Put-in-Bay after the tourists are gone

Late Fall, and the recipe is usually for dreary, cloudy, windy days or bright, sunny, windy days. Today we got two out of three: bright and sunny, but not much wind. Brave Sir Hogarth was clamoring to get out there and fertilize his little patch of lawn fairly early this morning, but the reward for being the guy to put him out was this promise of a great flying day:

Click on the picture for a larger view, and you can still see the moon high in the western sky:


The forecast had predicted this very thing, and against all odds it actually turned out to be right. Just in case the unthinkable occurred and we really did get the weather that was promised, I had checked in with Co-pilot Rick to see if he was interested in sharing a hop to Urbana for watery coffee and a filling breakfast. After setting that up, I ran the numbers for a follow-on trip up to Put-in-Bay, just in case he was amenable to a trip up there.

We had agreed on an 0830 go time, and the ambient temps at 0800 were best described as brisk gusting frigid, so I bundled up in a long sleeve T-shirt, the very comfy Ohio Valley RVAtors hoody sweatshirt, and an Ohio State jacket that would not only keep me warm but celebrate the decisive victory over Joe Pa's Nittany Lions Saturday night. Gloves and a hat completed the ensemble.

I hadn't had the plane in the air since I flew it out to MadCo for gas nearly three weeks ago, so a pretty detailed pre-flight was in order. That completed, the equally garbed co-pilot and I struggled to fit our bulked up selves into the tight confines of Papa. Chilly, it was, and anxious we were to get the canopy down. I was a little concerned that I might not be able to get him started, but yet again that consideration was mooted by a three-blade start. I just love having primer tubes going to all four cylinders!

Engine cranked and running, radios and avionics juiced up and ready for my commands, and the canopy starting to fog up: it was time to get rolling!

Me: "Bolton Ground, Experimental four six six papa golf, T hangars, ready to taxi."

Tower, apparently poised at the mike just awaiting my call: "Experimental four six six papa golf, altimeter three-zero-five-two, winds calm, cleared to taxi to runway two two."

Me: Add a bit of throttle, start to roll.

Co-pilot Rick: "Aren't you going to close the hangar door?"

Me: "[expletive deleted]"

Me: "Bolton Ground, six papa golf, cancel that, we're going to need a couple of minutes."

Tower: "Roger, let me know when you're ready to go."

Me: Grumble, grumble, shut everything down, grumble, unbuckle, open canopy, grumble, go close hangar door. Wiggle back in. Wrench every muscle in my neck and back getting strapped in again. Get everything started again.

Me: "Bolton Ground, six papa golf, even more ready to taxi."

Sigh. Sometimes being out of practice exhibits itself in the most embarrassing ways!

The takeoff went well, though. The lack of wind makes it pretty easy, as do the fancy new flying shoes. There's always a potential fly in the ointment, though. When it's cold and calm like this, there's always a good chance for ground fog in the low lying areas. Sure enough, just off of Bolton we could see fog over the rivers and small valleys:



If you click on this one for the larger view, you can see a hot air balloon down there just over the trees:


The fog is scenic as all get-out, of course, but experience has taught me that it will nearly always be the case that there is fog at the destination, no matter where it is that I'm going. Sure enough, as we approached Grimes/Urbana I heard a Luscombe in the pattern. A Cessna called a few miles west, intending to follow the Luscombe in. The Luscombe pilot said something about having "to keep it in tight," and I was afraid that might be an allusion to reduced visibility at the airport. I had no idea:



Even at the 45 mph landing speed of a Luscombe, I can't believe he landed in that. Really, their coffee is horrible, and really not worth the risk. One of the traps I've read about in the flying mags is that you might be able to see down through a thin layer of fog, but you probably won't be able to see through it when you're in it and looking through it horizontally. You end up blind in the flare, and that's not a good situation in an RV, particularly on your first landing in three weeks. We gave Urbana a miss, and diverted to P-i-B.

