Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 09:13:22 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-1239310@logan.com>
From: Sky2high@aol.com
Subject: The Flight of Two Madmen - Reno 2001
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It started out simple enough, 3 Lancair pilots with a desire to see the air=20
races at Reno in 2001.  It was worked out so Tom and his lady would take a=20
flight from Tampa on Wednesday, as would my wife, flying from Chicago, and w=
e=20
would all meet there.  Arnie and I would fly our Lancairs out earlier in the=
=20
week to really get involved in the race preparations.  I hadn't been there=20
since 1992 and Arnie had wanted to go for 20 years.   All of the tickets wer=
e=20
obtained over the internet, hotel and flight arrangements set up and a car=20
reserved at Truckee.

Day 1 - Sunday 9/9/01 - ARR->MRJ->RAP

After much discussion, Arnie and I decided we would leave on a Sunday, refue=
l=20
at Rapid City and overnight in Jackson Hole - we weren't interested in flyin=
g=20
the mountains at night.  The weather Sunday morning found us with low=20
ceilings, rain, tops below 25,000 ft with the system to move out by=20
afternoon.  Well, I had to go from ARR (Chicago) to MRJ (Southwest WI) to=20
meet up with Arnie, so I departed IFR, spent an hour in the clouds and shot=20
the GPS 4 approach at MRJ down to minimums (800 ft ceiling, scattered to=20
broken below) and had to circle to land because I couldn't identify the=20
airport environment until I was alongside the hangars.

Lesson #1 - The GPS is so accurate, I could not look down over the Lancair=20
nose and thru the broken clouds to see the runway that I was perfectly lined=
=20
up on!  Believe the GPS and maybe slip the plane at the DH and =BD mile to t=
he=20
threshold waypoint.  You had to be there!

Of course, it was raining at Mineral Point (MRJ) so we shot the breeze for=20
some time, fueled the planes and changed our plans a bit.  You see, the poin=
t=20
was to fly VFR formation and we knew VMC was coming.  Instead of Jackson=20
Hole, we would spend the night in Rapid City and "inspect" the workmanship a=
t=20
Mt. Rushmore upon departure the following morning.  After all, we would stil=
l=20
reach Truckee on Monday and fly into the mountains in the morning.  At three=
=20
in the afternoon, the rain had stopped and FSS told us it was clear 30-40=20
miles west - so we departed into the scud - overcast and low broken clouds.=20=
=20
Of course, the humidity must have been 99%; the climb out was causing=20
condensation to form on my windshield and my Radio Shack CPU cooling fan=20
defroster left me with a 10-inch diameter clear porthole to peer around the=20
gray wispy lumps ahead whilst the rest of my canopy WAS overcast.  20 minute=
s=20
of this was enough and seeing a bit-o-blue, I climbed to the light - Arnie=20
shot by me with surprise since we hadn't quite worked out our inter-cockpit=20
resource management yet (he just wouldn't switch to our agreed on frequency)=
.

Lesson #2 - Make sure your defroster will handle a worst-case scenario. You=20
had to be there.

Lesson #3 - Duh, we could have filed, canceled in the clear and joined up in=
=20
comfort.

>From this point to RAP, it was pure beauty.  The clouds to the South and=20
Southwest took on intriguing complex forms and unusual coloring.  We were=20
happy to finally be on our way in the sunshine.  Later, approaching RAP as a=
=20
flight of two, the tower directed us to enter the right base for runway 32 -=
=20
Arnie had the honors and was going first - The tower did query him as his=20
transponder indicated he was aiming for runway 31 at Ellsworth AFB a few=20
miles to the North.  Of course, I learned from Lesson #1, believed my GPS an=
d=20
landed first while Arnie circled back.  This pattern would repeat itself=20
several more times before this trip would be over.

Lesson #4 - Quickly recognize the difference between 8700x150 ft and=20
13500x300 ft runways from 3 miles away.

The FBO called for the hotel van as we watched 4 Stearmans arrive from their=
=20
yearly Galesburg, IL fly-in enroute to Seattle.  Galesburg is about the same=
=20
distance as Mineral Point and it was now about 6:30 pm - we had left at 3pm,=
=20
they had started at 7am.  The FBO hangared all our planes for the night and=20
the crowded van ride culminated in the hotel bar. =20

Lesson #5 Lancair pilots ingest higher quality libations than their Stearman=
=20
brethren.  You had to be there.

So ended Day 1 - only 5 lessons learned.   Well, we were set for an early=20
start and the Mt. Rushmore fly-by with good weather forecast for the next tw=
o=20
legs.


Grayhawk