised at 80MPH IAS and held 12 gallons of gas, so knew I was going to have to make some stops along the way for fuel.
I was approaching Ocla, Fla when I first noticed the Greyhound bus and sure enough, went right by me like I was sitting still! I noticed the bus turning off at Ocla, I guess for a bus stop somewhere in town and dismissed it from my mind as I was watching that little "stem" of a gas gauge bouncing up and down and since only about a 1/2 inch was showing above the cap, I knew I had to land somewhere soon for fuel.
Lake City had a airport, so decided to land there and fuel up, the problem was, there was no fixed base operator and the building looked like it hadn't been used in years. It was an old WW2 Army training field, which there are tons of them back then in North Fla and South Ga.
I walked down the road, because when I was landing I noticed a filling station a ways back, but turned out it was about 2 miles and I hoofed it all the way.
Next problem was how to get fuel from there to the aircraft, but the guy that owned the station had two 5 gallon cans and he kindly drove me and the gas back to the airport. He even thought to bring a funnel, to keep from spilling the gas as I put it in the tank. People back then were really nice and did everything to help you when you needed help.
I fueled it up, took off and headed North again, by now, its pushing 1PM, so knew I wasn't going to get to Atlanta that night, question was, how far North in this wind could I get.
So I am tooling along, bouncing around like a basketball from the low altitude turbulence and again, I noticed a bus, only this time, it was a Trailways bus. Greyhound did not paint their name on top of their buses like Trailways did, but no matter, the thing just ran off and left me, just like the Greyhound bus. So I decided then to go lower in hopes of escaping some of the headwind, so down to what I estimated a 1,000 feet agl and sure enough, I could see the bus in the distance and I was gaining on him. He, like the Greyhound, turned off at Valdosta and I pass him and went on my way. I had begin to notice the engine not sounding exactly right, so decided for safety I better climb back up, just in case it gave up and quit. It had a mixture control, so started playing with it and sure enough, the engine smoothed back out and I settle back, hoping I could get to Macon before sunset.
Somewhere about Perry, Ga, that bus caught and passed me again, oh well, at least I don't have to stop and let people out, LOL.
As dark approached, and me with no navigational lights, no radio and I knew where Herbert Smart airport was, so left I-75 and flew direct and as I approached the field, there was some guy shooting landings in a Cessna 182, so I fell in behind him, landed and turned off the main runaway and headed for the FBO. Already closed for the day! Oh heck, now what do I do? Its getting colder as this was in late Oct and I did have a heavy coat, not knowing if the champ had a heater or not.
I sat on one of the tires till the guy in the 182 stopped and taxied in and started tieing down his aircraft at a tie down spot. I walked over and introduced my self. Turns out the guys was the chief deputy for that county and he offered me a ride to a motel about a mile down the road. What luck!
Next morning after getting some breakfast and calling a cab, I re-fueled the little Champ and headed to Atlanta. Of course the wind had died down some so we moved right along, but wasn't long before I spotted another bus just South of Griffin, Ga. and sure enough, he passed me, but turned off at Griffin.
I did get a "butt" chewing from the boss and my wife for not letting them know if I was ok or not. I didn't file a VFR flight plan as I should have, but didn't know how long it was going to take or where I had to stop. The motel where I stayed did not have a phone in the room, but should have used the coin phone and made a collect call to wife, but didn't. Oh, well, lesson learned on that trip, keep the little woman informed and don't get upset if a Greyhound bus passes you while flying!
That was the way it was back in the early sixties, trying to make a living flying anything and anywhere! "Wouldn't exchange those experiences I had in those days for nothing now! Now, I just sit on the back porch, smoke my pipe and think about the good ole days. I had a lot of help from God and good luck at times, I know and I often wonder about some of those good people who helped me along the way. You wonder where they are now and how they are doing? Thankfully, God has a way of looking after "drunks" and stupid young pilots, who think they are "bullet" proof!
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Great story Earl..
Thanks for sharing
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You are such a great storyteller, made me feel like I was there!
Can't wait for more stories from you, sir.
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You are such a great storyteller, made me feel like I was there!
Can't wait for more stories from you, sir.
:airplane: Thanks guys, late at night when I can't sleep, I enjoy putting together some old stories, which are true and as I get into recalling them, other things pop into my mind! I don't have time right now, but wait until you hear the one about the DC-3 and the "donkey"!
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Just after getting my private I had my CFI take me out for some spin training, we used a 1946 Aeronca Champ with a whopping 65hp. We had a long neck and neck race with a VW Beetle as we headed back to the airport. :)
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Just after getting my private I had my CFI take me out for some spin training, we used a 1946 Aeronca Champ with a whopping 65hp. We had a long neck and neck race with a VW Beetle as we headed back to the airport. :)
Did anyone else beside me really dislike inverted spin training?
HiTech
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Did anyone else beside me really dislike inverted spin training?
HiTech
First time my flight instructor did that to me (I was an youngin air cadet) I had a shart in my underwear when we got back to the hangar. :embarrassed:
Literally scared the ***p out of me.
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Did anyone else beside me really dislike inverted spin training?
HiTech
:airplane: that is the one thing which I hated to teach!