Gaston's Return Trip Thread

Home safe and sound. Dropped JoAnne off at about 6p at LNS, then headed on to JYO....VFR. Yuck, the haze. Anyway, JYO about 7p, house about 8p, 3 beers down and now time for bed. Will write more tomorrow.

Kaye

Oh, and BTW......I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Ken Ibold said:
Kaelyn and I made it home in 4:17, compared to my flight plan of 4:25. Oh well. maybe I should stop doing the math in my head.

And for the record, I stood next to my plane, called 800-WX-BRIEF to file my flight plan, was on hold for 3 (that's right, THREE) seconds. Filed without major incident although the briefer was an idiot, and off we went.

Also, for those of you chuckling over my "air conditioner", we sat for a while waiting takeoff in cool comfort. And when I got home, there was enough ice left for landing and taxi in 90 degree heat.

Kaelyn declared the weekend an excellent adventure, which is good enough by me. Dr. Bill, methinks Jordan and Kaelyn will be pen pals for a while.
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She went home with YOU? I thought she had joined another clan! It's great when the young uns link up so the adults can play. Great to see you Ken; glad you got home safely!!

Best,

Dave
 
Yeah, we started to take her (Kaelyn) with us (Jordan was begging...). She is VERY well-behaved, and just absolutely precious. (You've done well.) I ended with a 'parental' "we'll see", knowing full well we'll have to let them visit - but for me, ANY excuse to fly is a good thing! Til then, they can pen-pal it up.
 
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Kaye said:
Home safe and sound. Dropped JoAnne off at about 6p at LNS, then headed on to JYO....VFR. Yuck, the haze. Anyway, JYO about 7p, house about 8p, 3 beers down and now time for bed. Will write more tomorrow.

Kaye

Oh, and BTW......I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It's always great to see you Kaye. Glad you and JoAnne had a good visit and trip home!

Best,

Dave
 
Lance F said:
Sue & I are in my mother's apt in Arlington, TX. We ened up at 12K to avoid weather. Had to deviate a lot due to a hot MOA and buildups everywhere. Spike was chasing me, but the Mooney held its own. We had a great time. Thanks to all that make this possible.
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Chasing? No, that's called, "following." Many thanks for the most-timely ride report PIREP, especially useful when it comes from someone known trustworthy.

Lots of dodging buildups, and the headwinds were significant though not terrible. The ride was actually quite comfy most of the way, though I guess I should have considered 12,000 like you, Lance; you carry O2?

Ken Ibold said:
Kaelyn and I made it home in 4:17, compared to my flight plan of 4:25. Oh well. maybe I should stop doing the math in my head.

And for the record, I stood next to my plane, called 800-WX-BRIEF to file my flight plan, was on hold for 3 (that's right, THREE) seconds. Filed without major incident although the briefer was an idiot, and off we went.
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I, also, was stunned to get a briefer virtually instantaneously, and mine was very knowledgeable- clearly an old hand.

Ken Ibold said:
Kaelyn declared the weekend an excellent adventure, which is good enough by me. Dr. Bill, methinks Jordan and Kaelyn will be pen pals for a while.
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Me thinks Tommy wants K's email addy... :D

===

Because I was leaving so much earlier, we (Celia and I) decided that we should just fly to ADS and all drive to camp, instead of me flying to Canton (East Texas, near camp) and her meeting us there. As it worked out, between WX avoidance and hot MOA avoidance, I shoulda just gone to Canton, but by the time I figured that out, there was no way to contact CJane and tell her. So, we got to camp a little late, and waited in no lines, and were done with the whole check-in experience in minutes...

...wait. That's not a bad thing, is it?

===

Edit: Parting is such sweet sorrow!
 
Tom and I had a nice, quiet, romantic dinner in the Gaston's restaurant while watching the fog dance over the river. Oh, well, if you can't get home, you might as well make the best of it. :)

It looks like the broken cable to the carb heat caused our problems yesterday, and it's been wired to cold until we can get it home for a more permanent fix.

This afternoon at Gaston's was interesting.

It was wonderful flying with those of you that I had the good fortune to fly with. I'm just sorry I didn't get a chance to fly with more people as promised.

Thanks to everyone for all you have done to make this such a positive experience for not only your fellow pilots, but also for all those other people you took flying while here.
 
Landed a while ago, just sitting down to the computer now. After leaving 3M0, we went over to BPK to fuel up, caught up with Teen Doc on final, did a few s-turns to give some space. By the time we took off for 1C5, Flippin was already reporting 'ltg dstnt all quarters' on the metar, so it was time to get scootin'...

