11/11/2021 –
Having been thwarted from making this trip in 2018 by a nearly catastrophic engine issue, and then again in 2020 by the pandemic, I was determined that I was going once again fly 4TF out to visit Evan. November doesn’t afford one a lot of daylight for a trip like this, so I knew if I ended taking the southern route around the Rockies I would likely need to plan for a 2 day trip each way. In my younger days I wouldn’t have flinched at the thought of an 9 to 10 hour day of flying, especially in the Cozy which is strangely comfortable for it’s size. But as I’ve aged a bit I’ve found I need to get out and stretch a little more often.
As luck would have it, the direct route was a no go the week I was heading out, so I set out for south end of the Rockies instead. The first 4 hours of flying to the SW from Minnesota is pretty boring. Nothing to see but fields for miles. My first stop, for lunch and fuel was Clayton, New Mexico. I didn’t spend much time there, but with both me and plane refueled I set out with the intent to make Winslow, Arizona before sunset.
After departing Clayton the scenery quickly changed. As you approach the southern end of the Rockies it’s almost like being transported to a different planet. Very quickly the mountains and striations in the land begin to look more like Mars with their majestic red and gold coloring than soft greens and blues one associates Earth.
It was just a 2.5 hour flight from Clayton to Winslow, and I arrived with plenty of time to arrange a hotel and get the plane tucked in for the evening before heading downtown to take the obligatory “standing on the corner” selfie, and get some dinner.
The next morning I got back to the plane early to get it preflighted (which required a fair bit of frost removal) and refueled. I had contact Marc Zeitlin to see if he would be around for a visit, as it had been a while since I had seen him. I had planned my route to respect the restricted area south of Tehachapi, and round the corner near Palmdale. As I passed the Victorville VOR ATC asked if I what my on course heading to TSP was. Upon telling them I was greeted with “Proceed on course, Cleared into R2515 at or above 9000 feet.” Seeing as how I was at 10,500 feet, I simply hit Direct, KTSP, Enter and let the autopilot take me for a cool flight over Edwards AFB and on to Tehachapi.
The approach into Tehachapi is an interesting one for us flat landers, especially when coming from the SE and then landing TO the SE. There is a not large, but still ominous hill on the northwest side of the airport, so as you make your base to final turn you find yourself watching your altitude pretty closely so you don’t accidently land BEFORE you intend to land. After securing the plane, I looked again at my text from Marc for the directions back to his hangar and after a short walk (in what for me was balmy temps) found him hard at work under the instrument panel of a White Lightening. There weren’t a lot of White Lightenings built, so it was pretty fun to see one in the wild. It was even more fun to watch Marc try to contort himself into the foot well of one. 🙂
After a bit of yakking interspersed with attempts to help Marc trace wires, I once again fueled up the Cozy and climb in for short 90 minute hop to KSJC. The short flight up the valley was uneventful, but I was a little concerned with the haze I could see below me. I was instrument current, and conditions and forecasts for KSJC were still reporting VFR so I figured it must just be a local thing.
Approaching KSJC I was given a series of S turns for spacing but eventually got cleared to land. I had landed at KSJC on a previous trip to visit Evan back in 2014, and thought I had used Signature back then, but when I taxid up to them, it was clearly not the same place on field. In any case, they were helpful, courteous, and understanding of my desire to keep the plane out of the way and thus out of the need for it to be handled. Evan and Sabrina arrived as I unpacking the plane and we all returned to their house for a wonderful evening of catching up over dinner.
The next day Evan and I spent some time on a different hobby we both enjoy, motorcycles. We spent some time checking out his latest bike, and hanging out in the garage working on his track bike. Sunday, we took a scenic drive out to Half Moon Bay for lunch, and then to a park with great trails through a Redwood forest.
Tuesday it was time for me to start the trek back to MN, even though I would rather have spent much more time hanging with Evan. As is typical for mornings in the bay area, there was a cloud layer hanging around. It wasn’t terribly thick, but punching up through it and then safely up over the Sierra Nevadas would warrent the use of oxygen and I had used better than half my bottle. When I enquired about getting it topped off, I was surprised to learn that Signature had no equipment with which to fill it. When they finally tracked down a shop on field that could, I was told it would be a couple hours until they could get to it.
Heading eastbound in November was going to mean even less daylight for me to work with, so I elected to take off with less than half my bottle, and use it only if I was forced to climb above 10k feet. It was nearly noon by the time I departed, but the return trip looked good for a direct route. Having flown the route a couple times before I knew a good stopping point for the evening would be Ogden, Utah. Three and half hours later, as I approached Ogden, I was shocked at how low the water level in Salt Lake was. As I was sequenced in for landing, the approach controller advised there were four F-35s departing Hill AFB that would passing by my right side as I made my turn to final. They are just as glorious to watch from the air as they are from the ground.
After securing the plane, the FBO recommended a good hotel and restaurant, and even loaned me the courtesy car for the evening. The next morning I was reminded that it wasn’t sunny and 70 everywhere, having to once again remove a fair bit of frost from the airplane before the preflight and departure. Luckily, I could get my oxygen bottle filled easily in Ogden and I climbed up high to cross the Rockies. Unluckily, it’s cold up high, and after changing the Cozy’s exhaust system for the new cowling I hadn’t yet installed a new heat shroud system.
A few hours later my feet were pretty cold, and while I had initially planned to fly the entire way home in one leg, it was almost lunch time and I decided to land to warm up while having a quick snack. Pierre, South Dakota was right along my flight path, so I set down there. Turned out to be a really lucky decision. After getting out of the plane I noticed drips on the ramp, leading right up to my plane…which had a fair bit of oil on the lower cowl. When I took off from Ogden I had 6 qts in the engine, checking the dipstick now, I had 4. 4TF usually burns about a quart every 10-12 hours, so most of these missing 2 quarts were likely what I was seeing on the cowl…and later IN the cowl.
It was even colder in South Dakota than Utah, so I asked the FBO if they had a hangar I could use to clean up the engine and see where the leak was. They were incredibly helpful putting me in a heated hangar making it at least comfortable to spend the next 6 hours cleaning up all the oil on the engine. By the time I had it all cleaned it was nearly 9pm. I decided to get some sleep and come back the next morning in daylight to fire it up and see where it was leaking.
The next morning it took all of about 3 minutes to find the problem. A new baffle I had installed during the cowling project had been left a little too long and wore a small hole in the propellor governor oil line. I managed to find a suitable replacement from the FBO and was ready to depart a couple hours later. A couple hours after that I was back in St. Cloud having completed the couple thousand mile journey mostly without issue, and luckily without mishap.