It's normally only a 40 minute ride up there from Urbana, but we had a headwind on the way up that held us down to 137 knots. Still, 45 minutes is a bargain. It was severe clear up on the lake, so there would be no problem with the landing, at least with regards to visibility:



I opted to land on runway 3, which faces northeast, for a number of reasons. First, the approach to the opposite direction (runway 21) requires flying over a bunch of trees, and their proximity to the end of the runway means you lose access to about one-third of the overall runway length. Second, continuing north past the airport and coming back in a right downwind gives the co-pilot a great opportunity to take pictures of the town and the Perry monument. Third, the headwind from the north that had cost us 6 or 7 knots on the way up should be a headwind on landing, which would keep our ground speed slow while approaching the relatively short runway.

That plan almost worked. The only thing that didn't go according to plan was that for some reason that I still cannot fathom, we ended up with a tailwind on landing. We had a lot of gusty breeze and an inconvenient area of lift on short final that resulted in a little more speed in the flare that I would have hoped for, and the small tailwind exacerbated all of that. We got Papa stopped on the runway ok, but I wasn't keen on using any additional bursts of power to smooth out the bumps that are the normal side effect of a three week layoff. In other words, it was a pretty firm arrival, albeit safe.

This could be the textbook photo for displaced thresholds:



Landing photos by Co-pilot Rick, since I was too busy.

You can see the dotted-line pattern that we flew on this picture of the GPS that I took at the end of the rollout on the runway:


I paid the $10 landing fee (used to be $8, but even at $10 much cheaper than the ferry) and we walked the mile to town. There's a $1 bus that seems to always be going in the direction opposite to my needs, and there are taxis that will take you anywhere on the island for $2.50 per rider, but it was a nice day for a walk and I can use the exercise: breakfast at the Golden Corral yesterday (I do what I call the 'Meat Medley' when I breakfast at buffets: ham, sausage links, sausage patties, polish sausage, bacon, corned beef hash, chipped beef, and a slice of bacon quiche) needed to be worked off.

Just outside of town, they have a nifty little hardware store:



I'm a coffee addict, which means that if I miss my morning vig to the Columbian Coffee Gang Lord, Juan Valdez, he sends his goons to give me a massive headache. Mission One, then, was to find a restaurant that hadn't closed for the season yet. We found one, but there was to be no meat medley. The list of things that they were out of was longer than the list of things that they still had. Sausage gravy on top of hash browns was good enough for me, especially considering that their coffee was very hot and very good. The waitress was a real cutey too, not that I notice things like that.

After getting my blood caffeine levels back to normal, we took a walk along the dock area:



I knew this guy would fly away if I tried to get too close. He gave me plenty of warning as he got increasingly skittish, so I was able to at least get this:


These guys I don't understand at all. Usually you can't chase them away with a shotgun and a "Hillary for President" poster, but today they were very anti-social:


I like pictures of old gears. I can't explain why, though:




These two were alert and on duty, but I have to confess to feeling a distinct lack of intimidation, despite their best efforts:


This is a very good place for seafood, and I highly recommend the lobster bisque. When they're open, that is, which they weren't:


Walking back down the waterfront takes you to the Perry Peace Memorial, which commemorates a naval battle in the War of 1812, I believe:




The monument has a fence around it now, and I didn't know why. I was unaware of this until I looked it up on Wiki:

The Memorial had been closed for most of the summer of 2006 after a 500-pound piece of granite broke off of the southeast face of the observation deck, falling 315 feet and leaving a crater in the plaza in June. No one was injured. Following a structural assessment that deemed it safe for visitors, the memorial reopened on August 26, 2006, with a fence surrounding it. A comprehensive study is planned and the results will be used to determine what repairs are necessary and how much the work will cost.

I was wondering if I'd be able to get this picture to turn out well. It's hard to shoot into the sun:


The ride home was faster at 160 knots, which of course was indicative of winds from the north. I still can't figure out how I got a tailwind landing to the north. Geez. It was a bit bumpier than I had expected - it wasn't very windy and the sun didn't seem hot enough to be generating a lot of thermals. It was a quick ride - right around 48 minutes. The scenery was nice, and there were some big puffy clouds a thousand feet or so above us to give us a sense of speed:





I snapped a shot of downtown Columbus as we went by:


The landing back at Bolton wasn't horrible, but it wasn't very good either. The winds were out of the north at 6 knots, which agrees mathematically with the cruise speed I saw on the GPS. Still, how did I end up with a tailwind on runway 3 at Put-in-Bay??