Rather than head straight north, we filed & headed east to paducah, then north to 1C5. Took about 1/2 hour longer than heading down, but it kept us out of the rough weather for most of the trip.

Heard Spike talking to Memphis center, planning to divert; we caught some clouds by 7,000 feet, in between layers, a bit of rain. Just as we start into one cloud, we get a call from Memphis center:

'7111W, are you getting some rain'?

'Yep, just entered it'

'Okay, my radar shows you in an area of extreme precipitaton, should be out of it in about 3 miles' (yikes!)

'7111W, thanks for the report'

Amazing what having only 3 levels of precipitation intensity on radar does to reports....But I will say, Memphis seemed to be doing a good job of helping folks out with diversions and such. We were glad for both the IR and the autopilot in some of those cloud banks.

Think the only other eventful item was flying through those clouds at 7K, and realizing we hadn't quite closed the door....:hairraise: The latch was in, but there was anough of a gap that things sounded louder than normal. No rain coming in, but we did take a bit of time between clouds to open the window, open and re-secure the door - really glad to have the autopilot then! Also glad I didn't have any rings on my right hand - when you're buzzing through at about 140 kt groundspeed, things are likely to fly off your fingers :)

Got to Paducah, turned north, and pretty uneventful have all the way home. Had to take some time to talk to the folks at the FBO; always a fun conversation, but never short :) BTW, I think we may have some folks who want to join us for G5....


Thanks to all for a great time!


Leslie (& Grant, whom I believe is preparing for his first Angel flight tomorrow)
 
Just got a call from Tony. He and Matt made it to Mexico, MO. He didn't yet know if they were going to continue on tonight.
 
Leslie and I are home safe and sound.

Had a slight issue heading out of Mountain Home where, just before entering a raincloud I realized that Leslie's door was slightly ajar. It wasn't until there was light behind it and I was looking in the back seat that I noticed. :redface: Slowed down and we were discussing how best to close the door when we saw an approaching raincloud. Put that problem aside a moment as we entered the cloud and started getting rain. While we were in it, Center calls and asks us how the ride was and said that they showed us in the middle of "extreme precipitation." :hairraise:

Personally I'd characterize it as heavy with light to moderate turbulence, but it certainly got our attention. It lasted less than 2 minutes. No water came in. After we were through that, we made sure all the papers were secure in the cabin and resealed the door after only a few tries. :)

So about 3.7 to get home, about .4 IMC. Now I'm getting ready for my flight tomorrow. Luckily I find I don't need to be in Iowa City until 11:30 AM, not the 9:00 AM I thought. Looking forward to it!

Edit: I just read Leslie's posting. Kind of funny we're posting simultaneously!

Also, we did hear a conversation between Memphis Center and a pilot who was calling to check that his outbound flight plan made it into the system. He said he really didn't trust FSS to get it in properly, and ATC said thay didn't blame him. When they found it in the system, ATC actually said "wonder of wonders, it's there!" and asked him who he filed it with. Turns out he used one of the DUAT(S) providers this time. :)
 
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gprellwitz said:
Leslie and I are home safe and sound.
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Glad to hear it, Grant!

gprellwitz said:
Now I'm getting ready for my flight tomorrow. Luckily I find I don't need to be in Iowa City until 11:30 AM, not the 9:00 AM I thought. Looking forward to it!
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You're going to REALLY enjoy doing Angel Flights! I know I do! Please post your story after the mission, I'd like to read about it and your impressions. I've met some of the neatest people doing those missions.
 
Viveca, Felix and I landed at El Monte 0259Z almost the 30 minutes we were late getting off due to the van not being available to take us to mountain home.

Details and pictures to follow. Now it's time for bed.

Diana, you have to worry about someone else now.

Joe
 
Brook made it home MONDAY morning!!!!! What a day/night. Hayden and I are tired. I think I am going to tuck him in for the night and take a shower and go to bed myself.

Had a GREAT time everyone.
 
