BK1 Oshkosh 2005 – OSH
to SAT In One Day AKA I Learned About Flying.....
Here on the eve of the Sun-N-Fun 2006, I am just getting the
last Oshkosh 2005 trip report done.
Would be easy to blame the BK1 Beta Builder’s project, but that would
not be the truth. Have been dreading
doing this report from the day it happened.
For years always read the “I Learned About
Flying” section of “Flying Magazine” first, to learn from others near-disastrous
mistakes, while secretly feeling that I am too smart to be so seriously
stupid. How about two bloopers in one
day? It was easy without even trying,
but lets get back to Oshkosh.
The last official day of Oshkosh
is exit time, and great for plane watching.
Hoards of little birds departing for home and big iron
leaving AeroShell Square and
the Warbirds area. Would have departed too but the weather was
not good to the south and forecast to be better tomorrow. After the air show food booths shut down, tractor
trams disappear, and you are on your own!
Walked the mile or so back to my little tent and found one lone guy
sitting in a lawn chair next to a cooler waiting for someone to pick him up,
but was not sure when. He had a cooler
full of beer and I had a big bag of trail mix.
We were back to the basics, bartering what we had to help each
other. Started carrying the trail mix on
my first Sun-N-Fun trip in 2003, its breakfast, lunch, or dinner as
needed. Today it was dinner for two.
Next morning rose to a ghost town, had to pack up and haul
it to the flight line without any friendly red-shirted golf cart drivers in
sight. Next year will try and do
something about that. Loaded
the plane while having my trail mix breakfast. Walked over to Flight Service and was
informed that the morning Mississippi
fog was going to delay departure a while.
About 8:30 the fog down south
was lifting enough to go. The FSS man
was very nice and helpful, so I gave him the lawn chair, actually he could have
had several, they were abandoned all over the
place. There was going to be a 10-12 mph
headwind component, so I began to re-think the strategy for flying the first
leg to Mexico, Missouri. Really wanted to make that leg to prove the
BK1 could make the trip in one two stop day.
Realize now that I was showing the early symptoms of a common aviation
disease called get-there-itis.
Fired up and pulled up to the taxi way with the tower right
behind me. My bottom mounted antenna
does not work to well on the ground, I could hear them but they could not hear
me. Decided to cross the taxi way to the
runway intersection and see if they could hear me from there, no, still no
response. Then the tower called, “Little
silver bird at intersection, you are cleared for takeoff, make right turnout
and depart pattern to the south.” The
FAA really has Oshkosh down, just wish I could have thanked him. Have started carrying the little whip
antenna for my Icom, because it works better for
short range on the ground.
The GPS confirmed the headwind, and we were making about
115-118 ground speed. A little mental arithmetic concluded that at this power
setting we would be cutting it close on fuel by Mexico,
Mo. That would mess up my perfect plan. Started thinking that backing off the
throttle to about 100 mph GPS ground speed would cut fuel burn enough to make
the distance in about 4 hours flying time. Did not take the time
to top off the tank after ground running my waterlogged engine and the
Homebuilder’s Review. Minor error
1, was not completely sure exactly how much fuel was in there. Reset the throttle to about 112-115 indicated
airspeed and started to check the map for a good alternate spot to stop, if
needed. My faith in fuel gage
calibration would be tested, set it up so that ½ and Empty
were accurate, but that was in the garage about a year ago. Now we are going to play “I Learned About Flying” with it.
About 3 ½ hours later was getting confident with my decision, the ground
speed had increased about 5 mph, so the headwind was decreasing. We were getting near Hannibal,
Mo. and the fuel situation still passed the
63 Beetle Sunroof Sedan test. What is
the 63 Beetle test? One of my favorite
cars, it had a mechanical fuel gauge, with a cable connecting the float to the
needle. When fuel got low you could
weave back an forth (hopefully no cops around) and if
the needle wiggled, you still have gas.
