I knew that Gigi (My Bonanza) was going
to be ready after the propeller was repaired, again. If you remember,
we left Gigi in Fort Pierce, Florida and drove back to NYC. The only
maintenance issue remaining was a dynamic balance of the propeller
which would be done on Friday. I made arrangements to pick her up on
Friday evening so that I could fly back. My Wife works on Sundays,
so I had to be back by Sunday morning, but really I wanted to be back
much earlier.
Pete and Jill weren't available but
Marc, a good friend whom,two and a half years ago, I taught to fly ,
could delay his departure back to school and come with me. Marc's
starting work towards his Instrument Rating which requires a fair
amount of cross country time and lots of hood time. He would fly
most of the time back, under the hood and I would be the legal PIC.
Friday started like every other with my
son waking me at 7:30AM. I got ready quickly and headed out the door
for work. My work didn't require a full day, so I left at about
12:30 and headed to White Plains on the Metro North train. Marc got
me from the train and we picked up some charts, just in case the
laptop (which has every sectional, low altitude and approach chart
installed and is legal) died. By 2:05PM, we were checked in for our
Air Tran flight and waiting at the terminal.
White Plains is not your normal air
carrier airport. First off, there's only four gates and some of them
are just doors so that you can walk (on the tarmac) to your airplane.
Security was as stringent as every other airport but the lines were
never longer than a few people deep. We had no checked baggage, so
all the pilot supplies I was bringing set off alarms and I got tagged
for “additional screening.” All of this took no longer than a
normal screening at every other airport and all the agents were very
courteous.
The flight was ok. XM radio was a nice
surprise, and the Internet was very slow. The seats, as usual, were
way too small. Hertz had our car ready and we left the Palm Beach
airport about 45 minutes after we landed there. A very quick drive
on I-95 (again) and an hour later we were at the Airport Tiki at Fort
Pierce. They let us onto the ramp and then disappeared, we were
alone with Gigi and the airport.
Gigi looked beautiful. Her propeller
looked fine, as if the scratches had never happened. Everything else
on her was in excellent condition. Our plan was to make a short 10
minute flight around the airport, land back there and inspect the
propeller for any new damage. The mechanic had already run up the
engine multiple times, but we didn't want to depart on a 980 mile
flight (with over water parts) without making a test hop. The test
hop felt pretty good, we landed and found nothing interesting.
The flight plan was on file from FPR to
Lumberton, NC (LBT) where we could get cheap gas and continue. We
departed at about 10PM and picked up our IFR clearance shortly after
that. We were in good VFR conditions for about 50 miles, then there
was a haze and the ground started to disappear under a cloud layer.
My iPod was on shuffle, and Marc became
my autopilot. He flew very well as he got used to how Gigi
responds. Radio chatter was at a minimum since it was so late in the
day. We went up the eastern side of Florida and turned to follow
Georgia and South Carolina. As we were turning to follow the shore,
somewhere south of Savannah, Georgia, the controller cleared us (via
a vector) direct to Lumberton, some 200 miles away. Wow, that would
never happen here in the Northeast! We flew heading 023 for about an
hour and 15 minutes. The weather at LBT wasn't great. We were
watching it closely on the XM weather, and it was overcast at 700'
with ceilings variable from 400' to 1000', visibilities underneath
were good at 10 miles. LBT has a few approaches based on the LBT VOR
which, unfortunately, was out of service. They also have an ILS, but
the glideslope was out of service making it just a Localizer
approach. The minimums were about 400' above the ground, so we had a
good chance of making it. I programmed Gigi's radios and headed for
the “JIGEL” intersection. We got the clearance for the approach
shortly after and I left the autopilot on, so that I would just have
to pull out the power. When the ADF needle turned to show that the
beacon was now behind us, Marc started the timer and I cut the power.
We descended as Gigi's autopilot tracked the localizer. We broke
out beneath the clouds at about 800' AGL with the loveliest runway
ahead of us lit up like a Christmas tree. Touchdown was a little
past the aiming point but right on centerline.
As we pulled up next to the gas pump,
we opened the door and got a rush of cold air into the airplane. The
temperature had dropped about 15 degrees during our descent to
landing. That meant that there was a temperature inversion somewhere
along the way that we had descended through. I pulled out my cell
phone and called Flight Service to cancel our flight plan. The
specialist was clearly very busy but I gave him our tail number and
where we were and he said he'd close out the flight plan.