What? Passing on a Harbor Freight trip?

The plans for the kayak suggest using a router with a 3/8" round down bit to make a nice, curved edge on the inside of the coaming. The router is an intriguing tool, primarily because I haven't got one. You can do all kinds of neat things with a router, but they aren't the neat kind of things that I commonly do. Still... an opportunity for a new power tool... well, it's nasty and rainy out, so I'll pass.

Instead, I grabbed one of the three rasps that came in the $2.49 set that I bought at HF to cut a notch in the side of the hull by the hatch covers. The notch is a half-circle that lets me get a finger under the edge of the flush hatch covers to remove them. I needed a half round rasp, but using half of the full round rasp that came in the set was mathematically equivalent. For the coaming edge, I used the flat rasp. It makes a very rough cut and a very annoying sound (one could almost describe it as 'raspy,' if one was willing to make such a gawdawful pun), but it cut away the wood more quickly than the trip to HF would have taken.







Going back over the edge with 100 grit sandpaper smoothed it down nicely. Now I have to cover it up with fiberglass cloth and epoxy.

Flying? Nope, not me.

Here's this morning's forecast:

8am EDT (12Z): wind 150° at 5 knots, visibility greater than 6 miles, sky clear, wind shear from surface to 2,000 feet AGL: at 2,000 feet, wind 220° at 40 knots

10:00am EDT (1400Z): wind 180° at 12 knots gusting to 20 knots, visibility greater than 6 miles, sky clear

And the bad news is, this has the best that it's been for the last five days, which as it turns out, were vacation days. Now, 12 gusting 20 is getting pretty close to something I'd consider, but this is the only day of the 5 that is spoken for by the family. No problem that, mind you; a good time will be had my all as we celebrate my father-in-law's 90th birthday in grand style:

Dr. Donald E. McGinnis, Director of Bands Emeritus and cherished OSU Faculty Member from 1941-1981, will be honored with a special 90th birthday celebration by the OSU School of Music. The celebration will feature a performance by the OSU Wind Symphony and distinguished guest artists.

McGinnis taught flute and clarinet at OSU for 38 years, was chairman of the performance division and acting director of the School of Music (1973-74). He helped found the Faculty Woodwind Quintet, and conducted the OSU Concert Band for 27 years. McGinnis has been a guest conductor, soloist and clinician in 45 states and many countries. Beginning in 1941, he was principal clarinetist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, principal flutist for 10 years and assistant conductor 1974-1982.

Schedule

3pm Free Concert featuring the OSU Wind Symphony, Russel Mikkelson, conductor
Flute and Clarinet students of Dr. McGinnis to be featured...find music on the osu band website as of September 19, http://bands.osu.edu/News-article11.html (Rehearsal probably around 1:30 pm the day of the concert)

5pm Reception (cash bar) OSU Faculty Club

6PM Dinner

What could be better? Well, I suppose that parenthetical "cash bar" could be improved upon... just kidding.

Despite the lack of decent flying weather, the kayak project has filled the vacation hours nicely. Frankly, I don't know what I'm going to do when it's done! I enjoy the work, but it's going to run out eventually. I'll miss it.

There is apparently a de rigeur photo required when building a kayak and reaching the point where the hull is fully glassed, and the cockpit coaming is clamped in place:





This is the first, and so far only, step where I didn't completely follow the manual. The coaming is built up of three layers of shaped wood, and the instructions would have had me trying to get all three layers aligned and clamped all at once. I opted to do a layer at a time. The only cost to that was waiting 6 or so hours between layers, but I'm not in any hurry.

Now that the coaming is on, the next step will be to fiberglass it. After that, there are only a few more pieces-parts to install, then it is just a matter of sanding, sanding, sanding, interspersed with occasional applications of varnish. The only thing left to do after that is hope that it floats!

Gassed and Glassed

Not too many yard mows left to do this year, and I got one of them out of the way first thing this morning. I've been getting some mowing assistance from Co-pilot Egg, but she had a science assignment that needed done, so I was solo. Papa needed gas, so once the mowing was done we headed over to MadCo to buy a few gallons. I checked the AirNav price, and it looked favorable. I noticed that KUYF was also listed as one of the new 'AirBoss' airports, and was promising a dollar less a gallon. I knew, having had experience with the reality of AirNav, that the guy pumping the gas would have no idea whatsoever about it if I asked him, and before the short story can become long, he didn't. That's normal for AirNav: lots of promise (and promises), but weak on the implementation. They'll get there, though. I love the concept, and I'm hoping that they can smooth out the wrinkles and make it work.

