Ten Gallons Per Pound

That's about what it took to fly Audrey, a whopping two-pound yorkie,  from her rescuer in Greenville, MS to Corinth, MS where she will get all fixed up and ready to ultimately be adopted.  She sure is a cute little thing...and very friendly!   Here are some pics of the participants.

Louise Burnside, of Burnside Kennels in Greenville, MS

Tanya, daughter of Janet Seago in Corinth.

Yours truly and Audrey

Sevier County Choppers

There is a guy the same age as my daughter sitting beside me wearing a baseball cap telling me what to do. Hunter Robinson is my instructor, and I'm now at Sevier County Choppers in Gatlinburg, TN working on my helicopter skills.  If things go OK, I'll get my commercial helicopter add-on rating some time in the next few months. It's an add-on rating for me since I already have a commercial pilot certificate (required when one gets a flight instructor certificate).  The countryside around Gatlinburg is beautiful, especially this time of year with the leaves changing color.  So, Mary came along with me to do some hiking while I'm busy hovering.

One of our off-airport landings was to a hilly pasteur with a few cows milling about.  I think one of them had a sign around his neck that said "eat more chikin."

Time For Choppers

I've always been fascinated by helicopters.  I just never found the time to devote to actually learning to fly them.  That changed this month when I cashed in some Delta Sky Miles for a ticket to Vancouver, then caught a bus to Whistler in British Columbia where I was met by Eric Ridington.  I spent the next five days immersed in helicopter training.   Eric hosted me and two other people at his home in Pemberton.  He then spent his days giving us lessons in his leased Robinson R-22 helicopter. He is doing this, in part, to build time. In fact, he is not allowed to charge for his time, as he only holds a U.S. flight instructor certificate.  So, we paid the cost of the helicopter lease plus expenses, and we were able to train at a substantial discount.  Eric turned out to be an excellent instructor.  He obviously loves flying, and that makes him my kind of guy.   This was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in aviation.  Being able to fly around the Canadian mountains while training was almost indescribable.

The Pemberton airfield is situated in a valley just east of the mountains where the Whistler ski resort is located. This makes for a spectacular background for flying. It was worth the trip just for the view. For some video of my week, check out the link to my Mobile Me website.

Big Dog, Little Airplane

Sassy is an 81 pound Bull Mastiff/Boxer mix who has found a new home in Antlers, Oklahoma.  The mission I had today was to get her there from Pulaski, TN. To tell you the truth, I wasn't absolutely certain that I could coax an 81 pound dog into position in Romeo Victor's available space. So, I decided to fly to Pulaski rather than have Jerry of Jerry's Rescues drive the four hours to Memphis and risk not being able to fit the dog in the airplane. I figured if Sassy wouldn't fit, I wouldn't have to feel too bad about leaving her with Jerry since he would not have to drive eight hours for nothing. This added two hours to my trip but gave me peace of mind.

Thankfully, it worked out just fine.  Sassy is a very well-mannered, lovable dog.  Here she is with Jerry of Jerry's Rescues.  Jerry said that a lot of people shied away from Sassy because they thought she had pit bull in her, but this is not the case. She may look a bit intimidating, but she has a marshmallow personality. So, Sassy gets a first-class ticket in N323RV to her new home in Oklahoma.










The day was good for flying, although it did require my instrument skills, and I had to file IFR for all three legs of the trip.  I made it to Pulaski in an hour, including shooting the GPS approach to runway 16 at Pulanski.  Jerry showed up with Sassy right on time, and Randy Jones, the airport manager, came in on his only day off just to fuel my airplane for the trip to Oklahoma.

One airborn, Sassy settled down nicely, occasionally sitting up to check out the scenery.

I used the harness that Jerry supplied me to secure Sassy to the baggage bulkhead.  This limited her forward movement so that she couldn't interfere with the flight controls.

If I had this dog, I wouldn't be afraid to take her along with me in the plane.

My trusty Garmin 696 depicts some nasty weather south of us, but we never hit a bump. It took almost three hours to cover the distance from Pulaski to Hugo, Oklahoma.  I chose Hugo because the runway at Antlers is listed as in "poor condition" on the airnav.com website. Also, the winds which were showing as 19 knots gusting to 27 knots, were directly out of the north, favoring the north facing runway at Hugo.

Rie is Sassy's new mom. Sassy jumped right into the back seat of her car, and off they went. I think she's found a new home.

I fueled Romeo Victor, filed a flight plan, grabbed a diet coke and winged off back to Memphis, arriving at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  It's been a busy week of flying, since I made the trip from Memphis to Goshen, Indiana two days prior to this trip to retrieve my friend, Wayne Breeden, who delivered a helicopter to its new owner there. And I still have a trip to Columbus, Georgia coming up this week!

Escape from the Memphis heat.

Heat indexes exceeding 100 degrees are not uncommon this time of year in Memphis. So the Missus and I decided to fly north about 685 nautical miles to the tip of Michigan to cool off at Mackinac Island.   That's pronounced "mack in aw." This was a great trip, and we will return there when it's stinkin' hot in Memphis.  For the pictures check out my Picasa link.

