t0r0nad0
Pattern Altitude
This weekend, I had the pleasure of taking Scarlet, the 1940 Air Terminal Museum's raffle plane, to the Bluebonnet Airshow in Burnet, TX (KBMQ). My original plan had me going HOU-AUS on Friday, then AUS-BMQ-AUS-IWS-HOU on Saturday. It was a very good trip! I had a good tailwind on my way to Austin on Friday, and I made it there in about an hour and a half. I parked at Atlantic Aviation, who were generous enough to allow us to sell tickets on their ramp and comp the overnight stay in their hangar. Unfortunately, traffic was light, and I didn't sell any tickets, but Ken Lane (kennyflys), who is a CFI there, hung out with me for the afternoon until Rich Simental, an Austin-based museum volunteer arrived. We hung out for a while longer, then packed up and took off. Rich had another obligation for early that evening, so I wound up grabbing dinner with Ken. Rich picked me up from the restaurant after his engagement, and we went to his apartment, where he was kind enough to allow me to stay for the night.
Saturday morning, I called flight service and got a briefing for the trip to Burnet, and we got to the airport at about 9:15a. Atlantic pulled Scarlet out of the hangar, and I payed the fuel bill. They were kind enough to give us the local pilot discount as well, which knocked $.25/gal off the fuel price (still expensive, but hey, they waived the $20 ramp fee and $75 hangar fee). I pre-flighted her, then we loaded up and took off for Burnet.
Shortly after contacting departure, we heard ATC trying to contact a military plane and the military plane trying to contact ATC, without much luck. I had Rich take the controls and I offered to relay messages for them. They gratefully accepted, and I was able to get the military plane to squawk a new code and contact another ATC frequency. When the controller dropped us off radar service near Burnet, she said, "Thanks for the help with the F-18." I thought, 'I helped an F-18? Sweet!!!'
We approached Burnet, joined right traffic for runway 01, and made our landing. My crosswind technique was somewhat less than gracious, but we got down safely and all was well. It was then that the frustrations started.
As we pulled off the runway, the air boss came on the radio and said that all GA was being parked on the north end of the field. We said that we were a static display and asked for directions to that area. The person that I coordinated this with apparently did not tell anyone we were coming. Long story short, we went to the GA area, told them the mix-up, were told to taxi to another area, where I called the guy I organized this with. Eventually, someone came and said that they found some space for us and we pushed Scarlet down to her parking spot. They gave us a great spot, and the new prop banners that were donated to us by Crowley Signs & Graphics did their job. We had a lot of interest in the plane all day long, and a lot of interest in the museum. We sold quite a few tickets on the day.
After the show, we enlisted the help of several nearby CAP cadets to assist us in pushing Scarlet back out to the ramp. We then did a pre-flight and loaded up into the plane. We taxied out and took off from Burnet bound for Austin again. The flight was largely uneventful. We picked up flight following from Austin approach as soon as we were able to, and got vectors into KAUS. Visibility was barely at 10 miles, and there was an overcast ceiling at about 3000' or so. As a result, all the airliners were getting the ILS approach to runway 35R, as the ILS to 35L was inop. The approach was getting pretty stacked up with jets, so I offered to take 35L, even though 35R was closer to Atlantic. Approach was more than willing to accept, and handed me off to the tower immediately. We landed, much more graciously than before, and taxied back to Atlantic.
I went inside to get a weather briefing and plan my flight back to HOU, and it looked as though the weather would hold out for me to get back. I filed a flight plan, then jumped back into the plane and lit off out of there, bound for West Houston (IWS), to take advantage of their Saturday fuel special. I picked up flight following from Houston Center after Austin Departure dropped me off, and cruised back to the Houston area at a whopping 70kts ground speed (darn headwinds!). Somewhere in the vicinity of the Industry VOR, I checked my ETA on the GPS and figured that I would not have time to stop at IWS, get gas, and make it back to HOU before dark (our OpSpecs specify Day VFR only). So, I opted to go directly to HOU. I got handed off to approach on 123.8 about 20nm east of the Industry VOR, then I was handed off to approach on 133.05 right around the beltway and Westpark Tollway, which is pretty early (they usually don't switch you to 133.05 until closer to downtown). I cruised along, and realized that I didn't hear ANYONE else on the frequency.
So, I keyed the mic and said, "Slow night, huh?". The controller said, "Yeah, it's just you at the moment, then we have about 12 arrivals coming in right after you, so you picked the right time." I said, "I did it just for you." He thanked me and cleared me for a straight in to 12R and told me to contact the tower.
Tower changed me to 12L due to departing traffic, and even offered me 17, which was closer to the museum, where I'd be parking. With the winds being 110 at 14, I decided that 12L sounded like a better idea. I landed and taxied to the museum, where I unloaded all of my stuff. I then taxied Scarlet back up to the hangar (it was getting dark by this point), where I realized that I had left the keys to the hangar doors in my flight bag, which was in my car at the museum. So, I walked back down the street to the museum, got my car, and drove back to the hangar. I pulled my front wheels up onto the curb so my headlights were pointing at the door so that I could see to put Scarlet away (I'm not sure where the light switch is for the hangar bay). I opened the door and got Scarlet all tucked away safely inside, then closed the hangar back up.