If it doesn’t move, watch out! So
as we approached Hannibal the gauge
was between near Empty, but it still wiggled as the plane bumped along. With Hannibal’s
wide beautiful runway right under my nose, the little angel on my shoulder was
saying, “Land it, gas it, who cares if we make Mexico,
Mo. today?” The little devil on the other shoulder took
no time speaking up, “Its only 46 more miles to Mexico,
Mo. that’s nothing”. Bought it and onward we pressed for just 46
more miles. Eisenstein’s general theory
of relativity could not explain how it took 4 ½ days to fly that 46 miles. The GPS miles counter went into super slow
motion, and of course the fuel gauge needle stopped moving about half way there. “Well this is a fine mess we have gotten our
self into”, said the little angel, very sarcastically of course, while starting
to nag me without mercy. “YOU PROMISED,
that you would never “push it”, YOU SAID, that this all for fun and there will
be no unnecessary risks”. “Shut up”, I
said, “Gotta handle this situation, calmly”. But that was my choice back at Hannibal
with a gas needle that was still wiggleing, that was error 2.
So for the first time in my aviation career was sitting in a plane wondering
if it was going to quit any second. Pulled the throttle back to conserve fuel, which just prolonged the
time and misery. Finally there
was the Mexico,
Mo. runway, not much wind,
straight in approach will do. Kept my altitude until close enough to glide in, then after the
longest slip ever touched down and taxied up to the pump. Needed force myself to look in the tank,
really didn’t want to know, but had to.
The gauge float was sitting on the bottom high and dry, and the tiny
puddle of gas in the tank sump half exposed the finger strainer. It took 15.3 gallons to fill up my 15 gallon
tank, hope I learned about flying from that.
Got some lunch and was back in the air in about 45
minutes. Felt so good seeing the fuel
gage at full again and proceeded to have an uneventful but hot and bumpy flight
to McAlester, OK. Started trying to talk
myself into an overnight stay there, after having enough excitement today to
last all year. The headwind was
gone so it only took about 11 gallons to top it off there. Not one to miss an opportunity, the angel
piped up and said, “See you could have landed at Hannibal
and made it here just fine”. Don’t you
just hate it when they are so right and you are so wrong? But this has been a great learning experience
and I should be safer for it, right? Didn’t take long for me to prove that theory wrong. Checked the weather and winds and there was a
comfortable window of opportunity to make the last leg back home and get there
an hour before sunset. But that means we
have to get going now, so with the gas truck just pulling away, fired it up and
taxied to the active.
Like to program the GPS before departing and needed to load
the SA to Oshkosh route, reverse
it, then set the start point to McAlester. Tried a couple of times but
the GPS kept insisting that we were going back to Mexico,
Mo. By that time another plane was nearing the
active so I said, “O shoot, we got to get going, we will just follow the Highway
69 until we get passed all that rough country south of McAlester while I figure
this thing out.” Know from the earlier
trips that if you stay west of 69 to be clear of all the antennas. So took a left at the stoplight south of the
field and climbed to my above cell phone antenna cruising height. Began working on the GPS making a series
attempts to navigate the maze of menus it takes to get a route loaded and going
the right direction. The frustration with that plastic box got more intense
with each attempt. Right about in the
middle a route reversal attempt, something outside caught my attention. Looked up and saw a strobe light on top of
the tallest cell tower I have ever seen.
No time for any reaction as it disappeared under my right wing so close
that I could count the rivets on the grey galvanized steel structure. Don’t have any coherent thoughts about the
next few moments, except for today I must be stuck on stupid! After my head stopped twirling around on my
shoulders something else started to bother me.
There are no antennas on this side of Highway 69,
in fact, there aren’t any big green hills on this side of 69 either. “Duh! Maybe that’s not highway 69 Sherlock! “Where the heck am I?” “Oklahoma”,
said the little angel. “You’re a lot of help”, I said, “Where
were you when I tried to attack that antenna”.
“Right where I belong or they would be desperately trying to restore McaAlester’s cell phone service right now. This cockpit has
been empty (headed) since you left Oshkosh
this morning. By the way, you luck bag
is officially empty, got no more help for you today.”
The rest of the trip was quiet, even if there had been
anyone to talk to. Then a couple of
shower tried to block my way into San Antonio. Was just about to turn and go around them to
the east when
the sun broke out behind them making a clear and smooth path all the way to
home Zuehl.
“Didn’t you say I wasn’t getting any more help from you today”, I
ask. “You sure don’t deserve it, but we
are in the business of helping out and forgetting about those things”.
Hope to see you at Sun-N-Fun 2006, invited the angel along,
sure I will need the help.
Thank, Bruce King
www.bkfliers.com
bruce@bkfliers.com