06/03/2017 –
The problem with writing trip reports 6 years late is that while the highlights will always stand out in your mind, the specifics are lost in the fog of a poor memory. That’s what I get for failing to update the website for such a long time. So, the best I can do now rely on the pictures and logbook entries to job my memory on any specifics.
Ella’s has always been a curious one, and her parents love of science and even science fiction has fed her curiosity of space and space travel. By the time she was about 5 years old, she had decorated her room with glow in the dark stars, a hanging moon night light, and solar system bedding. We introduced her to a space flight simulator called Orbiter developed at University College London Orbiter 2016 Space Flight Simulator (ucl.ac.uk), which then led to many wonderful Friday evenings of exploration as we turned her bedroom into a spaceship and set out to explore the solar system with the power of her imagination aided by her computer.
Now 11 years old, she wanted to spend a week learning and exploring with other kids at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. So we enrolled Ella for the first summer session following the end of her school year, and started planning things to keep us entertained while Ella was in camp. Our friend, and fellow Cozy driver, Bob Bittner mentioned a cool little island in the Gulf of Mexico called Dauphine Island that was on his list of places to check out. It would be less than a 2 hour flight from Huntsville and sounded like a perfect place to relax for at least a couple of the days, so we suggested Bob join us for the trip with his Cozy.
Check in for Ella was on Sunday the 4th, and as the weekend approached the weather for Saturday was looking good to make the trip all in one day. We met up with Bob a little over half way to Huntsville, at Davies County Airport in Indiana. We had lunch, refueled the planes and departed Davies County for the easy hour and a half flight down to Huntsville. Knowing we wouldn’t be hanging around a hotel in Huntsville much, we found ourselves a cheap place to stay for the night, and set off for dinner.
The next morning we spent a little time wondering around the U.S. Space & Rocket Center before needing to get Ella checked in for camp. Sadly, the weather to the south was not cooperating for our plans of Pina Coladas on the beach at sunset. For the next couple of days we spent our mornings looking at poor to marginal weather reports and eventually decided to take a day trip over to the Beech Aircraft Museum in Tullahoma, Kentucky.
On Wednesday morning the weather finally looked good enough to make a trip down to Dauphine, but sadly by this point it was going to have to be just a day trip, as Bob needed to return to Wisconsin later that evening. Landing at Dauphine feels like your’re landing on carrier deck. The runway is surrounded by water and landing short means you’ll be swimming to shore. Assuming you don’t land short, and once you’ve retracted your tail hook, you exit the runway to find yourself at a very quiet airport with no FBO. A little walking around investigation by Bob yielded a sign with a phone number to call for local taxi service.
We called the taxi service and had him take us to a great little cafe where we enjoyed lunch before exploring the nearby beach. As we walked around we could see the last couple days of rain had drenched the town pretty good. We spent some time enjoying the beach before returning to the airport for the trek back to Huntsville. Once we arrived at Huntsville, Bob refueled his plane and set out for home. Christine and I would spend a couple more days in Huntsville, finding good food and beer while we waited for Ella to come ‘Back to Earth’. 🙂
After her graduation ceremony we packed up the Cozy and set off for Cedar Rapids, Iowa to visit our friends (and fellow Cozy builders) Chad and Kim. Chad and Kim had recently welcomed their first baby, Charlotte to their family and we were excited to get to meet her. A few hours after take off we landed at Vinton airpark, just outside Cedar Rapids. We spent the evening enjoying baby snuggles, good food, and great friends.
The next morning the winds were howling out of the south at about 30kts, and the only paved runway at Vinton was an east-west orientation. Rather than risk a botched takeoff with a loaded Cozy in a 30kt direct crosswind, we elected to wait a day to head home. Sunday morning was still a little windy, but within the limits of comfort, so we loaded the plane, and departed Vinton for the short hour and half flight home. As it turns out it would be a little shorter than initially suspected as a line of storms stopped us shy of home at Buffalo, MN. Buffalo is little shorter runway (3200 feet), and while the Cozy is certainly capable of departing on a runway of that length, the crosswind conditions along with the need for differential braking to control takeoff roll, led me to decided that while we waited the storm passage, we’d take the courtesy car and I would drop Christine, Ella and our luggage off at home and then return for the Cozy. This worked well and I happily tucked the Cozy away with a smile on face as the realization set in that Ella had just finished a week of scientific play time thanks to a wonderful airplane that allowed us to make it an adventure for all of us.