Matt and I have arrived in Cedar Rapids. too late and too tired for Matt to continue on to Ames so he is sleeping on the couch, will leave early AM. Had a great flight home with surprisingly little weather to deal with. waited forever to get to a lockheed briefer at Mountain home after the waterski 1 departure from Gastons. Jesse gave us a final update using the NEXRAD and METARs on the 396 (thanks!). We were on top of a low scud layer for about 20 miles in southern missouri but other than that we were well below any cloud layers. after Mexico it was sever clear VFR to Cedar Rapids at least. The Nuke plant on the Missouri River by Jefferson City was spewing out a nice scattered to broken layer at about 1100 that we flew over, that was cool. tailwinds were good. ive got a picture of the gps showing us just a tad over 120 mph in level flight and 148 mph on decent.

much much more to come tomorrow with pictures and stories. it will be hard to get any work done. had a wonderful weekend.

so far left at gastons are nick/sheri, kent/kate, jesse/tristan, diana/tom, and mike. hope you all a safe trip tomorrow.
 
Kaye said:
Home safe and sound. Dropped JoAnne off at about 6p at LNS, then headed on to JYO....VFR. Yuck, the haze. Anyway, JYO about 7p, house about 8p, 3 beers down and now time for bed. Will write more tomorrow.

Kaye

Oh, and BTW......I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Made it home from LNS around 8:30 pm. Kaye dropped me off at LNS safe and sound. She skillfully avoided the bad weather and managed to beat Ed Guthrie on a race to the next fuel stop - we landed first, but Ed got to the pumps first. LOL... Thanks Kaye I really enjoyed flying with you - you are a terrific pilot!

I left LNS with nice weather so I put the top down on the car and then drove directly into a storm with no place to pull over. Oh well, I really should have paid attention to the sky. I need a 396 in my car.

Had a great time, it was good to see so many of you again. Thanks for the ride Steve!

Now I'm off to drive my son to the airport (it's 3:00 am)
JoAnne
 
Ok, I layed down at 5pm Sunday to take a short nap and just now woke up...must be getting old or something.

Thanks for the kind remarks regarding Kathleen, she takes after her mother! We're both very proud of her, and her older sister. Kathleen is doing an internship at a local engineering firm and came home to find her first paycheck was direct deposited, so she's double stoked from the Gaston's weekend and her new job.

As Chip said at the brunch on Sunday, all the children that attended were well behaved and not a distraction. I think it demonstrates the value of involving your children in your own interests. A lot of new friendships were made at all age levels over the weekend, which is the best part of the Gaston's experience, imho. (Mary might say it was the trout...lol).

Thanks to Greg for the 195 ride. Must be nice having your own miniDC-3.:)

I enjoyed showing off the IAR to those that got a ride. I just wish I had more time (and avgas) to let more people get a little stick time in it and find out how nicely it flies. Even Tommy C. handled it well. I hate to admit it, but some of my right seaters could probably fly it better than I do, but I'll save that discussion for another time...:D
 
Sherri, Nick, Kent, Kate, Tristan, and I..are still at Gastons. It's currently IFR here but it should go VFR once the sun comes up and heats things up.

We were all delayed due to a storm that came over Gastons and dropped a lot more rain then any of us expected. It made a mess out of the runway. A Bonanza attempted a takeoff and hydroplaned shooting a stream of water back about 30 feet that was 5 feet in diameter. After walking the runway a couple more times it didn't seem that bad. Matt and Tony went in the C-140 and after they lifted off I knew I could. It was no problem and everyone moved their airplanes to hard surface. The plan was to be on the way to the airport by 6am but based on no one being awake right now I doubt that'll happen...

I have a line of **** north that I must penetrate. If I get through that we'll be home clear. I'm currently sitting here looking at radar listening to Nick snore. Good times :)
 
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jesse said:
It made a mess out of the runway. A Bonanza attempted a takeoff and hydroplaned shooting a stream of water back about 30 feet that was 5 feet in diameter.
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Here's a picture of the wing of the Bonanza that I took with my cell phone. :)
 

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We're waiting for the fog to lift so that Tom can fly the Citabria to BPK before the next round of rain.

Back home, the tornado that was headed for the farm must have weakened a few miles before it got there. We have had 12 inches of rain at the farm since yesterday, so landing at Twin Oaks won't be a possibility. We're still weighing our options. I was hoping to get an x-ray today, but may have to wait another day or two.
 
i assume that cats are OK Diana? have fun down there...
 
tonycondon said:
i assume that cats are OK Diana? have fun down there...
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Barb is going over everyday to feed them. She may not be able to get down our road today with all the flooding. Lightening Creek may be up to the house by now.
 
Are Nick and Sheri going to launch Diana?

Thanks
 
markb5900 said:
Are Nick and Sheri going to launch Diana?
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Greg says that Nick and Sheri and Jesse and Tristan drove to BPK with the intention of launching sometime-or-other. Kent's plane won't start again.
 
