Trip to the EAA South West Regional Fly-in, Abilene, Texas.
Outbound
Sue & I had planned to take RV-6A N86CG to the SWRFI gathering several months before
the event. Despite the terrorist activities & subsequent aviation restrictions,
the SWRFI organizers determined that the event should go ahead as planned, & they
encouraged as many pilots as possible to drive or fly in IFR. In fact, most VFR restrictions
were lifted a couple of days before the fly-in, so there was a reasonable attendance
of around 150 airplanes, including 25-30 RVs.
The weather reports included some low cloud bases & fog, so we left West Bend, WI,
Thursday at 8:00, IFR to Jefferson City, MS.
There was one stretch where the local AWOS reports were
less than 1/4 ml vis with 100 ft ceilings, but we were above it, in the clear for most of the
trip. Jefferson City IFR to Jones, Tulsa, OK. Here we borrowed a car to go to the
local McDonald's for a late lunch. FSS advised us to head due West on the next leg, to avoid
thunderstorms in the Oklahoma City area, so we filed IFR West to Clinton, & then South to
Abilene, adding around 100 miles to the direct route. Landed Abilene about 17:30,
1050 statute miles with 7.6 hrs Hobbs. This was the day before the fly-in, so there were only a
handful of airplanes, but we were greeted by Terry Cole, whose Stars & Stripes painted
RV-6A was parked nearby.
Terry Cole photo by Doug Reeves
The Storm
We set up our little tent & enjoyed a couple of beers with the ham sandwiches the Sue had
made the night before. Temperatures in the 80s with a nice breeze was a pleasant change
from the 50s weather we left behind in Wisconsin. We were camped near a couple who had
set up tent next to their truck. They had brought a small black & white TV, & invited us
to watch the President's address to Congress on the War against Terrorism. We could see
lightening in the distant West, but someone said that the tower was expecting the weather
to pass to the North of the airport. As George Bush finished his speech, we heard thunder
& noticed cloud & dust sort of boiling in towards us from the
West. The first gusts uprooted a large frame tent that had been set up
for the judges use the next day. Sue & I raced after it & caught it half
way to the row of airplanes. We huddled down in our little tent as the
wind bent it over & the rain was driven through the fabric. I was sure
our flysheet had blown off, but it stayed intact. Somebody told us
there were reports of Nickel sized hail. I lay there thinking
depressing thoughts:
"If a hail storm comes through, can I fly the dimpled airplane home?"
"Will my titanium tiedowns hold?"
"I hope the planes next to me are well tied down."
"If the RV is destroyed, will our son drive from Minneapolis to pick us up?"
"Why did we come to Texas anyway?"
After the winds subsided a bit we went to check on the airplanes. Amazingly
they were fine. The Thorp T-18, tied down next to me, was taxiing out.
He had found some hangar space & was putting it away before the next
wave of weather came through. He said I could probably get space too,
but I decided that I didn't want to get caught taxiing in winds that
strong. People invited us to stay in their hangars or offered to give us a ride to
a hotel, but I didn't think it was going to get any worse & I wanted to
stay near the plane - Sue was all in favor of going to a hotel! Our
tent was fine, if a little damp inside. A couple of tents nearby had
broken poles. There were several waves of thunderstorms that came
through that night, with continuous forked & sheet lightening, but fortunately no hail.
The psu.edu web site every hour records the place in the country with
the strongest sustained wind & the strongest gust. Here are the
reports for 9pm CDT:
Max gust "09/21/2001-02Z 66.7 mph at Dyess AFB,TX (DYS)"
Sustained "09/21/2001-02Z 38.0 mph at Abilene,TX (ABI)"
Dyess AFB is 9 miles West of Abilene airport.
From the EAA web site: "On Thursday night, a powerful storm packing 75 mph winds
tore through the area, downing display tents and fence line that volunteers had
set up just days earlier."
Our Eureka! tent that survived the storm!
