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!