This was the longest single leg I have flown in the RV-7.  I generally like to keep flights to two and a half hour legs, but with all the deviating around weather, it was just over four hours to our fuel stop just short of Mackinac.  If you fly into Mackinac, I would suggest a late morning or afternoon arrival in order to avoid the fog which sometimes enshrouds the area.  Since there is no fuel at the airport, we landed at Pellston, 18 miles to the south, for fuel before continuing to Mackinac. Once there, we were directed over the radio to a parking place, although we had to steal tiedown ropes from the adjacent space.  There was no tiedown available for the tail, so I screwed my own tiedown into the rocky earth to secure the tail. The tiedown/landing fee was $42 for three days.

I had called the airport from Pellston so that we wouldn't have to wait so long for the carriage which would take us to our hotel. Turns out this was a good idea. The carriage driver was sort of surly, but I might act the same way if I had to stare at two horse butts all day.





I'm too cheap to drop the cash to stay at a place like The Grand Hotel - you could expect that from a guy who built his own airplane, I guess.  Our hotel was called Harbor View.  It was very nice at about $200 per night, including a pretty good continental breakfast. Kind of a weird room though, with sloping  angles in the ceiling, a great big jacuzzi right in the middle of the room and two bathrooms with showers at either end of the room. Mary loved the two bathrooms.




There are no motorized vehicles of any kind on the island.  Bicycle is king here, and there are literally thousands of them. Our hotel rents the basic single speed bikes with coaster brakes. You could elect to rent from one of the local bike shops if you need a fancier bike with multiple gears.  I'm accustomed to a carbon frame bike with clipless pedals which I speed around Memphis on, but it would be wasted here as there are few hills, and speed is limited by the large amount of bike traffic dawdling along on the roads. We managed to get some good excercise pedaling along on the hotel bikes.
We biked over to The Grand one morning, but we were not allowed to enter or approach the hotel. They have plenty of security to keep the riff-raff away.  I understand they will give you a guided tour of the hotel for $10.  Fat chance! I guess if I were paying to stay there, I wouldn't care for gawkers enjoying all that atmosphere for nothing!  I actually thought the sign outside was a joke.  It ain't no joke, Bub. After 6, you need a coat and tie, and no slacks for the ladies. And I thought I was prepared by bringing a shirt with a collar!

We were thinking of going to The Grand just for dinner, but, needless to say,  I did not have the appropriate attire. Having said all this, I may have to sneak back up to Mackinac during the off-season when rates are more reasonable just to stay at The Grand.

Oshkosh 2010

My friend, Tom and I made it to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the annual aviation fly-in. The crowds were down a little bit this year, presumably due to all the wet weather this year. Still, we had a good time, and I saw a lot of old friends.

I'm not in the market for much stuff this year since I'm not building an airplane, but I still enjoyed seeing all the airplanes of all types.

For a bunch of pictures, check out the link.

AJ (AKA "Chester") goes to Hattiesburg

Condemned to death, AJ, a one year old Lhasa Apso was rescued by Roberta Harding of the Bluegrass Shih-tzu Rescue organization in Lexington, Kentucky, transported to Memphis by ground by a lady named Glenda (sorry I don't know her last name),  fostered (and renamed) by my daughter, Rachel for three days, then airlifted by me in my RV-7 from Memphis to Hattiesburg today. I was met by Linda Chance in Hattiesburg who will teach AJ some manners before he is put up for adoption in about thirty days. The picture shows Linda and the lucky dog.  There sure are a lot of nice people who care about these animals!

Ladybug Fly Away Home

I picked up a nice little kitty from Athens, GA and brought her back to Memphis. We had to divert to the Tunica airport because of some horrendous mid-day thunderstorms.










Next morning it was off to Mesquite, Texas on the outskirts of Dallas to ferry Ladybug to her new home and pick up a little sight-impaired dachshund named Harvey.  He's bound for a new home in Virginia, but he will spend a few days with my daughter's boyfriend, Jonathan, who is kind enough to foster him until his next plane ride





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Harvey seems to like people, and it appears that he forgot how to bark.  That's my kind of dog.
















It's time for summertime flying again.  In Memphis, that means playing cat-and-mouse with thunderstorms. Fortunately, the handy Garmin 696 makes avoiding these monsters much easier.

Buddy Moves to Chicago

After a week of skiing with my kids, I had a bit of a flying jones. Another doggie rescue flight was just the right fix.

This little pup ended up in a bad situation when he was no longer welcome in his home. So, off to the animal shelter he goes. Once again, an amazing network of people came together to find a new home for Buddy. Jacolyn Dadles contacted me via the Pilots N Paws website to get the ball rolling.

I left Memphis at about 0730 this morning, arriving about an hour and a half later at the airport in Wetumpka, Alabama. Mary Bray brought Buddy to me having rescued him from his uncertain fate. Buddy seemed a bit frightened at first, but settled down during the flight. He was a pretty good co-pilot, accepting treats and letting me pet him through the bars of his cage.

Enroute to Bowman Field in Louisville, I passed right over my birthplace of Gadsden, Alabama, "Queen City of the Coosa Valley."

Being from Alabama, I doubt that Buddy has seen much snow. This nice man at the Louisville airport FBO walked Buddy around for a bathroom break before his continuing journey to Chicago.

Elizabeth O'Connell had volunteered to foster Buddy if necessary, but Paul Berliner was able to make the trip from Chicago to Louisville in his Cherokee to meet me so that Buddy made it all the way to his new home in one day.

After refueling, I took off for Memphis. It was nice VFR weather the whole trip - not a ripple in the air the whole way. I got back a little before 3 in the afternoon. Tomorrow, it's back to work for six nights in the E.R.