2014 Rocky Mountain Rendezvous
05/29/2014 -
One of the primary
missions I have had in mind for our Cozy has been trips out west. When
building an aircraft you find yourself imaging how easy it will be to take it to
your favorite places for a long weekend. The Cascades, The Rockies, The
Grand Canyon, S.F Bay area....all were part of those thoughts. This trip
would be the first small step in that direction. It would be a chance for
4TF to prove it could go the distance, and handle a bit higher density altitude
take-offs and landings. I am happy to report it performed well.
Initially I was going to
first fly to Rochester on the 29th to meet up with a couple of other canard
drivers to form our own small flock of canards to the Great Rocky Mountain
Rendezvous, hosted by FreeFlight Composites at Meadow Lake (KFLY) near Colorado
Springs. The plan had to change a bit though (as is often the case when
flying small aircraft). Due to some scheduling conflicts, the friend in
Rochester was unable to attend at all, and another friend from Milwaukee
wouldn't be able to leave until the 30th. I had already taken the 29th off
from work, so I offered to fly from St. Cloud to Milwaukee on the 29th to be in
position for a quick departure as soon as he was finished with work on the 30th.
The flight to Milwaukee
was smooth and uneventful. I departed KSTC about 11am, climbed up to
7500', grabbed flight following with center, and settled in with some tunes for
the almost 2 hour flight. By the time I landed and organized what things I
was going to need for the evening, it was about 1:30pm and time for lunch.
Bob wouldn't be done with work until 5, so I grabbed lunch and enjoyed a
gorgeous walk on a beautiful afternoon. Not long after my return to the
FBO, Bob arrived, and we met a few of his coworkers for a beer before Bob
and I went to down to the lake front for dinner.
The next morning I
dropped Bob off at work and went back to the FBO to ready the airplane for an
early afternoon departure and get a jump on flight planning for the return trip
on Sunday. I made sure to be at Bob's office promptly at 3pm and by 3:20
we were back at the airport loading the Cozy for it's first flight west of
Minnesota, and shortly before 4pm we were in the air.
We knew we were going to
have to pick our way through some clouds on the way out, but the biggest concerns
were some storms in the Colorado Springs area that we weren't sure would be gone
by the time we got there. We spent the next 4 hours avoiding high cloud
build ups and storms with some help from ATC. About 150 miles northeast of
KFLY we could get no further. The storms had yet to dissipate, and with
only 18gal remaining, we weren't sure we'd have enough fuel to deviate all the
way around them. We decided to land in Goodland, Kansas to get fuel and a
fresh perspective on the local weather. It was a smart choice. The
path around would prove to be longer than we had hoped and would have put us in
to KFLY likely after sunset. Navigating around storms, at night, in
unfamiliar terrain was not high our wish list, so we inquired with the friendly FBO staff, Louis, about a hangar for the plane. As luck would have it they
had space, and Louis gave us the the courtesy car for the evening, which Bob and
I used to take a very brief (~3 minute) tour of downtown Goodland before
deciding to have dinner at the "Crazy R". The menu wasn't the most
extensive one I've seen, your options were limited to what toppings you wanted
on your burger, and whether or not you wanted fries, but it WAS a good burger.
Over dinner Bob and
discussed our hopes for the weather the next morning, and our plans for dealing
with it when it crushed our hopes. Ultimately we decided our best option
was going to be to get going as early as possible in the morning. So we
decided we'd camp at the airport and leave at first light. By the time
we returned to airport it was starting to rain a little, and we figured it
didn't make sense for us to set up the tent out in the rain while the airplane
stayed dry, so I got my first experience camping under the wing of my airplane,
which I liked despite the concrete hangar floor. This made me realize that
I have yet to grow up, I've only replaced my childhood teddy bear with an
airplane that takes me halfway across the country in a few hours.
The next morning we got
up early, saw the weather was going to cooperate, and made a B-line for KFLY.
An hour later, descending to land I got my first wake up call about high DA
operations. I was on final at my usual 85kts, slowing to 80Kts over the
threshold, when I thought "Damn the ground is going by fast! What the heck
is wrong with my airspeed indicator?!?!" Oh yeah.....I'm still at 9000'
DA, so my true airspeed is about 90Kts! Duhh...
We parked the plane and
started catching up with all the other backwards flying airplane lovers.
We didn't participate in the Falcon Dash 100, or the spot landing contest,
but it was obvious from the results there were some fast planes and accurate pilots
involved. Later that afternoon was an interesting presentation by Craig Catto before a great BBQ dinner which was followed by a presentation by Mike
Melvill on the around the world flight he conducted with Dick Rutan. It's
an incredible story told by an incredible man. I'm glad there are still
role models like Mike for Ella to look up to.
We didn't stay up too
late chatting as we knew we were going to need to get going in the morning if we
wanted to have any chance of making it back to Milwaukee before storms blocked
our path. Even so, it didn't take long for the sun to come out and
start heating the air. By the time we showered, packed up camp, and got
the plane ready to go we were back to a near 9000' DA. I was a little
concerned about how the plane would do on take off so we opted to not add fuel
and instead head east to lower terrain and give us a chance to get another look
at weather. We picked Colby, Kansas which if you've ever landed there you
probably know why they have tie down CHAINS instead of tie down ropes.
Despite the ATIS CLAIMING winds were 10kts, we were greeted with 40Kts!
Fortunately it was straight down the runway, but I thought for sure it was going
to rip the canopy off the plane when we got out. After getting fuel and
checking weather, we turned the plane around just so there was a chance we'd
still have a canopy when we were ready to close it.
We did a bit more cloud
avoidance as we crossed Iowa, a sliver of Illinois, and into Wisconsin, but
still ended up underneath some rain to get a free plane wash. Even still,
we made it all the way back shortly after lunch time. We had managed to
skirt the southern end of some big storms in Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota, and
there was no way I was going to get through them to make it back to St. Cloud.
Instead, Bob and I went for some really good pizza, and had a few beers while
watching Chicago get knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The next morning, more
storms conspired to block my path home, and the best I could do was wait until
noon for them to blow past, leaving IMC but doable conditions behind them.
I would finally get to see what real IMC was like in the Cozy. Turns out
it looks much like the foggles....but man is it bumpy!!! :) Despite
ATCs help with higher and higher altitude assignments, I eventually had no
choice but to spend some time being thrown around. With headwinds of 35-45 kts, and a ground speed of 135kts, I had plenty of time in the paint shaker!
Once center handed me off to STC tower, the controller welcomed me
home and advised that the wind was burning good, 260@ 25, gusting 30kts. I
opted for runway 23 and was told to report left base. As I descended down
to pattern altitude the winds, gusts, updrafts and downdrafts all combined to
make it feel like I had just become an extra in a remake of Twister. "St.
Cloud Tower, Cozy 4TF, shaking like a maraca on left base for 23." With a
chuckle Jim clears me to land and advises "Winds 280@ 19 gusting 29 now, you
still want 23, or switch to 31?" Oh, no matter I think, this'll be ugly no
matter what. Surprisingly I manage to somehow get the plane pointed down
the runway and set the wheels on just past the numbers. I taxied back to
my hangar regaling my wonderful adventure to Jim, but realizing again how great my home
field at KSTC is.
Pictures of "John and
Bob's Excellent Adventure" are below:
