OK, I left off when I was enroute to my first stop. The original plan was to go to Ashland, OR for my first fuel stop and then go for a 3 hour leg to Columbia, CA, where my sister will pick me up for my first RON. Since my future Son-In-Law is working in the Eugene area for a few more weeks, I wanted to stop by and have lunch with him, assuming I survived the first actual landing in the unfamiliar little airplane. Don't try this at home, kids...
The landing was survivable and I cruised right up to the self-serve 100LL.. The rainy weather that was forecast for the Portland area never materialized, but the skies were pretty gray shortly after I arrived at Creswell and after learning there was no fuel available, I parked the plane and left for Eugene for a quick lunch.
Things started unraveling pretty quick at this point in the journey. Without full tanks, I would have to make one more fuel stop and that would cut into my arrival time in California. I had hoped to arrive in Columbia by 2 pm so that I could have lunch with my sister. That wasn't going to happen and I would be pushing darkness and exhaustion if I didn't get a quick lunch and hustle my way down the route! That's when the torrential rain began and lunch ended up taking over an hour.
After returning to the airport, it was obvious that the airplane needed to be tied down to avoid being blown away by the frisky wind and I enjoyed some conversation with the folks at
https://takewingaviation.com/ After scrutinizing the weather on the planning computer, it was determined that I could indeed make it to my new first fuel stop in Grant's Pass and get to my ultimate destination for day 2, now day 3. Despite the clearing weather, the extra fuel stop and the impending darkness convinced me that I was by now too tired to make the flight and bagged it for the day. Indeed, the sun was up for hours after we went to the house, but it was just too late to try it safely...
After going right back to downtown Eugene for some weird pizza at a weird pizza joint full of weird people, I re-planned day 4 and got some sleep.
Now two full days behind schedule, it was important to get in some mileage and try to have a chance to make it home by maybe Saturday! We stopped at a little cafe in Creswell and enjoyed a huge plate of eggs, hash browns and link sausages. I could barely eat, due to the yucky feeling left over from the stinky room in Troutdale and a little nervous anticipation. I was half way through my allotted time to get this mission done and I had only flown 100 miles!
I climbed out after a slightly wobbly takeoff and took advantage of the cool Pacific Northwest air to go as fast as possible to make up as much time as possible. That turned out to be the saving grace for the day...
The landing in Grant's Pass was the best so far, but I must have had my feet a little heavy on the brakes because it was screechy. One of the local College kids running the FBO came out to help me refuel. After a quick pee and a sip of water, I blasted off for the longest leg of the trip. I was pretty surprised at how fast the plane flew and enjoyed a good groundspeed through the Cascade Mountains and on to California. I tuned the com radio to as many CTAF and tower frequencies as I could, just to hear the chatter of student pilots and the usual bad radio calls by poorly trained stick wigglers. Yep, I heard ATITAPA and "Last call" on that one leg. My expected fuel burn of 5 to 5.5 Gallons per hour wasn't working out, based on my fuel gauges and my destination was going to be really close to my reserve, due to the flight being over three hours at that point.
As I approached Nevada County airport, I was happy to know that after more than 2.5 hours my bladder was holding up well and I was gonna make it to my.... Holy CRAP! Oil pressure!
My 30-minute systems check revealed that my oil pressure was way down under the minimum red paint stripe on the gauge. I turned toward Nevada County and set up a straight in for runway 25, but I had no idea what the wind direction was, so I overflew the runway, looking for a wind sock. I never found one and began a climb to set up for a crosswind and a landing. When I added power, the oil pressure went right back up to high normal, so I abandoned the landing and determined to press on for just 30 or so more minutes...
That was a bad decision... As soon as I leveled off, the oil pressure dropped right below the red line again. I immediately turned toward Auburn and set up for a straight in descent to the runway. There was other traffic approaching and I made a 360 degree turn to space my arrival. When the traffic on downwind failed to make his base and final calls, I had to make a decision to cut him off to get on the ground and headed straight toward the numbers. As I got close I could see him on the runway, taxiing off. That landing was so screwed up, I gave up and went around- hoping the engine would survive the ensuing pattern. It did. I made another screechy landing and pulled up to the fuel pumps.
After refueling, I couldn't see anything that looked like an FBO. I went in search of Aeroshell happiness and instead found a flight school. The gal at the desk said to go see Jimmy next door; he's the mechanic. Jimmy had oil and sold me two quarts. They both went in the engine! Jimmy just had to mention he had heard me "skippin' down the runway" on my first landing attempt. Thanks Jimmy...
To keep this short, I'll say that my takeoff from Auburn was horrific, due to forgetting to set the trim to the takeoff position and except for the part where I thought I was going to stall and roll into the drainage ditch, it was a bitchin' STOL takeoff...
Glad to be alive and in a climb, I pressed on to my destination, landed safely, refueled, tied down and went home with my sister- totally exhausted and wondering what made me think this was a good idea... [End of day 4]
Tomorrow: Day 5 and 6 (good ones!)
