Ken on the left, Me on the right. (or Kens left??)
As most of you probably know, the Confederate Air Force's B-29 suffered a small engine fire during it's visit to Tulsa back in October, 2000. Through the volunteer efforts of many people, it finally managed to fly back home at the end of February. My hangar mate, Ken Ruggiano was one of many people who donated 100's of man hours to put the 'ol girl back in the air. Now that "Fifi" was back home, the Confederate Air Force could finally begin the task of performing their winter maintenance.
Ken on the left, Me on the right. (or Kens left??)
Now Ken knows that I'm always looking for a good excuse to fly my RV-6a. Any
excuse. For example, Anybody: "Hey Mark, it's Tuesday! Wanna go
flying?"
Mark: "It's Tuesday? Man grab a chart and lets go!"
So when he asks if I'd like to fly out to Midland-Odessa, I'm thinking
"Alright! a good excuse for a cross country to the other side of
Dallas!"
Later that evening while I'm searching my charts for Midland, I discover that
it's dang near to New Mexico! Hmmm, oh well, that just means more stick time in
the RV!
Wanting to be well prepared, I stop by Aircraft Specialties here in Tulsa to
pick up current charts and plates (you never know). Thinking that the weather's
probably going to be VFR, I elect to skip buying approach plates for Texas,
besides, I can download and print any that I need from AOPA, right?
So I download and print the ILS10 and GPS16R approach plates for Midland. The next morning during my preflight briefing, the briefer mentions that runway 10 is out of service. The current weather at 5:30am was VFR, but with the possibility that low ceilings and/or fog was possible just after sunrise until just about the time we planned on arriving due to low level moisture and the temperature/dew point being equal. No problem I think, we'll just ask for a "pop-up" IFR clearance if we need one to get into Midland. So off we go, into the wild blue yonder!
So, sure enough just northeast of Amarillo, we approach an overcast below us.
We're listening to ATIS and AWOS recordings ahead of us reporting 600 to 800
foot ceilings. Hmmmm. Maybe we should go ahead and ask for that pop-up now?
After much frequency swapping between Ft. Worth Center and the FSS, we're in the
system. When we get handed off to Midland approach, they tell us to expect the VOR16R
approach. Ok, let me get the plate........uh......didn't print that one. No
problem mon, we got IFR GPS!
N106rv: "Midland approach six-romeo-victor would like to request the
GPS16R approach"
MAF Approach: "six-romeo-victor, expect the VOR16R approach"
Now I'm starting to feel the the Taco Bell dog in a mexican (or Texican)
stand-off. I could just kick myself for not printing all of the approach
plates, or better yet, buy the plates yesterday when I had the chance.
I look at Ken.
Ken: "When do you think would be a good time to tell 'em you ain't got
the plate?"
Me: "..............." (I want to crawl in a hole at
this point)
N106rv: "Midland approach, six-romeo-victor, I'm, uh, unable to
locate the approach plate for the VOR16R approach. But I do have the one for the
GPS16 right!"
MAF approach: "Ok six-romeo-victor, expect the RNAV16R"
RNAV16R? Huh? Is that the same? I look over at Ken, he just shrugs.
N106rv: "six-romeo-victor cleared for the RNAV/GPS 16 right
approach"
Approach vectors us for the final approach fix, and just as we're turning
inbound, we can see the ceiling's breaking up to the west. Our descent wound up
being through a broken layer and when we were on short final, we were in clear
blue skies.
So, I learned something from that flight. I'm always learning things. Like the
time I hit a bird at Gundy's, doing a low
approach, but that's another story...............
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We spent the day concentrating on Fifi's number one engine mount. Well, actually, Ken did. I spent my time gawking at airplanes. Lefty Gardner's P-38, a C-46 (or was it 47?) Stearman, engines. What a cool place to hang out! Then, outside was what's left of a "Martin Mauler". R-4360 engine, single seater. Kinda made me think of the F2G-2 Corsair that had the same engine bolted onto it. Man, no such thing as too much horsepower!
"FIFI Run" Continued......