I want to say thank you to Clif Walker from the CAF for allowing us to sell tickets at their air show (it was well worth the trip), Yancey Culp at Atlantic Aviation in Austin for donating hangar space for the evening, and Ken Lane for hanging out and keeping me company on the ramp at Atlantic on Friday afternoon.
Another cool thing happened on the way back in to HOU the other night - somewhere over Katy, TX, I finally became a 100-hr pilot! I'll have another post with stats from my first 100 hours probably tomorrow.
Sadly, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures.
Saturday morning, I called flight service and got a briefing for the trip to Burnet, and we got to the airport at about 9:15a. Atlantic pulled Scarlet out of the hangar, and I payed the fuel bill. They were kind enough to give us the local pilot discount as well, which knocked $.25/gal off the fuel price (still expensive, but hey, they waived the $20 ramp fee and $75 hangar fee). I pre-flighted her, then we loaded up and took off for Burnet.
Shortly after contacting departure, we heard ATC trying to contact a military plane and the military plane trying to contact ATC, without much luck. I had Rich take the controls and I offered to relay messages for them. They gratefully accepted, and I was able to get the military plane to squawk a new code and contact another ATC frequency. When the controller dropped us off radar service near Burnet, she said, "Thanks for the help with the F-18." I thought, 'I helped an F-18? Sweet!!!'
We approached Burnet, joined right traffic for runway 01, and made our landing. My crosswind technique was somewhat less than gracious, but we got down safely and all was well. It was then that the frustrations started.
As we pulled off the runway, the air boss came on the radio and said that all GA was being parked on the north end of the field. We said that we were a static display and asked for directions to that area. The person that I coordinated this with apparently did not tell anyone we were coming. Long story short, we went to the GA area, told them the mix-up, were told to taxi to another area, where I called the guy I organized this with. Eventually, someone came and said that they found some space for us and we pushed Scarlet down to her parking spot. They gave us a great spot, and the new prop banners that were donated to us by Crowley Signs & Graphics did their job. We had a lot of interest in the plane all day long, and a lot of interest in the museum. We sold quite a few tickets on the day.
After the show, we enlisted the help of several nearby CAP cadets to assist us in pushing Scarlet back out to the ramp. We then did a pre-flight and loaded up into the plane. We taxied out and took off from Burnet bound for Austin again. The flight was largely uneventful. We picked up flight following from Austin approach as soon as we were able to, and got vectors into KAUS. Visibility was barely at 10 miles, and there was an overcast ceiling at about 3000' or so. As a result, all the airliners were getting the ILS approach to runway 35R, as the ILS to 35L was inop. The approach was getting pretty stacked up with jets, so I offered to take 35L, even though 35R was closer to Atlantic. Approach was more than willing to accept, and handed me off to the tower immediately. We landed, much more graciously than before, and taxied back to Atlantic.
I went inside to get a weather briefing and plan my flight back to HOU, and it looked as though the weather would hold out for me to get back. I filed a flight plan, then jumped back into the plane and lit off out of there, bound for West Houston (IWS), to take advantage of their Saturday fuel special. I picked up flight following from Houston Center after Austin Departure dropped me off, and cruised back to the Houston area at a whopping 70kts ground speed (darn headwinds!). Somewhere in the vicinity of the Industry VOR, I checked my ETA on the GPS and figured that I would not have time to stop at IWS, get gas, and make it back to HOU before dark (our OpSpecs specify Day VFR only). So, I opted to go directly to HOU. I got handed off to approach on 123.8 about 20nm east of the Industry VOR, then I was handed off to approach on 133.05 right around the beltway and Westpark Tollway, which is pretty early (they usually don't switch you to 133.05 until closer to downtown). I cruised along, and realized that I didn't hear ANYONE else on the frequency.
So, I keyed the mic and said, "Slow night, huh?". The controller said, "Yeah, it's just you at the moment, then we have about 12 arrivals coming in right after you, so you picked the right time." I said, "I did it just for you." He thanked me and cleared me for a straight in to 12R and told me to contact the tower.
Tower changed me to 12L due to departing traffic, and even offered me 17, which was closer to the museum, where I'd be parking. With the winds being 110 at 14, I decided that 12L sounded like a better idea. I landed and taxied to the museum, where I unloaded all of my stuff. I then taxied Scarlet back up to the hangar (it was getting dark by this point), where I realized that I had left the keys to the hangar doors in my flight bag, which was in my car at the museum. So, I walked back down the street to the museum, got my car, and drove back to the hangar. I pulled my front wheels up onto the curb so my headlights were pointing at the door so that I could see to put Scarlet away (I'm not sure where the light switch is for the hangar bay). I opened the door and got Scarlet all tucked away safely inside, then closed the hangar back up.
I want to say thank you to Clif Walker from the CAF for allowing us to sell tickets at their air show (it was well worth the trip), Yancey Culp at Atlantic Aviation in Austin for donating hangar space for the evening, and Ken Lane for hanging out and keeping me company on the ramp at Atlantic on Friday afternoon.
Another cool thing happened on the way back in to HOU the other night - somewhere over Katy, TX, I finally became a 100-hr pilot! I'll have another post with stats from my first 100 hours probably tomorrow.
Sadly, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures.