Anticipating that I might do some Advanced Aerial Maneuvering on the short ride between Bolton and Ugly Young Farmers (UYF), I made sure to secure the passenger side belts to avoid them flying around and potentially making a nuisance of themselves, but they had already been secured by the previous user. Man, is he a good co-pilot!

With the relatively high ambient pressure and the light weight of me as the sole human inhabitant of the cockpit, Papa was really feeling his oats and we had a good time cavorting about the sky. I dialed in the UYF unicom as I approached the field, and heard a Twin Comanche heading in from the west. I got behind a Beech Baron in the gas line once, and waited for what seemed like an hour for 100+ gallons to be pumped into his cavernous tanks. Once bitten, twice shy, I keyed-up and asked the Comanche if he too would be buying in large quantities. If so, I wouldn't head in to land quite yet, you see. Well, he said he was only looking for 30 gallons, so in we went.

There wasn't much wind, and that usually gives me a fair shot at a nice landing. I did pretty good, but darned if I didn't miss the first turn-off. Drat.

Once I got back home, it was straight to the Boat Works to get a second coat of epoxy on the top deck glass that I layed on last night. The second coat is a lot easier to apply, but it's also easier to get runs down the sides. I put some making tape in place to try to catch any runs that happened hours later after I'd finished. That's the tricky thing about them: they're slow motion runs. You think you got them all, and the next morning you're surprised to see new ones. I promised an updated picture yesterday, so here it is:



I'll put on a third coat of epoxy tomorrow, which should fill in the rest of the weave.

Here's the view from the driver's seat:

A 50 year history of Formula 1

Just a little movie I put together while Oregon St. was doing everything in their power to keep the Bucks out of the #1 slot by handing the game to Cal. Thankfully for us, the Cal QB didn't want the win either.

Photo Op

Just minutes in the air this morning, just long enough to get a new air-to-air shot:



The rest of the day was spent working on the kayak, despite the wonderful weather outside. I've been delaying putting on the top layer of glass for a few weeks, knowing full well that it was going to be a lengthy, messy job. And it was. I'll add another coat of epoxy to it tomorrow to fill in the weave a bit, then post a picture.

Somewhat disconcertingly, this was the last major application of the fiberglass cloth, and I've been paranoid all along about running out after seeing a builder's blog for the exact same boat complain of coming up short despite being very careful not to waste any. The disconcerting part comes from the fact that I had a ton left over. I can't imagine where I could have missed putting cloth on any parts of the boat. All I can figure is that I've been even more frugal than that other guy was. I guess I'll find out eventually when I put the thing in the water for the first time!

Old school racing

One of the coolest and by far the most economical racing sims I own is rFactor. Out of the box, the tracks and cars that it contains are made-up, rather than being virtual models of real world places and machines. But... it's wide open to third parties to create what are called 'Mods.' These mods, be they tracks or cars, are available as free downloads from the internet. They vary widely in quality, but many are very, very good. They cover all gamuts of racing, too, so there's something for just about everyone. I've even seen (but didn't download) a lawnmower racing mod!

Two new mods hit the virtual shelf this week, and both model mid-50s racing. One is a complete set of Indy cars, while the other is single make of a 1955 Formula One car. New additions to the set will be released one by one as they are completed.

I tried the Indy cars out at a present day rendition of Indianapolis:



I had trouble keeping up. These cars are incredibly difficult to drive, and require a smoothness that the aerodynamically winged cars of today don't. Even trying to make a very slight adjustment in course on the long straights often led to loss of control.

The F1 car was more suited to a nice vintage 1979 Silverstone:



These cars were easier to control, but again were very different in driving style from the winged cars we see today. It took a lot more braking to slow for the turns because there was no downforce to assist in keeping the tires from skidding. The tires themselves had a much smaller contact patch because they were so narrow, so there was far less mechanical grip in the turns.

Man, is this fun!