From the house 80 miles west of Gaston's it's raining and the winds are picking up. We have thunder in all quadrants. I'm not sure Gaston's will be VFR in the near future.

Diana, if you and Tom can make it this far west we can put the Citabria in the hangar and give you a car to take home. I can bring the Citabria up when the farm dries out and drive my vehicle back.
 
Thanks Diana.
Hope you and Tom and Greg and Sharon have a deck of cards at least to wait it out.
Radar is not looking good for you guys.
 
For Nick and Shari, it sure looks like, if you head south a ways, then west, and keep your eyes open and diversion fields in your plan, you should be able to get there. Certainly, if you can pick your way through to the Panhandle area, you'll be home free.
 
gibbons said:
Diana, if you and Tom can make it this far west we can put the Citabria in the hangar and give you a car to take home. I can bring the Citabria up when the farm dries out and drive my vehicle back.
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Thanks for the offer Chip. :)

It hasn't been safe for a departure from here yet. Fog is swirling around the bluffs here and it changes from second to second. Still hoping to get the Citabria out before the next round of storms.

We've been having an interesting discussion about how the turn coordinator would look when the Citabria is inverted. It's now the next aerobatic mission...to shoot video of the panel when rolling and looping. :D
 
Matt left Marion (C17) at about 7 AM. ames was reporting low IFR with fog and he was hoping it would burn off. the TAF said it should but of course it didnt. hes sitting in Marshalltown for now. Marshalltown is actually IFR now with 600 overcast. he's waiting it out, obviously. TAF says it should be vfr by noon or so.
 
Still here.

Yesterday after the cats & dogs stopped raining, I went outside with Kent and everyone to go by the plane & runway, and then it started raining again... We got as wet as I was in the swimming pool earlier!

A couple minutes ago the aforementioned Bonanza attempted another takeoff out of here and aborted again.

Kent took the Archer to Mountain Home yesterday (after letting a few guinea pigs go first) so we're good as soon as the weather lets us go. For now, sitting here at Gaston's.

It's 9:28 and 2 1/2 to 3-mile vis reported at Flippin & Mountain home, with distant lightning reported... a convective sigmet and big yellow & red blob on the radar in southern Missouri.

Phooey.

Still in good company!
 
Here are the track files displayed from the GPS (except for the couple of rides).

We had 20.5 hrs on the Hobbs and ended up with (I'll have to check the receipts) 270 gal of 100LL.

WHAT A GREAT BUNCH OF PEOPLE! Thank you all, I mean y'all.

Viveca took hundreds of photos, I'll set up a gallery, hopefully today.

Nick, Sheri, we were in and out of the clouds the first leg, then VFR dodging storm cells the rest of the way. I doubt we would have left VFR without XM weather.

Joe
 

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Glad I got out when I did. How far were you behind me that you got socked in?
 
at first it was the tstorms to the north that stopped us. waiting for those to die took some of the morning but then about 30 cells fired off between fayettville and gastons. the rest of the afternoon was spent waiting for those to pass. matt and i got out of gastons around 7 and after getting gas, calling family and flight service and consulting w/jesse we were off bpk about 8 or so.
 
kate - did he do the blues brothers departure again or try something different? too heavy/wet for him?
 
Lance F said:
Sue & I are in my mother's apt in Arlington, TX. We ened up at 12K to avoid weather. Had to deviate a lot due to a hot MOA and buildups everywhere. Spike was chasing me, but the Mooney held its own. We had a great time. Thanks to all that make this possible.
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It doesn't look like our plan to get you to the south side of Fort Worth worked out very well. Did they re-route you around the north side way back in Arkansas or were you dodging weather?
 
FlyNE said:
I'm home.

Lance and Eric dropped me off at KCBF about an hour and a half ago. Looks like they're just now landing in Minneapolis.

I had a fantastic time meeting all of you. I can't wait for next year! :D
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Eric and I made it back to FCM without any more wx problems, but I never got around to firing up my computer till this morning.

Jason didn't mention that we had to thread our way through about 30 miles of weather soon after leaving BPK but the rest of the way to Omaha was pretty smooth with only one area of light rain.
 
Steve said:
When you do, let Chip know, he can include a link on the www.gastonsflyin.com page.
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We might let Joe do it, Chip has said he hasn't time to set up the gallery just now.

Joe sets one up, I bet Chip can just drop a link onto the Gaston's Fly-In page.
 
Tom just called me from the Citabria. He and Greg both just landed at BPK, but it's raining there so hard that he can't even get out of the airplane yet.
 
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