Interesting flight to NC today...

Henning

Henning

Taxi to Parking
Gone West
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
39,463
Location
Ft Lauderdale FL
Display Name
Display name:
iHenning
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N69SA

Had a good flight today, made it to Lexington NC. Yesterday a guy called and wanted to come to Atlanta to see the plane, told him I was in Ft Lauderdale and he was disappointed, but I told him "I'm heading to OSH so I'll just drop in." "Cool Deal", so here I am....

Wasn't much of a detour since I had to come up the beach line anyway because of the weather. Around Savannah I had to head for the deck until north of Charleston, but it was a great run between 25' and 200' off the deck and along the beach, every now and then cut over a point of land... Low and slow hell, fast and low, 180 kts on the deck is a great view.
One time, I think it was Beaufort Approach, "69SA, You're transponder is showing 70'" "That would be correct." "How you doing down there?"Fat dumb and happy with a good 15 miles of vis" Roger that, are you over water?" " That's affirmative, it's all good at this end".

There was a short while I thought I might have to put down at Myrtle Beach for a while, but I got a break to cut north and took it since the ceilings had picked back up to 1200' and the sky was lightening up and I could see scraps of blue. I came across a nice hole to climb through into the slot between the low layer and to 7500' since it was breaking up ahead and put 520 HP to use in a light plane and popped it up to take a peek and sure enough, looked good in the middle and clearing ahed, so I pointed it at EXX and headed for the clear. I few more up and downs and some diversions for airspace and cells and landed at EXX. There is a great crew there, very friendly and very efficient at getting thing taken care.

Anybody around Lexington NC that wants to hook up for dinner, give a shout, 954-608-8182.
 
I did my first night x/c to Lexington from TTA. I remember how hard it was to pick out the runway at night, as its literally sandwiched between two major Interstates.

Sounds like fun to be skimming along the shoreline for that length
 
Well, Henning, Kevin is on Wren in the ICW somewhere south of Camp Lejeune and he'd prolly stop and have a bite but I don't think he's quite close enough!

I imagine skimmin the water like that you startled a fish or 2
 
You posted your phone number online! Warning: you may get crank calls in the middle of the night.
 
You might try the pik n pig restaurant. Restaurant on a 2500x33 runway, great bbq, google it
 
I always thought flight aware tracking was for IR flight plans only... huh?
 
Some, but not all, VFR flights on discrete transponder codes show up. It's unreliable.
 
Jeanie said:
I always thought flight aware tracking was for IR flight plans only... huh?
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They usually get me on flight following, but they often mess up on the starting point, and even has shown me landing at the wrong airport. Like here, it won't even pull up my altitude track and it never did pick me up again even though I was never out of radar or coms contact.
 
Come on ... There are better ways to die :D
 
Henning said:
Because I enjoy it. Flying IFR is like going to work driving a truck. I like the view, and skimming along at 3 miles a minute is pleasant.
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I agree 100 %... Low level just offshore at 3 miles a minute is "almost' better then sex..... Altho with sex, the shore birds can't ruin your day when you hit one. :nono::idea::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Ben.
 
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sdflyer said:
Come on ... There are better ways to die :D
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That's not really my concern, however there are a hell of a lot worse ways to die.... Besides, there wasn't much time at all where I couldn't execute a survivable if not safe landing at all times. That's the advantage to beach runs.
 
Henning said:
Because I enjoy it. Flying IFR is like going to work driving a truck. I like the view, and skimming along at 3 miles a minute is pleasant.
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This is very true. Some of my favorite flights are blasting around at low altitude. Some are in clouds, too, but that's because I'm weird. The coolest flights are the low'n'fast VFR.

IFR flight is about getting the job done. As someone who's trying to get a job accomplished on 99% of my flights, that's why I file for 99% of my flights.
 
Henning said:
Besides, there wasn't much time at all where I couldn't execute a survivable if not safe landing at all times. That's the advantage to beach runs.
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Don't you care about surfers ? :D
 
Wait...are you still here? I live approx. 15 mins north of KEXX.
 
SkyHog said:
Wait...are you still here? I live approx. 15 mins north of KEXX.
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Nah, I left around 11:00, landed at Tri City 20 minutes later to wash out the results of a forgotten oil cap...:redface: Then flew into St Louis since it was raining in OSH and I didn't feel like camping in a swamp tonight.
 
