Well, I showed up at the airport before dawn and raised the heat in the hangar and shoveled out the snow drift against the door... The local FBO operator, Steve, showed up as I was just pouring the water into the Bunn coffee machine in the lounge... He was sending out an Aztec this morning to Georgia after the annual, so we shot the bull for a half hour... Walked over and looked at the Aztec from Georgia... Turned out I know this bird and have hours logged in it, back in the 80's and 90's, including taking it to Sun-N-Fun one time...
Pulled Fat Albert the Apache out onto an icy ramp with snow snakes writhing and twisting across the ramp in the wind...
Two blades on each engine and they were running (nothing beats having a warm engine/airplane on a cold morning, 18F)...
Wind was 20 degrees off the runway heading and gusty, I cranked in a bit of aileron and off we went, then turned North towards Bay City and Saginaw Bay... On a whim I called approach control to wish them a Happy New Year... They were pleased to have someone to talk to and gave me a squawk (they need the business)... Over Bay City a dark cloud belched a curtain of snow and it was down to probably a half mile of visibility, but I was the only one in the sky... After reaching the spoils island, made from the river dredgings, out in the bay I made a standard rate turn on the gyros, working at holding altitude within 20 feet in the bumps, then motored back up the Saginaw river to the home airport...
Back at the hangar I could not get the tug to push the plane back up the icy ramp into the hangar... I used oil-dry and my best french words, to no avail... After a bit I went and got Steve to give me a hand...
All in all not a bad start to 2010...
denny-o and Fat Albert