Everything on the field was closed as
it was 1:30 in the morning. The gas pump is a self serve kind and
they had a port-o-potty that we used. Marc fueled the airplane as I
made another call to Flight Service so that I could file our next
flight plan. The specialist took the flight plan and gave me a
complete weather briefing. The weather where we were was bad (we
knew that) and the weather in NJ was excellent.
I managed to shove the remainder of a 5
hour old hamburger that we got at a McD's stop in Florida into my
mouth and drink a little water before we strapped back into Gigi and
fired her up. We carefully ran through the checklist as we taxied
out to Runway 5 for departure. After I established that Gigi was
ready, I called Flight Service for a third time so that we could get
our clearance.
I told the specialist that we were
ready to go on runway 5 and she asked me to hold on as she got our
clearance. She came back and said, “it's going to be a little
while, they have to tell the police that you're safe.” Huh???
Well apparently the first specialist that I had talked to was WAY too
busy. He was, in fact, too busy even to call approach and cancel our
flight plan. Approach assumed (as they should) that we were missing,
and began search and rescue on us. All of this happened without a
call to us (my cell phone was listed on the flight plan) and without
the flight service specialist who filed our next flight plan knowing.
After a few minutes the clearance came back: “ATC clears N5341E
from Lumberton to JIGEL, climb maintain 3000 expect 5000 10 minutes
after departure, departure frequency 133.0 squawk 0516 expect further
clearance 0750Z, time now 0724Z. WHAT? I'm being cleared short of
my destination??? To hold for almost 30 minutes??? I guess I pissed
someone off. I read it back and prepared for the hold. Takeoff was
normal and I was in the clouds about 30 seconds after departure. I
started turning south direct to JIGEL and called approach. They
immediately cleared me, as filed, to my destination. Phew. No
holding in the clouds, at night, after a very full day.
After we left behind Fayetville
Approach, the center controller cleared us direct to Norfolk. Marc
was in control and we were above the layer again, and it was warmer!
About 50 miles north of Lumberton, the clouds below us started
breaking up. We could make out some lights, and then more lights and
finally there were no clouds at all. The air was very clear and very
calm.
We were turned over to the Norfolk
controller and were clearly the only blip on her scope. After not
hearing anything from her for 20 minutes, I inquired as to what she
did to entertain herself during such a slow shift. Apparently she's
a fan of the TV show Weeds and was catching up on her missed
episodes! It's nice to know that ATC controllers have a sense of
humor even though they have such a stressful job. Maybe it's because
they have such a stressful job that they have such a sense of humor.
My iPod continued to play and Gigi's
engine continued to purr as Marc got tired and took a nap for about
45 mins. Can't say I blame him, and I wish I could've joined him,
but I was PIC which required me to stay awake. The lights of
Atlantic City came into view from about 50 miles south, as did the
lights of Philly and now I knew the way home by heart. Pretty soon
we were on our descent to our final gas stop, Central Jersey Regional
Airport, this time we canceled IFR before we even landed.
A quick fueling and bathroom break and
it was time to get Marc home. The sun was just threatening to climb
above the horizon as we got a clearance through the class B airspace
around New York and into White Plains. After landing we saw all the
airplanes (Hey was that the same Air Tran airplane that took us to FL
so many hours ago???) getting deiced. I dropped Marc off and fired
Gigi up for the last flight of the day. I taxied to runway 34 and
got my takeoff clearance and a turn to the west. The sun wasn't yet
peaking out, but the sky was orange and it was certainly daytime. As
I got to the Tappan Zee bridge at 1500' I called the LaGuardia
Approach controller for a clearance in the class B airspace down the
Hudson. I could've gone below it, but then I would've been
restricted to 140Knots and I just wanted to get home as fast as
possible. I was cleared into the Bravo and climbed to 2000'. I
snapped a few pics of the Manhattan skyline with the sun rising
behind it, but they're not worth posting here. Every pic I take from
flying on the Hudson doesn't do justice to the beauty of it. Day or
Night, it's just something that has to be experienced first hand.
LaGuardia tower handed me off to Newark
tower and I was asked how I wanted to get home. The shorter of the
two routes takes me directly overhead Newark and down the west side.
The longer takes me over my house and I'm sure my fellow SI residents
would prefer not to hear an engine over their head at 7AM. I was
cleared over the numbers of 4 and down the west side, it cut about 5
minutes off my flight time. Touchdown on runway 9 at LDJ wasn't my
best, but not my worst either.
I was home, 8.5 flying hours (in Gigi)
later. Being able to say good morning to my littlest co-pilot was
justification enough for flying all night long, when we got home it
was time for a nap for the whole family!