Do you have to do anything with flightaware to get a VFR flight to come up like that henning? I filed a flight plan and was on flight following for a leg of my flight today and, searching my tail # on flightaware does not come up with anything
 
dell30rb said:
Do you have to do anything with flightaware to get a VFR flight to come up like that henning? I filed a flight plan and was on flight following for a leg of my flight today and, searching my tail # on flightaware does not come up with anything
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Nope, but it always seems to work a lot better if I request FF with ground or clearance delivery before departure. Many of my tracks and such are incomplete, like this one, and it doesn't have an altitude graph either.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Glad you had a good lookout goin' on!
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No real worries where I was, except for the Charleston shipping channel and one or two other inlets, sailboats would be aground considerably further out than I was. It was actually neat to see all the charted hazards under the water that I normally avoid with a boat from up in the air.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
You posted your phone number online! Warning: you may get crank calls in the middle of the night.
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Henning said:
My phone # is all over the internet, one more spot won't make a difference.
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Dang, my phone number has been on the Net for 10 years and no good crank calls. Just the boss or customers asking me to fix stuff. :(

N801BH said:
I agree 100 %... Low level just offshore at 3 miles a minute is "almost' better then sex..... Altho with sex, the shore birds can't ruin your day when you hit one. :nono::idea::rofl::rofl::rofl:
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Ben, you've obviously never been hit by a shore bird during sex. It smarts. :yikes:

pericynthion said:
Some, but not all, VFR flights on discrete transponder codes show up. It's unreliable.
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Henning said:
They usually get me on flight following, but they often mess up on the starting point, and even has shown me landing at the wrong airport. Like here, it won't even pull up my altitude track and it never did pick me up again even though I was never out of radar or coms contact.
Click to expand...

dell30rb said:
Do you have to do anything with flightaware to get a VFR flight to come up like that henning? I filed a flight plan and was on flight following for a leg of my flight today and, searching my tail # on flightaware does not come up with anything
Click to expand...

Henning said:
Nope, but it always seems to work a lot better if I request FF with ground or clearance delivery before departure. Many of my tracks and such are incomplete, like this one, and it doesn't have an altitude graph either.
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As best as I can tell, and I could be way off here... but...

I think TRACON folks have a range of squawks that they can give out that are "local only"... as in, they don't end up getting stuffed all the way into the system, they're just for stuff like "Cleared to enter the Denver Class Bravo, decend and maintain 8000, Squawk 0451.", just to get you through the shelf, etc. The data block they represent doesn't get handed off to any other facilities, and if you get one, you're going to get "RADAR Service Terminated, Squawk One Two Zero Zero, for further Flight Following Contact Denver Center on xxx.xx".

If you call Clearance Delivery at your departure airport or you're a pop-up with Center (not TRACON) and you're going to an airport outside of the Center's coverage area, they'll issue a squawk that will get propagated into the overall "system", just like an IFR squawk would.

Locally here in DEN anyway, the "local" codes always seem to start with a "0". If it starts with any other digit, I seem to show up on FlightAware. If it starts with a "0" it doesn't appear to go anywhere in "the system".

That's my impression of it, anyway. If the controller asks for your destination and then pauses a bit and seems to be typing and didn't slap out a quick "Squawk 0XXX" from DEN TRACON, he's putting you into the system. If he/she responds fast with a squawk that starts with "0" he/she is expecting to handle you "in house" there at DEN TRACON to your destination or leaving their airspace only, and you'll get dumped following that.

Maybe a controller could confirm. I agree with Henning, if you give them the proper time and info via Clearance Delivery and/or mention that you've filed a VFR flight plan (which they can pull up at many locations and use it to populate "the system" with less keystrokes, or so I've heard... you usually end up on FlightAware, VFR.

But as Henning said, the departure and end points are often hosed. I think this is because the controller will just pop any old thing into the computer to get your squawk sometimes, and then modify your data block or a flight strip at their station accordingly...

Note for example that if you look up my bird you get a flight from KAPA to KOMA on the way to OSH *last* year, and the track shows us well past KOMA on the second leg of the flight from KOMA to KUNU.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1279M

I've flown plenty of VFR with Flight Following on Flight Plans and with DEN TRACON and ZDV since then, and nothing has shown up all year long, including KAPA to KLBF where we broke down last week going to OSH, and KLBF back to KAPA three days ago as a ZDV pop-up VFR request.
 
denverpilot said:
Dang, my phone number has been on the Net for 10 years and no good crank calls. Just the boss or customers asking me to fix stuff. :(
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Oh don't be jealous. I am not that fun to talk to on the phone. Though it was interesting to "crank call" Henning just to be sure he was real and not a myth. And I even got to talk about aviation and stuff. It was great.
 
When you did your call, did you put on your best Roy D Mercer voice and ask "How big a boy are ya?"
 
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