The Fly-In
The opening morning, Friday, of the fly-in looked like a disaster. Big marquee
tents were blown down, but there were a lot of volunteers picking up the
pieces. We were looking for breakfast, or at least coffee, but the food
service area had its own problems with storm damage. One of the booths
would have coffee in 10 minutes or so, but then the man running it gave
us the keys to his truck so we could go into town for breakfast! By the
time we got back, the fly-in was getting busier. The RV-7 arrived from
Van's with Scott (Risan) & Rob - they gave many demo rides. Stu McCurdy
led in a formation flight of 6 RVs.
We met several other RV flyers including Carroll Bird (RV-4 Texas), and
Jim & Vicki Baker (RV6 Kansas). I went to seminars by Stu McCurdy on
formation flying, & Larry Vetterman on exhausts & carburetors. Friday
night the local Abilene EAA chapter hosted a cook-out, with excellent
steak sandwiches.
Saturday morning Sue went on an antiques tour (yuk!) while I sat by 86CG
talking with other RV pilots & potential builders. In the afternoon the
airshow performers did their stuff under an ever darkening sky. As
that segment came to a close, there was a mad rush to depart before the
threatening weather came through. We took shelter, but this dose was mild
compared to Thursday night.
The fly-in closed with a banquet. John Schmitz,
the show airboss, was camping near us & gave us a ride there & back. The banquet
was in a fairgrounds area where they seemed to be holding some kind
of rodeo event. Sue was thrilled to see "real" Texan cowboys on horseback
with 10 gallon hats, spurs & lassoos! We
sat with Jim & Vicki Baker, Scott & Rob from Van's, & Lyle Heffel
who had arrived late that day from Dubuque, Iowa, in his latest RV-8. The
food was catered by Joe Allen Barbecue & was very good Texas barbecued
brisket. We won the Longest Flight Award - Scott & Rob had come
further, but, as they said, they were paid to do it! Jim & Vicki's RV-6
was Kit Built Custom Reserve Champion. N86CG won the Kit Built Custom
Workmanship Award!
Jim & Vicki's RV6 photo by Ed Hicks
The Trip Home
Being able to discuss the weather in person with Flight Service was
great & the two guys on duty were really helpful. We settled on a northerly
route, keeping West of Kansas City, to stay behind a slow moving front
that stretched from Texas to Wisconsin. IFR to Hutchinson, KS, in VMC
most of the way. Great restaurant here, so we had BLTs for brunch. IFR
to Waterloo, IA on top of a solid layer all the way, with an easy VOR 36
instrument approach. It looked like the final leg home was going to be
a bit tougher, but no thunderstorm activity along our route. IFR to
West Bend, we were solid IMC almost right away. We got a
weather update from flight watch just before Madison & decided to press
on. The West Bend AWOS said 1000' ceiling & 7 miles visibility as we
descended to 3000' in rain & moderate turbulence to be vectored for the
localizer 31 approach. It was not fun. Sue says she never wants to fly
IFR again, but she'll get over it. On the approach, we were in & out of
cloud at MDA, but with reasonable ground contact. Landed at 18:00 in rain with
strongly gusting wind, but we were home! 1070 statute miles with 8.1 hrs Hobbs.
Our RV-6A, N86CG
Conclusion
Assuming 15 minutes taxi time & 1 gallon of fuel per stop, we made an
average speed of 130 Kts with a fuel burn of 8.4 gallons per hour.
Cruise speed was mostly 150 Kts TAS with ground speeds varying from 125 to 145 Kts
as we encountered head winds in both directions!
We were happy to support SWRFI & show that we weren't going to be
intimidated into restricting our activities by a bunch of terrorists.
Wherever we go with our RV-6A we meet great people in aviation. Some of the
nicest are the other RV builders/pilots. Texan hospitality certainly
did not disappoint us - thanks to Stan Shannon & the SWRFI organization for
keeping things running under adverse conditions. I won't worry so much about
86CG when it's
secured with those titanium Ti-downs when the weather gets nasty!
Finally, we proved yet again that the RV-6A is a wonderful traveling
machine - thanks Van.
Footnote
Somehow, I failed to take any photos this trip, so the images here were
downloaded from other web sites - I hope the original photographers will
forgive this!
Chris & Sue Good
West Bend, Wisconsin
chris@videopropulsion.com
http://www.rv.supermatrix.com
